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wanderingnork · 2 months

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Githyanki History Timeline

After MUCH research, I present: a timeline of the history of the gith! Starting from their earliest known appearances in history, spanning multiple planes, and ending at "the present day." Sources below the cut.

The subterranean empire of Zarum is founded on the Material Plane world of Oerth. The gith inhabitants, likely originally human, are highly religious, live deeply ritualistic lives, and claim complete control over many other peoples.

A patron deity of the gith dies and is buried somewhere under the material plane world of Pharagos. Presumably this, and possibly other deaths, are why the gods didn't intervene in what came next.

The illithids invade from a parallel, destroying the empire and enslaving the gith. The gith are forcibly dispersed across many planes of existence. Some are taken to the planet of Penumbra, where they'll remain and miss out on the rebellion, remaining in the long term as the "forerunners."

The great rebellion: Gith leads her people to shatter the entire illithid empire across every plane and leave it in ruins.

The githyanki relocate from the Material Plane to the Astral Sea.

The city of Tu'narath is founded on the body of a dead god and the gith begin forging their famous silver swords.

If Baldur's Gate 3 is treated as canon, somewhere in here Gith's son Orpheus is born.

Zerthimon objects to Gith's attempts to continue a war now that the gith are free. A civil war of the gith ensues and they split into the githyanki (children of Gith) and githzerai (those who spurn Gith). In some sources this is called "The Pronouncement of Two Skies." The githzerai depart for the plane of Limbo. A small splinter faction, the githvyrik, break off from both sides.

Gith and Vlaakith travel to the Hells to negotiate for aid from the archdevil Dispater. He denies them, but the dragon goddess Tiamat accepts a deal for the souls of githyanki rulers in return for the service of red dragons. Gith remains in the Hells as the first sacrifice. Vlaakith returns to the Astral Sea as regent in Gith's name, carrying the Scepter of Ephelomon as symbol of the pact.

If Baldur's Gate 3 is treated as canon, Orpheus tries to overthrow Vlaakith and is imprisoned, thought dead by the general public.

The extended regency of the line of Vlaakith begins and will last for 156 descendants. Vlaakith promises the githyanki the Material Plane as a "garden" for harvesting. At some point, Zerthimon disappears and it's unclear exactly where he went. Suggestions range from enlightened transcendence to death to lichdom.

The faction of the gul'othran, githyanki who seek total conquest and death of all aberrations rather than mere raiding and plunder, appears.

At some point after this, a significantly-sized githyanki ship breaks through into the planar-locked world of Athas. It's stranded there and all aboard are mutated permanently by psionic energies of that world, with no way to get back. The ship is considered lost.

The forge of Kamyn-Dhun, where the best silver swords were forged, is lost by sinking into the ocean. The githyanki remaining there undergo magical adjustments to allow them to survive underwater in their now-sunken city.

Approximately 1,000 years prior to the present day, Vlaakith CLVII (157) undergoes a transformation to become a lich. She will reign unchallenged until the present day, when either the events of The Lich-Queen's Beloved will take place or the events of Baldur's Gate 3 will take place, depending on the setting.

Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios, 2023 Chainmail Miniatures Game: Blood and Darkness - Set 2 Guidebook Dark Sun Campaign Setting, 2nd Edition Dark Sun Creature Catalog, 4th Edition Dawn of Night (Erevis Cale Trilogy, Book II, 2009) Dragon Magazine #294 - Underground Scenarios Dragon Magazine #298 - Vault of the Drow and Wizards' Workshop: Chainmail Dungeon #100 - The Lich-Queen's Beloved Dungeon #116 - The Death of Lashimire Dungeon #125 - Seeker of the Silver Forge Dungeon #168 - A Tyranny of Souls The Illithiad 3, Masters of Eternal Night The Illithiad 4, Dawn of the Overmind Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, 5th Edition The Plane Above, 4th Edition The Plane Below, 4th Edition Planescape: Torment, Black Isle Studios, 1999 Polyhedron #159 - Chapter 5: The Invasion of Pharagos

#githyanki #baldur's gate 3 #d&d #this leaves out some of the later stuff #like what happens AFTER lich-queen's beloved #if you wanna know that #get into the scales of war adventure path #utterly bonkers stuff #and this is just the stuff that runs up to the current vlaakith #her reign has had some WILD things going on

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superthatguy62 · 10 months

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The Differences and Influence of the Final Fantasy 1 manga

While Final Fantasy is certainly no stranger to adaptations and alternate media, it’s mostly towards the later entries such as VII or XV depending on how you feel about such media, this may not be a bad thing.

When it comes to the first three entries, their adaptations are the most mysterious: Final Fantasy III got an absolutely insane manga, Final Fantasy II got a somewhat insane novelization and Final Fantasy I has an obscure manga. As these came out long ago in Japan and were rarely, if ever, re-released, knowledge on these media remains scarce.

However, TrafalgarScans on MangaDex has translated the entirety of the Final Fantasy I manga, allowing english readers to experience it for the first time.

And, while a straightforward retelling of the original game, there are a few interesting elements in it. Elements that may seem somewhat familiar if you’ve Dissidia or Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin.

Before we begin, I’m going to be doing something different from my previous discussions: Rather than doing a summary/play-by-play of the manga, I’m mostly going to be talking about things I noticed, whether they be different... or indirectly indicative of where Square would take FF1 in the future. As that implies, I will be discussing spoilers for Dissidia and Strangers of Paradise.

For context: The manga was written Kaimejii Yuu and was released in 1989: 2 years after the first game landed on Famicom, one year before it arrived on NES and the same year as the MSX port. So rejoice Space Station!Flying Fortress fans.

Let’s start with one of the obvious ones:

The Party

The original Final Fantasy centers around four Warriors of Light who mysteriously appear, each with a crystal fragment.

