The Githyanki and the Githzerai were so profoundly scarred by their enslavement to the Mind Flayers that they forgot they were one race, united. Having won their freedom, they wage war against each other with a hatred none can fully comprehend.
Aristful the Yellow, master of planar lore
There are some things that are just doomed to be the butt end of a joke. Almost everything has that one aspect that people point and laugh at. Something that’s just so lame that the only way to make it interesting is to make fun of it.
Enter the Gityanki and Githzerai. These guys have been around since pretty much the beginning of Dungeons and Dragons. They’ve got a solid two pages filled with lore.
And nobody likes them.
The warlike githyanki and the contemplative githzerai were once one people. But after a long enslavement under the mind flayers, a divide appeared between them.
During their servitude, one named Gith emerged and lead them to freedom. However, after the war was won, another leader named Zerthimon emerged and challenged Gith’s motives, claiming that she simply wanted to enslave her people for her own warlike efforts. This caused a divide between them which drives them to conflict to this day.
None remember what these people were before the mind flayers took them. Whether they were savages or people of culture is long forgotten. As is the original name of these people. For none now live who remember it.
Okay. That’s a tad bland and generic, sure. But it isn’t awful. It’s a simple premise that serves as the foundation for many other stories.
Question is: will the individual lore of these two factions make it any better? Or are they truly deserving of their disliked reputation?
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