Gnoll
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Tribal creatures with a strong resemblance to hyenas, gnolls are vicious, blood-thirsty, and tremendously lazy humanoids with a largely well-deserved reputation for untrustworthiness.
History
Little about gnollish history is known, as the gnolls do not tend to record their own history. Even what records do exist have suffered some degree of historical revisionism due to events in the early history of the race. Thus, records are sketchy on this race.
What is known is that long ago, Gorellik was the sole deity of the gnolls. Surviving myths place him as the creator of the gnolls, as well as having a position of some importance in the bugbear pantheon. However, at some point, he was slowly supplanted by a growing cult of gnolls faithful to the demon lord Yeenoghu. Some theorize that Yeenoghu may once have been a mortal gnoll himself, but such tales are unsubstantiated. Over time, this cult grew in importance, until it had pushed aside the worship of Gorellik almost entirely. The deity himself suffered from the events as well, losing his realm and most of his power, and these days he wanders the Lower Planes in an endless hunt, followed by a small retinue of flind still loyal to his name.
Culture
Gnoll society is largely matriarchal, with females filling most positions of prestige and power within gnoll tribes. While males can rise to power or importance, such instances are rare and often challenged. Males are most often instead relegated to caring for the young and the slaves, such duties seen as especially well-suited for the gender in gnollish eyes. However, even males are seen as above manual labor; most gnolls believe in the principle that there is no use doing something you don't want to do if you can force someone weaker to do it for you. Instead, slaves are forced into performing the menial tasks their tribe requires. Gnolls believe themselves above such trivial matters, and even amongst their slaves prefer not to have them manufacture goods, finding the need to watch them as they work excrutiatingly boring; almost as much so as doing the work themselves.
For the most part, gnolls tend not to consider the desires of others when deciding a course of action. Rabid individualists, gnolls work together only as necessary for survival or personal gain. Even the desires of other gnolls hold little merit in their eyes — though slightly more than the desires of non-gnolls. A lack of respect for even the authority of their own tribe is a common minor offense, and spitting at or cursing a leader is almost accepted behavior amongst the race. Without Yeenoghu's influence, it would only be their sense of racial identity and their need for cooperation to survive that would bind them together. However, since his theft of the race from Gorellik, Yeenoghu has introduced aspects to his worship to the gnoll clans specifically in order to fight their nature and better hold then under his control.
One of the first such measures, and one of the few rituals common to all gnoll clans, is that of the totem beast. These were the first cultural feature brought by Yeenoghu to the gnolls, and have spread throughout the race, even to those clans that do not follow Yeenoghu. Each gnoll clan holds one creature in highest merit as a target of sacrifice above all others. For some, the totem beast is an animal such as a deer or zebra. For others, an intelligent humanoid such as a human, elf, or gnome. (Never a dwarf, however; they are too stoic under torture for most gnolls to bother.) A small few even hold an especially dangerous creature such as a troll or ettin as their totem. A gnoll is not considered an adult until they manage to kill one of their totem beast alone, and a sacrifice to Yeenoghu is not considered worthwhile unless it is of the clan's totem. The size of a tribe and the strength of its members are both almost directly related to the strength of the totem beast as a result; larger clans tend to be those with weaker totems, while the smallest yet most powerful clans are those with the most powerful totem beasts, such as the ettin or giant hunter clans.
A gnoll clan is divided into a large number of tribes, each tribe usually holding about 20-200 adult females apiece, about twice as many males and children, and a dozen slaves. Tribes of the same clan tend to get along as well as any two gnolls do, but tribes of differing clans will almost always set against one another in minor skirmishes when they encounter one another, unless one is obviously much larger and/or more powerful than the other. These battles rarely reach the level of all out war, as the goal is not extermination but rather to capture slaves from the survivors of the battle and determine pecking order between the two tribes. Occasionally a weaker tribe will simply pay tribute to a stronger in the form of slaves or goods, should they desire to avoid a combat they know they are likely to lose. In fact, gnolls are well-known for nearly always honoring an apparently honest desire to surrender; most gnolls believe the ultimate purpose of combat isn't to kill your opponent, but rather to demonstrate your own superiority over them, and most feel a surrender satisfies this goal appropriately. Conversely, if a gnoll falls near death, they will almost always surrender rather than risk dying, acknowledging (if grudgingly) their opponent's superiority over them.
Such surrendered individuals are usually taken as slaves for the tribe, but not always. Rarely, a prisoner will be taken to replace a slain member of the tribe. Even more rarely, a non-gnoll will be taken in in such a manner, but this happens only in extraordinary circumstances. The captured prisoner will be considered a new pup and treated as such, instructed on the ways of the tribe if necessary, and raised in the violent manner of all gnoll pups for a full generation. At this time, they will be exiled from the tribe on their totem hunt as all gnolls are, and should they successfully return, they are considered as a full adult gnoll and equal member of the tribe.
