Gnoll (Noll)
Ill-tempered alka that are native to Ardlam, the gnolls have the appearance of upright hyenas. Slothful by nature, the gnolls dominated the area known as the Skretir Desert in order to work with the nearby hobgoblins to create a massive slave empire. The most different realm variant of the alka, gnolls lack the strong scent capabilities of other alka, instead gaining increased bulk and the ability to see in the dark.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
A vast majority of gnolls speak only Alkan, and are far too lazy to learn another language. A rare few often pick up Ard Common, Hobgoblin or Terran, but most rely on a slave translator instead.
Shared customary codes and values
Gnolls are lazy creatures, who despite their strength, despise the idea of doing any sort of menial work. It is for this reason that they are such prolific slavers; they utilize slaves to toil and perform tasks they would rather not do.
Average technological level
Gnolls don't create items on their own, instead stealing works and ideas from other races, or forcing another race to create for them.
Common Etiquette rules
Gnolls value strength and material possessions, and thus lesser gnolls must present gifts to a higher rank gnoll when they visit. A gnoll who offends another and can't defend themselves from the violent assault of the offended is likely to have their large portions of their possessions stripped from them.
Common Dress code
Being covered in fur and dwelling in the hot desert leaves gnolls to mostly be nocturnal creatures. They wear little other than their opulent accessories during they day, with most of the daylight hours spent sleeping or lounging. During the night, they done armor and other protective gear and venture outside, wear their fur provides most of the protection they need from the night chill.
Art & Architecture
Gnolls don't build their own settlements, instead have utilized slave labor to rebuild the ancient settlements of the past empires. Those that life outside of the desert and the Sultanate instead find caves or abandoned buildings and squat in them, living out life as a bandit or the leader of a tribe of easily subjugated creatures, such as surface Enthos or Hobgoblin tribes.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Gnoll births are particularly brutal, with C-sections commonplace and with the young often eating and clawing their way out of their mothers stomach.
Coming of Age Rites
Giving birth is a rite of passage for female gnolls, as the process can be quite painful and even deadly. A female who has not given birth by the age of 15 is an oddity, and one who as not given birth by 18 is viewed with shame and disgrace, and might be sacrificed to Dibua. Male gnolls have less objective rite of passages; such events are usually determined by their career paths. Most male gnolls are put to work as soon as they can walk and talk, which is generally around 4 or 5 years of age.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Gnolls eat their dead, as they view corpses as just meat with no attachment to the departed soul, and why would they let good meat go to waste. The sole exception to this is the royal families, who's bodies are entombed in the great pyramid at Lona-El, as those bodies are reserved for Dibua alone.
Common Taboos
Gnolls are vicious and brutal, and thus view kindness and empathy as for the weak and stupid. A gnoll would never willingly free one of their slaves, although they might promise freedom in the hopes of exploiting more work out of the slave. For the right price, a gnoll will do just about anything.
Common Myths and Legends
Most gnolls exclusively worship Dibua, the alkan goddess of Wealth and Dynasties. She is believed to have manifested during the Age of Conflict, when Alka captured Ranva and attempted to redeem her by putting her to work toiling to fix her many misdeeds. The drops of sweat the fell from her was said to birthed Dibua, who freed her "mother" in exchange for 80% of her vast fortune and a large portion of her power. During the Age of Separation, it is believed that Dibua promised the alka lost in Ardlam accesses to this great sum of wealth in exchange for worship, and they became the first gnolls.
Historical figures
The current Pharaoh of the Skrefal Sultanate is a gnoll named Iuaa-Emmar IV. She is obsessed with uncovering ancient relics from the Dreadlands so that she can increase her power beyond the desert.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Gnolls see little value in physical beauty, instead only caring about the physical strength one might bestow on their children and the amount of wealth they might gain through courtships. Due to their ill tempered natures, many gnolls love to despoil beauty, often physically scaring and disfiguring more attractive slaves.
Gender Ideals
Gnoll society is matriarchal, with female gnolls in positions of power. The highest ranking male gnoll can only ever rival that of the most lowborn newborn female in terms of societal importance.
Courtship Ideals
Females are often free to take whatever male they please, so long as that male is not in the position of a higher ranking female. They often rule over a haram of males to suit their tastes. Like other alka, a female enters annual periods of heat, and such periods can often be fatal for one or more mates as the female gets more and more brutal and forceful.
Relationship Ideals
Due to their greedy and savage natures, and their treatment of other races as nothing more than tools for their own pleasure, few gnolls have good relationships. Even among their own families, most gnolls plot to gain access to the wealth of their family members, with infighting and political sabotage commonplace. Most alka of other realms view the gnolls with disgust, claiming that they are far from what an alka should be an generally considering them a separate race entirely.
Major organizations
The gnolls run a large empire out of the desert known as the Skrefal Sultanate, ruled over by the gnoll Pharaoh. The Sultanate is in constant trade of slaves with the nearby hobgoblins of the Kuzon Empire.
Random Gnoll Homelands
| % Rolled | Homeland | Trait Gained |
|---|---|---|
| 01-40 | Desert City | Pack Savvy |
| 41-60 | Desert Badlands | Desert Child |
| 61-80 | Forest | Guerilla Tactics |
| 81-90 | Subterranean | Scaav |
| 91-00 | Unusual Homeland | (Roll on Unusual Homeland table) |
Encompassed species
Related Organizations
Related Locations
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