Funny thing is...you pretty much summed up the reason why a gith would become an adventurer... ...they figured out that they never really freed themselves, and broke away to find their own path.
Exactly. Some Gith might decide that, if worse comes to worse, dying in a dungeon still makes them more free than living forever as a pawn to another set of undying masters. As least the adventurer chooses the possibility of death.
Githyanki have to leave the Astral in order to have children and raise those children to adulthood. Perfect reason for adventure, anything to do with artifact hunt, get children back, hunt illithids near where children are being raised.
There’s an adventure, I think that it was in Dungeon magazine, where you go to stop Vlaakith from stealing the essence of that dead god with repeated wishes she casts with the stolen souls of any Githyanki over I think 15th level to become the god of the Githyanki (which destroys the city too)…yeah, that adventure got a bit ridiculous in the fights…
Not A dead god, i'm pretty sure it's the body of THEIR dead god. The gith had a god when they were slaves who I think was the god of pacifism and endurance, when they chose to fight their masters they abandoned their god, and without followers their god died, but even a dead god has power in it.
1:31 "They call themselves the same name as their ancestor" Githyanki means "Followers of Gith", while Githzerai means "Those who reject Gith." Our collectively referring to them as "Gith" is just a linguistic shorthand, but doesn't apply.
In the real history of the word, George R. R. Martin coined the word "githyanki soulsucks" for one of his Science Fiction short stories. The githyanki were a slave race used by the telepathic "Hrangan minds" whose empire fought against humanity in a nightmarish, millennia-long war. Quite a few of GRRM's short stories and novellas are set in this same shared universe, which fans have dubbed The Thousand Worlds. Search for the "Thousand Worlds Book Club" here on RUclips, it is awesome! The name "githyanki" was co-opted authors of early Dungeons & Dragons was used for a few years without GRRM's knowledge, before a fan told him.
@@MagusThD13 That's...something. Huh. Can be pretty wild west sometimes. They should have at least said "inspired by the works of" or something. Then again that would open them to possible legal action. Should have still talked to the guy though. Then again D&D was inspired by A LOT of authors.
Gith - “Everyone enslaves everyone, but at least they’re more honest about it than our current cultures” I will never get tired of your backhanded ribs at society
"It wasn't slavery unless they rape your wife to death" - @@jonathanwells223 I think he was referring to third world workers not anyone with a bank account.
@@erikjohnson1684 People often forget the Arabic slave trade that was like 10 times the scale of the American slave trade... Or Asian slavemarkets that continue today... Or south American slavers... Pretty much every culture has slaves... I think humans are just assholes.
Quick Idea for you, like 30 second brainstorming Githzerai: technically evil space professor x, making mind prisons of mortals for avoidance of wars and death Githyanki: evil Long John Silver who wants to demolish and loot all the major cities along the x location and enslave the survivors Alternatively you could use Jack Sparrow and Dr Strange Gith as counterbalance NPCs
@@MagickGOATee those are cool ideas! Do you think they can work well with orcs? A female gith is monitoring a fort for her captain, but I dont know if one would secretly be using one another or not.
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 think of it not as Gith don't often try to war with one another, more like the clashes happen as a matter of circumstance. Also they both HATE mindflayers so find a way to add an illithid enemy third party they'd be there for as a backup plan Also yeah space orcs and tribes could work out if you flesh it out pretty well
3:08 imagine being a highly professional assassin, respected member of the Zhentharim, killed a couple emperors, no biggie. One day you’re hired to travel to the plane of Limbo to assassinate a catatonic monk and after traversing the F U N D A M E N T A L R E A L M O F E V E R C H U R N I N G C H A O S only to find an old elf dude in a fridge who turns your brain into a red yogurt-like substance cuz he got b i g b r a i n t i m e
@@lebanemcarl68 question, where are you gonna turn your mortars, anywhere not githzerai may randomly turn into snake pudding because it's tired of being a rock.
An interesting theory on the origin of the Gith is that they're the synthesis slave race of the entire crystal-sphere spanning mind flayer empire. Part human, part elf, part orc, part goblinoid, and so on. They're the combined melting pot result of the Forgotten Realms, genetically engineered by the mind flayers in the far distant future/past.
thats grim, they were literally created with the sole purpose of raiding, building, and slaving. No wonder their culture cant change, its literally all they know how to do.
this is my headcannon that im putting in my setting where im incorporating that theory that mindflayers are from the far future and is the reason the aboleths dont remember their beginning
"The Mind Flayer empire, which was either a long time ago, or the distant future, or the parallel present" Planning a whole arc or campaign around having to work with/around the gith to ensure the Mind Flayer empire never gets around to being a thing sounds cool
might retroactively make the gith not exist, but its for sure interesting. be sure to toss in a lore dump aboleth in there too, if anyone knows where they came from its those with perfect memory
@@zero69kage they can at least provide context for how they went from "not existing to existing" fundamentally this potential campaign is built on exploring the answer to a question that has no set answer. It is by design that no one knows where the MF came from, the dm has to expand on that idea, i was suggesting an aboleth because they could be a good place to "start" their investigation. they could say something like "they popped into being on the outskirts of the astral sea...so uh...go check that out" boom, campaign started
My players don’t realize it yet, but that’s basically their plot for this side campaign off the main story campaign. I am recording lo-fi tapes of little speeches that Zerthimon sent to his people in arcane tablets. As they progress they are finding more and more pieces to the puzzle of the mind flayed empire secretly gaining a foothold in Faerûn. And yes, they are about 1 session away from an encounter in an underground lake with an Aboleth that knows nothing of the Gith, which will throw them for a complete loop.
