Immortal Society

[Nagog]

So I'm gearing up to run a political intrigue campaign involving overthrowing the Lich Queen Vlakiith the 8th. If that sounds familiar to you, stop reading. Or don't, whatever.
I've done loads of research into the Githyanki, including their society, general temperament, and much of what is generally available on various wikis. With that said, I generally have no idea what kind of things they would do on a day to day basis. They're war-like, but those who stay in their city are essentially immortal, if I'm understanding their lore correctly, so there would likely be a massive blend of cultural influences and continuing trends from all across the last few millennia since the days of Gith herself. What kinds of cultural events/gatherings/phenomena do you think would develop in such a place?

[Sigreid]

It's actually quite possible that it would be more uniform. Think about it, not only do you have a tyrant immortal queen, but a large number of people for him "this is the way it has always been done" is literally thousands of years of their experience. I think it's greatest weakness would be it's rigidity.

[Unoriginal]

So I'm gearing up to run a political intrigue campaign involving overthrowing the Lich Queen Vlakiith the 8th. If that sounds familiar to you, stop reading. Or don't, whatever.
I've done loads of research into the Githyanki, including their society, general temperament, and much of what is generally available on various wikis. With that said, I generally have no idea what kind of things they would do on a day to day basis. They're war-like, but those who stay in their city are essentially immortal, if I'm understanding their lore correctly, so there would likely be a massive blend of cultural influences and continuing trends from all across the last few millennia since the days of Gith herself. What kinds of cultural events/gatherings/phenomena do you think would develop in such a place?

The Githyanki do have a ton of things from other cultures, but it's less "influence" and more "we raided that place, it was fun and glorious, and now we have spoils from it". But they still gain knowledge etc (which is represented by an added proficiency for the Githyanki race).

Now another thing to note is that the Githyanki are extremely bored in their eternal astral and notably entertain themselves by breaking what they come across.

[Wizard_Lizard]

Recently Finished reading the Scythe series, it seemed to handle it pretty well, just change out the AI with perhaps Vlaakith herself and maybe create a sect of githzerai devoted to handling overpopulation, although the latter might be unnescessary as the astral sea is.. pretty big.

[Fable Wright]

What do you do with eternity?

Either performing leisure activities, or forming a daily schedule.

I imagine that those Githyanki aimed for defense or invasion will spend every day training, until they have absolutely perfect drill. It's something to strive for, and it's something that their biology is going to reward them for—peak exertion, after a while, makes you feel a good kind of tired. And that's something to strive for, really.

As for leisure? I imagine that some Githyanki will be spending their time innovating new games with vast possibility spaces. Think a new Chess, Othello/Reversi, Go, and so on, or stealing ideas for such a thing from other cultures. Each one could give you a few centuries or more of exploration and developing strategies, and that provides something new to talk about when people are off work. Something mentally engaging and immediately rewarding.

Another thing is sports; each pro doesn't age, so to combat the difficulty of a limited selection pool, it's more like College sports. People volunteer for four year terms or so, so the pool is very dynamic. New people and new ideas constantly cycling in to keep it fresh, with various teams out there trying to draft the people with the best aptitudes.

Finally? Bards. I imagine this will be akin to a viking thing. Trips in the astral take a long time (at least they have in the games I've played?) and for that, you can't necessarily rely on board games or card games. I imagine some Githyanki might take to mental Chess or mental Go, but a fair few would probably turn to skald traditions. They have an epic poetic structure that's drilled into them, and they can use that to create and tailor stories about the civilizations they're plundering, and of their culture heroes.

As for the rest of society? People still need food. Tools and stuff still suffer wear and tear, and the city keeps expanding. And certain things need to come from planar colonies that have time.

You can't grow food without time. You can't tan leather without time. You can't ferment food or bread without time. And you're going to pretty regularly get culture infusions into the rest of society from these time-based colonies. Possibly some conflict between the timeless and those who expire on a timer. Who knows? That's up to you to determine.

