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In the cult classic Planescape: Torment, one of its most influential and iconic writings is the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon - the retelling of life and death of the githzerai's most important prophet and martyr, Zerthimon. This document is carried by Dak'kon, a devotee of Zerthimon. At some point in his life, Dak'kon suffered a crisis of faith when he came to doubt the intentions behind Zerthimon's action nearing the end of his life. The idea that his faith and society could have been built on a lie distresses Dak'kon deeply, and only by discovering Zerthimon's true intentions is he healed of his mental strife.
However, at the end of the game, its revealed that the circle was written by the protagonist in a previous life. It calls into question which parts are real and which parts are fabrications, which is what I want to analyze today.
Also, spoiler warning for a near 30 year old video game.
(Do note that when I argue whether the history are 'canon' or 'true' , I am referring to if the stories are aligned with actual githzerai belief, not that these legends are 100% accurate to what Gith and Zerthimon's lives actual were. They lived thousands of years before the start of the game, and as stories are repeated by people with their own interpretations and biases, context gets lost.)
TL:DR
I believe the first six circles are accurate to githzerai legend but the Practical Incarnation wrote the last two.
The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon
The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon is a githzerai religious text recounting the compelling and tragic story of a man who suffers greatly to protect his people from their slavers (the illithids) and later from themselves. It was given to Dak'kon in game by the Practical Incarnation, a previous form of the game's protagonist, the Nameless One.
You can read all eight circles here, but for the sake of this post, I will summarize the relevant ones.
The Third Circle of Zerthimon tells the story of Zerthimon suffering torture at the hands of his slaver, the illithid Arlathii Twice-Deceased. Zerthimon was believed to have accepted this punishment on the Pillars of Silence to hide the fact he was a part of the rebellion against their oppressors.
The Fourth Circle of Zerthimon tells the story of Vilquar. He acted as a double agent for his illithid slaver, pretending to be an ally to Zerthimon but working against him in secret, resulting in many deaths. Upon discovering his treachery, Zerthimon silenced the uprising and tricked him into believing he had won. Vilquar expected a reward from the illithids, but once his usefulness ran out, they consumed him, allowing the rebellion to remain in secret.
The Fifth and Sixth Circles tell the story of Zerthimon meeting Gith, an intelligent and charismatic rebel who he ended up following. The fifth circle tells of their meeting, describing that Zerthimon was incredibly infatuated with her as a speaker and leader. However, they grew apart due to philosophical differences. The sixth circle describes their falling out and the beginning of the civil was – Gith wanted to lead a complete genocide of the illithids and to establish their own empire, Zerthimon wanted their people to abandon the war and heal. The war that ensued allowed the illithids to survive Gith’s wrath
Dak'kon's Crisis
Dak'kon was once a highly respected Zerth, a disciple of Zerthimon who acted as a leader in the community, until his own doubt destroyed him. While it is unclear the process one has to go through to become a zerth, we understand they act similar to priests in githzerai communities.
If the Nameless One becomes a mage, he can learn the teaching of Zerthimon by reading the Unbroken Circle of Zerhthimon. Despite being written in the gith's circular Tir'su, the Nameless One is able to understand the words (which could mean nothing).
A bit of nuance you don't get from reading the text alone is that the story of Vilquar is somewhat glorified among the githzerai. They believe that his treachery was a necessary evil that allowed lulled the illithids into a false sense of security that allowed the gith to act when the right time came.
What Dak'kon came to believe is that this story glorified Vilquar's actions for propaganda. That by pointing out how treachery is sometimes necessary, good even, it lays the groundwork to justify Zerthimon preventing Gith from committing complete genocide against the illithids. He begins reading into the third circle and theorizes that perhaps Zerthimon didn't have his people's best interest at heart.
The idea that his messiah, a man whose life he spent preaching the philosophy of, was a puppet of his race's slavers is something to no ones surprise deeply distresses Dak'kon. As a result, it affects his ability to use wield Karach blade, a sword made of Limbo's chaos matter tied to its weilder's emotion. Kii'na, another Zerth you meet, comments his karach is as thin as a mist. Honestly the karach blades are much cooler than the githzerai being unarmed monks and i will stand on that hill.
However, if the Nameless One is able to study the circle further, he is able to discover something Dak'kon hasn't. With an intelligence of 19 and up, he is able to rearrange the six circles and discover two more. These do not continue the story, merely describe Zerthimon's moral teachings.
The Seventh Circle is a parable telling the importance of patience. The upirising of the enslaved Gith did not happen all at once, it happened through small victories that built up over time.
The Eighth Circle is a parable about how doubt can destroy a person's will. If one does not truly believe in what they are doing, they must act to change it, even if it leads them to suffer.