My personal interpretation is that the Mind Flayer Empire is just one of the most successful propaganda campaigns ever done by the Mind Flayers Though I also love the mystery surrounding it
It doesn't help their whole "haven't really changed since the revolt" problem that the Githyanki hang out in the Astral Plane, where time doesn't really flow the way its supposed to. Upside, Githyanki who live this way will basically never grow old or die. The downside is that NO Githyanki grows old or dies, even if the society as a whole probably wishes some of them did. Leading to a cultural stagnation arising from the fact that many of the original Gith who rebelled against the Illithid are still around, setting policy and passing down the slave mentality they never truly transcended. Unlike in the mortal world where, for good and for ill, societies tend to change incrementally when one generation dies and are replaced by subsequent ones. I don't know if the Githzarai have a similar issue out in Limbo, but I'd imagine the need to maintain perfect focus, in order to keep their zen fortresses together, would lead to a society that doesn't tolerate dissent or experimentation.
The githzerai do have the exact same problem; any new gith babies have to be born on the Material Plane and raised over there, so they'll age enough to become adults.
@@Coryn02 human decides to steal goth baby gith parents find out later where they are BOOM your PC is now running the fuck away from what ever the fuck the rest of your species's is doing because the funny murder apes were able to teach you things and now you like humans more (add hatred of other races, indifference, list for them as well I'm just over saying that the PC must haves good life with their parents to like mankind and then have like their real parents murder them or something idk or keep them alive I can't control ya)
Githzerai do have same issues, if you ever played Planscape:Torment one of the characters of the game is githzerai who is a parriah of his race, he literally had a doubts in Zerthimon teaching wich led to breach in defense of his fortress. Giths attacked this breach and the fortress fell, he survived but was ashamed of his deeds (despite that he did nothing wrong, only had uncontrolled doubt in teaching). So he went into exile to material plane. To Sigil city
One of the more widely believed theories outside of the Githyanki’s own society is that Vlaakith had already completed the deal with Tiamat and that sending Gith down there under the guise of meeting with the dragon queen was actually Vlaakith fulfilling her part of the deal. (Gith was a sacrifice to Tiamat, if that wasn’t clear.)
This is the kind of thing I like to see more of in adventures: breaking the mold. People adhere too rigidly to the idea that fantasy stories have to stick to the basic Euro-Medieval style settings. Let yourself get weird with things once in a while.
got a gith coming up in a power rangers based campaign. an ancient gith spirit from the rebellion living out her last orders, her long dead body sealing away a long lost mindflayer installment containing a nautiloid and other similarly lost technology. basically the zordon of the game, with the morphers being psionic devices used against the mind flayers in the war by turning even feeble people into powerful warriors, and the villain's an alhoon after the lost tech even though it's buried under the city, and I'm real excited to run it.
"In *knowing* the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger". It's hard to overstate the importance of Drak'kon from Planescape Torment in the depiction of the Githzerai as a whole. Drak'kon was a conflicted warrior-monk who was implied to be pretty atypical for his species, but since he was the most notable Githzerai to appear in any media, the entire race changed to be more like him. Also, in PS : T, Shra'kt'lor (dig those gratuitous apostrophes) was a city that "fell" because of Drak'kon's doubt, and was certainly not housing the last living disciple of their great prophet.
I LOVE this series you do! It has helped me so much learn about the vast lore to this game in a quick and efficient way. You were one of my inspirations to make my own D&D RUclips Channel!! My whole thing is quick and efficient videos and you always pop into my head for that category! Keep it up man YOU ROCK!!!
Except you dont need to sacrifice hundreds of people every day to sustain an ever slowly rotting/dying corpse that is the sole lych pin of Mankind's survival.
I hecking love the Gith. I am so incredibly tempted to just shoehorn them into every single adventure I write for my current campaign. Find the lost treasure? SPACE PIRATES! Uncover the plot to start a war? SPACE PIRATES? Kill the pirates? SPAAAAAAACE PIIIIRATESSSSSS But alas, I refrain.
I have a new Githzerai PC in my game. This was a dandy refresher, and I'll probably use this as reference to the other players when they make checks about her. Thanks!
I get so many different ideas watching different dnd videos its awesome. I first got inspired of my elves origin by a live play dnd I watch that in their lore elves travel from plane to plane and stay there so long it's not widely known that they do so. Also thinking about the Illithid and Gith made me think that the Illithid were psychic raiders that traveled the dimensions for psychic races to conquer and consume. The Illithid ran up against the Gith that were somewhat comparable in strength to them and had a great war and some of them escaped to the main plane in my setting. This was millenia before the present and before verbally passed down history can remember. At the time the god of my setting recognized how powerful the Gith were and made a pact with them. The pact was the god would grant the Gith her gifts if they would protect the other races in her plane. Then over time the Gith cross populated and became the Elven race and only a select few know their Gith heritage. This plays in awesomely to an idea I already had which is most Elves don't want to associate with the other races but there are some that do. This could be a fissure in Gith belief on whether they should be passing down their gifts and teachings to the other races or not. There is also a secret society that works to try to protect the lower races that the players could slowly unravel. Sometimes the players could even encounter rivals that try to stop them from discovering their history and maybe even some of the characters could discover they have latent Gith heritage.
