Githyanki
The githyanki are a fictional race, first created by George R. R. Martin in his science fiction novel Dying of the Light. The name was later borrowed by Charles Stross who used it for one of the fantasy races he created for his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign. It was first published in the White Dwarf magazine in the late 1970s, and in 1981 in the Fiend Folio official AD&D expansion. George R. R. Martin himself was not aware of the name being borrowed until the 2000s. Apart from Martin's novel, the Githyanki/Illithid relationship was inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs.
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Martin's githyanki
In Martin's novel, the githyanki (always spelt in italics) were called "soulsucks" because of their dangerous psychic powers. They were slaves of another race called the Hrangans, and were used by them in their wars. Unlike the D&D race, they were barely sentient. No githyanki actually appears personally 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.
D&D Githyanki
In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, the Githyanki, the Children of Gith, are a humanoid race living in the Astral Plane descended from the escaped thralls that overthrew the planes-spanning empire of the Illithids thousands of years ago under the leadership of a female rebel named Gith. The Githyanki have been ruled by the lich-queen Vlaakith CLVII, a corrupt and paranoid undead wizard, for over a thousand years.
Dwelling in the timeless Astral Plane, the Githyanki inhabit numerous fortresses constructed from materials imported to the Astral Plane as well as cities built atop god-isles, the vast stone corpses of deceased gods. Their capital and largest city, Tu'narath, is built on the god-isle of a deceased power known only as "The One in the Void".
Bred from the beginning of their history to hate the Illithids and any form of slavery or tyranny, githyanki are a race of warriors, excelling at swordplay and the creation of ornate armour and weapons.
The Githyanki use a unique form of writing called tir'su. It is an alphabetical set of runes in which words are formed in circles instead of linearly, with the letters of a given word being linked around a ring clockwise from the top. Sentences are formed from a series of these rings. Much as runes were given a mystical significance, the Githyanki employ the tir'su when creating magical wards and symbols.
The Forerunners, the root stock from which the githyanki and githzerai are descended, are all but extinct, a small remnant of them still dwelling on Penumbra, an artificial world created as a capital by the illithids at the height of their empire. Pharagos, the original home planet of the Forerunners, has little evidence of their ever having been there aside from a few ruins, and the planet's current inhabitants know nothing of their world's past role in the history of the gith races or the illithid empire.
References
- Christopher Perkins (July 2003). The Lich-Queen's Beloved. Dungeon Magazine, page 104. This article and articles in issue number 309 detailed information on the Githyanki for the Incursion campaign, which centred around an invasion by the githyanki and allowed players to take the part of either githyanki invaders or the resistance against them.