Oh, one more cultural quirk? I don't know how readily apparent this will be, but I'm pretty sure that the Githyanki will have less developed mathematics than the rest of society. A huge amount of early societies' innovations in mathematics and especially calculus come from observing stars in the sky. Which is a huge survival skill in an agrarian society that, you know, needs to know when the planting and harvest seasons start. Less so for people in astral space who don't need that much beyond counting loot and building ships.

[Unoriginal]

As for the rest of society? People still need food.

Not in the Astral:



Creatures on the Astral Plane don't age or suffer from hunger or thirst.

DMG p. 46.

The Githyanki society is less immortal than it is timeless. They do establish colonies to have their kids grow up, though.



Oh, one more cultural quirk? I don't know how readily apparent this will be, but I'm pretty sure that the Githyanki will have less developed mathematics than the rest of society. A huge amount of early societies' innovations in mathematics and especially calculus come from observing stars in the sky. Which is a huge survival skill in an agrarian society that, you know, needs to know when the planting and harvest seasons start. Less so for people in astral space who don't need that much beyond counting loot and building ships.

That could be the case, but on the other hand the Gith didn't start in the Astral, and the Githyanki in particular are occasional spacefarers (ableit in D&D's weird space).

[Fable Wright]

Not in the Astral:

Yep, that's definitely true. But (at least in previous editions, where I get my Great Wheel lore from) leaving the Astral for another, non-timeless plane will cause all the hunger and age you skipped out on to hit you all at once.

Meaning that one raid outside the Astral could cause your entire crew to instantly starve to death. And even if that has changed in the current edition, they will need food eventually, since there's that whole issue of needing to eat while hunting down other ships and engaging in piracy. So that's a thing.


That could be the case, but on the other hand the Gith didn't start in the Astral, and the Githyanki in particular are occasional spacefarers (ableit in D&D's weird space).

Is the lore about the Gith originally being a Mindflayer servitor species still valid? Because I'm pretty sure that the Mindflayers would be doing that whole 'force the subservient species into intentional ignorance' thing to prevent slave revolts. And mind flayer communication and record keeping, from 3.5e's Lords of Madness, is extremely inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have a mind flayer's anatomy and powers, so they may very well not have that bootstrap, even if they've been flying and maintaining Nautilus ships for as long as any of them can remember.

Up to the GM in question. It'd be a unique cultural thing that defines a shortcoming rather than a strength, though. Would also apply to most dwarves, come to think of it, but that's worldbuilding for another time.

[Anymage]

How much can we expect prior edition lore to hold? Specifically the bits about Vlaakith eating anybody who gets to be too high level, and biological realities (hunger, thirst, and most importantly age) catching up with you once you leave the astral? The former will put an effective lifespan on most githyanki and thus limit how much immortals would usually find all the choicest positions clogged. The latter would have interesting effects as to who was or was not encouraged to tag along for any offplane raiding, including many characters who were effectively stuck under pain of infirmity or death.

[Unoriginal]

Yep, that's definitely true. But (at least in previous editions, where I get my Great Wheel lore from) leaving the Astral for another, non-timeless plane will cause all the hunger and age you skipped out on to hit you all at once.

Meaning that one raid outside the Astral could cause your entire crew to instantly starve to death. And even if that has changed in the current edition

This part did change.



Is the lore about the Gith originally being a Mindflayer servitor species still valid? Because I'm pretty sure that the Mindflayers would be doing that whole 'force the subservient species into intentional ignorance' thing to prevent slave revolts. And mind flayer communication and record keeping, from 3.5e's Lords of Madness, is extremely inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have a mind flayer's anatomy and powers, so they may very well not have that bootstrap, even if they've been flying and maintaining Nautilus ships for as long as any of them can remember.

Up to the GM in question. It'd be a unique cultural thing that defines a shortcoming rather than a strength, though. Would also apply to most dwarves, come to think of it, but that's worldbuilding for another time.

The Gith were indeed created by the Illithids.