This helped as I was unclear on who the Lich queen who ruled them was because I was confused about how Gith just kinda stopped being the leader of the Githyanki
So by the looks of them, interdimensional elf half orcs ruled by sorcerer monks or warlock barbarians fighting each other but protect the realms from Mind Flayers. Got it.
Anyone remember that AWESOME semi-epic 3.5 Dungeon module, the Lich Queen's Beloved? Plotline rundown: Vlaakith has found way to ascend to godhood by stealing essence from the dead god they live on. PCs must(at lvl 19) fight her(CR28) some githyanki servants(CR 18 or so) and some fancy new Gith Fire undead (4 of them at CR 20 each). If you win: THE GITH BECOME ONE RACE AND THEY INVADE THE MATERIAL PLANE AND U GOTTA FIGHT THEM OFF AGAIN!!!!
One of my favorite characters was a Githyanki Warlock who wanted to become a chef, I was constantly trying to feed my party terrible food. "Yes, you eat stew, I use WHOLE rat! tis' good, yes."
You bloody legend. Basically The Shadowfell only came out 5 days ago; I wake up, strap on my ground harness and grab my boomerang and phone; boom. Basically Gith. Gith. Fucking Gith! It just gets better and better. Ya made my bloody day mate.
I’m playing a Githzerai Fighter Psi-Knight who I’m super excited about. He’s obsessive and confident, and a deft dexterous warrior. He dedicated a lot of his life to hunting an illithid on a grudge.
Uh, look at that, they are way more interesting than I thought. Thanks for the lesson, now the illithid-gith war is probably becoming one of the most interesting piece of D&D lore for me.
"Haha Gith named themselves after Gith." Well, being a Gith is practically a religion, and Christians named themselves after Christ and Buddhists named themselves after Buddha, so it tracks.
Here's the real origins of Githzerai. Dak'kon. Dak'kon was in a game called Planescape: Torment and considered abnormal because he was Lawful Neutral in a race that was was roughly 'always Chaotic'. Dak'kon became iconic because PS:T is a cult classic and they basically re-wrote the lore and mannerisms for the Zerai to be more like him.
I was in a fun campaign where due to some good rolls, we were able to hitch a ride on a Githyanki ship through the Astral plane in exchange for helping them drive off some Githzerai that were encroaching. Was... pretty neat!
Playing a horizon walker who got kidnapped as a kid by space pirate raid of these guys; did you know time doesn't pass in their super secret dimension base? Yay trauma!
If you haven't done Basically Gnolls yet, i'd love to see your take on them. One of my D&D characters is a gnoll necromancer and he's a load of fun to play
Ok, that was amazingly cool. I mean, they're all good, but this one actually taught me, a guy who picked up the 1st Monster Manual in Elementary school, a nifty new way of looking at bratz.
"Interstellar Jehovah's Witnesses" *shows pictures of Latter-Day Saints* Not sure if regular Runesmith shenanigans or common misconception... regardless, great video! I've always described the Githyanki as space pirates and Githzerai as space monks but Jedi does fit the bill a little better!
Githyanki: Good Eldritch Knights or Bladesingers, free spells for the Fighter, multiple weapon proficiencies for the Wizard. Githzerai: Good Monks, Druids, or Clerics with bonus spells that usually aren’t available to those classes. Also one of the few +2 Wisdom races. Both get Mage Hand that’s invisible and are more interesting than another Elf, Half-Elf, or Human.
STOP!!! I discovered your channel a few weeks ago while looking for Feywild Videos. I was like “Great, a brand new video about the Feywild!” Then I was planning out my campaign into the future and decided that my group would be traveling through Sigil to the Shadowfell...and there’s another video. Now my group has gone through Sigil and caught the attention of a Githyanki Pirate after buying a powerful magic item that his crew was planning on stealing.... And here we are. With a Gith video. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
I live outside of Philly and wish I could totally go to Pax: Unplugged for your panel, but I am le broke! I hope you enjoy Philly though. Lots to do. Highly recommend checking out Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown (which are conveniently nearby the convention center)
I have an irresponsible desire to make a swashbuckling Githyanki rogue named Silver who while a compulsive thief and smooth-talker who tends to fall flat with the ladies, is also oddly compassionate towards children.
Weirdly enough, I was thinking up a campaign today where the players unconsciously have information that the Githyanki desperately want, and then find themselves being hunted.
The gith actually play a major part of my current campaign, many of the githzerai basically went to the material plane and taught others how to use psychic abilities, and pacifism. The party is currently working with them to stop a greater evil. I have yet for the party to meet the githyanki.
A ruler who doesn't move but us still 'alive' and has incredible psychic abilities and an opposing ruler who is incredibly violent and has a throne made from skulls. Where have I heard this before?
