Gith Resources

In alphabetical order by source. Editions are listed for each book and page numbers where needed. This page will go from "A" through the Dragon+ magazine section of "D."

To see a dictionary of all the gith-language words I've been able to find, check out this page here.

Adventurer's Vault, 4th Edition

Two gith-related items appear in this book of equipment and magic items. First is "githweave," cloth for armor made by githzerai that incorporates the power of the mind to strengthen the body (along with mindweave and mindpattern armor, which also incorporate crystals). Next is "gith plate," armor designed after either mind flayer techniques or armor developed by the first free generation of gith (armors p.6-7). Second is the "reality cord," an item made by the gith that increases defenses against aberrant creatures (p.166).

Adventurer's Vault 2, 4th Edition

The githyanki are said to use "thrones of dominion," which allow control over creatures that attempt to lie to or betray the person sitting on the throne (p.83). Meanwhile, a rogue githzerai zerth serves as an adventure seed involving a magical blade (p.23).

Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, 2000, BioWare

Githyanki orbit the plot, looking for a silver sword (which has fallen into the player’s possession) and battling illithids along the way. A spooky-looking bunch of sprites, resembling their 2nd-Edition incarnations and not the updated look of 3rd Edition (which was first published the year this game released). The githyanki demonstrate the ability to perform a communal meditation that disrupts illithid psionics enough for the characters to escape and kill the elder brain. In the Watcher’s Keep expansion, githyanki appear on one of the levels working with a red dragon.

Baldur’s Gate 3, 2023, Larian Studios

The githyanki are CENTRAL to the entire plot. Introduces new lore, like Gith’s son Orpheus, incorporates much more language (with a logical and consistent grammar and structure), and gives a look at more cultural aspects of the githyanki. Visiting a Material Plane creche, relationship to the dragons, military hierarchy—it’s all here. We even meet Vlaakith CLVII face to face. Although it’s made contemporaneously with 5th Edition D&D, it ignores the changed lore given there and relies on all the hallmarks of previous editions (Vlaakith is the 157th of her name, Gith was lost in the Hells, etc.). A single githzerai makes an appearance as an undead in a mind flayer colony in a very spooky encounter.

Boo’s Astral Menagerie, 5th Edition

Introduces githyanki buccaneers (astral pirates), star seers (who contact terrifying star entities), and xenomancers (researchers), p.26-27. On the random ship encounters table (p.7), there’s mention of the strike ship Fedifensor—sharing its name with a sword from a much older adventure, from Dragon magazine #67.

Candlekeep Mysteries, 5th Edition

One of the Great Readers of Candlekeep is a githzerai sage specializing in “the unnatural”—aberrations, the Far Realm, and undead. How the sage ended up at Candlekeep isn’t explained.

Chainmail Miniatures Game: Blood and Darkness - Set 2 Guidebook

A discussion of the ancient, underground gith empire of Zarum, a possible location where the gith forerunners lived prior to the illithid invasion. It was a massive empire, now little more than ruins.

Command Performance, Lisa Smedman, in "The Ivory Triangle" 2nd Edition Dark Sun book

A Dark Sun short story. A storyteller ends up teaching a group of gith to perform a play. Delves into Athasian gith culture, concepts of love and relationships, and ways of life.

Complete Divine, 3rd Edition

Githzerai get a one-line mention in the writeup of the death-and-magic deity Wee Jas, since apparently a common herald for the goddess is an 18th-level githzerai sorcerer.

Complete Psionic, 3rd Edition

Includes the standard githyanki and githzerai lore, plus specifics on the Zerth cenobite tradition (monastic tradition focusing on manipulation of time), and details on the monastery of Zerthadlun (spelled Zerth’Ad’Lun here). Also includes a githzerai cenobite NPC.

Complete Warrior, 3rd Edition

Githyanki get a one-line mention on page 131: they have jousts riding red dragons.

