Githyanki in Eberron
The Githyanki are an evil and cruel species that hails from the planet Eberron in its distant past but have long since been banished from the world of their birth. Recent events have allowed them to return and they are decidedly displeased with the way that history has left them in the dust of history.
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Githyanki History[edit]
The Githyanki are actually the remnants of the Dhakaani civilization that were enslaved by the Daelkyr under the mid-level managership of the Illithids. Their race was subjected to unspeakable cross-breeding and mutation experiments as part of their masters curiosity. Many of the mutants have passed along these traits to their descendents that the Githyanki are no longer recognizable as Goblins at all.
When the Gatekeepers performed their massive ritual that bound the Daelkyr underneath the surface of Khyber, the results had an unintended effect of also sealing off the Dhakaani that bore the taint of the Daelkyr's fleshcrafting from returning to their home world. Instead, despite a valiant revolt being lead by Zerthimon and Gith, they were blocked from using portals back to their homeland.
Instead, the newly christened Gith race descended into civil war, and split into two plane walking people that travelled to Khyrthi and the Astral Plane instead of attempting to return to Eberron. In time, both races discovered that there were many other worlds that the Daelkyr had touched or not touched at all. With their ancient Dhakaani artifice mixed with remnants of Illithid superscience, they were often able to inflict devastating casualties on these worlds.
The Githyanki, used to spending the majority of their time on the bodies of ancient demons and angels in the Astral, would never resettle on these worlds. Instead, they kept themselves on the Astral while working to conquer other worlds in the hope of eventually retaking their homeland. The current Githyanki overlord, Vlaakith the CVII is the last of her line and a brutal tyrant whom has been constantly wasting her soldiers in endless wars of conquest.
This has had a devastating effect on their birthrate and she is interested in correcting it by finally moving the Githyanki back to the physical world where they will age normally (while she will maintain her immortality through unholy Lichdom). Thankfully, she has the support of her people because the ancient spells forbiding the Githyanki's return were eradicated by Lord Shadowspawns use of the Stellar Manipulator.
The Githyanki are unwilling to over-commit their forces due to the sheer amount of magical power it takes to actually invade a planet. Furthermore, they are unnerved by the fact that the people of Eberron are not nearly the Medieval weaklings they usually encounter. While still "disgusting primitives", they wield a power and military force almost equal to them. More, the Lich Queen does not want to risk an all out invasion until she's sure that the Gith's ancient masters won't wake up.
Githyanki Society[edit]
Githyanki society is matriarchal with the women holding almost all of the positions of import in the society. It is also a military dictatorship with the soldiers ruling over the common citizenry of the Githyanki whom themselves are the overlords of a vast slave culture of beings taken from other worlds to handle most common labor in the Githyanki's floating astral cities.
They are a brutal and savage people who consider all other species beneath them. They are not too disimiliar to Karrns in most respects and tend to lord over other beings like they're chattle. Githyanki "honor" is of paramount importance but it provides no prohibitions against backstabbing, lying, and treachery to achieve victory. In fact, it encourages it so long as it's against non-Githyanki. Oddly, it's unheard of for a Githyanki to be a traitor and the closest thing to a civil war they have is against the Githzerai.
The Lich Queen holds the position as God-Empress of the Githyanki. While not a Divine Spark herself, she grants spells via the worship of the imprisoned form of Gith who is kept in an eternal Temporal Stasis spell in order to serve as a constant reminder of the Githyanki's business.
Githyanki love hunting Abberations for sport and it is their greatest personal honor. Claiming the skulls of Abberations is the one area where even slaves can earn respect.
Githyanki Magictech[edit]
Githyanki are the only race in Eberron that have access to SpelljammerTM technology due to their contact with the Illithids. Thus, they employ Illithid Nautaloids while travelling around the Crystal Sphere of Eberron. In general, the Githyanki only use these vessels with their Astral Dreadnoughts to make in-sphere travel as they much prefer to use interdimensional Gate spells to travel across the universe by hopping through the Plane of Shadow.
Githyanki technology, otherwise, is fairly similar to Eberrons own with Psionics replacing most of the Dragonmarked Houses technology of House Cannith. They disdain using Constructs and thus warforged or golems do not exist amongst them. However, they have some small amounts of Warforged Juggernauts that they have actually copied from information given them by Zorlan D'Cannith. They are a civilization in decline and have no access to the ancient Giant's technology like Eberron has.
The Githyanki rule twelve other planets that were roughly at a typical Dungeons and Dragons level of technology and magic. These planets are mostly controlled by Githyanki quislings and their hold is tenacious at best. Were the Githyanki race to pull off them to invade Eberron, they'd almost certainly conquer it but it would effectively destroy their species.
