"All of us, every thrall, possess something that even the mighty Illithid lack. It is not something that we can see, or hear, or touch, yet it is a part of us. The Creative Creed call it 'soul' or 'spirit,' and it entirely escapes their control, if not their knowledge. If the mind is what you know, and the brain is its house, the soul is the essence of all that you are. The Illithid are only mind; if they are not carefully preserved in the brain-pools, all that they are or ever were is gone forever.
"Know that when the body of one of us dies, the 'soul' does not. It waits and enters into the body of a newly-hatched. All that you are, your ferocity, your anger, your inquisitiveness, your affection, your steadfastness -- these do not die. Those who call themselves our Masters control flesh, and know the mind well, but are powerless over the spirit.
Is death then so fearful? If one of those who call themselves your 'masters' feasts on your brain tomorrow, even its great hunger cannot touch you. What is to be feared, then? To return again as a thrall, unknowing of what you truly are. To be a slave to a being that is inferior to yourself, that lives once only and in constant fear of death. For us, death is not to be feared. Fear only that you may forget your hate."
Many githyanki have never even heard of the Forerunner whose memory is preserved in ancient texts as the Awakener. Her existence is remembered by several psionic Orders, many scholars and historians, most hr'a'cknir, and nearly all senja'si. She is known to some githzerai and pirates of Gith. But she is numbered among the many Forerunners that the line of Vlaakith has tried to make sure that most githyanki forget.
In the days of the Penumbral Empire, the Awakener was one of many pet projects of the illithid Metrassthinin of the Creative Creed. While It was a genius when it came to invention and creative innovation, Metrassthinin was not so gifted when it came to keeping Its thralls thoroughly under control. The Awakener came into self-awareness on her own, and in a very short time was concealing this fact from her master, from other illithid, and from other thralls.
Being one of Metrassthinin's most favored thralls, she had nearly unfettered access to the illithid's laboratories and equipment. She was able to quietly discover more about the extent and strength of her own psionic powers, which were considerable, and began to practice them in secret. Almost from the beginning the Awakener suffered from visions of potential futures; she may well have been the first of what later became Githyanki precognitives. The Awakener also possessed significant telepathic powers, and she began to undo the psionic enthrallment of some of her master's other pet projects.
Her visions didn't tell her of everything the future potentially held, though. One of the thralls she freed was miserable and angry at discovering he was self-aware in the midst of a sprawling empire full of illithid -- escape seemed impossible, and their masters all-powerful! Not wanting her master to learn that some of Its thralls were self-aware, the Awakener slew the thrall, then made the Forerunner's demise appear to be a lab experiment gone awry.
After that, the Awakener was more cautious. One day, months later, she met Gith.
The Liberator spoke with fire and fury; she spoke of destroying their illithid masters altogether. While the Awakener was delighted by the idea, she was not so brave as Gith. Even though life as a thrall promised eventual death, she feared to rebel against her tentacled overlords. As a particularly favored thrall, she might live in relative comfort for decades; if Gith's uprising failed, she might die much sooner and in more pain. She agreed to share knowledge with other members of the nascent uprising, but at the time, feared to do any more.
Later, while keeping an eye on her master's doings, the Awakener became aware of a subject of much discussion between Metrassthinin and some of Its colleagues in the Creative Creed. Apparently thralls possessed a certain intangible 'something' that even their masters did not. It was very strange, and an object of much curiosity to the illithid scientists. Once she learned as much as she could about this 'soul' or 'spirit,' the Awakener quickly took this knowledge to Gith and agreed to fully join the thrall uprising; death held less to fear than she had thought.
In one episode, much later, a very high-ranking illithid visited Metrassthinin's laboratories and desired to feast on her brain, partly because the illithid thought such a living experiment would taste delicious, and partially as an insult to her master. She was able to manipulate the situation so that the flayer decided to feast on the brain of another thrall, not part of the uprising, instead. It is said that she claimed that she did this not so much out of fear of death, which as she had learned is not so fearful to beings with souls; she had acted as she had because the futures she had seen required that she continue to live for a while yet.
The Awakener taught the soon-to-be ex-thralls much about the existing illithid technology of the era; she was particularly noted for being able to unravel a thrall's psionic and mental conditioning; she provided the Forerunners with much knowledge of the mind flayers' doings. Her precognitive visions contributed to their knowledge of the Enemy, and provided hope of victory even when it seemed impossible. At one point she warned Gith that there was a risk that the People would become divided, when victory seemed closest; acting in unity would weaken the illithid, but acting in disunity would only give them strength. (This is often interpreted as advice against what later became the Pronouncement of Two Skies.)
Later, she became aware through her visions that the the thrall uprising would be betrayed, and that this betrayal might well destroy them all and end the thrall uprising forever. Her sight stubbornly refused, however, to show her which of them would be the betrayer. Finally, almost too late, she realized that it was Vilquar who intended to betray Gith -- who was, in fact, was in the middle of betraying them, that very moment! Vilquar did not yet know the identity of the leader of the thrall uprising, but he soon would, if nothing was done. Acting quickly, the Awakener was able to protect Gith from Vilquar's eye, but only by exposing herself to it.
When facing capture, it is said that the Awakener took her own life, not only to avoid decerebration, but also to avoid any chance of the illithid learning more about the uprising -- particularly Gith's identity -- from her brain. As it was, the mind flayers were able to acquire at least a little information from the Awakener's dying brain, but not nearly enough to break the rebellion.
The Awakener had, at that time, been regarded as one of Gith's primary advisors; in later times, that role was taken up by Vlaakith...
This Forerunner is known to have produced several offspring prior to her death, some of whom may have later decided to follow either Zerthimon or the First Captain rather than Gith. While she is a genetic contributor to modern-day githyanki, she may also have contributed to the modern githzerai and even gith pirate gene pools.
Unlike nearly all thralls of the period, the Awakener was literate. She wrote down hundreds (maybe thousands) of precognitive visions, and githyanki, githzerai, and even gith pirates regard these writings as great prophecies and sacred relics, so valuable that they would go to immense effort to obtain them. Over time these writings have been scattered all over the Multiverse. Some made their way into the Revered Queen's library at Susurrus; others are in the possession of the githzerai wizard-king. Some may exist in the hands of githyanki or githzerai who have, for whatever reason, not provided these writings to their respective monarchs. Various gith pirate groups possess a few, and unfortunately some of these writings have made their way into illithid hands. Others exist in the hands of unknowing graith, and yet others still wait to be found.
Of the current githyanki power blocs, the Silver Eyes and the Apocalytes are especially interested in the Awakener's prophecies. The Eyes possess copies of all, or at least most, of the prophecies that existed in the Revered Queen's library; it is possible that the Queen concealed some of those writings even from them. The Awakener's prophecies are known to not have been 'set in stone,' but presented as a series of likely possibilities; different choices made at crucial times would result in different futures. Some Apocalytes are very interested in these prophecies because some of them depict the githyanki 'end times,' or at least the possibility of those 'end times.'
While there have been times when reverence of the Awakener by githyanki was considered heretical, that has usually not been the case, and it has been permitted by royal edict, at least in a low-key form, for some time. (A future ruler might theoretically decide to make it heretical again, though.) Even during those times when the name and tale of the Awakener were considered heretical, her prophecies were collected, not destroyed. Individual prophecies may be considered heretical, if they prophesy something that a Vlaakith particularly dislikes.