Dark Sun: Beyond the Prism Pentad

Refers to the "Black Spine" adventure set as taking place in the sixth year after the death of King Kalak of Tyr (a defining event in the Dark Sun campaign setting timeline, freeing one of the cities of the setting for the first time).

Dark Sun: Black Spine, 2nd Edition

A whole entire adventure centered on githyanki managing to arrive in the planar-locked world of Athas, featuring an extensive exploration of a githyanki city *and* palace. Also extensive discussion of the Athasian gith and their society and culture.

Dark Sun Campaign Setting, 2nd Edition, p.93

A very different take on the gith, the Dark Sun campaign setting presents a world overrun by psionic energy. The gith here, who were trapped when the world was cut off from the rest of the multiverse, are driven mad by that energy. Quite a lot scarier than gith in other worlds.

Dark Sun Creature Catalog, 4th Edition

Discusses more specifics of how the gith arrived in Athas. Hints at some gith tribes who are trying to Put Things Back The Way They Were by finding fragments of the astral ship that brought them to Athas.

Dark Sun: City by the Silt Sea

Gith receive a couple mentions. But one encounter is incredibly eerie: a group of devils masquerading not as gith but as githyanki! The art (p.55) is very eerie. The Black Spine adventure is directly referenced.

Dark Sun: Dune Trader

Presents Athasian gith as threats to trading caravans in the desert, as well as occasional trading partners for particularly bold or foolhardy merchants.

Dark Sun: Earth, Air, Fire, Water

Here, gith appear directly in a brief short story (p.10) as antagonists. They're also detailed later as having fire shamans among their ranks, and even "paraelemental clerics" working with elementals of silt, sun, magma, or rain.

Dark Sun: Forest Maker

In this adventure, gith appear in several places as enemies. Nothing terribly notable.

Dark Sun: The Ivory Triangle

This supplement mentions gith frequently, since they're relatively common inhabitants of the desert. Most important, though, are the Gith Horde in the Blackspine Mountains. (Detailed on p.89.) A new leader has arisen and is uniting the fractious tribes one by one, which spells trouble for everyone else. Check out the Black Spine adventure for an idea of what else might be going on there.

Dark Sun: Valley of Dust and Fire

Gith live along the Sea of Silt (a vast ocean of dust) and on some of its archipelago islands.

Dark Sun: The Will and the Way

This book on Athasian psionics includes gith in great detail, primarily as psionically-powerful opponents. One fascinating note here is that, in the world of Dark Sun, Athas is cut off from the other planes and the Astral Plane by a dead zone called simply "the Gray." (Full details of THAT are in the "Defilers and Preservers" supplement.) As seen in the "Black Spine" adventure, travel from the Astral Plane is almost impossible, even by the consummate planar traveler githyanki. Here, however, in the section on the "psychoportation" discipline, a psionicist may be able to summon a githyanki or githzerai from the Astral Plane or from Limbo. Imagine how incredibly fucking confused that githyanki or githzerai would be if it arrived and came face to face with one of its Athasian gith relatives.

Dawn of Night, novel by Paul S. Kemp

Involves a githvyrik named Vhostym, a member of a tiny splinter group that didn’t follow either Gith or Zerthimon during the civil war and instead did their own thing. Not much detail given on them as a whole. Vhostym’s plot doesn’t deal with the gith at all except as his origin point. He also appears in the sequel.

DDEP08-02 Stardock Under Siege

An Adventurer's League module that deals with a major illithid assault on Creche K’liir, which is also the home creche of companion Lae'zel from Baldur's Gate 3. The beginning dovetails with the "Dungeon of the Mad Mage" section on Stardock and what events occurred there.

DDIA-MORD Rrakkma

An Adventurer’s League module that deals with an illithid attempt to neutralize gith psionics, a reliquary of Zerthimon, and a combined Sha'sal Khou rrakkma of githyanki and githzerai working together to stop the plot. Notably, Zetch’r’r, a figure from "The Lich-Queen’s Beloved" and the 4e Scales of War adventure path, appears here again—not as simply a powerful warlord, but as the leader of the Sha’sal Khou.