In the manga, we are introduced to the members of the party bit by bit: First, there is Puffy who seems to be a traveling Warrior.

Puffy later meets Flitz/Fritz, a Monk who was kicked out of his monastery for his vices.

A Monk and a Warrior. Seems standard so far. But then there are the other 2 members.

Matoya, a witch who is skilled with black magic.

And the fourth party member... who isn’t introduced until quite a ways in. While Sarah and Bikke both join the party, the true forth member turns out to be none other than

Bahamut, the king of dragons.

Naturally, this is a pretty big deviation: Matoya and Bahamut are NPCs in the game after, but here, they’re main characters. Matoya would go on to be a prominent character in FF1, even being playable in spinoffs for what it’s worth. However, I don’t think there are many FF1 interpretations that put the NPCs in the WoL roles.

They’re not the only ones different, however

The Villains

The Final Fantasy manga follows a somewhat condensed version of the game. It’s actually kinda close to how Memory of Heroes did it, with the focus largely on Garland and the Four Fiends, concluding with a bout against Chaos.

Garland generally keeps his overall role, including his infatuation with Sarah (which makes me wonder what was the first media to touch on that aspect of him) but also has some significant differences: He doesn’t wear armor, he doesn’t seem to die before vanishing and the manga more blatantly sets up the plot twist by showing Garland entering the Dark Crystal. Only Flitz notices though, so he’s the first to realize that Garland’s behind everything once the Warriors learn about the whole she-bang from the Lufenians.

There’s also his name, but we’ll get to that.

The Warriors are promptly attacked by the Four Chaos/Fiends. There’s the Lich, who is looking positively Mobius!Chaos today.

Then we have Marilith, who looks about how you’d expect.

Then we have Kraken... Who is...

And last but not least, we have Tiamat, who has both a monster form and a humanlike form.

And then there’s Chaos, whose design is vaguely reminiscent of how Garland’s armor would evolve from Dissidia onwards mixed with traits from his Chaos form.

Oh yeah, Garland. Did you know that’s not his full name in this adaptation? Yup, long before “Jack Garland” would use the last name Garland, this Garland had the full name of “Red Garland”.

And here’s where we start to get into the influence that this manga may or may not have had on Square-Enix’s future interpretations of Final Fantasy 1.

The Backstory

In the games, the Warriors of Lights’ backstory is left unexplained. This plays into the role-play/”create a party” aspect of the game: It’s up to the player, if they so chose, to fill in the blanks about who their characters are and where they came from.

Memory of Heroes, being a close adaptation of the games, leaves its characters’ backstories ambiguous outside of tying a further connection to Garland as his time shenanigans “unchained” the Warriors of Light and wiped their memories, explaining why they can remember nothing and why nobody recognizes them.

Dissidia Final Fantasy, while not directly touching upon the events of FF1 itself, gives a backstory to its Warrior of Light: He’s a perfect manikin created by Cid of the Lufaine and placed within the cycles of conflict. Over time, he grows into more of an actual person and continuously comes to blows with Garland, who already knows him from the cycle back home. In the end, WoL ends up in the FF1 world and sets off on his journey, determined to not only save the world from Chaos but to free Garland from the endless cycle he unwittingly trapped himself in.

The manga, however, gives a more detailed backstory.

Early in Chapter 2, Puffy explains that she is not actually from that world; In another dimension, she worked at an inn and was just an ordinary girl. However, on her way to visit her friend Matoya, she winds up slipping through a dimensional barrier. When she wakes up, she’s surrounded by the circle of sages who explain the situation to her and send her off to fight Chaos, despite her attempts to argue otherwise. Puffy later meets up with a different version of Matoya, and soon after the manga begins.

This is largely forgotten about until climax, where it becomes much more important:

As one of Lufenia’s Knights of Gaia/Sky Warriors, one of the bats in the Chaos Shrine explains a bit further: It’s not just Puffy, all four of the Warriors apparently hail from other dimensions. The Knights figured that the best way to stop Chaos was to get four people from parallel worlds that Chaos did not exist in, resulting in heroes with fresh perspectives from worlds in which the crystals were not compromised. Thus they set up barriers that would link the five worlds together and the four Warriors of Light seen in the manga wound up being the four that were chosen (the manga mostly focuses on Puffy, but the implication is that Flitz, Bahamut and that version of Matoya all hail from similar parallel worlds). After Chaos is defeated, the four end up being sent back to their own worlds with no memory of their adventure. Puffy in particular goes back to being an innkeeper and serves drinks to various patrons... including Garland who, although rejected by Sarah yet again, has not turned into Chaos and is an overall decent guy.

What makes the dimensional stuff even more surprising is the meta aspect: Either great minds think alike, the parallel world stuff was in the Japanese FF1 or Square Enix took inspiration from this very manga.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is a big fat crossover featuring the protagonists from the first couple games. While the first game was somewhat ambiguous, Dissidia 012 (the prequel) would establish that the game took place on World B: A destroyed parallel counterpart to World A, which is the world of Final Fantasy 1. The reports in 012 would also establish that Onrac stumbled upon a dimensional gate which would be how they acquired the ore that allowed them to produce manikins.

Stranger of Paradise takes the parallels even further. The concept of Lufenians drawing in people from parallel worlds to function as Warriors of Light was embodied in the Stranger Project. However, it turns out that the manga beat them to the punch with Knights of Gaia’s dimensional barriers. Of course, the KoG were benevolent compared to the SoP Lufenians who were malevolent. The concept of summoning warriors from other worlds would naturally be used there too, although in 012′s case, it’s due to Shinryu’s influence creating gateways.

And speaking of...

The Lufenians

The Lufenians are a simple, standard “Ancient Civilization with advanced tech (TM)” that was common in fantasy stories and would become a recurring trend in Final Fantasy, one that still remains even to this day. As far as plot significance go, they remain primarily in the background: They’re one of the civilizations the WoLs encounter their space station is the Semi-final dungeon and their champions were turned into bats that infodump a number of aspects about the overarching plot.

