The githyanki () are a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are cousins and ancient enemies to the githzerai. In the Dark Sun setting, they are simply called gith.
Introduced by Charles Stross in White Dwarf #12, githyanki were officially included in the game in Fiend Folio (1981) and featured on its cover.
Background Charles Stross originally created the githyanki for a Dungeons & Dragons game with multiple Dungeon Masters "where everyone was creating new monsters to offset" that all of them "had access to the Monster Manual". Stross then submitted the race to Games Workshop magazine White Dwarf. Content submitted to the magazine's "Fiend Factory" column was collected and published by TSR in the first edition Fiend Folio (1981) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). In 2003, Erik Mona wrote that Stross "left D&D about the time he went to university, totally unaware of the impact his creatures would have on D&D fans". On the creation of the githyanki, Stross explained that he "wanted a whole civilization that made some sort of sense" after seeing the Underdark drow civilization as well as "getting interested in the psionics rules at the time" so "designing a monster type suitable for that kind of campaign made sense".
Stross borrowed the name from a fictional race created by George R. R. Martin in his 1977 science fiction novel Dying of the Light. The master/slave aspect of the githyanki/illithid relationship was inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs (1966), "while their relationship with red dragons recalls Michael Moorcock Melnibonéans (1961+)". Stross stated he was "a bit of a magpie when designing monsters". George R. R. Martin himself was not aware that the name had been borrowed until a fan and D&D player informed him after a public reading in 1983.
The githyanki is considered a "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License. The githyanki have appeared in all editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game since AD&D.
Martin's githyanki In Martin's novel, the githyanki were called "soulsucks" because of their dangerous psychic powers. They were slaves of another alien race called the hrangans, and were used by them in their long space wars with humanity. Unlike the D&D race, they were barely sapient. No githyanki actually appear in Dying of the Light, as the book takes place after the war between the humans and the hrangans is long over, and the soulsucks are nearly extinct. There is also passing reference to them in Martin's short-story collection Tuf Voyaging and the short story "Nightflyers".
Publication history
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977–1988) The githyanki was first published in White Dwarf #12 (April/May 1979), in the "Fiend Factory" column. In White Dwarf #15 readers were asked to vote for their top ten "Fiend Factory" monsters. The top ten, including the githyanki, were later reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles (1980). The githyanki then appeared in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio and were featured on the book's cover.Turnbull, Don, ed. Fiend Folio (TSR, 1981)
The module Tales of the Outer Planes (1988) describes a githyanki lair.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999) The githyanki appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (1991), which also included the g"lathk githyanki, the hr'a'cknir githyanki, and the mlar githyanki.LaFountain, J. Paul. Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix. (TSR, 1991) The githyanki and these variants are reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).Stewart, Doug, ed. Monstrous Manual (TSR, 1993)
The githyanki was further detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).Varney, Allen, ed. Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (TSR, 1994) Githyanki society and their Astral cities are further developed, and their leader Vlaakith the Lich-Queen are described in A Guide to the Astral Plane (1996).Cook, Monte. A Guide to the Astral Plane. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1996
Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000–2002) The githyanki first appears in the Psionics Handbook (2001), and then in this edition's Manual of the Planes (2001).Grubb, Jeff, Bruce R. Cordell, and David Noonan. Manual of the Planes (Wizards of the Coast, 2001)
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2008) The githyanki appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), and was further detailed in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004) (along with the psionic githyanki)Cordell, Bruce R. Expanded Psionics Handbook (Wizards of the Coast, 2004) and the Complete Psionic (2006).Cordell, Bruce R. and Christopher Lindsay. Complete Psionic (Wizards of the Coast, 2006)
The "Incursion" storyline running through July 2003's Dragon #309 and Dungeon #100/Polyhedron #159 focused on the githyanki heavily. Paizo Publishing, which held the license to publish the various official Dungeons & Dragons magazines, "used material originally intended for Dungeon to create their first commercial PDF: Chris Perkins' Tu'narath City Guide (2003)". This guide to the githyanki capital city was a supplement for the Dungeon #100 adventure "The Lich Queen's Beloved". Dungeon #100 also included the duthka'gith, the kr'y'izoth template, the tl'a'ikith template, and Vlaakith the Lich-Queen.
The githyanki captain, the gish githyanki, and the githyanki soldier appeared in Monster Manual IV (2006).Kestrel, Gwendolyn F.M. Monster Manual IV (Wizards of the Coast, 2006)
Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008–2014) The githyanki was initially featured in the 4th Edition preview book Worlds and Monsters (2008). The githyanki then appear in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), including the githyanki warrior, the githyanki mindslicer, and the githyanki gish.Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2008) The githyanki and the githzerai also appear in the supplements Manual of the Planes (2008) and The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea (2010). A conversion of "The Lich Queen's Beloved" from Dungeon #100 was released in Dungeon #191 (June 2011).
Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition (2014–present) Both the githyanki and the githzerai were included in the 5th Edition Monster Manual (2014). The gith as playable races were introduced in a 2017 Unearthed Arcana playtest. The githyanki then return to Dungeons & Dragons as a playable race alongside the githzerai in the expansion Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018). As part of this release, the githyanki and the githzerai were featured in the introductory adventure Rrakkma (2018) released for the D&D Adventurers League. The githyanki were also featured in Dragon+ #19 (April 2018), which included a 5th Edition update of Vlaakith.
The githyanki and the githzerai playable races were then revised in the supplement Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (2022). The githyanki buccaneer, githyanki star seer and the githyanki xenomancer were included in the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space (2022) bestiary.
Both the githyanki and the githzerai were updated in the Monster Manual (2025) released for the revised 5th Edition; both were classified as "aberrations" for the first time.
Fictional history
Long ago, before many of the worlds known in the present day were born, the illithids ruled a vast empire known to some as Nihilath. The illithid empire held many worlds and even a few planes of existence in their tentacled grip. After a thousand years of engineering, they constructed an artificial world known as Penumbra, a vast disk that circled a sun, the planet's radius something like a hundred million miles.
The empire kept slaves. According to Polyhedron #159, many of the slaves had originated on a distant world known as Pharagos, which the illithids had conquered and added to their empire. The article "Exiles from the Vault" from Dragon #298 (2002) mention a subterranean empire called Zarum in Western Oerik, where a race of humanoids dominated many other races from their capital city of Anithor. These humanoids seem to have been divided into a rigid caste system, their lives ruled by ancient ritual. The ruins of Zarum overflow with sacred spaces and temples, though the names of their ancient gods are unknown today. At some point, the illithids invaded Zarum from a neighboring plane of existence. Though the natives fought fiercely, they were no match for the psionic might of the mind flayers, and soon they were enslaved. The River of Angry Souls is a remnant of one of the terrible battles between the illithids and the soon-to-be enslaved Zarumites. Many were brought to the Outer Planes and elsewhere to serve as illithid slaves. Other cities in Zarum were transformed into work pits where illithid overseers forced their slaves to toil for countless generations. For thousands of years these once-human beings, who are remembered today only as the forerunners, were thralls of Nihilath. Some were engineered to become the ancestors of the grimlocks and distributed throughout the worlds of the empire to serve their illithid masters in their subterranean realms. On every world, the slaves were unable to escape their masters' psionic power, and illithid might was unquestioned. It is said that the fiends paused in their eternal Blood War to determine if anything could stop the mind flayers as the empire expanded throughout the Astral Plane and Ethereal Plane and threatened the Outer Planes themselves.Pramas, Chris. "Exiles from the Vault." Dragon #298. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2002
It was then that the illithids first encounted the voor. The voor were one of the greatest threats the illithid empire ever faced. An insectoid race utterly immune to psionics, the voor reproduced using spores capable of floating through the airless reaches of outer space indefinitely before finding a place to transform into larvae, using whatever inorganic materials were on hand to create their bodies. The standard slave armies of the illithids were unable to stop the voor invasion, so in desperation a long-vanished illithid Creed constructed tumerogenesis tanks to impart certain physical, spiritual, and psionic enhancements on selected slave-soldiers. After thousands of years of slavery and controlled breeding, the illithid thralls were no longer recognizable as the humans they once were. They were longer of limb, with skin the tawny color of old ivory and slightly pointed ears.
After the long war between the illithids and voor ended, the voor all but extinct thanks to the efforts of these new modified battle-thralls, the balance of power in the illithid empire changed. The thralls were now battle-hardened and had become increasingly psionically adept. The illithids became more brutal in order to ensure their slaves remained obedient, which only invited more revolts and more brutal reprisals.
Then came Gith. Some say she was the personal bodyguard of a powerful illithid noble, while others claim she was only a lowly foot soldier and little more than a child. But her mental and physical powers were great, and her rage, hatred, power, and charisma was sufficient to guide the thralls to victory. The illithid empire was shattered by the slave rebellion (remembered by them as the Thrall Uprising). Not every illithid stronghold fell, but the ties that bound the empire together were broken, and even today the mind flayers have not recovered from that ancient war. They hid themselves away in the Underdarks of countless worlds, vowing to rebuild their strength and take vengeance against their treacherous former slaves, something they have not managed to do.