Draconomicon, 3rd Edition

In the description of the planar chaos dragon, it’s mentioned that the githzerai briefly attempted a similar pact with these dragons that the githyanki have with red dragons. The pact fell through, though they’re still occasionally encountered together.

Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons, 4th Edition

Here, we hear about the pact dragons, a group of descendants of the red dragons who originally made their pact with the githyanki. Altered by eons on the astral sea to have silvery eyes, they offer a great deal of assistance to any githyanki knight lucky enough to ride one. They also only stay with the githyanki as long as the pact is intact.

Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons, 4th Edition

A githzerai monastery features as the setting for a mithral dragon's lair. Though the githzerai are long dead at the hands of the dragon and her angel minions, the map of the monastery is quite inspiring for what other such sites might look like. A fun adventure if you've got 23rd-level PCs lying around.

Dragon #67 – Fedifensor

A githyanki war band got hold of a magical sword lost in the Astral Plane and brought it back to their stronghold. The shape, layout, and contents of the stronghold are given thorough detail (and mapped!), we get named NPCs, and details on life in the stronghold. Most interesting, in the section on the communications room, we see the githyanki using two-way communication via a mirror with the castle that commands their stronghold.

Dragon #71 – Solid Answers to Astral Questions, p.51

Explains why the githyanki can cast spells in a special way on the Astral Plane (exclusive to AD&D rules, but interesting).

Dragon #76 – Sage Advice, p.62

Claims that the idea of githzerai living in adamantine fortresses (now a staple of their design) is impossible because there's just not enough adamantine to pull it off. Interestingly, though the Fiend Folio is referenced, that source has the githzerai living in adamantine-walled fortresses. It appears to be up to the reader to decide.

Dragon #78 – Ecology of the Mind Flayer

An article about the mind flayers narrated by a githyanki warrior. It’s spooky. The warrior is spooky. He’s also extremely cool. This is the first time we hear a githyanki speak in his own words.

Dragon #79 – Sage Advice

Githyanki "anti-paladins" in AD&&D aren’t actually paladins except in name and behavior. This will change by 3.5, where githyanki knights regularly show up as blackguards. A githyanki and a githzerai are used as examples of psionic power in a later article on magic resistance (p.20).

Dragon #91 – Nine Hells revisited, p.30

In this source, githyanki don’t work with devils because both sides are too self-interested. But see "A Paladin in Hell" for an alternate take.

Dragon #93 – "Pronunciation Guide", p.26

That's not how the title is spelled, since the title is phonetic. Here, although "githyanki" is how we still say it, the article's writer claims that the pronunciation is "gith-zer-y" …not "gith-zer-eye" as we usually hear it now.

Dragon #95 – Ecology of the Cockatrice, p.26

Githyanki blood can be used for the preservation of cockatrice feathers. Presumably they would object to this.

Dragon #99 – Seventeen new treasures, p.50

Presents the Amulet of Psionic Reflection, created by githyanki in the time of Gith to fight mind flayers. Only humans, githyanki, and githzerai can use them. The githyanki treasure these about as much as silver swords. Don’t steal one.

Dragon #101 – Creature Catalog III, Thendar, p.54

The githyanki hold a particular hatred for this peaceful species of Astral Sea natives. No explanation for that is given and the mysterious Thendar have, as far as I can find, never appeared again.

Dragon #117 – Hounds of Space and Darkness

The githyanki and githzerai are, occasionally, dog breeders. Their dogs are psionically empowered, designed to hunt and kill illithids. The githyanki dogs, kaoulgrim, are enormous dogs like Tibetan mastiffs, while the githzerai dogs, szarkel, are very cursed borzoi.

Dragon #134 – The Dragon’s Bestiary

The entry describing astral dragons (natives of the Astral Plane) discusses the fact that githyanki war parties are favorite prey for such dragons. Their hoards tend to be filled with githyanki armor and jewelry, as well as the gear of githzerai raiding parties.