Then there’s Cid. In the original Final Fantasy, while the airship is said to be a Lufenian creation I think, I need to fact that that, there’s no mention of any particular Lufenian who created it. Later versions would name the Lufenian “Cid”, in keeping with series tradition of naming the prominent airship engineer “Cid”. Memory of Heroes gave a Cid a more prominent role, leaving behind video projections to show what happened to the Flying Fortress, entrusting the warp cube to the robots and burying the airship that the Warriors of Light find and use to travel in the later half of the story.

However, Cid’s actions are actually somewhat familiar.

In the manga, a Lufenian (not Cid, though with the benefit of hindsight and how SE would’ve handled it, he may as well be) features prominently in the intro, leaves one of the robots to gather the warp cubes in preparation for the day the Warriors of Light arrive and leaves behind a video projection, with the man himself being long dead by then. Not!Cid’s exposition is different though, tying into how the energies from the four shrines can be seen converging on the Chaos Shrine from the Space Station as well as discussing the Knights of Gaia for a bit.

There’s also the dark crystal. In Final Fantasy, Garland is seen in front of a dark crystal in the Chaos Shrine. When the Warriors travel back to the past, they play the lute in front of the shrine, transforming the crystal into a portal. Stranger of Paradise would explain the crystal as being a “Dimensional Crystal Matrix”, sent to them by their unnamed collaborator.

Again, however, this is not the first time this has happened.

Turns out, the Dark Crystal in the manga is a “Time-Space Transfer Device”. The Knights of Gaia had used the device to set up the barriers to summon warriors from other worlds. However, Chaos took control of the device soon afterwards and used it to set up the time loop that would bring him to power. Coincidence or not, the manga Lufenians’ usage of the device would be echoed in the aforementioned two different aspects (the Dimensional Crystal Matrix and the Stranger Project). SoP would also echo the element of Garland taking control of the device for his own uses.

Conclusion

In the Stranger of Paradise Confidential Files -Secret Chapters- (An official complete guide - Thanks ChrysalisThoughts for the clarification! ), one of the questions posed to the developers is why Jack’s station is known as “Station 19″. While the final game has its own independent time loop, apparently it was named after SoP being the 19th time Final Fantasy 1 was ported/remade at the time, with the idea of different strangers being dispatched from different stations for each of the remakes.

While that plan ultimately didn’t fully pan out, the implication of Final Fantasy 1 having parallel worlds or a connection to other worlds in general is one that has echoed throughout the franchise.

- The Final Fantasy manga utilizing the concept of parallel worlds for its protagonists.

- The Souls of Chaos dungeons featuring prominent bosses from the other 5 Nintendo-era Final fantasy games.

- Dissidia introducing “World B” with 012 establishing it of being a parallel world to the world of the original Final Fantasy

- Memory of Heroes implying that the Warriors of Light of its three adaptations (and perhaps beyond) either inherit the will/souls of the previous ones or are the previous ones reincarnated in another world.

- And Stranger of Paradise’s original intentional of having parallel worlds, along with its hinted connection to World B

It’s looking more and more like a DC multiverse, especially if you flub things to suggest that each interpretation is its own parallel world.

But, in a way, it’s oddly fitting. Final Fantasy is a game that has you make your own party. The game gives no detail as to their character or backstory. You’re encouraged to fill in the blanks yourself, hence why fanfics and such can vary wildly with how everyone ca reinterpret the story. In a way, it’s fitting that SE themselves get in on it. And it’s interesting how, almost every time, multi-dimensional shenanigans manage to get involved.

I dunno.

I just think it’s neat.

#Final Fantasy #Dissidia #dissidia final fantasy #Stranger of Paradise #Final Fantasy Origin #Long Post #Longpost #Memory of Heroes #Puffy Tolte #Flitz Stewart #Fritz Stewart #Garland #Matoya #Bahamut #Chaos #FF1 #FFI

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y-rhywbeth2 · 2 months

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With more specific information on the Barrens of Doom and Despair specifically comes further information about what one might expect in the afterlife as a worshipper of Bane, Bhaal, Loviatar, Hoar, and sometimes Tiamat:

Each malicious mortal spirit that comes to the Barrens of Doom and Despair becomes a special form of petitioner called a larva. Larvae appear as Medium worms with heads that resemble those of their mortal bodies. Larvae serve as the currency of the fiendish planes, especially among night hags, liches, demons, devils, and yugoloths. Most are used as food as to power spells, but occasionally a larva is promoted to some kind of fiend, usually a lemure or dretch.

And honestly, being a lemure or dretch is... not really an improvement: I'm pretty sure Bane and Loviatar are served by higher ranking fiends, though, so I assume you might be able to get promoted to higher ranking fiends... but if you break the laws that govern devils as set by Baator then your deity is actually forced to forfeit ownership of you to one of the Archdevils.

(Withers let me resurrect Orin right now! I'm not sure regular Bhaalspawn rules apply to her generation)

#Gortash is in so much trouble... and yet he still chose that over the Hells #Sucks to be a mortal worshipper I guess #“Thou wouldst be judged Faithless” - even if that wasn't inaccurate in several ways it would be an IMPROVEMENT as an afterlife #/orin #/gortash #lore stuff #the idiot three #edgelord hours

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dead-finches · 48 minutes

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WE MADE A HUMAN! CAFE! AU FOR OUR DND CAMPAIGN IM FUCKING CRYING

anyway, here's enemies to lovers to bitter exes milf yuri edition you're welcome

blue one is Micah (played by me!!)

the gray one is Sadie Basir (NPC, an ex-lich in the original canon )

the red one is... Tiamat (NPC, primordial dragon queen of chaos. yes, that one)

and the one with the poofy hair is Ora (played by KyuubiArt!)

