Gnoll

Gnolls are a humanoid race that most closely resemble hyenas that dwell in the eastern parts of Faerûn and are known for their savage culture and warlike ways.

Physical description
Gnolls are extremely tall, with the average member of the race standing on average between 7' and 7'6". Though gnolls are relatively lean for their height, weighing in usually between 280 to 320 lbs, the race cuts an impressive visage. In part because of their height and lean musculature, gnolls are very quick compared with many other races such as humans. Gnoll skin is a greenish-gray, and their furry hide is light or dark brown marked sometimes with spots or stripes. Many gnolls also have a dirty yellow to reddish-gray crest-like mane that stands on end when a gnoll is angry.

It is believed by some that gnolls have traces of demonic blood, which may be evidenced by unusual features found among some of the gnoll bloodlines. These may include talons, gleaming red eyes, or black fur with fiery orange spots.

Female gnolls are indistinguishable from males by size, in spite of a reputation for being shorter. In fact, so similar are male and female gnolls in appearance that they are often mistaken for one another. The only reliable way to tell the difference, other than through a close physical examination, is if a female is pregnant or openly nursing.

Gnolls have very short lifespans when compared with other sapient humanoids, living only 30 or so years on average and maturing to adulthood at a remarkable speed. Gnolls do not, however, age particularly dramatically except at the end of their lifespans, at which point the decline is sharp and deadly, quickly ending in death. When a gnoll died, its bones were sometimes harvested by the other gnolls and animated by rituals into a witherling, a type of skeletal gnoll.

Psychology
Moreso than many other humanoid races, primal instinct remains a strong part of the gnoll psyche. Gnolls are natural predators and savor the thrills of the hunt. Almost all gnolls prefer the wilderness to the civilized enclaves favored by humans, dwarves, or other similar races and those that do take to cities usually think of them as just another kind of landscape.

Many other races find the gnoll psyche feral and aggressive, male and female equally, and the behavioral tendencies of the race can certainly give this impression. Gnolls start fighting among one another at a very early age and as soon as they can walk, many crawl into places away from the eyes of adults where they engage in vicious, often lethal battles. A gnoll is more likely to demand answers than it is to actually ask a question. Gnolls, however, do not see this as an act of hostility, but rather a basic demonstration of strength. .

Though gnolls are not necessarily evil, the craving of the hunt and primal bloodlust that inhabit the gnoll mind make many of the race lean towards chaotic evil by reflex. Gnolls who succumb to this tendency often become nomadic savages, wreaking havoc wherever they can, giving gnolls their fearsome reputation as slaving brigands throughout the world. Fortunately, such creatures are rarely united and although gnolls as a whole have a strong affinity for family and blood ties, this friendliness does not often extend to gnolls who belong to a different pack and the race commonly makes war on itself.

Other gnoll practices might seem equally strange, such as the gnoll propensity for scavenging. At its most basic level, this tendency leads many gnolls to collect trophies that remind them of past victories, items sometimes grisly though just as often simple and mundane, Gnoll trackers sometimes use this to their benefit, keeping scraps of clothing or other objects with the scent of their prey on them, which they use to point them in the direction of their quarry.

This tendency can lead to the even more alien gnoll practice of carrion eating. Unlike most races, gnolls have few, if any, qualms about eating the dead of other races. When gnolls strike a village they do not only leave no survivors but no corpses, eating most of those whom they don't take as slaves. There are even indications that some gnolls take this practice a step further, actually raiding graveyards for fresh corpses on which to feed.

Culture
In spite of the savage nature of the gnolls, there are some aspects to their culture that are not inherently repulsive. Gnolls place a very strong value on family for instance, respecting blood ties perhaps more than any other aspect of a relationship. Though gnolls within a pack commonly fight with each other for dominance, these battles are quickly forgotten after their resolution, and in most situations, gnolls of the same bloodline are loyal friends and allies to one another. These bloodlines are almost always traced maternally, through the female line.

This loyalty to family is particularly obvious during combat, either with rival gnoll packs or other races. Gnolls who fight side by side regularly throw away personal glory in order to help their brethren. Perhaps most surprisingly, when a gnoll is separated from clan and family their instinctive need for such blood ties may lead them to form a surrogate "pack" from those whom they choose to befriend. To these unlikely allies the gnoll is as loyal and faithful as they would their own brothers or sisters, embracing the outsiders as if they were family.

Another common trait of gnolls, that of scavenging, is taken to new levels by gnolls who live in the wild as most do. While all gnolls have an innate tendency for collecting souvenirs and trophies, nomadic packs, particularly the savage ones who have little contact with other races except during wartime, often find few other ways to acquire technology, having crafted few tools of their own. The result of this is that most gnolls rely on the other races as their source of wealth and technology. This extends to arms and weaponry, giving gnoll armor a unique aesthetic where each suit is typically made kitbashed together from scavenged pieces of armor found either on victims or abandoned.

