The Reconciliation

“Any enemy of The Great Enemy can be my friend … for a time.” - Gith.

The great Incursion wrought untold destruction on many prime worlds. The githyanki legions, bent conquest, rolled over much of their opposition, especially early on. The githwarriors were constantly on the alert for signs of their true enemies, the illithid and the githzerai. While many illithid met the silver swords of the servants of the Lich Queen, the githzerai were conspicuous in their absence. By and large the sons of Zerthimon did not interfere with the githyanki Incursion. Unknown to both gith races, a secret society existed in both camps dedicated to reunification of the gith races. The Sha’sal-Khou had existed for centuries in the shadows, its members protected by total secrecy.

Shas’al-Khou in both camps secretly included gith in positions of great power and influence. The githzerai side successfully convinced many influential zerth that there should not be any major moves to interfere with the Lich Queen’s Incursion, but that they should rather watch and wait. On the githyanki side, several warlords, secret Sha’sal-Khou members, took the opportunity to increase their own power, and undermine the authority of the Lich Queen whenever possible. Some recruited parties of assassins from among the graith nations attacked by the githyanki.

Evidently, one of these groups of assassins was successful, for the Incursion ended in the destruction of Vlaakith CLVII, and the activation of her void bombs, obliterating Tu’narath and those cities and fortresses closest to the Queen’s capital. After the fall of Vlaakith, the old Sha’sal-Khou disbanded to cover their tracks. All that remained were unsubstantiated rumors that traitors among the githyanki had something to do with the Queen’s destruction. The members of the secret organization did not all completely disappear, however. Some continued, in secret, to advocate peace between the githyanki and githzerai in order to do maximum harm to the illithid and bring about their final defeat.

Now, The Reconciliation is actually a much larger and more diverse group than the old Sha’sal-Khou. Now considered one of the power blocs, it has drawn in many individuals who sympathize with its aims. Some operatives who would otherwise be considered part of the Silver Eyes have begun to work toward the goal of peace with the zerth. They fear that in the current troubles, the illithid will take advantage of the githyankis’ lack of unified leadership. If githyanki and githzerai can join forces, even in a limited fashion, it may well spell doom for the illithids’ plans.

The Reconciliation is the smallest and least influential of the power blocs, and the most secretive. The vast majority of githyanki hate “Zerth-lovers” (Reconciliation) even more than they do “Power Slaves” (Cult of Tiamat). What is surprising is that the other power blocs have by-and-large not made major moves to purge secret Reconciliation members from their midst. Any gith fool enough to openly advocate peace with the zerth is going to have problems, but Reconcilists and especially former Sha’sal-Khou are used to operating in secrecy. Their influence and numbers are greatly underestimated by most other power blocs.

There is a great deal of cross-pollination between the Reconciliation and the Silver Eyes. There are so many double and triple agents that the relations between the two blocs cannot be easily categorized. For now, the Eyes are making no overtly hostile moves against their brothers in the Reconciliation, preferring espionage. There may be some surprises in store for both blocs, should their members eventually be forced to conclusively choose one side or the other.

The Reconciliation’s most implacable foes are The True. The dogma of the followers of Ar-Gish allows for no compromise in the War of Two Skies. One good way to get in a duel to the death with a True is to start spouting Reconciliation rhetoric. Interestingly, though, many True prefer loud and intense philosophical debates over duels with blades, (sometimes during duels with blades. ) On certain neutral grounds, like the streets of the githyanki ghetto of Git’riban in Sigil, Reconcilists and True debate publicly their interpretations of Gith’s will and the course of her children’s future, often without the debate devolving into bloodshed. One can surmise that certain high-ups in The True believe that they can get more converts with debate than with blades. Then again, it may just be a matter of time before The True move against the Reconciliation with murderous intent.

The Ascendancy opposes the Reconciliation too. They are less philosophical about it though. Their loyalty to the old regime is enough to ensure that any suggestion of a cessation of the War of Two Skies would ensure a violent reaction. Strangely, the supporters of the Singer of Fire, and the Cult of Tiamat in general, are not overtly hostile to the Reconciliation. In fact, they generally act like they don’t care either way. This has led some to speculate that a peace with the zerth is in the Cult’s long-term plan, but thus far there has been little to confirm this speculation.

Any Reconcilist openly advocating peace with the githzerai in the enclaves of the Heartforce is certain to disappear quickly. However, some Heartforce leaders are secretly supportive of the Reconciliation and their goals. The generals of the Heartforce are very pragmatic, and the point that a unified gith race would spell real trouble for the illithid has not been lost on them. It is also possible that certain Heartforce high-ups were themselves once Sha’sal-Khou. Thus Reconciliation rhetoric is not welcome on the streets of Astral cities, but penetrates many Heartforce battalions in secret.

The philosophies of the Reconciliation and the Unifits are somewhat similar, but most Unifists won’t go as far as to advocate peace with githzerai. In fact, operationally, there are a good number of Unifists recruiting war-parties against the zerth, for the War of Two Skies remains a good way to get members of different power blocs to work together for a common cause. Then there are more radical Unifists who almost sound like Reconciliation themselves.

The Reconciliation and the Apocalytes remain wary of one-another. The githzerai were largely unseen during the whole Incursion, which knowing the githzerai, fails to prove they were not involved in clandestine ways. Like most githyanki, the typical Apocalyte would kill a zerth, or zerth-lover, in a heartbeat. They are far more concerned with the day-to-day realities of their situation on the primes than they are with the continuing War of Two Skies, however, so contact whether hostile or friendly is extremely limited. It is worth noting, however, that a fair percentage of the intelligence fed to the Apocalytes by the Silver Eyes in fact comes from those elements sympathetic to the Reconciliation.

The Reconciliation remains the smallest, most secretive, and least influential overall of any of the githyanki power blocs. They have, however, a resource that none of the others have access to. There are still their counterparts among the githzerai. They are just as heretical among their own people as the Reconciliation is among most githyanki, but like the old Sha’sal-Khou in the githyanki camp, many are actually in positions of power and influence over their peers. Their efforts are not wasted, for through them a good deal of intelligence on the illithid is passed back and forth. Thus far, though smaller raids continue, their influence has also mostly kept the githzerai from staging any major new offenses against the ‘yanki to take advantage of their current divisions. This is greatly beneficial to the Reconciliation, for if whole armies of greycloaks started showing up on the Astral or the primes, what few successes the Reconciliation has realized would most likely slip away very quickly.