some HCs on Githyanki language, specifically the words of love and affection
Writing the githyanki, I've been thinking long and hard about their relationships, views on intimacy, languages and words of love - and what love means to them.
Then, with that, writing Orpheus/Voss, with them being so old and that they were (probably) around when they gained their freedom from the Illithid, but most definitely during the Pronouncement of the Two Skies, that to them, language would have been different to the gith that is spoken now.
For language is alive. It evolves, changes with the people who speak it, their culture and events. And from their people breaking free, then splitting in two, and over the thousands of years beneath Vlaakiths, to what they are now-
Finding that Orpheus and Voss say 'I love you' to eachother in one branch:
I noticed that a variant of 'sha va', 'sha'vah' is also used in another phrase both called out by Voss, Lae'zel and player Githyanki when they see Orpheus.
How the words are so closely related, but now when they're cheering for the return of Orpheus, it's more of a praise and formal respect/adoration.
I HC that since before Orpheus was imprisoned, until now, the githyanki have been so hardened that words and the acceptance love, affection, empathy, gentleness have been crushed out of them slowly, as we see in creches and well, how githyanki are now. And with it, the words lost, no longer existing in their language.
For example, even Lae'zel says they don't have a word for thank you.
So, when Orpheus and Voss say 'I love you' I HC that these were words lost or changed over the years and when they say it to eachother, they understand the meaning, they know the meaning. They remember, and feel.
But a githyanki of today overhearing them might not even understand the words, or the meaning may simply be muted now. Different. Lost.
I also think Orpheus would use these older words because he still stirs with some of that which the gith left behind, crushed, split in two.
Shamelessly plugging some of my Orpheus/Voss fic but this kind of sums up a little of how I see Orpheus and who he might be, and what maybe, some of the now githyanki were, too (now that's all bled into the githzerai).
Voss had seen some with heart and soul like Orpheus in their new creches, some leftovers from the last civil war, hearts dancing the edges of doubt. Most quickly had those doubts beaten, extinguished out of them. Focus shifted, purpose realigned.
Voss had always believed Orpheus would have been one of those githyanki, realigned, if he were not the Prince. That influence spread to his honour guard. And quietly, those that admired him still.
I've also made up a couple of words while writing my githyanki fics, and one specifically I had in mind centreing around his HC is:
Rrav'kil - term of endearment for someone below you in rank/your underling
I took this from:
Ra'stil - Ally
I HC ra'stil is derived from rrav'kil and is now the term used for someone close to you, no matter the rank, mostly, that you respect, can trust, would stand back to back with.
But rrav'kil back in Orpheus and Voss' youth was a gentler term. Affection, for Orpheus, reserved for his favourite vin'iisks (Voss); for Voss with a lover, close friend beneath his status. But it held a different weight, then. More affection and informality.
I have a few other HCs regarding githyanki language and some I've used in fics, but I shan't go on too much. and I may add to this later on. But for now, feelies.
My mind's been whirring a tonne about the og trio the past several days because of @gothyanki and @nothingimportantanywhere so this is all thanks to them, their ideas and I just need to write some of this down.
It mostly stems from our desire to make more of Gith, of Vlaakith 1 and why she did what she did rather than the classic FR evil because evil.
However, thinking more on my githyanki language of love and affection and how too that impacted on their culture, and how they could have been, once, a more family, emotionally connected and caring within eachother, race.
During the uprising and gaining their freedom from the Illithid, I HC that Gith, Vlaakith and Zerthimon grew close and worked together for their people, becoming these revered figureheads for everything they achieved.
Gith the charismatic, powerful, furious leader; Vlaakith almost devotion to her, initially. A quieter presence of the three, but intelligent, scheming - close to what the githyanki of today see as gish (assassins and spies). Where Zerthimon was a balance between the three. Strategist, speaker. And they were all messily in love.
They formed (what they thought) unbreakable bonds between the three of them from the strife, the pain. Enduring slavery, breaking their shackles, and becoming their own people.