Gnolls of all kinds find an affinity for hyenas, who many see as their brethren and whom they keep as pets or for hunting.

Mainstream Gnoll Culture
Though gnolls of all kinds have a strong loyalty towards family, gnolls do not extend such courtesies to those outside their pack however and mainstream gnoll culture has a much deserved reputation for brutality. Most gnolls are nomadic, wandering from land to land and living off of raids on the local populations. Victims of these attacks should expect no mercy from their attackers and those who are not killed are taken as slaves where they are brutalized and abused both physically and mentally. Gnolls detest physical labor and so to ensure utter loyalty from slaves take the brutalization of slave to almost an art form. For this purpose most packs have specialized slavers known as tantekurash or "spirit breakers" who make it their business to break the will of a slave through repetitive torture.

The process wreaked on a slave's mind by the tantekurash is brutal and often irrevocable. Those captives who do not submit are eaten, often in front of other slaves as yet another form of torment. Slaves who accept their fate often live short and brutal lives, which are ended by them being devoured. Few victims are lucky enough to be rescued and those that are may take months to shake the scars from their psyche and recover.

An even less fortunate few find their minds so broken that they actually embrace the brutality of their captors, becoming the kryshantel or "savage souls," who follow their masters into battle as thralls. Most of these individuals are broken creatures, little more conscious than the hyenas gnolls favor as pets, but a handful retain their intellect, effectively becoming gnolls in all but form. These kryshantel are the most dangerous since they can, unlike regular gnolls, act as infiltrators, performing sabotage and laying the ground for gnoll raids, too often undetected until it is already too late.

Variant Cultures
Though most gnoll packs embrace their reputation for savagery, others refrain from such utter depravity. These clans are also nomadic but unlike the others rarely engage in violent raids except when seriously provoked. Likewise, though they retain the natural gnoll bloodlust they take no joy in torture or unnecessary cruelty, embracing hunting and tracking over outright slaughter.

In some cases these gnolls might even come to befriend or at least peacefully interact with the members of other races, offering their services as trappers or hunters. Generally, however, gnolls prefer their own kind and except when on business rarely visit neighboring villages dominated by members of another race. Likewise, these gnolls remain aggressive and quick to anger, meaning visitors should be careful not to offend.

Religion
Gnolls are most often worshipers of the demon lord Yeenoghu, who some claim created them. Though some pay only nominal reverence, many gnolls are fanatically devoted to their dark overlord and it is his influence which is one of the primary causes of gnoll savagery. Some gnolls believe it is their purpose as Yeenoghu's servants to cleanse the weak from the world, serving a higher purpose through the slaughter they spread. The original deity of gnolls was, in fact, known as Gorellik, but years of Yeenoghu stealing his followers has left him with little command of his people, if he even still survives.

In spite of their devotion to Yeenoghu, few gnolls have any interest in ritual and there are few clerics or shamans to be found among the savage packs. Typically, gnolls see their very brutality as a sign of their devotion to the demon lord, painting the eye of Yeenoghu onto their weapons and armor and howling his name as a war cry in battle.

Gnolls venerate Yeenoghu by celebrating their victories with demonic rituals and blood offerings. Occasionally, Yeenoghu rewards such a celebrant by allowing the gnoll to be possessed by a demonic spirit, marking the gnoll as one of his chosen. Such gnolls are known as fangs of Yeenoghu. Hyenas that feast upon the slain foe of a fang of Yeenoghu are transformed into full-grown gnolls, allowing a fang to quickly increase the gnoll population.

A few gnolls are led, however, by warlocks who make powerful pacts with the demonic servants of Yeenoghu and guide the packs they lead through frightful visions paid for with even more horrific rituals. The most terrible of these is the Corruption of the Soul Consumed, where living victims are eaten alive by female hyenas who are then swiftly impregnated with evistros or barlguras formed from the tormented souls of the dead, a conception followed by an even swifter birth.

Those gnolls who turn away from the worship of Yeenoghu often embrace no deity, seeing no clear difference between demons and gods. Sometimes these gnolls seek out instead the patronage of fey spirits of the natural world, embracing the primal essence of nature. Others seek out the gods of other races.

Subraces

 * Flind: These gnolls are shorter, broader, and stronger than others; flinds are often found leading a tribe or settlement of gnolls. Flinds use a primitive flail-like weapon called a flindbar, which consists of a pair of metal rods linked together by a chain.


 * Half-gnoll: Halfbreeds born from the human and gnoll parents.