#my art #my ocs #dnd ocs #dungeons and dragons #dungeons and drawings #original characters #artists on tumblr #ttrpg #ttrpg art

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vikintor · 1 month

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Notes about my character design: confessions, how and why Githyanki influences my work, personal experiences, silly ideas, My games, and more I guess

If you don't follow me and just found this I have something to say first: Be welcome, hope this text doest sound pretentious, I'm Vikintor, I made some obscure games (Teocida, Tamashii and Estigma), they're available on Steam and consoles as well.

You might notice that my "original" character designs are being heavily influenced by the Githyanki these days, especially their "classic" designs from Fiend Folio to "Rise of the Githyanki" published in Polyhedron and "Knights of the lich-Queen" in Dungeon Magazine, and of course, mixed a little with what I call "modern" design (I also like how the Githzerai give me Jedi vibes, yes, Jedi from Star Wars). The less human it looks while maintaining some human proportions, the better. And that's why I love the old "classic" alienish designs the most.

Why D&D Gith's?

Confession time; I never really cared that much about Dungeons & Dragons before I discovered the Githyanki, and they're the only race in D&D that I actually care about, especially for the storytelling and roleplay possibilities based on their lore. As someone who favorite character designs ranges from D'vorah from Mortal Kombat, Undyne from Undertale, to Lilith from Diablo, liking the look of the classic Gith was easy for me, and boe they are rad.

Quick context on who they are (you can skip if you know them or don't care):

Githianky are a D&D race know as humanoid creatures (mostly gray, green and yellow skin toned) with a rigid militaristic background. Raised to serve their Lich-Queen and destined to die for her (and by her, but some don't know that part). They were slaves of an illithid empire in the past and after being led to freendom by Gith (A woman named Gith, there's no Gith races before her), their race was splited in two; The Githyanki believes they are the real children of Gith and the Githzerai believes the Githyanki still slaves, not from illithid but the queen. plus: Githianky live in cities build on the corpses of fallen deities (that's metal).

Most of the Githyanki are considered evil, as some go on raid campaigns to steal from another planes (they love precious stones and gold, and they can be seem as pirates, but instead of ships they ride red dragons thanks to a pact made with Tiamat). Their complexity creates a bunch of What-If scenarios that I'm interested in: like; did you know that religion is forbidden to the Githyanki (Only Lich-Queen Clerics are permitted), but many of them secretly worship other gods. And how crime and punishment works on their society (kinda don't works at all, so a lot of them are afraid to look for justice), and how Githyanki monks exists in their society but faces prejudice (Githaynki monks are often seem as Githzerai spies), And you have stories about the Gith rebels that believes the Githyanki and Githzerai can be unified as only "children of Gith", as the same time their leader is way too controvertial and self-centered, and how some of these rebels befriend humans (which is a taboo), or how their society hates every non-Githyanki but are polite and refined among their own kind, which is often confusing and complex as they are known for their aggressive propaganda among themselves and how they kill each other during their insane militaristic raising. They also often do parties, play and write songs and have fun, there's also half-Githyanki/half-dragons superwarriors created in a secret experiment led by the Lich-queen (those don't care about the Githyanki society and aren't friendly to them), and them you still have the Githzerai (neutral Gith monks that despise the Lich-Queen and have their own society and traditions) and the Githvy (rogue Gith's that aren't Githyanki or Githzeray, who often tries to live among other races).

Ahh?

Of course I don't know everything about them and maybe there is some misinterpretation on my part, some of the content was created over the years and unfortunately most of it was never published or translated into my idiom, so I have to translate it myself, but I'm not writing this to convince people to like them as much as I do. I'm sharing this to bring out what and how it inspired me.

So, what this have to do with me?

As someone who likes weird ambiguous characters and enjoys fantasizing with what-if scenarios; discovering that lore on D&D made me realize how much prejudice I had with D&D. If you say to me "This rpg race is totally evil or totally good" I can only answer: "Impossible. Individual characters are more complex than that, I want to explore the exceptions". If all are evil, I want some trying to discover what means to be good, and want some to fail miserable, and want some to learn something from that experience, if they're all serious, I want some to be silly and weird.

I'm far from a real writer (whatever that means), but I like fantasizing about atypical situations and writing about them, which is why I wrote neutral demon-like creatures for Tamashii and Teocida in the first place, even when I still lacked more maturity for that. I'm also interested in these exceptions in rpg lore and improving those aspects as I write about them, which is why D&D Githyanki inspired my current design.

But how it inspired me:

Just like many fantasy stories were created during sessions of tabletop RPG campaigns, I became interested in Gith-exclusive games thanks to discovering content like Fiend Folio and "Rise of the Githyanki" and "Knights of the Lich-Queen" (both Gith centred games focused on Gith players, with few exceptions), which is why I became way more obsessed with them. And damm, a videogame like BG3 having Githianky as a playable race is everything I hoped for (I'm not interested in BG4 if there's not a single playable Gith race. I just want to keep creating weird Gith girl characters and make them break things and form a band named Githgang), but I'm not here to talk about BG3, sorry.

So Gith's was my first inspiration to write my own RPG races with their own language, traditions, dogma, taboos, and designs. I think about how something like this could happen in the universe I've been working on since Tamashii. But I'm not going for something complex, but rather thinking about characters that I would create for my Gith campaigns could be another type of character if I create them in another position, another world with different laws, instead of just roleplaying as Githanky forever.

As I can't write Githyanki characters without it being some sort of fanfic (my fault for not going for something more common like wizards, orcs and gnomes), I still at least being inspired by them.

