Editing Gith (section)

==1st Edition==
The first mention of Gith in the Fiend Folio tells the basic story of her race.  According to the story there, the [[illithid]]s - known at that time only as mind flayers - conquered a population of evil [[human]]s "millennia ago" (subjective to whatever the start date of a given game setting is), using them both as slaves and as food.  The humans were unable to free themselves for centuries, until they developed their unique powers and strength.  At a certain point, a supreme leader named Gith led the rebellion against their captors and freed their people.

The entries in Fiend Folio note that the [[githyanki]] and [[githzerai]] races split, but doesn't say why or exactly when.  Both had mostly full access to the early, very nascent psionics rules (githyanki only lacked Defense Mode J), which is pretty interesting: mind flayers, as listed in the 1st edition Monster Manual, actually had '''less''' psionic ability than the gith-folk eventually developed.

The [[githyanki]] were established in the [[Fiend Folio]] and [[Manual of the Planes]] with what would become their fundamental lore for the rest of time:
*They largely live and fight from strongholds in the [[Astral Plane]], with scouting and raiding into other planes, including the [[Material Plane]], to look for their hated enemies (illithids and githzerai) and take supplies they need.  Though they have Material Plane lairs, these are more like outposts than real settlements.
*They have a [[lich]]-queen of higher level who destroys any githyanki that levels up to a certain point.  In theory, this is to prevent any of them from becoming too powerful to overthrow the lich-queen.
*They use "baroque" armaments of very unusual and alien manufacture.  Their signature gear is the ''silver swords'' they use in astral combat to sever someone's silver cord (ideally killing someone instantly).  There usually two grades of these swords, and they are usually two-handed swords.
*They have a pact with [[Chromatic Dragon|red dragons]], which allows them to work together, both for protection and raiding.
*They can have class levels as [[fighter]]s, [[Wizard|magic-users]], or [[Blackguard|"anti-paladins"]] (basically evil [[cavalier]]s).  The only multi-class option they can have are as fighter/magic-users called "[[gish]]" (which became the origin of the term for fighter/wizard hybrids in future online discussions of such builds).

The [[githzerai]], a splinter faction, isn't given a reason from their split from the githyanki, and are also given a basic background:
*They live in [[Limbo]], in fortress-monasteries they build of various pieces of chaos matter from the plane.  They have a metropolis called the Floating City, or the Citadel of Gith.  Their Prime Material strongholds are apparently fucking adamantine-walled towers, so... yeah.
*They are ruled by an immortal [[wizard]]-king, [[Zaerith Menyar-Ag-Gith]] (the Great Githzerai) who also prevents his people from getting too high of a level.
*They use the lesser silver swords, but all their stuff is manufactured pretty plain in construction.
*They have no pact with red dragons, but make up for it with better inherent psionic abilities.
*They also favor [[fighter]]s and [[Wizard|magic-users]], but also have a few [[monk]]s.  Their multi-class fighter/magic-users are called "zerths" at this point.

There's not much else from this edition, though Tales from the Outer Planes offers an adventure and a couple of lairs involving the githyanki and githzerai.