Dragon #150 – The Sunset World

A party of explorers and scholars hires githzerai guides and their szarkel dogs to take them to the illithid "homeworld." Things do NOT go according to plan, and there's a chance the githzerai may have been lying about whether or not this dimension really is the illithid homeworld. This article's ideas about long-term illithid schemes might have eventually influenced the Illithiad's "Dawn of the Overmind."

Dragon #159 – Voidjammers!

A human archmage moved to the Astral Plane to start his career with an astral taxi service aboard ships of his creation called voidjammers. Ships powered by the brains of mind flayers connected with a psionic pilot, the voidjammers go faster than any ship but githyanki ships. The githyanki do NOT like him, he’s tangled with Vlaakith herself, and it’s possible his flagship is powered by githyanki brains. (In Dragon #166, a reader submitted a letter about how disturbing he found this whole production. Dragon #175 contained a different reader’s rebuttal.)

Dragon #235 – Planar Heroes

Githzerai are presented as a playable race. One possible option is a racial enmity with githyanki so strong it offers a combat bonus.

Dragon #240 – Mysteries of the Dead Gods

Since githyanki build fortresses and cities on the bodies of dead gods (including Tu’narath), they’re a constant presence in this article on dead gods in the Astral Plane. Hr’a’cknir display some special connection to the dead gods here that isn’t seen anywhere else.

Dragon #243 – Holy Swords of the Realms

In the writeup for the unholy sword "Mist Reaver," it’s noted that one of these swords is in the hands of the githyanki.

Dragon #245 – Mindstalkers

An article dealing with dwarven illithid hunters. The Caradhaker group was founded by a dwarf who was taught illithid-hunting techniques by a githyanki. They style themselves after the gith in appearance, and many of the items they use in their hunts can also be found with githyanki and githzerai illithid hunters (p. 42-43).

Dragon #255 – The New Illithid Arsenal

Among descriptions of various illithid artifacts are several that are specifically designed to fight githyanki and githzerai, by disrupting plane-shifting powers or fighting dragons.

Dragon #265 – Primitive PCs

In this unfortunately-titled article, grimlocks are made available as a playable race. They’re so associated with illithids that githyanki will attack them over any other creature except mind flayers and githzerai.

Dragon #281 – Calm Amid the Storm

Several githzerai monastaries are detailed, along with various monastic traditions (called Rules). A hidden monastery, a Rule that focuses on killing arcane spellcasters, and several other interesting notes on githzerai culture can be found here. This is ALSO the point at which the gith transition from 2nd to 3rd edition within the run of Dragon Magazine. The githzerai shift from a chaotic wandering group of ascetics to a strictly ordered monastic society.

Dragon #287 – Creatures of the Chaos Spire

Details the history of the Chaos Spire, which was once an illithid fortress, then a githyanki fortress, then blasted into Limbo during an epic battle between githyanki and githzerai forces. Even though the Spire is now full of cosmic horrors, githyanki still periodically visit to try to retake the fortress or at least keep it out of illithid hands.

Dragon #294 – Underground Scenarios

Further details on what happened to the githyanki empire of Zarum (first introduced in the Chainmail Miniatures sourcebook) and introducing the "River of Angry Souls," where dead githyanki ended up during the illithid invasion. Additionally, in the "Scale Mail" section at the beginning, an official statement is made that there’s no intent to create a githyanki language primer.

Dragon #298 – Vault of the Drow and Wizards’ Workshop: Chainmail

With the Vault of the Drow being brought forward from 2nd Edition Planescape (Dead Gods), the githyanki mercenaries are too. Important to note that, since they were on the losing side, Lolth ended up giving all of them over to the illithids. The Chainmail article dives into the pre-illithid-invasion gith city of Anithor, in the modern day used as a drow enclave.

Dragon #305 – N'Gati, the Astral Fortress

Discusses a city built on the ancient corpse of a nightmarish construct floating in the Astral Sea. Githyanki settlers had already established residence when the city's founder arrived and a small population resides in the city today.

