I found something interesting when reading Exploring Eberron, which isn't really canon but was written by Keith Baker. In it, it says that the Gith got their name from a leader who overthrew mind flayer rule over their race. Most of you are probably thinking that that sounds a lot like their origins in the mainline D&D canon. I bring this up because with Rising from the Last War stating that Eberron is in the same continuity as the rest of the D&D multiverse, just in a separate pocket, I have a theory for the origins of the mindflayers: they were created within the Eberron multiverse from gith (or whatever they were called before the actual Gith came along and took control of her people) who were corrupted and mutated by Dyrrn the Corrupter. Here's what Exploring Eberron has to say on the subject:
Long ago, a proud empire was crushed by the daelkyr. But this wasn’t the Empire of Dhakaan, but a nation of gifted psychics who lived in towers of crysteel and sentira. Dyrrn the Corruptor transformed their champions into the first illithids, using them as living weapons to subjugate their own people. When defeat was inevitable, the great leader Gith led a planar exodus, fleeing into Kythri. The Churning Chaos hid the refugees from pursuit, and through absolute discipline, they imposed stability upon chaos. Once the refugees regained their strength, a bitter divide split their people. Zerthimon the Wise maintained that the people of Gith should remain within Kythri. He believed mental discipline was the ultimate key to victory and that, in time, they could gain the power to reclaim their reality. But Gith was a warrior, and her followers yearned for battle. They wanted to build their strength and resources by raiding every layer of reality until they found a way to destroy Xoriat.
Hearing this tale, one might well ask: where are the gith from? They’re from Eberron—but not the Eberron that exists today. They came from a world surrounded by the Ring of Siberys, but there were no humans or elves on their Eberron. According to the githzerai, when the daelkyr completed their work on Eberron, they wiped the gith world from existence and created a new reality. If this is true, they may have done this countless times . . . and if they break the Gatekeeper seals, they could do it again. What the githzerai ultimately hope to achieve is to reassert their reality onto the Material Plane.
None of this really contradicts the lore about the Gith from the Monster Manual or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes in a major way. The biggest hangup I see is that the Ring of Siberys would prevent them from leaving their multiverse and spreading to the rest of the multiverse, but this could be resolved by saying they found a bypass using their nautiloid ships, but that knowledge was lost over time.
In older D&D lore (not yet revised with newer lore), the Aboleth - creatures with perfect lineage memory and having been around since time immemorial - have no memory of the arrival of the Illithids, which unnerves them a great deal. It's just time's going along and, by Aboleth recollection, suddenly Illithids exist with no explanation as to why or exactly when.
There is some stuff to suggest Gith were Human once and either through evolution or modification became Gith. I don't hold much faith in that origin, though. One thing that is still in canon (meaning not contradicted by newer lore) is that the prior Gith culture doesn't exist (even what they once called themselves is unknown) - completely eradicated during the Illithid oppression.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
The original explanation for mind flayers was that they came from the distant future. They'd used time travel to escape the heat-death of the universe, then set up a civilization that was overthrown by the gith.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
The original explanation for mind flayers was that they came from the distant future. They'd used time travel to escape the heat-death of the universe
In the Dragon Magazine #150 Halloween issue (with a beautiful Larry Elmore piece with a Witch with her cat familiar and a Scarecrow on the cover) there was an article about the Mind Flayers that included a number of related monsters you could stock your Underdark campaign with, all likely brought back in time with the Illithids.
In older D&D lore (not yet revised with newer lore), the Aboleth - creatures with perfect lineage memory and having been around since time immemorial - have no memory of the arrival of the Illithids, which unnerves them a great deal. It's just time's going along and, by Aboleth recollection, suddenly Illithids exist with no explanation as to why or exactly when.
There is some stuff to suggest Gith were Human once and either through evolution or modification became Gith. I don't hold much faith in that origin, though. One thing that is still in canon (meaning not contradicted by newer lore) is that the prior Gith culture doesn't exist (even what they once called themselves is unknown) - completely eradicated during the Illithid oppression.
One of the points about this part of exploring Eberron is that this happened and the world was destroyed. There is no history of the Gith on Eberron and no evidence on the material plane to suggest that they ever existed.
This was a different Eberron.
when the Dalkyr destroyed the world (the rat in the maze) a new world started from the beginning and took its own path through the draconic prophecy. This it part of the theory that the Dalkyr are experimenting. What happens when we destroy the world? What happens when we change the past? What happens when we put the draconic prophecy on people? Ect.
The Gith lived on a different world. They may have always been psionic they may have once been similar to humans, but they where not from the Eberron we know
I found something interesting when reading Exploring Eberron, which isn't really canon but was written by Keith Baker. In it, it says that the Gith got their name from a leader who overthrew mind flayer rule over their race. Most of you are probably thinking that that sounds a lot like their origins in the mainline D&D canon. I bring this up because with Rising from the Last War stating that Eberron is in the same continuity as the rest of the D&D multiverse, just in a separate pocket, I have a theory for the origins of the mindflayers: they were created within the Eberron multiverse from gith (or whatever they were called before the actual Gith came along and took control of her people) who were corrupted and mutated by Dyrrn the Corrupter. Here's what Exploring Eberron has to say on the subject:
None of this really contradicts the lore about the Gith from the Monster Manual or Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes in a major way. The biggest hangup I see is that the Ring of Siberys would prevent them from leaving their multiverse and spreading to the rest of the multiverse, but this could be resolved by saying they found a bypass using their nautiloid ships, but that knowledge was lost over time.
In older D&D lore (not yet revised with newer lore), the Aboleth - creatures with perfect lineage memory and having been around since time immemorial - have no memory of the arrival of the Illithids, which unnerves them a great deal. It's just time's going along and, by Aboleth recollection, suddenly Illithids exist with no explanation as to why or exactly when.
There is some stuff to suggest Gith were Human once and either through evolution or modification became Gith. I don't hold much faith in that origin, though. One thing that is still in canon (meaning not contradicted by newer lore) is that the prior Gith culture doesn't exist (even what they once called themselves is unknown) - completely eradicated during the Illithid oppression.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
The original explanation for mind flayers was that they came from the distant future. They'd used time travel to escape the heat-death of the universe, then set up a civilization that was overthrown by the gith.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In the Dragon Magazine #150 Halloween issue (with a beautiful Larry Elmore piece with a Witch with her cat familiar and a Scarecrow on the cover) there was an article about the Mind Flayers that included a number of related monsters you could stock your Underdark campaign with, all likely brought back in time with the Illithids.
One of the points about this part of exploring Eberron is that this happened and the world was destroyed. There is no history of the Gith on Eberron and no evidence on the material plane to suggest that they ever existed.
This was a different Eberron.
when the Dalkyr destroyed the world (the rat in the maze) a new world started from the beginning and took its own path through the draconic prophecy. This it part of the theory that the Dalkyr are experimenting. What happens when we destroy the world? What happens when we change the past? What happens when we put the draconic prophecy on people? Ect.
The Gith lived on a different world. They may have always been psionic they may have once been similar to humans, but they where not from the Eberron we know