Githyanki project

I think the Lich-Queen who went to such trouble to kill all githyanki over a certain character level would have killed anyone else of Vlaakith's bloodline long ago.

I agree with this. I think the limit is 18th level in 3e, or thereabouts? Say the most powerful known to be spared of Vlaakith's purges is that level, but she often kills less powerful ones if they seem too ambitious.

Probably not on both counts. They're surely given all sorts of reasons why their fellows are killed, and "they grew too powerful" is unlikely to be one of them. Various crimes may be invented.

One reason, though, might be "they grew just powerful enough" to be worthy of joining with their Queen. Githyanki, when asked to sacrifice themselves to feed their Queen, often do so voluntarily. Many would, in fact, strive for excellence all their lives in the dim hope that ultimately they could be among the rare elite to be so chosen.

I wasn't part of that decision-making process, but I understand the rationale was just that: they accepted Incursion's death of Vlaakith because it was interesting to do so. I don't think anyone ever thought that Dungeon adventures were automatically canon.

Aha! Vlaakith rears her head!

Well, let's remember that such "factionalization" would take a little time, and with the Queen's death, nobody can cast Gate and therefore all the astral ships are stuck where they are. Powerful individual Gith can Plane Shift around, but that's it.

So let's back up a tick and answer a few questions?

1. The astral is limitless and Gith forces spread wide across the multiverse. How can news of Vlaakith's death spread fast enough for the empire to truly collapse? It would seem to me that the military chain of command would be the only way to disseminate the information, but would they act so quickly?

2. It would seem logical that the military would be the first to take command of the situation. The Gith are essentially Ancient Rome, after all, just no senate. Or we can look back to the death of the Chinese emperor during the expansionist movement back in-- what? The 1200s? China became really insular after that, recalled their troops and fleets, etc.

3. With no ability to Gate, Githyanki reproduction is dealt a blow. The hatcheries on the prime would either become isolated, or require dozens of Gith to Plane Shift over there, each grab a child, and Plane Shift back the following day. Either one is inconvenient for the Gith empire.

Maybe all of this was dealt with before; I am new to Planewalker and trying to catch up as best I can. But before we start picking factions and names and agendas, maybe we should figure out what the logical, short-term repercussions of the lich-queen's death would be. The empire would be temporarily hurt, maybe even crippled. But certainly not permanently. But if we "think through" the problems, I think we would see a more natural evolution of their new society (if there is one) take shape.

I've got a quote from Guide to Astral Plane:

Me, clueless berk, better like Vlaakith to be dead - as Rhys told already, "Vlaakith's death fixes a lot of things and opens up a lot of possibilities without burying many old ones."

Here is a quick and dirty from a brief reading of MC I.

1. Gith freed her people from Mental Bondage

2. The GY are psionic

3. They feel that the position of queen is the only thing protecting them from slavery, specifically illithid mental slavery.

4. The Githyanki leaders are able to communicate in great shorthand with his subordinates.

5. The Githyanki NEVER EVER fight among themselves.

What if Gith discovered a way to impose a semi hive mentality on her people with herself as a hivemother/focus? This would mean that the place the Illithids normally sink their hooks would already be guarded/in use/ connected to a Big Bad Mama wizard.

Which is why the individualistic Githzerai bolted. They didn't want to sign up for such a system permanently.

This explains a bunch of the loose threads

1. How did her people know she was dead? They felt it.

2. Why do they live in as odd a place as the Astral? It enhances the mental effects which protect their minds, keeping the power drain controlable.

3. How was V so omniscient? She was inside their minds. What if it wasn't levels as attitude? She felt who was traitorous and took care of business.

4. Why were Githyanki "evil"? They took the tone of the Lich Queen who has been "visiting" their minds for so so long.

5. Why did V eat so many of her own people? To power the psionic batteries to keep the race safe. Thus the selfless attitude of some GY cutters who were about to get et.

6. Why such a simple philosophy? Because the hive doesn't have much room for creativity. The sheer weight of the Githyanki Mind tends to impose itself quite strongly and deals with things on a medulla level. Eat, drink, fight, kill illithid, worship mother.