Dragon #306 – Killing Cousins

Introduces the gith-attala, the githzerai "cousin hunters" whose entire profession is hunting down and killing githzerai. Items they fight with, feats PC characters can take, allies they might work with (including the strangely lawful gormeel slaad), and their general outlook are all included.

Dragon #308 – Armed to the Tentacle: The Illithid Arsenal

Includes an illithid symbiont, a carapace designed to watch behind an illithid for enemies with access to teleportation—specifically githyanki.

Dragon #309 – Incursion

A campaign arc running from level 1 to level 20 about a full githyanki invasion of the Material Plane and how it might be handled. Details on specific githyanki tactics in a full-scale war, their weapons, and their movements are all discussed. It’s suggested that this end in the Dungeon #100 "Lich-Queen’s Beloved" with killing Vlaakith. A sidebar includes the hanathka’duth steeds, half-dinosaur and half-red dragon.

Dragon #310 – Variant Fist

This section on new monastic disciplines includes githzerai, of course. The "Passive Way" is a discipline developed by the gith during their enslavement by the illithids. Although githzerai are the most common practitioners, the article suggests that some githyanki might practice it and be willing to teach it.

Dragon #355 – Ecology of the Devourer

For the first and only time in all of D&D lore, we meet Vlaakith CLVI: the predecessor of the current Vlaakith. The undead devourers were spawned from a githyanki warlock who opposed Vlaakith 156. This Vlaakith was herself apparently also a lich, like Vlaakith 157, doing the same "eat souls for power" dance. When 156 died in battle against the warlock, 157 took the throne and has ruled ever since. This lines up with absolutely no other lore given anywhere else. At the current time, some githzerai employ devourers to guard their monasteries, feeding them captured githyanki souls in return.

Dragon #359 – 1d20 Villains, p. 68, Tiamat

Mentions Gith’s pact with Tiamat and notes that Gith saw a "kindred spirit" in Tiamat. Titles Gith as "the Unshackler." Speculates that she might have been betrayed by a deal between Vlaakith I and Ephelomon, rumors not substantiated anywhere else.

Dragon #363 – Epic Binders

One of the available divine vestiges that a player can bind with is Zuriel, a deity of justice and war who was destroyed defending his people from a githyanki invasion.

Dragon #367 – Lost Village of Janus Gull

A small village in Eberron was yanked into a semi-sentient demiplane by a blasphemous ritual, trapping it permanently in a storm. Among several other groups lost inside, a group of githyanki fell in from the Astral Plane and haven’t been able to get out. In the words of the article, they’re "extremely hostile, frustrated, and wet." This is the first appearance of the githyanki in 4th Edition in Dragon magazine.

Dragon #377 – Tu’narath, City of Death

A guide to Tu’narath that accompanies the Scales of War adventure path in Dungeon magazine. It breaks some new ground, since this is a picture of the city after Vlaakith’s death, but on the whole is in line with the other examinations of Tu’narath provided elsewhere. Lots of apostrophes have gone missing: kith’rak, g’’lathk, and hr’a’cknir are now spelled without apostrophes. An odd change of language, since both 2E and 3.5 kept the same language styling.

Dragon #378 – "Player’s Handbook 3 Debut: Githzerai" and "Playing Githzerai"

The first article rehashes what appears in the 4th Edition Player’s Handbook 3. The second article provides more in-depth backstory of the githzerai, their culture, and the path of the storvakal—a githzerai tradition of complete self-control. The githzerai officially relocate to the Elemental Chaos in 4th Edition, with the Plane of Limbo gone. Here, Zerthimon is confirmed dead, which is left in question in the later "Manual of the Planes." Also hints at githzerai enclaves in the Eberron Campaign Setting keeping an eye on hidden githyanki kingdoms on the continent of Xen'drik.