I came up with a nation I call the Gith Theocracy it's a Gith nation separate into two castes the priests(Zerai) and soldiers(Yanki) they believe that arcane magic will result in the destruction of the world and seek to save the world from it. In truth they're a puppet of Mind Flayers using them to expand their influence and eliminate arcane magic. I got the idea from their lore about a mind flayer empire and I imagine how interesting it would be to fight against a empire like that. It's best suited for homebrew world where mind flayers and gith aren't established but if wanted to use a established setting retcon them into it or perhaps play it like a alien invasion.
I’m currently playing a githyanki arcane archer with Elvis hair and two light crossbows flavored as laser guns. He’s basically Jack Sparrow meets Space Dandy and he’s really fun to play
My Vistani are distant descendents of the Githyanki. When they come to the prime material to grow up, some stayed and intermarried with humans and became a nomadic culture like their Githyanki ancestors.
Funny thing is...you pretty much summed up the reason why a gith would become an adventurer...
...they figured out that they never really freed themselves, and broke away to find their own path.
Tony Favilla Or they want to go steal some shit from the material plane 😂
Nice
Exactly. Some Gith might decide that, if worse comes to worse, dying in a dungeon still makes them more free than living forever as a pawn to another set of undying masters. As least the adventurer chooses the possibility of death.
Also Githyanki have their souls eaten if they get too powerful.
Githyanki have to leave the Astral in order to have children and raise those children to adulthood. Perfect reason for adventure, anything to do with artifact hunt, get children back, hunt illithids near where children are being raised.
Some Githzerai is just like: "Hmm... I wonder what's for tea tonight." and then their house just disappears.
no it becomes a cup of tea
I do not understand the reference
@@defensivekobra3873 To keep all their cities and stuff in place, the Gith have to concentrate on keeping it there.
@@zecat3727 considered something along those lines, but they are smort tho, they can multitask
@@defensivekobra3873 The joke is that a slightly dumber Githzerai can't.
You forgot to mention the the Githyanki live on the body of a dead god which is totally badass
that's literally knowhere from guardians of the galaxy, and it is pretty metal
A dragon-riding psionic astral pirates who fight sentient squids and live on a dead god.
They also hatch from eggs.
The most badass race in DnD
There’s an adventure, I think that it was in Dungeon magazine, where you go to stop Vlaakith from stealing the essence of that dead god with repeated wishes she casts with the stolen souls of any Githyanki over I think 15th level to become the god of the Githyanki (which destroys the city too)…yeah, that adventure got a bit ridiculous in the fights…
Not A dead god, i'm pretty sure it's the body of THEIR dead god. The gith had a god when they were slaves who I think was the god of pacifism and endurance, when they chose to fight their masters they abandoned their god, and without followers their god died, but even a dead god has power in it.
1:31 "They call themselves the same name as their ancestor" Githyanki means "Followers of Gith", while Githzerai means "Those who reject Gith." Our collectively referring to them as "Gith" is just a linguistic shorthand, but doesn't apply.
In the real history of the word, George R. R. Martin coined the word "githyanki soulsucks" for one of his Science Fiction short stories. The githyanki were a slave race used by the telepathic "Hrangan minds" whose empire fought against humanity in a nightmarish, millennia-long war. Quite a few of GRRM's short stories and novellas are set in this same shared universe, which fans have dubbed The Thousand Worlds. Search for the "Thousand Worlds Book Club" here on RUclips, it is awesome!
The name "githyanki" was co-opted authors of early Dungeons & Dragons was used for a few years without GRRM's knowledge, before a fan told him.
@@MagusThD13 That's...something. Huh. Can be pretty wild west sometimes. They should have at least said "inspired by the works of" or something. Then again that would open them to possible legal action. Should have still talked to the guy though.
Then again D&D was inspired by A LOT of authors.
Gith out of here
@@SD-zb3so where?
@@MagusThD13 Oh wow, I never knew the Gith were plagiarized. That sucks
Gith - “Everyone enslaves everyone, but at least they’re more honest about it than our current cultures”
I will never get tired of your backhanded ribs at society
Seconded, it was a beautiful line and delivered masterfully.
Yeah! I really hate it when my bank whips me to within an inch of my life and rapes my wife until she dies. Honestly get over yourselves.
"It wasn't slavery unless they rape your wife to death" - @@jonathanwells223
I think he was referring to third world workers not anyone with a bank account.
@@erikjohnson1684 People often forget the Arabic slave trade that was like 10 times the scale of the American slave trade... Or Asian slavemarkets that continue today... Or south American slavers... Pretty much every culture has slaves... I think humans are just assholes.
@@greatclubsandwich5612 That has nothing to do with anything anyone was saying.
-what's your name, race and profession?
-Gith, gith and gith
When the rogue didn't flesh out his false identity...
That's just the companion Githyanki from Baldur's Gate 3.
"Tell me about yourself. What's your species, profession, language, and a hero you've always admired?" *sigh*
Legends say that they still debate out whether their race’s name is pronounce “Giff” or “Jiff”.
Ah yes the Giffyanki and the Jiffzerai.
wesleyfilms yiff
@@diobrando9842 get out
Lets be real, all these jokes are good.
