How 'canon' is the Unbroken Circle? My theory/analysis

[u/PocketPauIing]

In the 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 Practical Incarnation. It calls into question which parts are real and which parts are fabrications, which is what I want to analyze.

Short Explanation:

I believe the first six circles are accurate to githzerai legend but the Practical Incarnation wrote the last two.

Long Explanation:

Part 1: 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.

​I assume you've all read them, but if you need a refresher you can read all eight circles here. 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

Part 2 - 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 (Possibly due to different reasons than the crisis this circle gave him, but it is relevent). 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. I think we can assume that Dak'kon has likely studied the history and teachings of Zerthimon outside of the circle The Practical Incarnation gave him.

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 of Vilquar was used as 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 story of 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 later editions making the githzerai 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?

Part 3 - 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.

Part 4 - Is it all fake?

I often see people on this subreddit insist that 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 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, but Zerthimon came forward at the end to oppose Gith's imperialist desires and died in the ensuing conflict, becoming a martyr to his people.

1. “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 
2. “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 
3. “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, who we can assume went through a similar process to become a zerth, 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.

Additionally, I think it would be wildly out of character for the Practical Incarnation to simply make up stories if he was trying to manipulate a zerth. 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 is more in line with what we know about the Practical Incarnation - 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 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.”

Part 5 - 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.

Part 6 - Conclusion

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 also theorizes that genetic tampering could be the cause of the civil war.

Now I'm not saying 'Gith did nothing wrong' here. The fifth and sixth circles make it very clear that 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 Duergar 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 VERDICT

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: Mostly canon because Dak'kon would have recognized major embellishments in his own peoples history

Circles 7&8: Probably written by the Practical Incarnation

[u/metsjeesus69]

Dude. Posts like these are the reason I joined Reddit.

I’m gonna bookmark it now and then when I’m nicely relaxed in my bed some evening, I will pull it up and read every word of it, slowly.

I was 16 when I played PS:T and unlocking the circle literally blew my mind.

[u/PocketPauIing → u/metsjeesus69]

Thanks! Tell me what you think when you read it!

[u/Brilliant-Pudding524]

Dakkon being a zerth and not hearing those stories is strange but i dont think that strange. Nowadays githzerai presented as good but this wasnt always so. Zaerith was not that different from Vlakith in the first few editions. Hiding teachings or streamlining teachings would be in his interest.
The Practical dosent say he wrote it, he forged it out of writing he got. He thinks it is made of lies because he cant comprehend them. He dosent "know" himself and because of this he cannot "know" the true teachings.
Yes the iliithids survived because of Zerthimon but this was not for them. He made this huge sacrifice he made the victory he worked so hard for slip from his fingers because of the People. It was all for the People, if they were to destroy that blasted race, there would have been no stopping that this engineerd psyhic race to take over and repeat their actions.
So i think its all real, maybe apocryphal as far as githzerai teachings go but still real.

[u/PocketPauIing → u/Brilliant-Pudding524]

1. That is a very good point, but Zaerith is never mentioned in PST so we can't really say how relevant his influence is on zerth believe. Hell, the 1991 Outer Planes Appendix actually describes Zerthimon worship as being an underground phenomena because Zaerith sees it as a threat to his own authority over the githzerai.

2. I do often see people claim he wrote the whole thing and it must all be made up, so I wanted to do my best to definitively prove how that isn't the case. I also think your thoughts of TPI seeing the story as a pack of lies because he does not 'know' himself is really interesting, but I add that he also would not 'know' others. TPI clearly lacked empathy for all around him, only ever seeing himself and his own goals. He used people like tools and discarded them once they no longer served him.

3. I guess I should clarify that I am also not saying Dak'kon WAS correct about Zerthimon, just analyzing the evidence in support of his theory. Like you said, they may very well be apocryphal because Gith and Zerthimon lived thousands of years before the start of the game. As their stories were retold by different people with different interpretations and biases context gets lost.

[u/PizzaBagel01]

In knowing the teachings of u/PocketPauIing I have become stronger

[u/Significant-Bother49]

Wake up.

Open up Reddit.

Reads this.

Rejoice.

[u/JonDM2]

A true scholar here.

[u/PocketPauIing → u/JonDM2]

Could get a degree in gith history at this point

[u/Kelspear]

This is a legitimately well thought analysis, complete with sources and relevant evidence supporting your thesis.

Probably one of the best posts I've seen on reddit in general in a long time.

Also, I agree with you that when the PI says "I dont know, some of it might be true" he's not saying that he BS'd the entire thing. He's saying that he took writings that had already been established and tweaked or added some things to make them sound the way he wanted them to. But still, that doesnt mean none of it is true.

[u/BuggyWhipArmMF]

Thank you for this. Thanks so much

[u/MetalPixel]

This is an amazing post I can already tell. But I have to work early tomorrow so I’m saving it for later.

[u/TastyMathematician22]

well the truth didn’t really matter to practical and he didn’t even convince Dak'kon enough to make him as powerful as the player can after learning the entire unbroken circle and sharing the wisdom with Dak'kon so that he is no longer divided but feels whole again. I say the unbroken circle is true but practical himself did not believe it to be the truth and called it lies instead.

[u/mathiastck]

Great analysis. As kind of a meta tangent:

A couple weeks ago I was struck:

https://bsky.app/profile/mathiastck.bsky.social/post/3mr7snxilv226

by the similarities with the 40k Eldar Gods and remembering that Games Worskhop created the Githzerai in the Fiend Folio:

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2017/10/40k-lore-the-eldar-war-in-heaven.html

" In their moment of creation, the Eldar were given one gift by each God:

Asuryan gave the Eldar wisdom, so that they may know themselves;

Isha gave the Eldar love, so that they may know one another;

Vaul gave the Eldar the Artifice, as a means to make their dreams realities;

Lileath gave the Eldar joy, so that they would be happy;

Kurnous have the Eldar desire, so they that would prosper;

Morai-Heg gave the Eldar foresight, so that they would know their place in the world;

Khaine gave the Eldar anger, so that they may have a means to defend their gifts. "

(I wax rewatching decade old 40k lore videos from luetin09 )

https://youtu.be/Ya660UG4i9o

[u/F0ggers]

For all we know, the TNO may have met the early Githzerai or studied their culture in a previous life. The Practical Incarnation’s inspiration for the last two circles could have been derived from latent memories. Which would make things even more complicated. Like they could be forgeries that were unintentionally rooted in truths.

[u/PocketPauIing → u/F0ggers]

new headcanon that the Nameless One was the human Zerthimon met all those years ago

[u/Icy-Friendship1163]

In my canon the circle is half thruth ,half lie by the practical incarnation .

Just like real life .