Githyanki Leaders[edit]
Vlaakith the CVII (CE Lich [Githyanki] Female Psionicist 18) is the absolute ruler of the Githyanki race and dreams of eventually achieving divinity for herself by altering the Githyanki into a race of super-powerful psionic demigods that she will rule as "chief deity." To be honest, she's Shadowspawn levels of crazy and deluded but manages to sell her nonsensical dreams through charisma mixed with genius. To facillitate this, she's killed all of her rivals over 10th level amongst the Githyanki by draining their energy out and using it to power her experiments.
Kolthor the Illithid (LE Illithid Genderless Wizard 7) is the Lich Queen's "tame" Illithid whom is arguably second in command of the entire Githyanki race. Kolthor is actually a representative of the Daelkyr Lord of Silence whom long ago inspired the Vlaakith line to rebel against the noble Gith in order to render any further resistance to their race moot. Kolthor pretty much is responsible for the degeneracy and madness of the current Githyanki Lich Queen but in suitably obedient fashion is continuing to use them to make life miserable for as much of the galaxy as possible.
Ironically, he's responsible for the Githyanki experimenting on themselves under her orders. This is just a resumption of the experiments conducted 5,000 years ago.
Githyanki Allies[edit]
The Githyanki have made several tentative allies on Eberron. These are questionable alliances at best.
The first and most prominent is Erandis D'Vol along with the Emerald Claw whom have agreed to help administer the conquered Eberron. Erandis D'Vol is the one who gave Vlaakith the spell of immortality and transformed her into a Lich. Erandis does not particular fear the Lich Queen since she's immune to most psionics being undead. Erandis has already located Vlaakith's psylantery and believes that should there ever be a problem, she can simply cause all of Githyanki society to collapse by killing its God-king. Vlaakith tends to think the same in reverse, though she doesn't know she only has found a false psylantery.
Merrix D'Cannith III has also made his own seperate peace with the Githyanki. This, however, was with a bunch of crash landed Spelljamming Githyanki whom are underestimating the man severely as he takes apart their machines to know how they work. While Merrix is keeping his options open, he's more of the mind that it'll pay much better to resist the Githyanki to the very last man and is mostly providing them dubious intell while repairing their vessels/equipment. However, the Aurrum can be found aiding in Githyanki takeovers and kidnappings until this time. Worse, they've compromised Admiral Ramirez's replacement as head of the Dark Lanterns to help cover up the Githyanki's existence.
Zorlan D'Cannith was also working with them quite directly after Erandis D'Vol introduced him to Vlaakith. Zorlan D'Cannith is one of the few who genuinely wants to see Khorvaire conquered. This is mostly due to his fascination with Illithid technology, space, and his desire to watch a continent burn in fire.
The most powerful of the Githyanki's allies is the Authority. The Authority believe the Githyanki to be natural counterbalances to the Daelkyr rising and similar creatures while also a counterbalance to the increasing human society that troubles them. Thus, the Authority have provided more than a thousand Red Dragon warriors over the centuries to help conquer other worlds. Almost four hundred of these have died but the remaining six hundred would be a major asset in any future conquest. The Authority has no objections to exterminating the entire Githyanki people should they become a liability though.
If they could slay the King of Dargunn, the Githyanki could also hire several powerful tribes of Goblins as mercenaries that would provide them probably a third of Dargunn's warriors as well.
Githyanki Enemies[edit]
The Githyanki's chief enemy is the Githzerai people who have been waging a multi-dimensional guerilla campaign against them for the past five thousand years. This has mostly had the effect of making the Githyanki unable to grow in their population and secure their power base rather than leading to any sort of imminent collapse. The Githzerai's chaotic ways and inhospitable homeland makes any real retaliation against them almost impossible.
Even more than the Lich Queen, the Githyanki still hate the forces of Xoriat. In the event of Abberations appearing, the Githyanki will almost certainly abandon their current mission in order to destroy them and even team up with lesser beings against them. Ironically, the sudden seeming drastic drop off in Abberation attacks after the near-destruction of Eberron is partially because several hundred scouting parties by Vlaakith were turned into hunting parties upon finding such a rich environment for sport.
(Think Predator)
Likewise, the people of Khorvaire will not accept a seperate peace with the Githyanki but resist to the last man. Even Thrane and Karrnath would actually combine forces in the wake of an extradimensional invasion and refuse to submit. The Sarlonans would not be so lucky and would have the Quori more or less buy off the Githyanki with tribute as they carried out business as usual. Unfortunately, Khorvaire is really the only place with any value to the Githyanki as even Vlaakith is not stupid enough to try and invade Argonessan (which could destroy the entire Githyanki civilization in a matter of weeks).