Dragon #379 – Assassin

This article, introducing a new class for 4th Edition, mentions that the githyanki teach the tradition of the Bleak Disciple, which allows assassins to form shadows into weapons.

Dragon #381 – "The Foundling," Mike Resnick

A full short story. A githzerai mother loses her baby to a monster attack and, not too long later, finds a githyanki baby who lost its mother to a similar attack. Deciding to raise the child as her own, even in the face of violent censure by other githzerai, she fights monsters for the sake of a child who should be her enemy. The end has to be seen to be believed.

Dragon #384 – Warlock Basics

Githyanki are pitched as a good race for the 4th Edition warlock class, thanks to a good charisma bonus. The role that such warlocks (who don’t have a pact with Vlaakith and are therefore deeply suspect) play in their society is discussed briefly on p.29.

Dragon #385 – Class Acts: Assassin

Two unique feats are given for githzerai assassin characters, both focusing on altering the fates of enemies in combat.

Dragon #387 – Shaman Basics

Githzerai shamans receive two unique feats as well, and are encouraged to be "watcher shamans," with a focus on enabling allies to fight more strongly.

Dragon #390 – Power Play: Divine: Dead Gods

A group of githzerai have set up a monastery on the body of the dead god Haramathur in the Elemental Chaos, carving their residence out of the stone of the body itself. The githzerai monks apparently can communicate with stone, and abide by the dead god's religious tenets.

Dragon #394 – Cover Image (by Alex Aparin)

A party of adventurers, including a githyanki, battle an entity of the Far Realm. The githyanki's expression as she dives out of the way of an energy blast is priceless.

Dragon #407 – D&D Love Stories

Githyanki somehow manage to get involved in two love story plot hooks that players and DMs might use to incorporate epic romance into their game.

Dragon #408 - Bazaar of the Bizarre: Treasures of the Elemental Chaos

One of the item sets on offer is the gear of a famous slaad warrior, who was defeated by the enlightened githzerai master Liricosa (discussed and given stats in The Plane Below). The slaad may have actually become one of Liricosa's disciples as a result of the confrontation. Either way, now the PCs can have the slaad's epic arms and armor.

Dragon #414 - Bazaar of the Bizarre: From the Attic of Alluvius Ruskin

The merchant "Lu" sells karach armor, made of the matter of Limbo itself. (Never mind how Limbo got here when the Elemental Chaos ate it in 4th Edition cosmology.) This is the same material seen in Planescape: Torment as the sword of the companion Dak'kon.

Dragon #419 – Winning Races: Bladelings

One-line mention that this species might be a descendant of the same group that would eventually give rise to the gith under the control of mind flayers. Never revisited.

Dragon #422 – Hyrsam, Prince of Satyrs

Githyanki can be found as some of Hyrsam's followers. Dragon magazine would end 8 issues later at #430, so this was the last semi-significant mention of the gith in the magazine's run.

Dragon+ #19 – Dragon Classic

A look back at the githyanki and githzerai throughout the history of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, including iconic adventures like "Fedifensor" and "The Lich Queen's Beloved," items (like the titular sword of "Fedifensor"), the gith dogs from Hounds of Space and Darkness, and conversions of many of these to 4th and 5th Edition D&D. A phenomenal retrospective and something of a "must read" list, particularly for the githyanki.

Dragon+ #21 – Six Faces of Death

The entrance to a mysterious, cursed cube can be unlocked using the silver-plated hand of a dead githyanki, a possible piece of random loot in the adventure. The hand is worth 200 gp, assuming a suitably morbid buyer could be found.

Dragon+ #31 – Unearthed Arcana: Psionic Options Revisited

As with every time psionics are discussed, the gith are present. Githyanki are trained to be psi-knights or "psionic soul" sorcerers, while githzerai use the soulknife path explicitly to fight githyanki.

Dragon+ #33 – Baldur's Gate 3: Panel From Hell

This article from 2020 discusses a short panel Larian Studios did to introduce BG3 Early Access to the wider world. Lae'zel is given a specific shout-out.