If the consulted a choosy mom, then they can be Jif.
Fun Fact: the word "adam" in Hebrew means "human."
mathewfinch we still never chang
What do we call our homeplanet again?
In Turkish too
@@TheXell Ey-Arth. As conquered by Zim.
another fun fact: in hebrew, instead of saying "human", you say "son of adam".
Dude thanks, I was in the middle planning on a gith villain, and really needed a simple and fun guide to them.
I was as well
Quick Idea for you, like 30 second brainstorming
Githzerai: technically
evil space professor x, making mind prisons of mortals for avoidance of wars and death
Githyanki: evil Long John Silver who wants to demolish and loot all the major cities along the x location and enslave the survivors
Alternatively you could use Jack Sparrow and Dr Strange Gith as counterbalance NPCs
@@MagickGOATee those are cool ideas! Do you think they can work well with orcs? A female gith is monitoring a fort for her captain, but I dont know if one would secretly be using one another or not.
@@kendrickrochelanzot2053 think of it not as Gith don't often try to war with one another, more like the clashes happen as a matter of circumstance. Also they both HATE mindflayers so find a way to add an illithid enemy third party they'd be there for as a backup plan
Also yeah space orcs and tribes could work out if you flesh it out pretty well
@@MagickGOATee thanks for the tip, didn't even think of using illithids, but that would be a great side plot
3:08 imagine being a highly professional assassin, respected member of the Zhentharim, killed a couple emperors, no biggie. One day you’re hired to travel to the plane of Limbo to assassinate a catatonic monk and after traversing the F U N D A M E N T A L R E A L M O F E V E R C H U R N I N G C H A O S only to find an old elf dude in a fridge who turns your brain into a red yogurt-like substance cuz he got b i g b r a i n t i m e
carson kiesling I would probably bomb the place with mortars \0_0/
Lebanem carl good idea but them big brained pointy eared bastards would probably just psychic those shits out of the air
@@lebanemcarl68 question, where are you gonna turn your mortars, anywhere not githzerai may randomly turn into snake pudding because it's tired of being a rock.
@@pharoahman475 you wait until it stops being snakes and turns into a mortar, then fire it and let it reload as snakes again
carson kiesling Mind blank would save you
An interesting theory on the origin of the Gith is that they're the synthesis slave race of the entire crystal-sphere spanning mind flayer empire. Part human, part elf, part orc, part goblinoid, and so on. They're the combined melting pot result of the Forgotten Realms, genetically engineered by the mind flayers in the far distant future/past.
thats grim, they were literally created with the sole purpose of raiding, building, and slaving. No wonder their culture cant change, its literally all they know how to do.
Where can I read more about that?
this is my headcannon that im putting in my setting where im incorporating that theory that mindflayers are from the far future and is the reason the aboleths dont remember their beginning
Pretty sure that's the lore of every one of my campaigns now. Thanks.
Libido - The ever-churning realm of chaos.
Pretty accurate.
Yes.
"The Mind Flayer empire, which was either a long time ago, or the distant future, or the parallel present"
Planning a whole arc or campaign around having to work with/around the gith to ensure the Mind Flayer empire never gets around to being a thing sounds cool
might retroactively make the gith not exist, but its for sure interesting. be sure to toss in a lore dump aboleth in there too, if anyone knows where they came from its those with perfect memory
@@mr_girr3488 Except that's the one thing they don't know.
@@zero69kage they can at least provide context for how they went from "not existing to existing"
fundamentally this potential campaign is built on exploring the answer to a question that has no set answer. It is by design that no one knows where the MF came from, the dm has to expand on that idea, i was suggesting an aboleth because they could be a good place to "start" their investigation.
they could say something like "they popped into being on the outskirts of the astral sea...so uh...go check that out"
boom, campaign started
My players don’t realize it yet, but that’s basically their plot for this side campaign off the main story campaign. I am recording lo-fi tapes of little speeches that Zerthimon sent to his people in arcane tablets. As they progress they are finding more and more pieces to the puzzle of the mind flayed empire secretly gaining a foothold in Faerûn. And yes, they are about 1 session away from an encounter in an underground lake with an Aboleth that knows nothing of the Gith, which will throw them for a complete loop.
My personal interpretation is that the Mind Flayer Empire is just one of the most successful propaganda campaigns ever done by the Mind Flayers
Though I also love the mystery surrounding it
I once used one of these guys as a sort of Santa Claus in a campaign.
He was the Gith that keeps on giving.
no
Badum Cssh
im dyin'
I love this so much
That's almost as bad as the temporary npc I named El Franger on a whim
It doesn't help their whole "haven't really changed since the revolt" problem that the Githyanki hang out in the Astral Plane, where time doesn't really flow the way its supposed to. Upside, Githyanki who live this way will basically never grow old or die. The downside is that NO Githyanki grows old or dies, even if the society as a whole probably wishes some of them did. Leading to a cultural stagnation arising from the fact that many of the original Gith who rebelled against the Illithid are still around, setting policy and passing down the slave mentality they never truly transcended. Unlike in the mortal world where, for good and for ill, societies tend to change incrementally when one generation dies and are replaced by subsequent ones.
