Saturn (Gith)

# General lore:

### **Races on the Planet:**

An insular group suspicious of outsiders the populace almost entirely consists of Gith.

### **Capitol:**

The Gith collective is ruled from a central capital ship: The Centarch

### **Environmental Landscape:**

The Gith exist within the confines of their own bioships; living organisms, they interface with psychically.

### **Political Landscape:**

The Gith collective is loosely organised. The primary power is concentrated in individual captains who rule over their ships, but the Centarch serves as a primary hub communications slowly finding their way to it and decisions rippling out though individual captains vary in their willingness to follow these edicts

### **Leaders:**

The Gith Collective is officially led by the Centarchian council. A collection of politicians and retired captains who collate, analyse and debate the information sent back to them by the rest of the collective. Though they’re the official leadership of the Collecitve they have little to no means of enforcing their edicts and many captains simply use their data analysis to come to their own conclusions on the various topics. In recent decades their role has started to shift away from that of a token ruling body narrowing in to focus on their role as data analysts. With the rise in merchant culture among the Gith the Centarchian market forecasts are known as the best in the solar system.

### **Culture:**

The Gith’s situation as a space bound race heavily influences their culture. The nature of this life means efficient use of space and strict rationing of resources has resulted in an austere culture. The authority of the captain and their command structure is another pillar of Gith culture as small mistakes, disobedience or mounting inefficiencies can have lethal consequences, so dissent is ill tolerated. On the other side of the coin Gith leaders are held to high standards expected to live up to the trust and responsibility their people place in them. A captain who fails to do this may found themselves facing swift justice. More information on the two distinct philosophies of the Gith can be found further down

### **Demography & Population:**

Gith ships are traditionally monocultural outsides being regarded as untrustworthy or unable to rise up to their standards. However, in recent history a small portion of Gith ships have started to accept foreign crew members. These ships have a reputation for only accepting the best and offering a harsh but fair and profitable work environment.

### **Foreign Relations:**

The Gith’s relation with the rest of the species is at a tense point. New to the stellar stage their alliances and enemies are in constant flux the lack of, efficient, centralised decision making meaning each captain decides their loyalties individually. While they may not have a formalised position their strong space presence has rapidly found them a place as well known, and prolific, traders. Though in some cases they have become infamous pirates further muddying foreign relations.

### **Military:**

Though they lack a formalised military the Gith are still an imposing force with a strong warrior culture. Ships have no one to rely on beyond themselves so even the most peaceful of ships maintains some form of militant presence. While the most warlike are finely tuned machines capable of fighting beyond what other species may expect from a ship of their size.

### **Religion:**

The Gith follow no gods formally as a society. In their time under the mind flayers they were never allowed a religion beyond the worship of their enslavers. After that their scattered nature prevented the rise of a singular organised religion. Due to this individual ships have their own religions worshipping gods real or imagined while others subscribe to no religion at all.

### **Agriculture & Industry:**

Both of these activities are conducted by individual ships on a free market basis. Some captains will choose to gather resources, refine materials, grow food, or manufacture goods. A Gith ship incapable of trading for what it needs will flounder and die it’s people meeting a slow death or joining new crews.

### **Trade & Transport:**

Due to their strong reliance on trade to survive the Gith are well known traders. If a commodity exists and a Gith ship thinks, there’s a profit to be made at least one will be trading it. However, they have no formalised network of trade meaning shortages can sweep the collective driven only by the whims of commerce and chance. To counter this many captains, maintain complex webs of trade agreements and promises stretching years, or decades, into the future.

### **Infrastructure:**

The physical assets of the Gith are their ships. These marvels of biological engineering are beyond anything else other species have created, in similar fields, but they lack solid infrastructure beyond them.

# Detailed histories:

## The beginning:

The story of the Gith begins not with the Gith but with their greatest foe the Bramshi. The first land-based life crawled out it’s oceans, but this ancient proto-species is no more, merely a nameless victim of history. A second species followed them to land, the Bramshi were predators capturing and feeding on all they could get their hands on. Over time they learnt to cultivate parasitic mushrooms to puppet their victims after the Bramshi fed on their favoured meal, the brains of their victims. A complex tradition of apothecary to manipulate and direct these ‘zombies’ but they were clumsy creations unsuited to anything beyond the most basic of manual labour. As their technology advanced the Bramshi delved deeper uncovering the frigid oceans below titan’s ice caps. The Gith believe their species was raised from a primitive life form the found in this sea but the specifics are unknown as the Bramshi remain hostile to all alien life. The period of their history in servitude is largely unknown only fractured oral accounts having survived but what is known is that the Gith acquired a unique form of biotech that allowed them to grow ships. Escaping the surface of titan they became a nomadic people

## The wandering:

To sail the winds of Saturn is not an easy feat. Powerful gas flows can easily rip a ship apart and storm bigger than some planet rage through its atmosphere, but the Gith have become expert navigators skipping across the surface of the atmosphere or diving deep as needed. The navigational traditions built from this period hold strong in some parts of Gith culture

## Modern Gith:

The advent of magic bought about a technological revolution for the Gith their biology being uniquely suited to psionic powers they became much closer to their ships. The ability to communicate directly with their ships let them improve their capabilities bringing them into much more regular contact with the rest of the solar system where they’d previously been limited to Saturn. Their strong history of sailing translating to solar sail powered craft. Their current position within international politics is uncertain as the established powers feel them out and they look for their own position in return.

## Githyanki & Githzerai:

The Githyanki and Githzerai represent a fundamental divide in gith philosophy. The Githyanki believe in the tenets of Gith, the original leader who spear headed the rebellion against the Bramshi. They believe a militant culture is key to their continued success as a species and maintain a might makes right philosophy. Though this combines with an emphasis on personal freedoms creating intricate power structures governed by martial might, honour and cunning. The Githzerai on the other hand follow the philosophy of Zerthimon. When the Gith broke free of the Bramshi’s hold Zerthimon believed Gith’s leadership would simply lead them to a new tyranny. His teachings were what led to the initial scattering encouraging individual ships to seek their own way and believing merit and profit would bring those best suited to lead to the fore. The power structures of Githzerai ships tend to be much more stable those who can prove they deserve leadership by bringing the ship benefits take it. Of course in the long term those positioned to bring these benefits are bought by those who posses authority already stratifying their crews in a rigid design.

Both philosophy’s blame the other claiming theirs would lead the gith people to a unified success as a people but the others refusal to cooperate and follow their methods holds them back. Though this disagreement has simmered for centuries simple practicality has always forced them to work together but the advent of solar sail travel beyond Saturn has changed this.

New trading partners with other species have lessened the Gith’s reliance on internal trade and long held grudges are coming to the fore as tensions rise.