Vlaakith CLVII

The God-Queen of the Githyanki in everything but title.

Vlaakith CLVII, aka Vlaakith, 157th of her name, is the githyanki lich who rules over the githyanki people as their immortal and revered undying queen from their capital city of Tu'narath deep within the Astral.

Little is actually known about this mighty lich-queen. She claims to be the final link in an unbroken chain stretching back all the way to Vlaakith I, although skeptical sages suggest that there have actually been multiple coups in the ancient past of the githyanki people and the Vlaakith name taken up to preserve a sense of legitimacy. What is known is that she is the most ruthless, ambitious and powerhungry Vlaakith to ever mount the throne, so much so that she chose to embrace undeath as a lich and kill off any of her kin rather than allow herself to die and give the throne over. And to keep that throne, she regularly devours the souls of any githyanki who grows too powerful, transforming them into unique undead servitors - the Kr'y'izoth and the Tl'a'ikith - to become her praetorian guard with the aid of the Crown of Corruption. Naturally, as lich-queen of the githyanki, she bears the Scepter of Ephelomon as the symbol of her power.

Vlaakith CLVII is revered amongst the githyanki; next to Gith herself, she is the closest thing that they have to a god, even if they would be aghast at openly calling her this. In fact, Vlaakith herself wishes to become a god, and has been working towards this goal for centuries. She has founded new githyanki castes that correspond to inquisitors and clerics as closely as the militant atheism of the githyanki allows, stamped out any form of religious inclination beyond reverence for her, and even learned to empower warlocks who draw their magic from her, much like the templars of the Athasian Sorcerer-Kings. She has even created life, in the form of the duthka'giths. The Incursion adventure path also presents two alternative end-games for her; either stealing the last vestige of divine lifeforce within Tu'narath itself, or consuming the essence of the dead patron goddess of the ancient proto-gith, once she has located its tomb upon Pharagos.

Despite many cosmological changes, Vlaakith CLVII actually survived into 4th edition intact. Sort of. In the default lore of 4e, Vlaakith CLVII is presented as still being the reigning lich-queen of the githyanki. However, the adventure path Scales of War takes place in an alternate timeline in which the events of "The Lich-Queen's Beloved" took place and thus Vlaakith CLVII was slain - although she comes back late into the adventure path as a unique demilich based on her spinal column.

In the 5th edition book Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, however, she's back in a big way. She is still kicking as the leader of the Yankees from the corpse of the dead god she's camping on, and she is still carefully balancing the constraints of her people's stagnant and violent culture with the oaths she swore to Tiamat, as well as directing crack assassination teams against the Illithids. However, she has a schtick going where any of her servants that she thinks would disapprove of her actually being a Lich get tricked into entering her phylactery chamber and being consumed, so she has an infinite reserve of souls for herself. It is all but stated outright that she sacrificed Gith to Tiamat in exchange for the Red Dragons serving her, although she herself doesn't make the claim (obviously).

Analysis concludes her rule is a victim of its own success; good at producing indoctrinated warmongering fanatics while preventing herself from being overthrown by them, but bad at actually accomplishing anything since they're basically all jaded decadent war hipsters with little initiative.