I don't know if the Githzarai have a similar issue out in Limbo, but I'd imagine the need to maintain perfect focus, in order to keep their zen fortresses together, would lead to a society that doesn't tolerate dissent or experimentation.
So it's like the problems with elven societies, but much worse? Dear gods.
The githzerai do have the exact same problem; any new gith babies have to be born on the Material Plane and raised over there, so they'll age enough to become adults.
@@Coryn02 human decides to steal goth baby gith parents find out later where they are BOOM your PC is now running the fuck away from what ever the fuck the rest of your species's is doing because the funny murder apes were able to teach you things and now you like humans more (add hatred of other races, indifference, list for them as well I'm just over saying that the PC must haves good life with their parents to like mankind and then have like their real parents murder them or something idk or keep them alive I can't control ya)
Githzerai do have same issues, if you ever played Planscape:Torment one of the characters of the game is githzerai who is a parriah of his race, he literally had a doubts in Zerthimon teaching wich led to breach in defense of his fortress. Giths attacked this breach and the fortress fell, he survived but was ashamed of his deeds (despite that he did nothing wrong, only had uncontrolled doubt in teaching). So he went into exile to material plane. To Sigil city
Sounds like the perfect reason for a Gith to get bored and decide to leave.
I refuse to pronounce githyanki any other way than gith yankee
its how it is pronounced in Torment, so I think it is correct
Yeah, same.
That’s how Slim says it so that’s how I say it.
Something I like is that they put aside their beef just to hunt mind flayers. Or at least they did in 3.5, not sure if that was kept in 5e.
In 5e it is more like a 3-way war that the mind flayers aren't fighting, as they were almost driven to extinction by the gith.
They still do, and there's a secret society called "The Sha'sal Khou" attempting to reunify the race.
One of the more widely believed theories outside of the Githyanki’s own society is that Vlaakith had already completed the deal with Tiamat and that sending Gith down there under the guise of meeting with the dragon queen was actually Vlaakith fulfilling her part of the deal. (Gith was a sacrifice to Tiamat, if that wasn’t clear.)
is this video my gith for Christmas
Githmas* githeo* githis* myth* forth* gisth* kugoth* githe* migithy*
This is the kind of thing I like to see more of in adventures: breaking the mold. People adhere too rigidly to the idea that fantasy stories have to stick to the basic Euro-Medieval style settings. Let yourself get weird with things once in a while.
got a gith coming up in a power rangers based campaign. an ancient gith spirit from the rebellion living out her last orders, her long dead body sealing away a long lost mindflayer installment containing a nautiloid and other similarly lost technology. basically the zordon of the game, with the morphers being psionic devices used against the mind flayers in the war by turning even feeble people into powerful warriors, and the villain's an alhoon after the lost tech even though it's buried under the city, and I'm real excited to run it.
Interestingly enough, the name Adam does mean 'Man'. so yeah.
we are mankind, descendants of Man the first Man
. . . uh, yeah, that's the joke. That's why in the video he says ""It's like if we walked around calling ourselves Adam... wait."
@@starwarsnerd100 I missed that, my bad
So theoretically, if my dad was Adam and I was Adam Jr, my full title would be “Man, Son of Man, Descendant of Man”
"In *knowing* the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger". It's hard to overstate the importance of Drak'kon from Planescape Torment in the depiction of the Githzerai as a whole. Drak'kon was a conflicted warrior-monk who was implied to be pretty atypical for his species, but since he was the most notable Githzerai to appear in any media, the entire race changed to be more like him. Also, in PS : T, Shra'kt'lor (dig those gratuitous apostrophes) was a city that "fell" because of Drak'kon's doubt, and was certainly not housing the last living disciple of their great prophet.
I LOVE this series you do! It has helped me so much learn about the vast lore to this game in a quick and efficient way. You were one of my inspirations to make my own D&D RUclips Channel!! My whole thing is quick and efficient videos and you always pop into my head for that category! Keep it up man YOU ROCK!!!
I agree! His videos are so quick and informative!! I LOVE his “basically” series!
Runesmith: *uploads*
Me: That's basically content
I would like to say we had the same profile pic till about a week ago
The king of the Githzerai is basically 40k's Emperor of Mankind
That's exactly what I was thinking when he was describing it!
Except you dont need to sacrifice hundreds of people every day to sustain an ever slowly rotting/dying corpse that is the sole lych pin of Mankind's survival.
Queen, she's a queen. But yes.
@@beastwarsFTW he said GithZerai, not GothYanky
Menyar-Ag-Gith, the eternal viber. “He just be vibin”
Mentioning Treasure Planet made me somehow love this channel more
Man I far prefer your pronunciation of Githyanki to what I thought it was, which was Gith who are big fans of a New York Baseball team
I’m pretty sure the gith-yankee is the correct way given the appendices
I've always heard it Gith-"Yonkey".
Like "Donkey".
Oh, that's a good character idea...
a2a3 a2a3 bruh
I've been saying Gith-Yankee out loud for 38 years. There's no way I can change now.
I hecking love the Gith. I am so incredibly tempted to just shoehorn them into every single adventure I write for my current campaign. Find the lost treasure? SPACE PIRATES! Uncover the plot to start a war? SPACE PIRATES? Kill the pirates? SPAAAAAAACE PIIIIRATESSSSSS
But alas, I refrain.