As this aptly demonstrates, amongst gnolls, physical strength is everything, with all other measures of worth considered pointless, merely ways for the weak to believe themselves otherwise. This unfortunately places many gnolls into the somewhat uncomfortable state of holding fealty and reverence to a race that utterly despises them; the flind. A subspecies of gnoll, flind are on the whole both smarter and more intelligent than their kin. While gnolls respect and in fact honor flinds for this, flinds tend to hate gnolls for their weakness, considering them only barely better than slaves due to their relation. A gnoll tribe with flind will almost always place the flind as chieftain or other similar positions, a situation that flind enjoy as it allows them to order the gnolls around to their own whims. In fact, the largest flind clan holds gnolls as their totem beast, a fact grudgingly acknowledged and accepted by the gnoll tribes that serve members of this clan. As a result, whatever meaning it might once have had (most believe it to have merely been the name of an especially strong clan), the word "flind" now translates in Gnoll to "cannibal" or "gnoll-eater". Some myths claim the flind to be the last "gift" of Gorellik bestowed upon the gnolls, created as vengeance for betraying him (a possibility evidenced by the flind that even today still serve at Gorellik's side), but few gnolls will speak of such things.
While most all gnolls revere Yeenoghu, there are a few other gods worshiped by some, a specific few being the most common. Karaan, a recently-rising demigod, is growing in popularity to the point that the shamen of Yeenoghu have started looking upon his flock with concern, wondering if perhaps they need to be dealt with. A small few still hold Gorellik in esteem, though they're forced to keep their worship secret or else risk death from Yeenoghu's shamen. Finally, there is a growing cult of Erythnul amongst the gnolls as of late, especially the flind.
Ecology
Like the hyenas they resemble so strongly, gnolls prefer the recent dead, finding the taste of cooked meat burnt and disgusting. They most prefer intelligent creatures because they can better enjoy the screams of their victim, but they can and will eat meat of any sort. Occasionally gnolls will even raid cemeteries or battlefields for the recent dead, an event perhaps spurred on by Yeenoghu's connection to ghouls and his influence on the race. Gnolls themselves are not immune to this, and a dead clanmate will often have little more than a brief word of prayer before given the final honor of a clan feast upon her corpse. It's often said that a gnoll thinks solely with her stomach, and many gnollish alliances have broken down because the gnolls could not resist their hunger. Slaves tend to have an especially high rate of attrition as well, with little foresight given to the fact that losing slaves means more work for the gnolls.
Gnolls are usually born in litters of 4-6 pups, and watched over by males or, more rarely, slaves within the tribe. There is no one male given the duty of watching over litters within a tribe, and there's little concern given to specific family relations. Any one gnoll is considered a child of the entire tribe. A gnoll reaches adolescence at age 6-7, and it is at this time that they are sent out on their totem quest, not allowed to return without evidence of having successfully slain one of the clan's totem beast. For those clans with especially powerful totem beasts, groups of adolescents will be allowed to head out together and credit for a kill will be granted to the whole of the group, but this varies from tribe to tribe. Either way, however, such an adolescent has one generation (another 6-7 years) to succeed. If they do not return by this time, they are hunted down and slain. If they succeed, however, they are allowed to return, having earned their adulthood. Should they survive to old age, a gnoll has a life span of about 35 years.
Appearance
Gnolls are amongst the larger humanoid races, with females standing about 7 to 8 feet tall on average and weighing around 300 pounds, and males slightly (but not much) smaller. They have many features in common with the hyena: the head most strikingly, but they also possess the long tail and short fur of that animal. Their coats tend to run from dull yellow to a short reddish-gray, with a long main lighter in color reaching to the small of their back. Though most possess animal-like legs and feet, their hands are as capable of grasping as any humanoid. Gnolls will usually be found wearing ill-fitting hand-me-downs stolen from other races, as they have no inclination to either make their own clothing or watch their slaves make it for them.
Flind tend to be slightly shorter than gnolls, but broader. They are nearly identical to gnolls to the inexperienced, but can be identified by their more rounded ears and less-sloped forehead. Flind are always found wielding the weapon that bears their name, the flindbar — a weapon vaguely resembling the nunchaku, but slightly smaller and less damaging — and flind will not deign to use any weapon but this honored device.
Reference
- Dragon #63 - ...but not least: The humanoids, pg.27
- Dragon #173 - The Sociology of the Flind, pp.77-84
- Monster Manual (3rd Edition), pp.130-131
- Monster Manual III, pg.62
- Monstrous Manual
