Gnoll
Gnolls, or hyenafolk, are a humanoid race renowned for their tremendous laziness, and fierce savagery. Structuring themselves into packs, gnolls survive through raiding and pillaging and acquiring slaves who facilitate their slothful lifestyles.
Basic Information
Ecology and Habitats
Gnolls, despite their intelligence, interact with the natural world more like animals rather than humanoids as they do not alter their environment. In fact, despite their vicious nature, they are normally good for the surrounding environment as they are scavengers without compare, happily wolfing down rancid carrion left by more discerning creatures. While capable predators the average gnoll hunter does very little actual hunting as that requires too much effort, they much prefer to drive weaker predators from their kills though the prospect of more slaves is enough to rouse them to action. Gnolls apply this scavenging to looting and stealing clothes, armour, weapons, even their homes from others. Perhaps it is no wonder that gnolls are such prolific slavers when they have no interest in doing anything labour intensive themselves.
A gnoll's life is comparatively short and violent, starting life as pups they are not normally born naturally instead their mother is given a crude, brutal caesarian as they are ripped from the womb in their first tribute to the Mother of Monsters. Very rarely a gnoll pup chews its way free from its mother's womb, such a vicious gnoll is destined for greatness becoming powerful leaders of many, many tribes. Normally gnoll pups are delivered in litters of between three and five, young gnolls are dangerous by three and physically fully matured by eight years old. Females are normally fertile by ten, unlucky females mature slower, some not becoming fertile until they are eighteen. This is a problem as in gnoll culture those who have not given birth or been favoured by the goddess by fifteen are sacrificed to appease her. The average life span of a gnoll is twenty eight and while most make it into their thirties many die young from violence, only the most canny and lucky gnolls ever see their fortieth birthday.
Additional Information
Social Structure
For gnolls the pack is everything, none would chose a life alone, gnolls always travel in packs, normally with a single male leader who takes on a lofty, often pretentious title like "Emperor", "Consort of Lamashtu" or "King of all Gnolls", the leader maintains their position through violence and their authority extends only as far as their claws can reach. Gnolls normally rove in small packs of a few hunters, though their definition of hunting is more like scavenging. Typically these tribes only grow as large as two hundred but they can get much larger when led by a truly exceptional leader. Every region infested with gnolls has one larger, more successful band led by the strongest gnoll whose influence can be felt throughout the region. Despite their vicious natures, gnolls rarely war amongst themselves seeing little to be gained from it as gnolls never take other gnolls as slaves. Despite their chaotic nature, gnoll society has a strict set of laws that revolve around the group: from birth gnolls are taught that the good of the pack outweighs that of the individual. These laws are deeply skewed as there is no punishment for killing a non-gnoll (unless he was a pack mate's slave) while forcing another gnoll to work incurs the harshest penalty. In gnoll society one punishment is feared above all, exile, it is considered worse than death to be condemned to endless loneliness. Those exiled either seek new companions amongst non-gnolls like orcs or trolls or seek death swift and final. When exiled the gnoll is shaved and then scarred to forever mark him as banished, only the most heinous crimes are punished by exile; forcing a gnoll to work, betraying gnolls to their racial enemies, worshipping a deity not associated with Lamashtu or freeing a slave.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Large and powerfully built, gnolls appear as a profane hybrid of man and hyena that stands taller, bulkier and furrier than man. The gnoll's stance is probably its most human feature, it stands upright like a human though with a noticeable hyena-like hunch to its back. Their torso is also more human than hyena, though still covered in the mangy fur and the gnoll's muscular arms end in clawed, human hands capable of any manipulation a human could do. Gnolls' legs have the double jointed legs of a hyena, this gives them an odd lopping-hopping gait when they run on their hind legs. Though capable of walking upright, a gnoll's canine-like hindquarters allow it to drop to all fours like a dog for greater mobility. A gnoll's head is its most hyena-like feature possessing the hyena's short, blunt muzzle, their muscular, bone-crunching jaws, their black eyes and their rounded ears.
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