For the record, there’s a third faction called She’sal Khou that’s seeking to unite the gith under one name and nation.
I have a new Githzerai PC in my game. This was a dandy refresher, and I'll probably use this as reference to the other players when they make checks about her. Thanks!
"It's like if we walked around calling ourselves Adam... wait." lol!
In Knowing the teachings of Runesmith I have become stronger.
Great vid as always, the outtakes at the end were a nice touch.
I get so many different ideas watching different dnd videos its awesome. I first got inspired of my elves origin by a live play dnd I watch that in their lore elves travel from plane to plane and stay there so long it's not widely known that they do so. Also thinking about the Illithid and Gith made me think that the Illithid were psychic raiders that traveled the dimensions for psychic races to conquer and consume. The Illithid ran up against the Gith that were somewhat comparable in strength to them and had a great war and some of them escaped to the main plane in my setting.
This was millenia before the present and before verbally passed down history can remember. At the time the god of my setting recognized how powerful the Gith were and made a pact with them. The pact was the god would grant the Gith her gifts if they would protect the other races in her plane. Then over time the Gith cross populated and became the Elven race and only a select few know their Gith heritage.
This plays in awesomely to an idea I already had which is most Elves don't want to associate with the other races but there are some that do. This could be a fissure in Gith belief on whether they should be passing down their gifts and teachings to the other races or not. There is also a secret society that works to try to protect the lower races that the players could slowly unravel. Sometimes the players could even encounter rivals that try to stop them from discovering their history and maybe even some of the characters could discover they have latent Gith heritage.
This helped as I was unclear on who the Lich queen who ruled them was because I was confused about how Gith just kinda stopped being the leader of the Githyanki
So by the looks of them, interdimensional elf half orcs ruled by sorcerer monks or warlock barbarians fighting each other but protect the realms from Mind Flayers. Got it.
Anyone remember that AWESOME semi-epic 3.5 Dungeon module, the Lich Queen's Beloved? Plotline rundown: Vlaakith has found way to ascend to godhood by stealing essence from the dead god they live on. PCs must(at lvl 19) fight her(CR28) some githyanki servants(CR 18 or so) and some fancy new Gith Fire undead (4 of them at CR 20 each). If you win: THE GITH BECOME ONE RACE AND THEY INVADE THE MATERIAL PLANE AND U GOTTA FIGHT THEM OFF AGAIN!!!!
One of my favorite characters was a Githyanki Warlock who wanted to become a chef, I was constantly trying to feed my party terrible food. "Yes, you eat stew, I use WHOLE rat! tis' good, yes."
Gith are so good in BG3
2:47 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Is this unironically the D&D version of *'The Godemperor of Mankind'* from the Warhammer40k universe? 😆
No mention of the Sha'sal Khou? /: dang. They're the backdrop I use for most Gith adventurers
I thought you were gonna say, "this subrace is so stupidly zen, they marched into lobotomy" during the bloopers lol
2:50 bruh he's just hella vibing
You bloody legend. Basically The Shadowfell only came out 5 days ago; I wake up, strap on my ground harness and grab my boomerang and phone; boom. Basically Gith. Gith. Fucking Gith! It just gets better and better. Ya made my bloody day mate.
I’m playing a Githzerai Fighter Psi-Knight who I’m super excited about. He’s obsessive and confident, and a deft dexterous warrior. He dedicated a lot of his life to hunting an illithid on a grudge.
Uh, look at that, they are way more interesting than I thought.
Thanks for the lesson, now the illithid-gith war is probably becoming one of the most interesting piece of D&D lore for me.
Thank you for making videos that help me fall asleep at night and make me laugh during the day.
"Haha Gith named themselves after Gith." Well, being a Gith is practically a religion, and Christians named themselves after Christ and Buddhists named themselves after Buddha, so it tracks.
Here's the real origins of Githzerai. Dak'kon. Dak'kon was in a game called Planescape: Torment and considered abnormal because he was Lawful Neutral in a race that was was roughly 'always Chaotic'. Dak'kon became iconic because PS:T is a cult classic and they basically re-wrote the lore and mannerisms for the Zerai to be more like him.
I was in a fun campaign where due to some good rolls, we were able to hitch a ride on a Githyanki ship through the Astral plane in exchange for helping them drive off some Githzerai that were encroaching. Was... pretty neat!
Playing a horizon walker who got kidnapped as a kid by space pirate raid of these guys; did you know time doesn't pass in their super secret dimension base? Yay trauma!
If you haven't done Basically Gnolls yet, i'd love to see your take on them. One of my D&D characters is a gnoll necromancer and he's a load of fun to play
Ok, that was amazingly cool. I mean, they're all good, but this one actually taught me, a guy who picked up the 1st Monster Manual in Elementary school, a nifty new way of looking at bratz.
I'm currently playing a Githzerai wizard at the moment so this was a huge help!
I love it when Dark Souls music creeps into other things.
I also love the Gith. And Psionic races in general
saying Libido instead of Limbo can have some weird consequences. or great ones. I don't kink shame.
Hard consequences to be sure.