After reading a bunch to roleplay as Gith characters or just to fantasize about it, their personalities, and how they react to the world still something that is organically created while I'm assuming that character and playing around, this doesn't need to be bound to a specific lore. I'm being redundant at this point, but you get the idea, that's how the brazilian character Ozob was created in the 90's (He was a character created during a Cyberpunk tabletop RPG session, and then became an original character with books and merchandize in Brazil until CD Projekt Red got the rights to put him in the Cyberpunk 2077 for real)

Therefore, I can say that part of what may come in the future is the result of my experiences and inspirations with D&D mixed with all my other inspirations, such as H.R Giger, biomechanical horror, Screaming Mad George's style body horror, esoteric/exoteric references, industrial music and atmospheric, creepypasta, etc. It might be weird, or not, maybe a little silly or edgy as always, but I don't know what to do besides accepting the results, keep moving forward, and have fun in the process.

The first character as an Avatar:

"Astral of Latanael" still a working name for the first character I made inspired by Gith. The draft for her is: She is a Mhold'eze, a zombie-like servant bonded to her preceptor, a necromancer who serves as her mentor. Mhold'ezes inherit part of their master's powers and are often used as an extension of their master's will where they cannot be present, always receiving an important task, or mission as soon as they are born (like Feucirl and Pleroma of Teocida, except that Pleroma is not a necromancer). This is the first draft of the original character that I'm using as an avatar, but I do plan to work more on this silly lady and Latanael (her Necromancer) to include them in my game, or games, or more than that. It depends of what I decided.

Ok, just a quick look on how Astral looks right now, before I made more changes.

Congrats if you read until here, I'm surprised if you really read more than 1500 words of some weird dude talking about why silly D&D "pirates" inspired him to keep creating more silly weird angry girl characters.

#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #video games #gamemaker #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #dungeons and dragons #lowpoly #3d #game design #character design #original character #oc #oc art #githzerai #githyanki

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cellphishthekaiju · 2 months

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Crackpot Headcanon: Vlaakith's 'Grand Design' for Lae'zel (and the Githyanki)

Back again on my raving bullshit for Baldur's Gate 3 (D&D and Forgotten Realms by relation), this time we're looking at the Lich Queen Tyrant, Vlaakith CLVII... cause I have lunatic thoughts of this bitch that fuel the fanfiction I write.

As with all my lunatic fandom ravings, spoilers abound for Baldur's Gate 3, associated materials, and course, take this all with COPIOUS amounts of salt. I get most, if not all, of my 'canon' info from the Forgotten Realms wiki and try to doublecheck the sources but I don't always have the time or means to.

So what is known of Vlaakith is actually very little. The one in Baldur's Gate 3 is, presumably, the 157th githyanki to hold this title and has reigned for a thousand years (mostly as a lich). She has no known heirs and aspires to ascend to godhood (primarily through spam-casting Wish). D&D Lore is very sparse on the githyanki and even more so when it comes to nuances with the githyanki. They have existed since the days of AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) but we didn't have much about them, canonically, for a long time.

So, lunatics like myself, let the brain worms fill in the blanks.

We know that Gith, for which the people get their namesake, was the figurehead and Leader of the rebellion that led to the toppling and near extinction of the Illithid Empire unknown millenia before. At her side, I believe both Vlaakith and Zerthimon assisted her (as advisors in different capacities... and to some unknown extent, her only 'confirmed' blood relative, her son Orpheus). As to their exact roles, it is unknown how Vlaakith advised Gith in the matters of her rebellion but given she is referred to as the first of a long series of Lich-Queens that rule the githyanki, her capacity likely involved her skill and knowledge in the arcane/Weave.

After the rebellion, it is believed Gith and Zerthimon fell to infighting, as Gith presumably was so consumed with righteous fury, she single-mindedly wanted to continue hunting down the remaining illithids while Zerthimon, seeing they had won, wished to carve a new life for the 'gith' now that they were free.

In my deranged mind, I suspect/believe that the Proclamation of Two Skies (how the gith refer to their civil war that led to the creation of the -yanki and the -zerai) was stoked and brought to fruition by Vlaakith I. She was always manipulative and concerned, primarily, with her own ambitions. Having witnessed how Gith roused and united the gith, how they called her 'mother' may have stoked jealousy in Vlaakith and so she conspired to take that power and reverence for herself, especially under the suspicion I have that Gith and Zerthimon were lovers/mates (I wrote a theory pointing at Orpheus may be their son).

Vlaakith conspired to turn Gith and Zerthimon upon each other but her plan had an unintended consequence; the division of the gith people into the Githyanki and the Githzerai (and with time, further fracturing in the form of Pirates of Gith, Sha'sal Khou and the Githvyrik (dunno how canon this is anymore because only occurs in one novel)). However, Vlaakith saw an opportunity in this fracture; Gith to be the sacrificial lamb on the altar of her ambitions.

It's believed Vlaakith I's first attempt at bargaining with Baator (The Nine Hells) was seeking a pact with Dispater. However, Vlaakith's attempt(s) failed for one reason or another... likely because Dispater is far more paranoid than Vlaakith is and saw no merit in a deal with such a conniving creature.

Having failed in bargaining with the Lord of Dis, Second Layer of Baator, Vlaakith found herself bargaining with Tiamat. It is, still, unknown the terms of their pact (or how she even got to bargaining with the Chromatic Dragon Queen to begin with) but the bargain was successful and Gith ended up being part of the price.

After the githyanki retreated into the Astral Plane, since the civil war left them weakened (and the githzerai went to Limbo), Vlaakith convinces Gith to travel to Avernus (First Layer of Baator), likely with promises that fed into Gith's violent ego and giving no indication that Gith was not going to make it back. With the bargain paid, Tiamat imprisoned Gith among her hoard (presumably) while Vlaakith returned to the githyanki on the back of Ephelomon, Tiamat's Chromatic Red consort. Together, the two convinced the githyanki that Gith had martyred herself in the bargain and commanded that Vlaakith guide and rule their people in her absence.

