Githyanki and... Food

Githyanki and... Food

Hunting and fishing:

Barring the farming activities of the g"lathk on the Astral, Githyanki generally scorn agricultural labor as fit only for thralls and graith. Hunting and fishing are another matter. While an adult may hunt game without loss of honor (particularly if he is a ranger), hunting on the Prime is an activity most often carried out by groups of githyanki adolescents. Before being sent out to kill graith enemies and illithids, groups of githyanki youth hunt small and later, large game. (Some githyanki have been known to comment in adulthood that the experience of hunting a wild boar, tiger, or bear was far more frightening than the first time they made war against the graith.) The most common methods utilized are quite noisy: driving all available game in the area toward a cliff or into ambushes or traps, for example. They often make use of spectral hounds when hunting game.

Young githyanki who are being trained as rangers, assassins, and so forth hunt -- generally in much smaller groups -- using stealth and camouflage. Any githyanki hunting group may also use bait to attract an animal -- which may actually be in the form of a live graith, in the case of predators. Hunting is one way that young githyanki compete against each other for status and prestige. It also allows the young to contribute to githyanki society from an early age.

While an adult can also go fishing without loss of honor, this is usually done by hatchlings and adolescents, at least in parts of the Prime where fishing is a relatively safe activity. In areas known for fearsome sea predators, fishergith will be older adolescents. Spearfishing of very large fish is popular, and is perceived as being about as status-enhancing as hunting large game.

Githyanki generally don't like to waste food, and try to bring back as much meat from a successful hunt as they can reasonably carry. Being a race with access to teleportation and knowledge of portals doesn't hurt, either. While they may do some initial butchering of an animal in the field, most processing of the meat is done by younger hatchlings at home. Githyanki have learned a great deal about food preservation, so little is ever allowed to rot. They will also eat virtually any part of an animal, excepting only the brain and spinal column, for the People predictably abhor brain-eating.

The githyanki usually make an effort not to completely depopulate all game from an area. Their most common practice is to overhunt an area until the amount of game left is quite thin, then move on to another area, only returning to the original area after several years. Even so, they sometimes vex graith druids. In cases where major warfare away from the Astral (such as the Incursions) is expected or ongoing, or during a period of famine, the githyanki may hunt game to the point of extinction, but they usually try to avoid this.

Foraging/gathering:

Many warriors don't like to do this themselves unless they have to, since foraging for plants and herbs is mainly a task for small hatchlings. (However, many specialist githyanki such as rangers have no problem doing this, since it's part of their training to find food even in very harsh and unfamiliar environments.) As they get older, a lot of hatchlings look forward to not having to forage for fruit and so forth so they can go hunting instead.

Agriculture:

G"lathk on the Astral Plane can practice their form of agriculture with honor. Very few other githyanki would want to have anything to do with the practice. While g"lathk may practice very limited animal husbandry in the form of fish ponds, edible worms, and the like, there is virtually no animal husbandry of any large or complex animals -- not least because it reminds githyanki of their own prior existence as livestock for the illithids. 'Plants' raised by the g"lathk tend to be either very strange food by graith standards, or similar to Underdark fare in the form of fungus and other edibles that require no sunlight. Perhaps ironically, since so much of the food raised by the g"lathk is literally grown on the corpses of dead gods and may therefore possess odd metaphysical properties, such food is not considered to be 'god-contaminated' under most circumstances.

Raiding/Tribute:

Githyanki won't hesitate to extort food from conquered peoples (they tend to spare farmers when they invade barbarian lands, not least because they don't want to do the farming themselves). They are also well known for stripping any and all food from any target of a raid. Since the githyanki have many enemies, episodes of deliberate poisoning have occurred, so githyanki will have such food tested for poison if it is feasible or deemed necessary. Usually either a psion with the body adjustment ability or a hapless graith captive is used as a food taster.

Trade:

Githyanki sometimes actually trade with barbarians instead of warring on them. They will have such food tested, as if it were food from a raid, and woe betide the merchant whose shipment of foodstuffs is poisoned. A great deal of high-calorie and preserved food comes through the city of Githmir.

Long Pork:

'Long pork,' i.e. the flesh of humans or other graith, is not especially sought after by the githyanki, though that is mainly on the belief that such meat is unclean and carries disease. Even so, many githyanki have sampled 'long pig' at some point in their lifetimes, simply because little other food was available. This is most likely to be the case if a group of githyanki spends a long time in a very harsh environment, particularly the Underdark. If a healer is available, the healer will examine the... meat, for any sign of disease. The... meat will also be cooked much more thoroughly than any other meat a githyanki would consider eating, to reduce any chance of disease.

I Don't Even Know What That Is:

Githyanki will even eat the meat from many monsters, even ones they can't identify. This may be cooked as thoroughly as 'long pig,' for essentially the same reason. They won't even consider eating illithids or similar aberrations such as aboleths, though.

A note on githyanki cooking:

While the githyanki are at their best a highly cultured people, this fact definitely does not extend to their cooking. This is a race whose own native plane doesn't require eating! Food itself is associated with one's youth (since githyanki hatchlings, at least, have to eat) and campaigns on other planes. Since food preparation is most associated with hatchlings and adolescents, githyanki society is hardly known for professional chefs. While it's edible, graith rarely have anything good to say about githyanki food -- meat tends to be dry and overcooked, the food in general tends to be bland, subtle flavors or complex flavor combinations are virtually unknown, and so on. However, githyanki who have spent a lot of time campaigning on the Prime or living in Sigil sometimes begin to acquire a taste for graith cooking. If you should be so unfortunate as to be a barbarian whose land is conquered by the githyanki, being a skilled chef will virtually guarantee that you'll live longer.