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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thedungeondelver" data-source="post: 3318936" data-attributes="member: 34865">I once wrote up an "ecology of the troll" sort of article for my website but never got 'round to posting it, so here's the gist of it:The troll's unique physiology works like this: when there's a lack of food, one in five soft tissue cells in the troll's body basically commits suicide, breaking itself down so that the surrounding cells can "eat".  This however greatly weakens the troll both in sheer physical strength and in terms of making them vulnerable to physical damage (connective tissues are weakened, for example).This starvation mode is fairly easy to trigger given the trolls' fast metabolism.  The net result is that trolls are always ravenous and always on the lookout for something else to eat.  They'll eat and eat to stop their bodies from starting the process of self-consumption.  The starvation mode can be sensed by other trolls, so trolls that haven't eaten frequently enough are typically attacked by their fellows and finished off in short order.The great stupidity of trolls comes from the fact that their brains have evolved a mechanism to defend themselves from prion-based diseases as trolls eat everything of their targets, including the brains.  Sometimes, especially the brains.  Unfortunately the same chemical defense that prevents the prion disorders also severely retards cognitive abilities, leaving trolls as great, towering louts with few motivations beyond eating and committing evil acts.</blockquote>

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