Yep, there's holes for days here. I'm sure there is plenty of canon why things aren't this way. Again, I submit this in all humility. Perhaps it strikes a cord. Perhaps it's all ether. Or is that Astral?

Kids grow up on Material Plane colonies. Once they reach maturity, they join the rest of their race in the Astral.

Basically, you don't have a natural lifespan. You age in fits and starts whenever you visit a plane where time passes.

A Guide to the Astral Plane indicated that githyanki could simply choose not to gain in level. I'm not sure that that makes sense. In any case, most githyanki want to earn the privilege of becoming one with their Revered Queen.

When did the Lich Queen die? How many years past or before the Lady's Eddict. This is important because I think it would be great if we could get this Githyanki conflict in time with the PSCS. We want to be able to play this campaign with our PSCS characters after all, right?

Here are some ideas from myself after reading posts in this thread:
Lich Queen' castle is destroyed all of a sudden but nobody knows why. But as is always the case, people speculate. They say some adventurers form the last invaded prime world -prime world? Huh? - actually killed the Queen. They say She did not die but ascended to her long awaited Godly Status, and is just adjusting to her new role. There are even some who whisper about a conspiracy against her former majesty, planned by some overambitious officials, or -looking cautiously towards the caverns - by the red dragons.

So they form groups, like minded people who want to cover this whole issue up - the enemy of the Githyanki is many and they are always watching for a weakness. Some of them are:

-Believers of Vlaakith: These are the devoted followers of Vlaakith's rule, and now they are perhapsfaithful beyond her death. They don't think she is dead though; they don't believe she can be killed. So she must have become a Goddes, the first deity of their race. She must be praised and prayed; for even the 'yanki know that among the planes, belief is power.

-Followers of Vlaakith: Some believe Vlaakith did not become a power yet, but she is not dead either. Her palace was destroyed and she was not heard from since, but it is sure she somehow survived. Some of them claim that they have strange visions of their lich queen calling to them, telling them to wait. She will return, surely. No doubt about it. While waiting for her, it is better not to get involved with any schemes.

-Military government: The queen is gone but the life goes on, but without her guidance, it will be harder then before. 'yanki must stick together, and never let outsiders see this as a sign of weakness. These bloods are the Generals and Commanders of The Githyanki army, and they formed a military government in tun'arath to stop any civil break down from happening. Githyanki tradition prohibiting killing one's own kind has become law. It is forbidden for all non githyanki to leave or enter the city, and those who learned of queens disappearence is ferociously hunt down. They are still trying to keep up with the offensive, so the illithids and 'zerai will be kept occupied.

-Githyanki Nobility: Ina pure meritocracy of uncounted millenia like that of githyanki the nobles are those in those who are high ranking in their positions. Warlock Masters, Astral Fortress commanders and even some prime Hatchery commanders are forming unsteady alliances to form a governmental body tofill the place of queen. A new form of government, like of which has never been heard in the Githyanki society before, is negotitated between them; a senate of powerful individuals who will be representatives of those under their command.

These are but a few of course, and there are other splinter groups, some of them may be called cells, Paranoiacs claim there are githyanki who actually say that which was once split may be one again, and the gith race must be united to bring the war against illithid to an end. As if Githyanki couldn't achieve that by themselves! Also, depressing as it is, there is a great increase in misguided 'yanki who give up their rightful place as the superior race, and see themselves as equals to all the lesser races.

ı couldn't come up with a faction focused on the red dragons basically because I don't have enough knowledge about Vlaakith's pact or Tiamat. So how'd you find it? Any opinions?

I explored this a bit in the first few posts of this thread:

[url]/forum]

The first 5 or so posts are relevant to your points. In that thread, I said that if Vlaakith made a deal with Tiamat, we can see what Vlaakith got in return. It's unclear what Tiamat got out of the deal. Was it the eventual rise of the duthka'gith that she wanted?

