Editing Githzerai (section)

==Change, Limbo, Etc.==
That said, despite their hyper-lawful associations ''now'' - in contrast to the githyanki, who are essentially mixture of the three [[Just as planned|most]] [[RIP AND TEAR|annoying]] [[Munchkin|prick]] archetypes - the githzerai weren't always this way. Whilst some lore trappings have remained the same, originally, githzerai were a highly ''Chaotic'' race, to the point that one of their original PC limitations was "you cannot be a Lawful alignment".

Why? Well, at their core, the githzerai are essentially the "non-evil but still morally ambiguous counterpart" to the githyanki. So, when they were first created, their whole schtick was tightly wound up in the concept of them being anarchist survivalists who hid in the chaos of Limbo because it matched their desire to be free and never-restrained. So, what changed? We can sum it up in two words: ''[[Planescape: Torment]]''.  

See, the reason githzerai are the famous and (semi-)popular PC race that they are is because of the party member Dak'kon the Pariah from that game. And while he was originally-intended to be an aberration, a lawful member of a mostly-anarchic race, he's also the most famous and iconic githzerai character in the history of the franchise. Players who want to play a githzerai want to play one who's like Dak'kon. Frankly, it also gives their race some cool themes and motifs, especially when some of their old shit [[Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith|was just lame copies of the githyanki's shit]]. Seriously, we went from "less edgy githyanki" to "spiritualists who live in the realm of chaos to test their powers of mental and spiritual control to the limit" - that's a huge improvement.

So, over time, the designers have found it easier to recast the entire race in his image. Chew on ''that'', [[Drizzt]].

Another bit of weirdness, not related to the alignment, is that githzerai used to be hugely different in looks. Apparently, the initial idea was that the githyanki were so divergent from their human-like ancestors because of their prolonged habitation of the Astral, so whilst they were somewhat skeletal-faced jaundiced elf-like beings with reptilian aspects, the githzerai were portrayed as... humans. Oh, skinny humans with long faces, but still fundamentally humans. Take the clothing into account, and you probably wouldn't look twice at an AD&D githzerai if you saw him on the street. From 3e onwards, they were portrayed as looking a lot more like the githyanki, ultimately becoming all but visually indistinguishable from each other.

Is this also Dak'kon's legacy? Well... yes and no. Dak'kon was given a more "Fu Manchu Elf" sort of appearance for his personal model, but was still pretty Caucasian-skinned. ''Torment'' did recycle the githyanki sprites for githzerai sprites, though, so it might have influenced WoTC... or it just might have been the new management deciding it made more sense that the two races with common ancestry should actually look alike.

As to how such Lawful entities can exist in Limbo, a place of pure Chaos? Oddly, as they do not insist on others outside their islands following their codes, they wouldn't have much more trouble than any other Limbo resident: an honest Chaotic Neutral type can respect the kind of discipline that doesn't impose itself on others, particularly if it sees value in your chaos. In particular, even if you stick to Orderly ways, rebelling against both of a pair of diametrically opposed Lawful Evil orders (especially if your rebellion against one of them is motivated by seeing their Order as being harmful to its followers--in other words, at least partly because of seeing the Githyanki as being too Lawful, in addition to too Evil) is very much a thing any Chaotic-aligned character can respect. Another reason may be that natives of Limbo are Slaadi, and they don't give a ribbit about anything that isn't their prey, while the prey is simply hunted down by them without raising any philosophical questions.