Trolls
I want trolls in the world as a race. A lot of this is inspired by David Eddings' Elenium(?) series but we can tweak it as needed for our setting/game (note: as I was writing it I decided that the deaths of the gods would take away a lot of the gifts they had and they kinda became the krogan). Essentially the trolls were very close with their gods who blessed them and kept them in a very primitive state since they never had to change or adapt. They were blessed with millennia long lifespans, had large litters of children at a time, could heal from basically any nonfatal wound by eating a large meal, were blessed with magic by their gods, etc. However in the War of the Gods the troll gods died, and with them went their blessings. Trolls are long lived (~300 years), have twins or triplets, heal very quickly (faster the more they gorge themselves), and have lost their magic (like everyone else) but most importantly they have been finally forced to change.
In the last ~1600 years they have slowly integrated with other civilizations and are popular with the more militaristic nations. Trolls are big, tough and can acquire rations easily after any battle (they have no cannibalism taboo). Male and female trolls engage in warfare and the lack of sexual dimorphism makes it difficult for recruiters to try and segregate them anyways. This has lead to them slowly becoming a dying species as the long slow attrition of a life of war and the drop in birthrate take their toll. Younger trolls have begun in the last ~700 years to move into the cities and integrate with other societies. This has lead to some odd incidents where trollish culture has come at odds with others. An example of this is the banning of the play The Lovers of Gulwed which is a tale about two lovers in the city of Gulwed in the southern Koren Empire. The author of the play had made the magistrate of Gulwed the villain of his play who plotted to seperate the star crossed lovers that were central to the tragedy. When the play premiered in neighboring the neighboring town of Gortharaza, the troll population rose up in rebellion and marched to Gulwed with the intent to over throw the magistrate. They sieged the city for a week before being convinced to stop and allow the magistrates wife to explain to them that the events did not actually occur and that she willing and happily married her husband. The cause for the confusion was the trollish practice of Badalā gīta, or vengeance song. When a troll feels that they have been wronged they will compose and sing a song of the events surrounding that wronging and plead for their fellows to join them in revenge against the one who slighted them. The structure of The Lovers of Gulwed matched the structure of a Badalā gīta and led the trolls to believe that it was in fact a plea for aid not a show for entertainment (and perhaps some venting on the part of the author who had been spurned). Ironically, while showings of The Lovers of Gulwed are banned, it is one of the most taught plays in the Koren Empire due to the incident. Some use it as an example of trollish stupidity but the more informed point out that it shows the deep empathy that trolls possess, they were willing to march to war in the name of two elven lovers wronged.
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