Something undone

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madhatterYU's picture
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Something undone

Heh, guess who's this? http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-3/983703/Random.jpg
By the way can anyone help me out with githzerai hierarchy, i'm a bit lost in that part.

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Re: Something undone

"madhatterYU" wrote:
By the way can anyone help me out with githzerai hierarchy, i'm a bit lost in that part.

Looks like Dak'kon.

The githzerai don't have much of a hierarchy; they're very independent and free-thinking. They respect those who teach them skills, and the zerths, and the military (but not the monks or zerths, or those who serve them) ultimately owes allegiance to a group of generals living in Shr'akt'lor. The Wizard-King (sometimes called the God-King) is at the very top of the hierarchy, but he only rules city-dwelling githzerai.

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Something undone

I have to change a question a bit, it’s not that as hierarchy I’m askin as much is societal structure, is it like githyanki’s(knights, gitzwarriors,warlocks, gish, mlar etc) only with other names?

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Something undone

Nah. 'Zerai society is made up from three cornerstones, as I recall: The God-king(Zaerith somethign-or-other), the Anarchs' guild(controls the cities), and the monastic orders dedicated to Zerthimon(Dak'kon was part of one of those.). People who aren't members of any are just people.

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legacy of zerthimon

"madhatterYU" wrote:
I have to change a question a bit, it’s not that as hierarchy I’m askin as much is societal structure, is it like githyanki’s(knights, gitzwarriors,warlocks, gish, mlar etc) only with other names?

They do have equivalents of most of those, but the githzerai versions are different. The githzerai equivalent of knights are their master thieves, rogues acting as thieves, assassins, and spies who serve the githzerai Wizard-King directly as the knights serve the Lich-Queen.

They have warlocks, but githzerai tend more toward sorcery while githyanki tend toward wizardry. Both races are equally psionic, of course, though githzerai are more apt to become wilders than psions. Githzerai warlocks might have something equivalent to the kajorr and tlai'kajorr ranks, though they're a more chaotic and independent race. I would assume that the difference between kajorr and tlai'kajorr among githzerai is much more fluid, if they acknowledge a difference at all. They might just have kajorrs, and they might even call them sensei. Githzerai spellcasters, except for the ones in monasteries, are led by a council of mages living in the Floating City.

Instead of mlar, they have anarchs. Anarchs shape buildings from the raw chaos of Limbo using the power of their subconscious. Anarchs probably also fill the same general role as githyanki g'lathk and hr'a'cknir, although githzerai can have ordinary farmers too. Githzerai need a lot more food than githyanki, since time passes on their plane.

Githzerai warriors are much the same as githyanki warriors, although they're more plainly dressed and have more monks among their number. Githzerai tend to not wear armor and to specialize more frequently in unarmed combat, though there are doubtless exceptions.

The actual githzerai military hierarchy is much the same as the githyanki one: kith'rak, sarth, and then common githwarriors at the bottom. Presumedly they use the same names, or something close, since their languages are very close to one another. They probably wouldn't use the term "githwarrior," though. The difference is that githyanki are led by knights, while the githzerai have no military equivalent; their master thieves are much more subtle and don't answer to the military hierarchy at all (and they're based in the Floating City rather than Shr'akt'lor). The githzerai armies are led by the generals of Shr'akt'lor, who are ultimately and somewhat secretly controlled by the Wizard-King Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith. The monastic forces seem to be much more informal; they're led by the local sensei, who acts as a supreme leader.

Instead of gish, they have zerths. Zerths are also a religious sect revering the memory of their hero Zerthimon. There's no indication than the gish have any particular religious significance to the githyanki. If they do, it's connected to the cult of the Lich-Queen, while the zerths aren't connected to the Wizard-King at all; they represent a completely seperate spiritual path. Consequently, I wouldn't expect to see zerths in the armies of Shr'akt'lor, except on an informal basis. They wouldn't answer to the sarth or kith'rak, nor would they answer to the kajorr. That's not to say that the Wizard-King's armies wouldn't have multiclass warrior/spellcasters; they just wouldn't call them zerths and they certainly wouldn't call them gish. They'd be folded into the regular githwarriors or warlocks.

The biggest difference is that in the githyanki hierarchy warlocks, githwarriors, and gish (and mlar, glathk, and hr'ak'nir) are all led by the knights (who serve the Queen), while in the githzerai hierarchy spellcasters and warriors are kept seperate; warriors (fighters, barbarians, monks, psychic warriors, etc.) train in the city of Shr'akt'lor, while spellcasters, anarchs, psionicists, and rogues train in the Floating City. The two groups are entirely seperate, and answer to seperate leaderships (though the Wizard-King ultimately controls them both). This doesn't mean that the army and rrakkma based in Shr'akt'lor doesn't include spellcasters, of course, just that their leadership is elsewhere. And zerths represent a third group, answering to neither.

In the monasteries, spellcasters, warriors, monks, rogues, psionicists, and zerths all work together, all answering to the monastery's supreme sensei.

The Anarch's Guild has branches in all githzerai cities, but its leadership is in the Floating City. There are doubtless many lesser githzerai cities other than the Floating City and Shr'akt'lor (like Toroj), and these are probably like the monasteries in that they train multiple disciplines at once. Zaerith's main concern is to seperate the power centers in his two capitals; the other cities have much more flexibility, since they aren't seen as a significant threat to his rule. Toroj is ruled by a governor appointed by Zaerith, advised by a council of elders and the zerths.

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