Do Githzerai lay eggs?

[kilamanjaro]

I know Githyanki are egg layers. For some reason I've always thought the 'Zerai aren't, but I can't seem to find a reference anywhere that says one way or the other. Any one know?

 

[palleomortis]

I think they do, but don't have the reasources handy. You can find them in the MM 3.5 right?

 

[Gez]

Githyanki definitely lay eggs, and this may have to do with faint traces of red dragon blood. Or with the insectile Giths of Athas.

Githzerai, however, are an unknown quantity. I have no idea if they give birth to live youngs, or lay eggs. I'd rather say live, though. Just a hunch.

 

[the Jester]

Not in my campaign. Neither do githyanki. They are a species arisen from humans, per the 1e FF.

 

[Voadam]

I know Githyanki are egg layers. For some reason I've always thought the 'Zerai aren't, but I can't seem to find a reference anywhere that says one way or the other. Any one know?

Githyanki do? Where is this revealed? I pretty much only know them from 1e FF for their description where, as Jester says, they are human derived stock warped by mind flayers into a new race.

 

[Yeoman]

Not in my campaign. Neither do githyanki. They are a species arisen from humans, per the 1e FF.

Man, I didn't even know that they changed from back then. Shows how much I pay attention.

 

[diaglo]

no eggs for either race for me also.

 

[wingsandsword]

I thought this was a joke topic when I first saw it. Since when the heck did they change that? it's not in the 3.5MM I'm looking at now, and I've never, ever heard of oviparous Githyanki.

I'm keeping with the original, longstanding backstory of the Githyanki and Githzerai:

Many millennia ago some humans were enslaved by Illithid (who at the time had an empire spanning the planes and worlds), and kept as a slave race, and subjected to twisted breeding experiments. After many centuries of enslavement, a champion named Gith arose who could resist the Illithid domination and lead the slave revolt which freed Giths people from the Mind Flayers and rent asunder the Illithid empire. However, after Giths death, they had a schism where two factions emerged. The Githyanki were the more militant faction who based themselves on the Astral and vowed never to be enslaved again and to hunt the Illithid to extinction, making a pact with the Red Dragons in the process and being ruled by a mightly and sadistic Lich Queen who maintains her immortality and grip on power by eating the souls of the strongest of her subjects. The Githzerai were the more moderate and philosophical faction, who valued solitiude and discipline and left for Limbo as the ultimate challenge to their discipline for them to build their monasteries and fortress-cities. They are technically human sub-species, about as closely related to humans as drow are to elves, and their special powers and physical changes come from the results of Illithid breeding experiments and the magical effects of residing on the Astral and Limbo planes for many generations.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Not in my campaign. Neither do githyanki. They are a species arisen from humans, per the 1e FF.

That's 10-4 rubber duck. No eggs here.

 

[Shemeska]

I thought this was a joke topic when I first saw it. Since when the heck did they change that? it's not in the 3.5MM I'm looking at now, and I've never, ever heard of oviparous Githyanki.

I'm keeping with the original, longstanding backstory of the Githyanki and Githzerai:

Many millennia ago some humans were enslaved by Illithid (who at the time had an empire spanning the planes and worlds), and kept as a slave race, and subjected to twisted breeding experiments. After many centuries of enslavement, a champion named Gith arose who could resist the Illithid domination and lead the slave revolt which freed Giths people from the Mind Flayers and rent asunder the Illithid empire. However, after Giths death, they had a schism where two factions emerged. The Githyanki were the more militant faction who based themselves on the Astral and vowed never to be enslaved again and to hunt the Illithid to extinction, making a pact with the Red Dragons in the process and being ruled by a mightly and sadistic Lich Queen who maintains her immortality and grip on power by eating the souls of the strongest of her subjects. The Githzerai were the more moderate and philosophical faction, who valued solitiude and discipline and left for Limbo as the ultimate challenge to their discipline for them to build their monasteries and fortress-cities. They are technically human sub-species, about as closely related to humans as drow are to elves, and their special powers and physical changes come from the results of Illithid breeding experiments and the magical effects of residing on the Astral and Limbo planes for many generations.

They've been laying eggs for over a decade or so.

And what you said hasn't changed in the grand scheme of things. But the rather skimpy 1e details on both races were expanded in Planescape in the Planescape Monstrous Compendium I, 'Guide to the Astral', and 'Planes of Chaos' to a lesser extent.

Guide to the Astral has tons of details on Githyanki society, biology, and history.

While both Gith races descended from a common stock of humans that were enslaved by the Illithids and experimented upon over millennia of such, the githzerai and githyanki have diverged from one another since they split after overthrowing the Illithids. The githzerai have been warped by exposure to the raw chaos of limbo, and the githyanki have been warped by their exposure to the mental energies of the Astral and perhaps some level of interbreeding with red dragons over the eons.

We saw in those sources the details of Vlaakith's ascension over the githyanki after Gith vanished in Baator after forging a racial pact between her people and red dragons with Tiamat. It is likely that Gith was betrayed by the original Vlaakith (the current lich queen is a distant descendant of the first Vlaakith). We also saw details on the githzerai of limbo and their autocratic but very subtle religious leader or Wizard-King named Zaerith Menyar Ag Gith.


But as for the original topic: It's never been said one way or the other for the 'zerai, but I'd say that they don't lay eggs. That seems to be a result of the 'yanki breeding with red dragons.