Discovering the truth is what restores Dak'kon's faith. In finding Zerthimon truly did have his people's best interest at heart, his mind is healed and his doubt is cleared. Happy ending, right? WRONG!
Where It All Goes Wrong
This nice character arc comes crashing down at the end of the game when you meet the Practical Incarnation, the version of the Nameless One to give Dak'kon the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon. You find out he created the circles with the intention of making Dak'kon a more powerful minion.
So... is it all fake?
I often see people insist that due to this, the entire story told must be fake. I've even seen some go as far to question if Zerthimon himself was a real person. Undoubtably, this revelation makes the entire story questionable. I mean, the practical incarnation calls it 'a collection of lies', right? But I feel its a little more complex than that when analyzing the other interactions in the game, Dak'kon's history, and the Practical Incarnation's history.
From a meta perspective, the strongest argument for the circles being true to canon is that the first and sixth circles align with every recounting of gith history at the time - their people were enslaved by mindflayers for generations, a woman named Gith rallied them together and led a massive slave revolt, Zerthimon came forward at the end to oppose Gith's imperialist desires and died in the ensuing conflict, becoming a martyr to his people.
“In githzerai lore there is a central figure that is revered above all others — Zerthimon. The githyanki believe him to be a great god that was once a man. According to githzerai lore, when the original race broke free of the mind flayers, it was Zerthimon that opposed Gith, claiming that she was hateful and unfit to lead the people. There ensued a great battle and the people were polarized by the two powers. Those that chose to support Gith became the githyanki. Those that supported Zerthimon became the githzerai. Zerthimon died in the battle, but in his sacrifice he freed the githzerai from Gith.” – Outer Planes Appendix for the Monstrous Compendium, 1991
“Originally, their ancestors were humans enslaved by the evil illithid race. But at a point in the far distant past, they were led to freedom by a great female warrior named Gith. But upon gaining that freedom, the people immediately became divided. According to legend, a man named Zerthimon stepped forward to accuse Gith of being unfit to rule the newly freed slaves. Gith, Zerthimon said, was evil and would lead the people to ruin. A great battle was fought between the two factions, in which Zerthimon was killed.” – Planes of Chaos Boxed Set, 1994
“When Gith ordered her people to continue their campaign to annihilate the illithids and establish an empire of conquest of their own, not all followed her command. A new figure, by the name of Zerthimon, had gained a significant following and challenged Gith’s plans and her leadership. Gith was evil, the newcomer claimed, and would lead the people into darkness and tyranny not unlike the illithids themselves… Zerthimon was killed and his followers, now called githzerai, retreated to Limbo in defeat.” - A Guide to the Astral Plane, 1996
From an in game perspective, the characters and stories mentioned in the Unbroken Circle are mentioned by other githzerai. Firstly, the term 'Vilquar's Eye' is presented as a normal term of phrase among their people, along with multiple others that have no connection to the circles written by the Practical Incarnation.
When speaking with Kii'na we see this in action as she compares Dak'kon to Vilquar twice in the same conversation.
Keep in mind that Vilquar is not some one off mention, it's one of the most important stories to Dak’kon’s arc. The fourth circle is the catalyst for his crisis of faith. He believed that by glorifying Vilquar’s betrayal of Zerthimon, their people glorified Zerthimon’s betrayal of Gith. It was the seed that planted his doubt.
If the circles were fake stories written by the Practical Incarnation, there is no way Kii'na would have referenced them. Firstly, the Pracical Incarnation gave the circles to Dak'kon after the sacking of Shra'kt'lor, so he couldn't have taught her that story before being banished. Secondly, she does not recognize the Nameless One, so he didn't teach it to her himself. Thirdly, non-githzerai are not allowed inside Shra'kt'lor, so he probably couldn't have shown it to literally anybody in that city.
(From the Planes of Chaos boxed set, 1994)
Additionally, I think it would be wildly out of character for the Practical Incarnation to simply make up stories. This is one of the most intelligent and diligent characters in the game. He planned every outcome of his goals years in advance and considered every angle of his plans. This is a man who spent months, if not years, manipulating a woman into falling madly in love with him, only for him to kill her and use that love to bind her to the planes as a guide.
The Nameless One can read the circle despite being written in Tir'su without even learning how to speak it. This means the Practical Incarnation would have studied their culture enough to have learned to read and write their language at an advanced level to even create the circle.
I ask you, what sounds more fitting for this character - that he would use his intelligence and cunning to create the most authentic historical artifact he could, or that he would simply write his own RPF fanfic and hope Dak'kon, who has spent his whole life as a preaching Zerthimon's name, would just not notice?