So your approach regarding the Githites would probably place them directly at odds with the duthka'gith, as the duthka'gith would try to increase Tiamat's influence over the githyanki. The actions of the duthka'gith after the destruction of Vlaakith is discussed a bit here:

[url]/forum]

Hey, I am new to the site, and was pretty intrigued by what is going on here. I just don't want to waste anytime hitting dead Epona's and such, so could someone catch me up on what has been decided on, and what is still open for discussion?

I realize lots of people like the Gith (add appropriate suffix) and everyone wants to see that a change like this is done right and proper. I was just wondering if anything had been decided on and if not, what were the things we should really be working on and discussing? What are the priorities? Thanks.

If an official release of an after-Vlaakith campaign/adventure ever happens, it will be because one person decided to make it happen. My advice is, if you want to see it, simply get started on it. Editing and criticism can come from others.

Incursion was cute and all (read it last night) but I would like to go ahead and just remake the stats and what have you for the half dragon caste of Gith. I will also write up an adventure for 11-14th lvl characters based around solving the problems with the Dragon Oath from Tiamat. With your leave, I will send it to Clueless and to Rhys. After you both give it a look, feel free to bounce ideas back and make it a little more fitting to the new campaign setting. Then I will re edit, revise, and post.

All in favor, say yea! All opposed, don't answer.

I finished sifting through all the threads last night and was pretty overwhelmed at first. Luckily, Jack Daniels sat me down and explained some stuff to me. Shortly after that, my overwhelmed-ness, turned into insperation-ness.

There were some questions as to how the Githyanki aged/matured/lived while living on the Astral. I had some ideas to that myself once and had decided that, like most warrior and ethno centric societies, that they were all raised in boarding schools or prep schools that were run by Gish and over the hill warriors. This ment maturing in a setting that taught all things Githyanki all the time, making them love their race and not their parents, and this would allow the teachers to better determine if a child was suited for sword or spell.

These children would grow off astral, until their talents could be determined, then they would spend some time in an assistantship possition to an actual officer. This practice has been in place for a long time amongst cadets in the modern military as well as the British and French Navy. All joking aside, if you are a race of people that is loyal to the race (to the death mind you) and of a strong military mindset, this seems the tried and true method of achieving your goals.

What happens if the oath is broken? Well there is actually an awful lot of things that would happen. First, remember that some of these dragons have never known anything other than Githyanki servitude and companionship. Being raised, fed, trained, and paid by the Yanki might make it hard for them to leave. Sure, lots of them would hate their role as mounts and guardians, but a small few of them would not want to pass up the good life. They might push for even better treatment, but why leave when everything is given to you?

There might also be a group of them that is too old to leave the astral. Life could catch up quick, and letting yourself go into the wilds to compete with fellow dragons that haven't lived the trained mount life, might get them eaten or slain overnight. These few would probably demand far better treatment from the Yanki then they are getting, but they could also build a damn large horde, just breeding warriors and guardians. Even without the Oath making all the decisions for the Dragons, there is something to be said for familiarity and profit.

There is more for later, but I thought I would put what I could in, and then get to writing the above promised adventure. Thanks for your time, and if there is any imput, I would appreciate it.

Are you sure that that was whiskey and not Oðrörir?

Speaking of... hey Boris! Is ole Jack still talking to you?

Just checking in after a two-year absence from the forums. I'm glad to see the project still exists, even if it's moving forward slowly.

What sort of content are you working on? I'm sure an overview of the illithid or an adventure seed for a mind flayer attack on the Astral would be a welcome addition. If the githyanki have become fractious after Vlaakith's death, the mind flayers could see that as an opportunity for some payback.

I have to disagree with the last part. Some probably are relieved... but remember, the githyanki have been brought up from the earliest age to believe that the Revered Queen is the source of all, or at least most, of what is good and right, the protector of Her people, the guarantor of their freedom from the Illithids, etc.

I mean, look at human societies throughout history. It may seem crazy to us in the 21st century, but to a typical githyanki, spending eternity as a sword-spirit in the Revered Queen's service would be seen as a great reward, and much desired.

I do not recall a source that says this. The majority of individual githyanki (or their failures) were beneath her notice.

Failing at something important right in front of a githyanki knight? Different story.