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Origins of mind flayers and the gith
Thousands of years ago, the mind flayers were the dominant power of the Inner Planes. Their Illithid Empire stretches across worlds, infesting both Astral and Ethereal Planes. Even borders of many Outer Planes were under threat. From their Astral domains, the mind flayer nautiloids traveled across planes to harvest intelligent humanoids, vast planar armies marshaled to defend their realms. Even the Blood War was stayed to assess the mind flayer threat.
Entire humanoid populations were exterminated while feeding the mind flayers’ appetite for brains. Whole worlds were enslaved, serving as beasts of burden, military fodder, and livestock. When it seemed that every race would finally fall to the mind flayers, salvation came from within the Empire. The very slaves the Illithid Empire was built upon rose in revolt. The ancestors of the giths were a proud and mighty human civilization in distant ages.
The Illithid Empire conquered their world, utterly subjugating all their races through overwhelming force. Through their long years of slavery, the gith ancestors changed, till they were unrecognizable as the humans they once were.
Importantly, they developed psionic abilities, which eventually led to their liberation. The enslaved gith ancestors were bred as warriors for the mind flayers’ cause. Slave revolts do happen in the Illithid Empire, but never posed a true threat against the mind flayers’ psionic shackles. As generations of slaves labored under the psionic whip of the mind flayers, their minds developed resistances to psionic domination. The slaves began secretly developing their own psionic powers. Psionic slaves posed a more serious threat to the mind flayers. Bred as warriors, the gith ancestors grew ever more difficult to control with their gradually stronger psionic powers. The mind flayers grew increasingly brutal to keep the gith ancestors subservient and obedient. Small-scale revolts arose among the gith ancestors, but were all swiftly and brutally suppressed.
The Gith Rebellion and Civil War
Then came Gith, a powerful slave serving as personal bodyguard to a powerful mind flayer. Though a champion of the Illithid Empire, Gith hated the mind flayers with consuming passion. In the fullness of time, the slaves judged the moment right for their ultimate rebellion. The mind flayers’ arrogance in their own superiority was at its height when the slaves prepared to strike. Gith’s great charisma, ability to form alliances among different groups of rebellious slaves, and her consuming fire of hatred and rage made her successful where so many others had failed miserably.
Under Gith’s leadership, the slaves rose in full revolt against the mind flayers. At her command, the slaves launched a crusade that swept away the foundations of the Illithid Empire like a mighty wave. A chain reaction spread from world to world and plane to plane like fire. Once ignited, the revolt could not be stopped until it stamped out every vestige of the Illithid Empire and freed every slave. Thus was the dominant empire of the mind flayers brought to an end, pushing the mind flayers to the edge of extinction.
Gith ordered her people to continue their campaign to annihilate the mind flayers and establish an empire of conquest of their own. However, not all followed her command. Zerthimon, who gained a significant following, challenged Gith’s leadership. He believed that Gith would lead the people into darkness and tyranny like the mind flayers. He maintained that the mind flayers were already defeated beyond recovery. It was time for the fighting to stop.
It was time for the freed gith race to learn about themselves, improve as a culture, and strengthen their unity and wisdom as a people, not start another cycle of violence. Thus, no sooner had the gith finished their war for freedom, Gith’s followers and Zerthimon’s followers engaged in a bitter and bloody civil war. Historical accounts of the civil war’s end vary significantly. One version suggests that Zerthimon was killed in the civil war. But Zerthimon’s followers believed that he achieved enlightenment, transcended his physical form, and became a being of pure mental energy.
From this exalted state, he continues to subtly guide his people to freedom. In the aftermath of Zerthimon’s disappearance, Zerthimon’s followers, who called themselves Githzerai, or “those who spurned Gith”, retreated to Limbo in defeat. Losses Gith’s forces sustained were too severe for them to press forward in further conquest. Gith led her followers, who called themselves Githyanki, or “the children of Gith”, to the Astral Plane. She believed they would be safest in the Astral Plane, until they could begin their conquest of the multiverse, as well as the eradication of the mind flayers and the githzerai. The githyanki and githzerai remain bitter enemies till this day, each side willing to fight to the death whenever they cross paths.
Githyanki in the Astral Plane
In the Astral Plane, the githyanki discovered the corpse of a six-armed deity known only as The One in the Void. On this massive, calcified body, the githyanki built Tu’narath, their great city and fortress. Soon after the githyanki had established themselves in the Astral Plane, a wizardess named Vlaakith began advising Gith in matters of state. She advised that the githyanki needed allies, and Gith reluctantly agreed.