And then once freedom, the purpose of gaining that freedom that bound them all together is no more and changes. It's something else now. Survival; beginnings; hope; creation; domination; power; celebration. Whatever it means, not all three of them end up sharing the same vision. Because going through something like that changes you, irrevocably.
And some point through it all, there was Orpheus.
And for me, I think he could have been a catalyst for a lot of the breakdown of the three.
I like to HC that he's the son of Gith and Zerthimon, and initially while gaining their freedom, he was raised between all three, but when they saw he'd inherited his mothers powers too (they'd desperately hoped. I think this is a big reason maybe why Gith had a child. A failsafe, just incase the worst happened to her and there would be someone else to carry on where she left off) Gith and Zerthimon started to train Orpheus to hone his skills and powers so he could be the heir Gith wanted.
And Vlaakith watched most of this from the sidelines, feeling more like an outsider everyday. Resentment building that she wasn't, and couldn't truly be part of Orpheus in the way Gith and Zerthimon were.
(I need to be inside your son the way you are, my lover, but can never be. Vlaakith a little unhinged. Gith and Vlaaktih the original toxic yuri write that down)
She helped train him too, but Orpheus preferred his fathers skills and ways, and what psionic power Vlaakith had paled in comparion to Gith's. She was a shadow to so many, but she never expected she'd start becoming one to the two most important people in her life.
(re Orpheus knowing about both his parents: I'm unsure how explicit I want them to be about that with him or how much he or they cared to tell him the specifics of his dad. I think it's pretty obvious, but the significance of them being a 'unit' rather than just, Zerth being an imporant 'figure' in Orpheus' life idk. I'm fully on board with (fuck) Boy Prince Orpheus era where he's a little high on my power and status lording over all you losers. But that comes more once Gith's ascended the throne)
Anyway. So post-freedom, post Gith on the throne and Vlaakith becoming her right hand, Zerth doing his thing and they kind of....really started to fracture in their ideals and ways.
Gith became obsessed with never being a slave to anyone again. That fear drove her almost mad, I think. And so did Zerthimon turning away from her own vision, especially since they shared a son. He was the future, the security, the power and promise of their people, of her vision, and freedom.
She saw it as a betrayal. As him lying down and quashing that rage he should feel after all they'd been through. Why aren't you angry, why don't you want to rage across the endless and all after what happened to us and rip apart the planes which are now ours?
He tried, consistent at her side to sway her. But the uprising had changed her. Broken her in a way he'd been too close to see. Now stood back, the cracks were like maws.
Vlaakith stood fast by Gith during the civil war. If she doesn't want you anymore, Zerth, then she'll only have me. But Vlaakith's jealousy over Gith's power, how the people revered her, Orpheus - fucking Orpheus - and once more, Vlaakith was the shadow, the second glance, third.
(Orpheus' thoughts on the civil war are for another post because hoo boy that'll be a long one too)
Everyone wanted Gith. An audience, honour to view, to speak to witness their breaker of shackles.
Everyone took a piece, while Vlaakith was losing hers.
Obsessiveness consumed her to the point that 'if I can't have you anymore, no-one else will'.
So fast forward to their visit to Tiamat, and Gith being the offering for the dragons, and Vlaaktih sitting upon Gith's throne, becoming her.
I can't have you, so no-one else can-
I can't be you-
I can be you, watch me.
Then, with Oprheus, it's only sensible to her that she imprisons him. But that takes time. Patience. The shadows she's so used to, and ultiamtely, sealing Gith's power in a neat little box until that day she figures out how to consume Orpheus and his power for her own, and there will be nothing left for Gith then, but her.
Then from Vlaaktih, broken and bitter and twisted by so much, this bleeds and breeds and spreads and beats into the githyanki culture and the githyanki we know today, with so much less love, no family, empathy-
-just paragons of rage, power, hate, I take what's mine, I keep it, I am what I say I am, i conquer worlds, I conquer you.