This is where the canon gets messy, as there appears to be a discrepancy in the order of events. In the 5e Monster Manual, it suggests Vlaakith sealed the bargain with Tiamat before the Proclamation of Two Skies happened. Texts like Mordenkaine's Tome of Foes suggests the bargain with Tiamat was struck after the split. I'm more inclined to agree it happened after, since the Githzerai and other non-yanki Gith do not benefit from the terms of the pact (mainly the access to Red Dragons)

So, what's this all got to do with the current Vlaakith?

Vlaakith CVII is more than I (want to) believe Larian has told/shown us.

Like her namesake, Vlaakith CVII is a lich that has, supposedly been in power for, roughly, a thousand years by the time the events of Baldur's Gate 3 happen. She upholds the teachings, protocols, and ambitions of her originator and predecessors yet has no known heirs (blood relative or otherwise).

My crazy idea is that Vlaakith CVII is actually Vlaakith I... and all other holders of the 'title' before her have just been Vlaakith. Vlaakith is too vain and ambitious to let something like death get in her way and likely sought every means possible to buy herself the time she needed to achieve her ultimate ambition; Godhood.

Vlaakith's insanity is well in line with the 'canon' behavior of liches, especially 'long-lived' ones. Now, she is just a creature driven by the all-consuming desire to ascend and achieve the ultimate power by any means necessary.

Ascending to divinity/godhood in D&D is... not very clear. The primary factor is faith, as a god needs followers to thrive and derive power from. By controlling the githyanki in all aspects of life, establishing castes like the Inquisitors to hunt down and silence dissenters, sealing Prince Orpheus within the Astral Prism (and infernal chains), using Gith's name and 'sacrifice' as a catylst to keep the people's devotion on herself... but this is a slow process so Vlaakith also encouraged and regulates the militaristic structure of githyanki society to produce powerful warriors that she can, later, consume and sacrifice in her spam-casting of the Wish spell and whatever other means she uses those poor souls for (aside from the husks she keeps)

So, how and why does Lae'zel factor into all of this?

Literally, this is all because of one dialogue line Vlaakith gives in Act 3 of Baldur's Gate 3: Promising to make Lae'zel Baht Vlaakith, the Commander of Dragons; her Chosen (despite having no true divine power). She offers Lae'zel's greatest ambition; to be Kith'rak, to ascend beyond even the standards of her people and serve at Vlaakith's feet.

Weird thing to say to someone you can just Thanos-snap from existence, which Vlaakith does if your party refuses to comply with her at Creche Y'llek. (Seriously, this woman will waste a Wish on you just to remove the entire party from existence for 'waving hello' at her)

Vlaakith has determined Lae'zel as her 'heir' and needs her to return so that she may possess/control her (either through the use of spells like Domination or something more sinister, like excising her soul and possessing her body; no clue if liches can do this). I believe some githyanki that held the title of 'Vlaakith' were simply thralls to Vlaakith I, enhancing her duplicity to make it seem like the title passes on between individuals (despite having NO information on how this is determined within githyanki society).

The only other 'brain worm' I have about why Vlaakith attempts to bargain with Lae'zel one more time about killing Orpheus instead of, I dunno, simply Wish-murder the party, is there is something important about Lae'zel that not even the githyanki herself is aware of. Not to the degree of a psionic null zone but perhaps something Vlaakith has been nurturing through controlled breeding to accelerate her consumption of power... or as an offering to Tiamat.

Hells, if you talk to Withers in the Epilogue about the fate of a Vlaakith aligned Lae'zel... he says she's just gone. Her soul no longer exists.

A fate worse than death and Lae'zel went to it, oblivious.

Yep, there it is... more cracked brainworm thoughts for Baldur's Gate 3.

I'm also not a fan of Vlaakith but hey, I feel like there needs to be way more depth and analyzing some of this stuff my brain just does on its own.. and it fuels my fan-fic writing (which you should totally check out)

I hope folks are enjoying my insane ramblings.

#baldur's gate 3 #fan theory #crazy fan theory #the brainrot is terminal #vlaakith I #theorycrafting #baldurs gate 3 #lae'zel

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transmechanicus · 1 year

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I've noticed a trend, and I figured I'd bug you about it since you seem fun!

A lot of space media seems to gravitate to an alien hivemind, which I get, BUT it's always either undead, or bugs.

Xenomorphs, Tyranids and Zerg are all bugs.

Then theres the Necromorphs, Flood and Reapers, which are all space zombies (though the reapers are more like space liches? idk they're kinda weird)

Just thought it was an interesting thought :3

See Xenomorphs and Zerg actually have a queen and the individual creatures are compelled to serve it, but i don’t think Tyranids do. While they have Norn Queens, i think those are just the biggest synapse junction we’ve found in the canon, short of That Fucking Flesh Mountain in the Tiamat System. Tyranids losing synaptic link are kinda like your hand twitching on the ground after it got cut off if your hand also it has its own respiratory and digestive system. The Tyranid ‘Hive Mind’ is a singular hungry will flowing psychically down through the synapse link, like every Termagant is a single cell of an intergalactic organism. The loss of entire hive fleets is the severing of one of tens of questing tendrils as the Hive Mind prods our galaxy like a child confronted with a strange meal. The scale of its consciousness eclipses our ability to articulate, and sector sized wars are but paper cuts on the fingertips of a threat that will swallow the stars. The bugs have nothing on this shit, and only the Flood is remotely comparable in the scale of its intellect.

