How is Vlaakith Still a Thing?



I have been playing Bladur's Gate 3 (a magnificent game, I highly recommend it) and I'm still trying to wrap my head around something....


WHY IS VLAAKITH BACK???


HOW is Vlaakith back!?


Oh, right... context...


I am seeped in D&D lore. I LURVE me some lore! I specifically know a LOT about D&D lore --- from a multitude of different worlds and eras -- because I decided to based my D&D campaign setting (Embria) on the idea that the various D&D adventures (especially the big memorable ones) serve as the historical points of the setting.

And due to this research, I have read deep into the adventures and what they entail. And there have been several adventures over the last two decades that focused heavily on githyanki and the destruction of their lich-queen Vlaakith.

The first of these adventures is The Incursion, ending in "The Lich Queen's Beloved" in Dungeon Magazine #100 (published July 2003). This was an adventure for the D&D 3.5 rules.

The next major series of adventures takes place over multiple adventures in the "Scales of War" adventure path (Dungeon Magazine #156 - #175, published July 2008 - February 2010). This adventure path was for the D&D 4th-edition rules. At the end of Incursion, Vlaakith is about to ascend into godhood, when the PCs arrive and destroy her. Happy dance time. This, of course, throws githyanki society into chaos, as one warlord after another vies for control over the next 5 canonical years.

The death of Vlaakith is specifically mentioned as a story point in Scales of War, with the reigns of githyanki rulership now in the firm hands of the warlord Zetch'r'r (who aided in the destruction of Vlaakith in The Incursion). Because of his plans to forge peace, Zetch'r'r was seen as weak, and thus not a good claimant to the throne. However, Tiamat offered to bolster his claim if Zetch'r'r allowed her dragons to use the capital of Githyanki power as a headquarters as well as send the githyanki armies into battle during the war she would instigate. Zetch'r'r reluctantly agreed. However, that was the point where everything changed. Because Tiamat committed all the githyanki forces to her war, and thus turning them away from the Eternal Crusade against the mind flayers, it broke the pact Tiamat made with Vlaakith. When the pact is broken, the soul of Gith was freed from her prison in Tiamat's Infernal Realm. In the Scales of War adventure "A Tyranny of Souls" (Dungeon magazine #168, July 2009), Gith arrives to the githyanki capital of Tu'narath and sunders the Scepter of Ephelomon; an artifact that serves as the representation of the pact between the gthyanki and Tiamat. Thus, the githyanki are freed from their service in Tiamat's war, and the Dragon Queen is forced to reply solely upon her dragon armies. Gith then wrests control of the city from the warlord Zetch'r'r (with the aid of the PCs). From here, it mentions her first order of business would be to make motions of peace towards the githzerai. The ending also questions whether she would even consider restarting the Eternal Crusade against the mind flayers, considering the damage it has wraught. So yeah... Vlaakith is no longer supposed to be a thing... at all! So why... WHY is she back in power as of Baldur's Gate 3? There is no mention of how she has been restored. It perplexes me...

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Official 5th edition Vlaakith stats here.

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