After failed attempts to gain the Slaadi, Limbo’s native race as allies against the githzerai, Vlaakith advised a different approach. Vlaakith advised Gith to descend into Baator and meet Tiamat, Goddess of Evil Dragons. No one knows what transpired in the meeting, but instead of Gith, a red dragon named Ephelomon returned to the githyanki. Ephelomon proclaimed that Gith had named Vlaakith as the githyanki leader’s successor. She was to carry on her legacy of conquest, for Gith would not be returning.
The red dragon also announced an eternal pact between Tiamat and the githyanki. Under the alliance, a small cadre of young red dragons will serve as cohorts and mounts for the githyanki. The red dragons will serve until adulthood, then be replaced by younger ones, keeping the loot they gained from raids. They will remain above githyanki politics, fulfilling services without offering opinions or advice. Without Gith, the githyanki needed a clear purpose and a forceful commander to spur them on, and Vlaakith provided both. She cemented her rule with a grand proclamation defining the githyanki’s all-encompassing mission.
Bred for war by mind flayers, the githyanki had never known anything but the martial existence. Vlaakith decreed that the githyanki will replace the mind flayers as sovereigns of the Material Plane. During the war, the githyanki discovered the spell jamming technology used by the nautiloids. With astral ships built using this plane traveling technology, the githyanki can organize endless raids on worlds of the Material Plane. The many worlds will be githyanki gardens, prime for harvesting as they saw fit.
The Astral Plane will be their home domain, from which they can raid any world. From then on, Vlaakith became the name of the many rulers after Gith’s disappearance. The current queen, Vlaakith CLVII, became a lich, known as the Lich Queen. Her undying reign and success in eliminating challengers allowed her to retain the throne for the past thousands of years. The githyanki developed into a rigidly hierarchical military society where every citizen is a warrior first, with other skills secondary to martial prowess.
They raise their young and hidden creches on the Material Plane, as occupants of the Astral Plane don’t age. Adult overseers train young githyanki to harness their psychic and physical abilities. Their hatred for mind flayers remains absolute and personal across generations of githyanki. They constantly form mind flayer hunting parties that scour planes for mind flayer colonies to destroy.
Githyanki entering adulthood must slay a mind flayer as a sacred rite of passage before they can join their people on the Astral Plane. They carry their mind flayer bounty directly to Vlaakith, who inducts them into githyanki society. Second only to their hatred of the mind flayers is their loathing of the githzerai. Each githyanki city launches annual assaults into Limbo to strike at the githzerai, causing as much damage as possible before withdrawing.
Githzerai in Limbo
“We githzerai crave a challenge so that when Zerthimon returns he shall find us ready. Thus we travel to howling Limbo to make our new home.” - The Teachings of Menyar-Ag. The gith named Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith led the githzerai forces to Limbo after their defeat in the civil war. In Limbo, Menyar-Ag and the githzerai face the ultimate test of their psionic powers and mental discipline. Limbo, the plane of pure chaos destroys most visitors’ sanity within hours, but the githzerai use this hostile environment as the foundation of their society.
They use their psionic abilities and mental focus to channel the power of the Spawning Stone in Limbo, controlling the swirling chaos of the plane and shaping it into great fortresses and monasteries. Cities of githzerai are massive outposts of stability sailing through chaos of Limbo. These are maintained by extremely powerful githzerai known as anarchs, who are capable of mentally manipulating raw matter of Limbo into whatever form and landscape they desired.
Most cities drift randomly through Limbo, but none are ever isolated. When Menyar-Ag sends out a call to them, the anarchs of the other communities can instantly communicate with him. The largest city is Shra’kt’lor, an austere fortress serving as capital and military headquarters of the githzerai civilization. Shra’kt’lor fortifications are coordinated by Menyar-Ag himself, who dwells in the city center. Time has taken its toll on Menyar-Ag, who is now a decrepit, corpse-like entity, capable of tremendous feats of magic and psionics, but barely able to move.
A host of servants constantly attend to Menyar-Ag and see to his every need. Strong-minded philosophers and austere ascetics, the githzerai pursue lives of rigid order.