#my stuff #asks #wh40k #warhammer 40k

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blu3stwizard · 2 months

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Gerudian Dashboard Simulator 2

🍷 WhinewithWine Follow

Capitan Marcus Graphitter, Mariott's head crime syndicate boss who co-opertaes with the city guard, is a nasty little thottie and just died making it clap in his own tavern

🖼 Grandiose-Aesthetic Follow

#Lascue #Knightly Adventure #Enchanting #Northwestern Vale #Breathtaking

🖋 Coralines-shameless-smut-blog Follow

Ser Sean Mar y Lyonel de Lazure x !Arranged Bethrothed Reader Imagines

Keep reading

🦐Drunken Treasure Follow

gurll this is nottt the time he was just declared missing two days ago

🎻He/Hymn Follow

So like are we *totally* sure that Duke Berdrick isn't a lich? Because like. Have y'all seen him?

💎Revivify Follow

The Duchy Necromancer when you ask him why he has to spend a minute with Berdick alone once every 8 hours

💃Eladrinking Follow

Leaving the function almost immediately after entering. call that Huanthing

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Ofiicial

Wait I gotta cast legend lore

🧙‍♀️Fagisterium-Official

Okay yeah this is funny

🔪Butcher-than-a-butcher

I think that not having a courtyard to dunk on some barons during balls is false advertising, and should be illegal

🏹MILFs-top-Milf Follow

So i'm on my watch as a city guard, yeah? And we've been hosting mercenaries for the past two months, so it's been hectic, i've seen some shit, don't get me wrong, but this is beyond even me. I'm on street patrol on Smith's Bend, and i see this gagglefuck cluster of adventurers just like? Enter the sewer that were pointed out by a child or perhaps a gnome. And lemme tell you. They looked like professionals. I'm talking like plate armor and magic items. So protocol dictates that i observe and not intervene, because I don't want to get my rectum mangled by some jackass wizard's spell. So they enter, sure, why not, and I decide to move along on patrol, which takes me the better part of two hours, and as I go back there, there they are? BUt they're covered in some strange viscera, and one of them is like fucking caked in blood and mucus, and weirdest part is that one of them is missing??. Anyway they don't pay me enough to bother adventurers, but like what? Girl help

🏰Marthot

the tags on this post are killing me sksjhsjaj

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hey would that not be the guys who felled the sewer hydra

🐄Cowmomma Follow

Yes! They are called The Songbird Brigade, and they were also present at the Lazuli Palace Gala recently. they seem to be closely associated with both Lord Commander Creagan and Jacynthia's bethrothed, Krugan. Supposedly, they were also present at the great knighting of Ashenaide crisis

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

So what happened to the last guy? Wouldn't they at least recover his corpse?

😈Thiefling Follow

maybe the sewers orcs got him?

🎇Beric-the-Cleric Follow

the what?

🐈Nekomancer Follow

🧙‍♂️BlizzardWizzard Follow

Hey guys they're actually called the Nightingale Company

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what happened to my post

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Wake the fuck up sheeple. New archeological dig reveals the remenants of a long forgotten civilization from before the giants, along with what seems like an attempt to create an artificial god

✨Blame-Shift

and Marcianno Kordessa's third volume of Encyclopedia Geneticae STILL isn't out

#unproductivity king #go girlie give us nothing 💪

🌹Maidone

Need me nepo-dick from a cringefail Ashenaidean knight

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🦈Elf-on-the-shelf

🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀🦀

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kys knife-ears

again. campaign meme. don't worry everybody

@zoomire @no-comment-data-missing

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highpricst · 28 days

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Edited Tore's DnD/BG3 verse! It should make plotting interactions a bit easier. I intend to work on a carrd and this will go onto it.

Tore was a boy when he was taken by the Cult of the Dragon. He'd always had a reverence for the wyrm that circled the peak near his home in the frozen north of the Moonshaes, the great wings and roars that echoed through the pass. Valthjofr, a travelling merchant, captivated him with tales of other dragons elsewhere, and overnight, the young boy vanished into the mist.

His family would have called it an abduction - Tore called it a liberation, though he had fought against it at the time. Valthjofr taught him about the oncoming apocalypse, a day when dracoliches would rule, and how he could survive it - by serving the immutable future rulers in becoming their final forms. He studied necromancy under Valthjofr's cruel guidance. He learned about Sammaster, about how the processes in the Tome of the Dragon could be used, and at the eve of his twentieth birthday, Tore turned his first dracolich - a young dragon named Verndari.

With his so-called apprenticeship over, Valthjofr gave Tore his own copy of the Tome of the Dragon and sent him to the Sword Coast to establish his own cell. He settled in a keep not far from Baldur's Gate. The keep was initially infested with bandits, but they were not a match for a powerful wizard and the dracolich by his side. Those who remained were inducted into the cult, and formed the backbone of what would be his inner circle.

Of note was Hrothmar, who was also a budding wizard - Tore selected him to become his apprentice, as Valthjofr selected him eight years prior. With Hrothmar and the rest of his new inner circle, Tore went on to capture two other dragons and turn them into liches - a mated metallic pair named Loki and Sigyn. Their deaths changed everything for Tore - it drew the attention of not only a nearby cult of Tiamat, who became Tore's rivals (the same cult later to be taken down by Wyll Ravengard), but of Baldur's Gate itself, who mistook the cult as a newly fledged order of dragonslayers.

Tore did not dissuade and eventually completely embraced the mistake, burying evidence of the cult beneath the fortress, including the three phylactories of Verndari, Loki and Sigyn, and Verndari's animated corpse. The circle swore itself to secrecy, and Tore introduced himself to Baldur's Gate as the leader of the Order of the Wyrm. The order began to grow, with a surprising number of hands pitching in food, medicine, and supplies. The order continued to take down dragons, and he drew more and more people into the cult as the years progressed, from bright-eyed bards to fierce witches and everyone in between.

But Tore still hungered. He knew he must expand the inner circle, and he knew that the dragons he has slain were not all on board with his plan when he slew them. He stands on a precipice, and he will drag others down with him.

