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Tell Us About Your Gnolls! [+]
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<blockquote data-quote="Crimson Longinus" data-source="post: 9196457" data-attributes="member: 7025508"><p>Gnolls featured early on in my current campaign, and I have thought them a bit, but they're not super developed, so I might steal some ideas from this thread.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Gnolls of Artra are not really "hyena people" any more than humans are "macaque people," meaning that whilst they share some characteristics with hyenas and are probably distantly related to them (or related to hydonts really, closest equivalent of hyena Artra has) they are really their own thing. They are naturally occurring bipedal carnivora that in appearance somewhat resemble Terran hyenas and canines.</p><p></p><p>Unlike humans who are omnivores, gnolls are pure carnivores, so agriculture is worthless to them. They have superior senses and are skilled hunters who live in mobile packs of various sizes.</p><p></p><p>Gnolls obviously are not "evil" but they sometimes compete with human hunter-gatherers and nomadic herders which might cause conflict. Also gnoll diet is something that humans might find distasteful. For gnolls hunting is a sacred act, and to them it is very important to live in balance with the nature. Thus everything they kill, they will also eat, as doing otherwise would be wasteful and show disrespect to the nature spirits. Gnolls also eat their dead comrades so that even in death they may strengthen the pack. Gnolls find human practices of burying perfectly serviceable meat wasteful and disrespectful towards the dead.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In my campaign there was a conflict between a human tribe and a gnoll pack the characters stumbled into. There were people on both sides who wished to escalate and those who wanted to return to earlier more harmonious coexistence. The gnoll pack had recently been taken over by a gnoll warlock aligned with a hidden elder being, and their followers were more stereotypical "fiendish D&D gnolls," but once the PCs learned the true state of the affairs they worked with those gnolls who were not happy with this leadership change to take down the warlock and repair the relationship between the gnolls and the humans.</p><p></p><p>At no point I described gnolls the characters interacted with to be of any specific gender, as to the orcs and humans the gnoll genders are not particularly easy to distinguish. I'd imagine gnolls having pretty gender neutral society, though the matriarchy idea could work too.</p><p></p><p>We haven't seen gnolls in the while, but I think the characters are heading back to the area gnolls are more common, so we might meet them again then.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Crimson Longinus, post: 9196457, member: 7025508"] Gnolls featured early on in my current campaign, and I have thought them a bit, but they're not super developed, so I might steal some ideas from this thread. Gnolls of Artra are not really "hyena people" any more than humans are "macaque people," meaning that whilst they share some characteristics with hyenas and are probably distantly related to them (or related to hydonts really, closest equivalent of hyena Artra has) they are really their own thing. They are naturally occurring bipedal carnivora that in appearance somewhat resemble Terran hyenas and canines. Unlike humans who are omnivores, gnolls are pure carnivores, so agriculture is worthless to them. They have superior senses and are skilled hunters who live in mobile packs of various sizes. Gnolls obviously are not "evil" but they sometimes compete with human hunter-gatherers and nomadic herders which might cause conflict. Also gnoll diet is something that humans might find distasteful. For gnolls hunting is a sacred act, and to them it is very important to live in balance with the nature. Thus everything they kill, they will also eat, as doing otherwise would be wasteful and show disrespect to the nature spirits. Gnolls also eat their dead comrades so that even in death they may strengthen the pack. Gnolls find human practices of burying perfectly serviceable meat wasteful and disrespectful towards the dead. In my campaign there was a conflict between a human tribe and a gnoll pack the characters stumbled into. There were people on both sides who wished to escalate and those who wanted to return to earlier more harmonious coexistence. The gnoll pack had recently been taken over by a gnoll warlock aligned with a hidden elder being, and their followers were more stereotypical "fiendish D&D gnolls," but once the PCs learned the true state of the affairs they worked with those gnolls who were not happy with this leadership change to take down the warlock and repair the relationship between the gnolls and the humans. At no point I described gnolls the characters interacted with to be of any specific gender, as to the orcs and humans the gnoll genders are not particularly easy to distinguish. I'd imagine gnolls having pretty gender neutral society, though the matriarchy idea could work too. We haven't seen gnolls in the while, but I think the characters are heading back to the area gnolls are more common, so we might meet them again then. [/QUOTE]
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