What I believe is that when the Practical Incarnation says “Perhaps the words carry some truth – I know not.” he isn’t saying “Idk, I just made that shit up” and more “I didn’t go out of my way to verify the authenticity of Githzerai legend.”
So... is it All Real?
I would argue the same answer as the first. It's complicated. The practical incarnation does refer to it as being a collection of lies, so where can we draw the line? Which circles are canon, which aren’t?
We need to keep in mind the Practical Incarnation's goal with his writings - clear Dak'kon's mind of doubt in Zerthimon. This was obviously not done out of the kindness of his heart, the karach blade Dak'kon wields is tied to his emotion and mental state. He was attempting to tell Dak'kon what he wants to hear to make him a better fighter.
What I believe are entirely false are the seventh and eighth circles. Firstly, Dak'kon, despite being a zerth, has never seen these circles or heard these teachings, which is suspicious as hell.
Secondly, these are the circles that accomplish the practical incarnations goal. After reading the final circle, Dak'kon's stats become boosted, as well as his sword. At high morale, he becomes a better spellcaster out of his desire to protect you, and at low morale he becomes a better fighter out of his desire to kill you.
Conclusions
The first tragedy of this theory is that the reinstatement of Dak'kon's faith was a farce and he'll never know. So much happens after the party is split in the endgame, the Nameless One never gets a chance to tell Dak'kon the truth before dying and (possibly) being resurrected in the endgame.
Potentially though, it leads to a darker conclusion. If the historical accounts in the Unbroken Circle are true, but the moral teachings are false, this opens the possibility that Dak'kon could have been right about Zerthimon.
If Arlathii Twice-Deceased genuinely suspected Zerthimon was plotting to rebel against him, implanting orders that persist after his death is something the illithids are more than capable of. In fact, this exact scenario plays out in the 1998 adventure Masters of Eternal Night.
In this story, you explore a nautiloid that has essentially been frozen in time since the original illithid empire, and can fight alongside their rebelling enslaved Gith (referred to as ‘forerunners’). If you kill the illithids, two of the forerunners immediately turn on their leader Nilton due to psionic conditioning.
Additionally, its sequel (also from 1998) Dawn of the Overmind theorizes that genetic tampering could be the cause of the civil war.
Now I'm not saying 'Gith did nothing wrong' here. She never broke free from the cycle of violence she was born into, and would have likely repeated many of the illithid's cruelties if she was not stopped. But it was the civil war that allowed them to escape the wrath of Gith, crippling her effort to destroy the illithid empire once and for all.
And what was the first thing the surviving illithids did upon escaping? Did they learn from their old ways and change as a society? No, they fled to Faerun’s Underdark and continued their ways, subjecting the Duegar dwarves to the exact same enslavement the Gith faced. The civil war very much ended in their favor.
But I digress as I am straying away from PST analysis and getting into fanfic territory here, so:
MY FINAL REVIEW
Circles 1&6: Canon because they line up with previously established lore
Circle 4: Canon because it is referenced by other githzerai
Circles 2,3&5: Probably canon because I feel Dak'kon would have recognized major embellishments in his own peoples history
Circles 7&8: Probably written by the Practical Incarnation
If Voss was hanging around in camp instead of the sewer. I still can't believe they did nothing with the fact that he is older than the dead 3 and Karsus.
Mother Gith's stellar parenting (also vines that will always live in my heart)
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.
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Gith was a literal single bio-parent (like BG3-era githyanki)
Some other option (elaborate in comments if you want!)
Voting ended onNov 9, 2023
It's been pretty easy for me to dodge around the question of Orpheus' bio-parentage in the fic I'm writing (one is set before he was so much as a twinkle in anyone's eye and the other is from child!Voss' POV very early on in their acquaintance), but it's going to come up at some point if I continue the series and I genuinely can't decide what I want to go with. I personally don't think it's that important - what matters is that Orpheus is Gith's spiritual successor, that they're alike on some level - but I also don't necessarily want to keep it ambiguous forever. All the interesting headcanons I've seen floating around gave me the absolutely galaxy-brained idea to Put It To The People (in the form of a poll that will probably max out at three responses, but That Is Fine - every little helps!)
The Nameless One: What is that blade you have? It shifted; moved in response to your voice.
Dak'kon: It is a karach blade. It is an object that lets others know the rank of the wielder.
The Nameless One: What rank does the blade signify?
Dak'kon: The blade is a symbol carried by the zerth. A zerth is one who knows the words of Zerthimon.
Dak'kon: In knowing the words of Zerthimon, they know themselves.
The Nameless One: Zerthimon?
Dak'kon: Zerthimon founded our race. He knew the githzerai before they knew themselves
Dak'kon: He defined the People. He gave them one mind.
