Gnolls
Gnolls are perhaps the most contentious of all races, being violent and vicious slavers who form tribalistic war bands to raid and attack various other tribes, villages, and even factions. While the average gnoll can be described as sadistic and cruel, this trait is not universal, with many gnolls treating their more useful slaves and family members in a way that could be somewhat considered respectful. A Gnoll's natural endurance and will to dominate makes them difficult to root out, leading to them being widespread in the wilds as both bandits and mercenaries. Gnolls are well known (and hated) for hitting supply caravans and committing train robberies, but a few isolated gnolls are accepted into various more civilized society despite the obvious prejudice they face.
Gnolls are stoics at heart, seeing the world set against them for both fair and unfair reasons. The average gnoll does not think of the consequences of their actions in the immediate and often look towards the long term. Gnolls culturally believe that life after death is determined, and they shall end up in Baitaal's heaven. What this life is like is based entirely upon how many creatures and people they have killed in life, for every person or animal killed by a gnoll is thought to be enslaved in the afterlife and the more slaves a gnoll obtains the richer and more luxurious their eternity shall be. This core belief is why gnolls rarely take prisoners and live in a culture of kill or be killed, with only the unworthy of being killed being captured as slaves. While monstrous, this is not without its own peculiarities. Gnolls enjoy lording over their status among themselves, if they have something it means they were strong enough to take it and fight to keep it. Thus, gnolls will often flaunt their status by taking many slaves unworthy of being slain and then treating these slaves well. Between tribes, gnolls will decorate their slaves with beads, tattoos, and elaborate clothing and leathers while feeding them well to show that they are so successful and wealthy that even the lowest dregs of their tribe live better than members or even chieftains of other tribes.
Loyalty and obedience are another sign of affluence and a gnoll whom has his slaves armed, obedient, and willing to follow orders or die for their master is a sign of extreme affluence. Rightfully hated by other races, gnolls are still uncannily capable of bringing other races or their own into zealous loyalty, which makes many speculate some gnolls are capable mesmerists and psychics though this has never been proven. More often and more practically, slaves being treated well and rewarded for willing servitude simply comply rather than face retribution from their ever-vicious masters. Though, amusingly to some outsiders, gnolls hold no racial prejudice whatsoever for any particular race and merely treat everyone equal, even if that equality means treating everyone with equal brutality.
A quick-start guide:
- Tribal gnolls gain +20 toughness, +5 vigilance, -10 cognition.
- Civilized gnolls gain +15 toughness, +10 vigilance, and -10 spirit.
- Hell touched gnolls gain +25 toughness and -5 biology and mechanical.
- All gnolls gain a perk that increases toughness by +25 when dealing with pain related mechanics. Civilized and tribal gnolls gain a perk allowing them to ignore all pain, knock out, or stun effects for a short time. Hell touched gnolls gain the ability to frenzy for a short time.
Biology
Gnolls are humanoid hyena-like people who lean on the heavy set and strong side. Gnolls are physically set apart by gender, with female gnolls being larger and stronger than males. Gnolls almost universally have brown fur with black spots that can range from lighter shades to almost black, with any other color only appearing through being weaved. Some gnolls have longer hair around the head, in particular female gnolls, but having short hair for both sexes is rather common. Physically, gnolls are tall, ranging from six to seven feet on average with very broad shoulders and top-heavy bodies suited for physical tasks. Gnoll fur is course, rough, and difficult to cut and stems from their leather like hides. Gnoll skin is closer akin to treated, reinforced leather utterly devoid of the majority of pain sensory found in other races. A gnoll will generally be unable to feel pain even in the most grievous of injuries as a result of their thick skin. While gnolls have claws on their hands and feet, they are not suitable as weapons, but gnoll snouts and teeth are large enough to be a serious weapon, being strong enough to break through and chew bones. As scavengers and raiders, gnolls are able to eat and devour nearly anything for food, including severely rotted meat or entirely raw meat, without suffering any side effects. A secondary effect on this powerful stomach makes gnolls incredibly weak to alcohol, being able to get severely drunk with only one or two glasses of booze. This weakness to booze is well known, as gnolls heavily favor securing alcohol during raids and addiction is extremely common. While the life expectancy of a gnoll is not quite known for sure (as few live to old age) gnolls reproduce rapidly, with a single female gnoll normally producing three to six pups after a short pregnancy of only four months, leading them to be numerous despite their brutal conditions. A hel touched gnoll does not differ from a regular gnoll aside from being slightly taller, broader, stronger, and having completely black fur.