The fundamental plane of ever churning semen
Awesome video as always!! And I got surpprised to listen that Merchant soundtrack as well
BF and I recently found your channel and are obsessed with it! Hilarious and informative as hell, just in time for BG3 >:D
Treasure Planet is an amazing movie! So glad it got some rep here
"Interstellar Jehovah's Witnesses"
*shows pictures of Latter-Day Saints*
Not sure if regular Runesmith shenanigans or common misconception... regardless, great video! I've always described the Githyanki as space pirates and Githzerai as space monks but Jedi does fit the bill a little better!
Githyanki: Good Eldritch Knights or Bladesingers, free spells for the Fighter, multiple weapon proficiencies for the Wizard.
Githzerai: Good Monks, Druids, or Clerics with bonus spells that usually aren’t available to those classes. Also one of the few +2 Wisdom races.
Both get Mage Hand that’s invisible and are more interesting than another Elf, Half-Elf, or Human.
aah Githzerai like that one Guy from Planescape Torment
Dak'kon.
@@Grinnar "I may be bested in battle, but I cannot be defeated."
@@prkr07 "In knowing the teachings of Zerthimon, I have become stronger."
"There cannot be two skies."
STOP!!! I discovered your channel a few weeks ago while looking for Feywild Videos. I was like “Great, a brand new video about the Feywild!”
Then I was planning out my campaign into the future and decided that my group would be traveling through Sigil to the Shadowfell...and there’s another video.
Now my group has gone through Sigil and caught the attention of a Githyanki Pirate after buying a powerful magic item that his crew was planning on stealing.... And here we are. With a Gith video. GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
When you described githyanki I thought: Fuck elves and Goblins, I want to play that game instead
I live outside of Philly and wish I could totally go to Pax: Unplugged for your panel, but I am le broke! I hope you enjoy Philly though. Lots to do. Highly recommend checking out Reading Terminal Market and Chinatown (which are conveniently nearby the convention center)
Isn’t githyanki: gith-yan-key
It is.
Yeah but that does sound less cool...
That conclusion was so nice.
I have an irresponsible desire to make a swashbuckling Githyanki rogue named Silver who while a compulsive thief and smooth-talker who tends to fall flat with the ladies, is also oddly compassionate towards children.
The githyanki I'm playing thought his fellows weren't dedicated to killing mind flayers enough, so he left to build an army that would via artifice.
Dude thank you for providing a link to dungeon craft, ordered mine
This is a superb overview of the gith.
*~ Gith:* _"Gotta git gud!"_
Gith are really-really well written
Treasure planet was an amazing movie
Ah yes, Gith: one of the few D&D races with actual lore that isn't just three sentences about how ruthless and evil they are.
1:22 To be fair, "Adam" is literally the ancient Hebrew word for "Man."
Modern Hebrew as well
“Everybody enslaved everybody, at least they’re honest about it”
*Ohhhhhhhhh meme*
It's funny because it's true!
If it isn't too much of a hassle I loved the bloopers at the end!
``Gith good, or gith up!'' - Mantra of my Githzerai martial-arts teacher.
Video starts at 0:47
Thanks bro
Endure. In enduring grow strong.
Weirdly enough, I was thinking up a campaign today where the players unconsciously have information that the Githyanki desperately want, and then find themselves being hunted.
The gith actually play a major part of my current campaign, many of the githzerai basically went to the material plane and taught others how to use psychic abilities, and pacifism. The party is currently working with them to stop a greater evil. I have yet for the party to meet the githyanki.
I love how effectively the only thing that's changed now in the wake of Baldur's Gate 3 is the pronunciation of githyanki
The bulders gate 3 trailer finally makes seance, thank you
A ruler who doesn't move but us still 'alive' and has incredible psychic abilities and an opposing ruler who is incredibly violent and has a throne made from skulls.
Where have I heard this before?
The subtle but well-placed Bible/Hebrew puns were a nice touch
this video is basicly a summary of everything before Baldurs gate 3
This is your best video imo
I came up with a nation I call the Gith Theocracy it's a Gith nation separate into two castes the priests(Zerai) and soldiers(Yanki) they believe that arcane magic will result in the destruction of the world and seek to save the world from it.
In truth they're a puppet of Mind Flayers using them to expand their influence and eliminate arcane magic.
I got the idea from their lore about a mind flayer empire and I imagine how interesting it would be to fight against a empire like that.
It's best suited for homebrew world where mind flayers and gith aren't established but if wanted to use a established setting retcon them into it or perhaps play it like a alien invasion.
Wait...5 minutes..? That was all..? I WANT MORE
I’m currently playing a githyanki arcane archer with Elvis hair and two light crossbows flavored as laser guns. He’s basically Jack Sparrow meets Space Dandy and he’s really fun to play
Fun Githzerai fact: *Know* that flesh cannot mark steel. *Know* that steel may mark flesh. In knowing this, Zerthimon became free.
3:18
Those are actually interstellar Mormons you're showing in the picture.
My Vistani are distant descendents of the Githyanki. When they come to the prime material to grow up, some stayed and intermarried with humans and became a nomadic culture like their Githyanki ancestors.
My favorite race, great video
Hell yea, been waiting for this one for a while.
I didn't realize how cool the gith back story was until now