The githyanki (pronounced: gith-YAN-kee) are a fictional humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. They are cousins and ancient enemies to the githzerai. In the Dark Sun setting, they are simply called gith.
Introduced by Charles Stross in White Dwarf #12, githyanki were officially included in the game in Fiend Folio (1981) and featured on its cover.
Background
Charles Stross originally created the githyanki for a Dungeons & Dragons game with multiple Dungeon Masters "where everyone was creating new monsters to offset" that all of them "had access to the Monster Manual". On the creation of the githyanki, Stross explained that he "wanted a whole civilization that made some sort of sense" after seeing the Underdark drow civilization as well as "getting interested in the psionics rules at the time" so "designing a monster type suitable for that kind of campaign made sense". The master/slave aspect of the githyanki/illithid relationship was inspired by Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs (1966), "while their relationship with red dragons recalls Michael Moorcock Melnibonéans (1961+)". In White Dwarf #15 readers were asked to vote for their top ten "Fiend Factory" monsters. The top ten, including the githyanki, were later reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles (1980). The githyanki then appeared in 1981 in the first edition Fiend Folio and were featured on the book's cover.
The module Tales of the Outer Planes (1988) describes a githyanki lair.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989–1999)
The githyanki appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix (1991), which also included the g"lathk githyanki, the hr'a'cknir githyanki, and the mlar githyanki. The githyanki and these variants are reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).
The githyanki was further detailed in the first Planescape Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994). Githyanki society and their Astral cities are further developed, and their leader Vlaakith the Lich-Queen are described in A Guide to the Astral Plane (1996).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000–2002)
The githyanki first appears in the Psionics Handbook (2001), and then in this edition's Manual of the Planes (2001).
Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003–2008)
The githyanki appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003), and was further detailed in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (2004) (along with the psionic githyanki) and the Complete Psionic (2006).
The "Incursion" storyline running through July 2003's Dragon #309 and Dungeon #100/Polyhedron #159