---

As of Baldur's Gate 3, Loki had escaped and found a little redheaded thief to steal back his phylactory, one who didn't realise just how in over her head she was. The thief complied, and when Tore found out, she fled. Not willing to risk the cult's cover being blown, he followed - directly into the warpath of a nautiloid.

#dans macabre

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alan-p-49 · 4 months

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using obsidian to organize my thoughts for the 9/11 campaign

lord dumblefuck has been turned good bc i thought any dragon can shapeshift but no only metalic dragons can so i made him into a copper dragon

the plot for this campaign is that Aurinax, the adult gold dragon that is the only dragon allowed in Waterdeep thanks to the Ahghairon Dragonward which prevents dragons and dragon-like creatures from entering Waterdeep, has gone missing. How this has been noticed is that the copper dragon Fafnirmuss aka lord dumblefuck noticed that Aurinax had stopped sending letters to him for quite a while. So, Lord Dumblefuck wants to try if he could enter Waterdeep. As he gets closer and closer he notices that the dragonward is either deactivated or is gone completely. Lord Dumblefuck later on finds the adventurers aka the players and asks for their help to figure out wtf is going on (if one of my players decide to play as a dragonborn that is a plot point of itself). This later on transpires into a thing where the players need to prevent a nerdy wizard-spellcasting terrorist group known as Al-Gebra from summoning a bunch of chromatic dragons to destroy Waterdeep with the help of Tiamat which they will do it on Eleint 11th aka 9/11. Except the lich. you're supposed to befriend the lich bc he was there for the math memes. Bahamut will reward the players greatly

tbh i haven't decided if i should start the players on lvl 3 or 5 bc im thinking this campaign starts at the faerun equivalent of august and the biggest boss they have to fight is a lvl 16 warlock or maybe they'll handle this man just fine at lvl 5 and if they all smack at him once that will make Tiamat think how weak this warlock actually was and wasn't worth the time and she just gtfo so maybe i should have everyone start at lvl 1 instead hmmm

#dnd #dnd campaign #writing dnd campaign #custom dnd campaign

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wanderingnork · 9 days

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Okay so I should have read the Monster Manual githyanki entry more closely. I have been generally under the impression that it’s the Standard Lore…BUT NO!

In every single prior edition, the story of Gith is that, after leading the revolution and having a civil war with Zerthimon’s followers, she went off to Hell to try to negotiate a pact with Tiamat. She didn’t come back, but the first Vlaakith did, with the pact in hand. There were 156 Vlaakiths after that, and the most recent one is a lich.

NOT TRUE IN THE 5E MONSTER MANUAL??? Gith came back with the pact herself, ruled, and died before leaving her *undead lieutenant* Vlaakith in charge.

A bizarre additional change is that the silver swords are psionically manifested instead of forged. In 3.5 there’s a short adventure where you can visit a silver sword forge. Presumably there are other changes if I look in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

Hey wizards? What the fuck.

And the icing on the cake? Baldur’s Gate 3, which is OFFICIAL MATERIAL, promptly threw all this out the window and went back to the original lore!!! Gith vanished in Hell. The current Vlaakith is #157. The silver swords are forged (and include a funky little fragment of 4th Edition lore, that they contain a bit of the Far Realm inside them).

I need to hurry up and make my giant post cataloguing how the different editions have handled gith lore. This is absurd.

#nork rants #githyanki #AUGH

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iironwreath · 4 months

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Toll [Cihro]

[223]

Emerging from the third trial portal, Cihro landed with a wobble. He had a strong stomach—had to, in his line of work—but he wanted to throw up. The urge wasn't helped by the blood oversaturating his nose and sticking his clothes to his armour and skin. Its intensity clouded his head like it would be the only thing he’d ever smell or taste or touch again. The tearing and snapping sounds of Gruumsh ripping in half would live with him forever.

Cihro was about the quick, efficient kill, not torture and drawn-out suffering. The bit of torture Cihro had seen in his life—committed by Clasp or cultists or evil liches—couldn't compare. Gruumsh wasn’t mortal, and neither was Tiamat's punishment for him. Even knowing who he was, what he’d done, and what further violence he was capable of, Cihro didn’t think he deserved it. It was just pure malevolence and sadism and subjugation from one Betrayer God to another. Nobody deserved that.

They’d met plenty of colossal beings, but he’d never been inside their beating heart before. He’d never been bathed in their blood because they’d been drawn and quartered by gravity. It was the second time he’d been inside another creature’s ribcage in the last fifteen or so minutes. Had it even been fifteen minutes? He steadied himself on Day’s arm.

He hadn’t expended much of his resources—his cloak, tattoos, and spells were all still ready to go. He had infinite arrows and he hadn’t been injured in Gruumsh’s cell—but there was a mental toll to Tiamat’s lair arguably worse than the physical. Before now he’d died and come back, been pummelled within an inch of his life on multiple occasions, and yet the physical trauma had become mundane. With powerful healing magic, his pain was usually short-lived. Expected and then repressed. The horrors, however, were almost incomprehensible. How did you process something like that?

The answer was: he didn't. He had never had the time, rushing from one thing to the next. He expected a lot of catching up when all was said and done.

Tiamat's avatar reappeared to boast about how inspired her chamber for Gruumsh was. Cihro held his stomach. He wouldn't give her the satisfaction of being outwardly sick. He needed the energy, anyway—the only thing in his stomach was a light breakfast. The Hero's Feast from the night before made them impervious to fear, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t be unsettled and queasy with disgust. There were a lot of emotions related to fear that weren’t fear itself.

Elspeth and Day quickly got them cleared of the blood. Cihro breathed easier. Third trial down—one to go, then the fifth and final fight.

#writing tag #writing: cihro #cihro #dayereth #elspeth #(through gritted teeth to myself) it doesn't have to be good #tal'dorei #exandria

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