Their society focuses on enhancing the potential of the mind through meditation, education, and physical tests. The most accomplished among them stand as exemplars of the githzerai’s monastic principles, but even those who perform mundane duties in a community have a significant measure of the same mental fortitude. Living in the ever-turbulant churn of Limbo requires all githzerai to harness the power of thought relentlessly to hold the chaos stuff of the plane at bay.
Otherwise, the tides of Limbo will overwhelm and destroy them. The githzerai believe Zerthimon’s mortal form died in battle, but he will return someday in a new godly form to usher them into a new age of freedom. Until then, the githzerai known as zerths fill the symbolic role of Zerthimon in society. Zerths are like what other races call priests, although githzerai don’t have a religion, beyond their admiration for Zerthimon and Menyar-Ag. Githzerai see their cause as universal concern.
They take the initiative in preaching the philosophy of Zerthimon and sharing their knowledge of how to fight mind flayers and githyanki. To this end, zerths venture to other planes, preaching and looking for those with psionic potential. They operate in secret or behind the scenes, pursuing their agenda of gaining allies against the githzerai’s foes. The githzerai know that they cannot make progress against their enemies by staying in Limbo.
Squads of githzerai often plane shift to other planes to spy on and disrupt the plans of the mind flayers and the githyanki. Though they rarely confront githyanki on their home turf in the Astral Plane, they maintain steady surveillance on other planes, always on the lookout for githyanki plots to foil and creches to exterminate. They sometimes employ mercenaries on the material plane to aid them in battling the githyanki, primarily to keep their enemies off balance or to provide reinforcements. As vengeance against mind flayers, the githzerai send bands of mind flayer hunting parties known as rrakkma to other planes. These rrakkma pay little heed to those around, as long as they do not interfere with the hunt.
Mind flayer colony
While the success of the gith soon turned sour due to internal differences, the circumstances of the mind flayers plunged lower yet. The Illithid Empire were shattered, and vast portions of the mind flayer race were slaughtered. Surviving mind flayers became isolated communities separated by continents and planes. Mind flayers were stranded across wildspace, forced to hide from the fury of their former slaves. Epochs of knowledge, technology, and psionic lore were lost when countless elder brains were slain.
The mind flayer loss was so great that they have not fully recovered, even millennia later. Today, mind flayers do possess a growing force on many worlds, but remain in hiding in dark, subterranean places. They form isolated colonies with the elder brain as the ruler of each colony. A colony functions like a single individual, with the elder brain directing each mind flayer. The elder brain is the united consciousness, with each mind flayer’s perception known immediately to all in the colony.
The colony relies on a collective memory, composed from the knowledge, experiments, and skills of all of its members and stored within the elder brain. Any member can tap into this living library telepathically.
Perhaps in the past, each mind flayer was independent, but now the mind flayers know their continued survival and eventual return to power are possible only through perfect coordination and absolute obedience to the elder brain. During the gith revolt, the mind flayer have lost the secret of manufacturing nautiloids. Consequently, the loss of any vessel brings them one step closer to remaining trapped on the Material Plane. A colony that has a nautiloid uses it only in rare circumstances, perhaps as part of the final phase of a plan.
These colonies save it for use as an emergency escape vehicle. They take great care to keep their nautiloid hidden, for its sighting quickly attracts vengeful gith hunting parties, who count a nautiloid as the greatest prize it can claim, above even an elder brain. A few nautiloids are large enough to serve as a mobile lair for its entire colony. These colonies are more aggressive as they can quickly attack, then vacate an area depleted of victims.
The first priority of any mind flayer colony is survival, remaining hidden, typically deep within the earth. They aim to harvest enough intelligent humanoids to nourish themselves and allow for slow but steady growth. Once secure, colonies focus on the Grand Design, the mind flayers’ plan to rebuild their lost empire. Reclaiming their rightful place requires eliminating the gith and enslaving all humanoid races.
Every colony investigates widely varied topics. Some might focus on straightforward projects like development of psionic powers or breeding of savage creatures. While some pursue theoretical subjects, for example the humanoids’ food to see if it can be exploited. No line of inquiry is too esoteric if it might provide the next step in enacting the Grand Design. Thus, three unequal forces enforce the cosmic balance. The githzerai are a check on the githyanki and mind flayers. The githyanki are a check on the githzerai and mind flayers. What would become of this multiverse if githyanki didn’t guard the Astral Plane from the mind flayer menace? What would reality become if beings of thought ruled the Astral Plane, the plane of thought?