Culture
Gnoll culture can best be described as savage, pure and simple. Gnolls have a culture and instinctual urge to dominate others, being barely able to tolerate other races and only willing to afford respect to members of their own tribe, while all outsiders are seen as little more than slaves and potentially meat in hard times. Earning the respect of a gnoll is possible but doing so often requires being incredibly useful or of particular charisma to befriend one. Gnolls are innately selfish and often savagely murderous, as all gnolls believe that Baitaal rewards gnolls in the after life by making any creature a gnoll kills their slave for eternity. This unique cultural belief is a double edged sword. Weak individuals outside the tribes and other gnolls are not worthy or notable slaves in death and thus will be spared (or more often turned into slaves in life) while respected warriors will be killed to improve the standing of that individual gnoll in death. The more slaves a gnoll has after death, the most prestigious and wealthy their eternity shall be. Slavery among tribes is also a staple, with gnolls being extremely lazy and unwilling to do the difficult work required for tribes to survive, captured slaves are instead employed and beaten into submission to accomplish the day to day tasks. This brutal part of gnoll culture has no redeeming qualities save for one, slaves who are uniquely useful in ways that cannot be easily replaced will often be treated extremely well by slave standards, even obtaining something similar to a respected member of the tribe, in particular if said slave is favored by a high ranking elder or chief. Extremely wealthy tribes will flaunt wealth by outfitting slaves in finer hides and leather, gifting them jewelry, weapons, and even firearms as both a sign of great wealth and to show their dominance towards other races. These displays are often used to encourage slaves or members from other tribes to abandon their own (preferably with stolen loot) to join the wealthier tribe and thus increase their power and influence.
Sadly for gnolls, inter tribal warfare is more common than conflict with other races as gnolls will constantly raid each other for food, slaves, supplies, and new members. Even the wealthiest and most capable tribe will completely collapse when whatever strong or wise leader who maintained them dies of old age or is killed in battle, with the large tribe fracturing into civil war as successors attempt to seize control or escape with treasure and slaves to start anew. This constant shifting of alliances, loyalties, and strength makes gnolls distrust other tribes even more greatly as whatever tribe they belong to grows in power and wealth. It becomes a self correcting problem, as gnolls are simply incapable of maintaining a large enough tribe to become a serious threat to other nations. Gnolls are, however, extremely numerous and thus remain a problem even after centuries of constant internal and external conflict.
Mentality
The gnoll mind is shaped to only understand what they instinctual feel. Dominance, violence, and a surprising level of long term thinking given their religious beliefs. Gnolls take an approach of satisfying the here and now and killing to 'improve' the eventual end they will find. It is a strange juxtaposition to other races, as a gnoll can be observed killing a man to steal his drink, get drunk, and then pass out on the corpse of the man they just murdered in front of a crowd of people. To the gnoll, he has satisfied two needs, the collection of a slave for the afterlife and the immediate need for a drink. To the gnoll, this is what should happen because he was quick or strong enough to kill the man, therefore he deserved it. The only aspect that stops all gnolls from doing this daily is the consequences. If the crowd around them are all gnolls then they will do whatever their personal strength allows. If the crowd around them are orcs, they will have more care, because the more cunning part of the gnoll will understand they will be killed in reaction and thus cannot collect more slaves or satisfy themselves again later. As gnolls cannot make slaves of each other in the afterlife and they understand on some level they are united against other races, a duel system of justice applies to the tribe and to the outsider. This method of thought shapes every action a gnoll makes.