Gnolls

"A thousand souls in the service of our Great Master, yes, that should be enough. We attack at dusk!" - Words of a Gnoll Warlord, translated by magic

Gnolls are Hyena-like beastfolk that most consider little more than sentient beasts, especially considering around 99% of gnolls are pure evil. Stories passed down for millennia exist claiming that the Gnolls were once much more sophisticated, leading powerful and cruel civilizations which existed across Halyren, but that they were cast into the desert as some sort of punishment, where they fell into a state of madness. To this day only very rarely can a Gnoll reach the level of their primordial ancestors, allowing them to take control of their pack and raise it to a higher standard. This rare elevation allows Gnolls to reach a level of civilization for a time, though when this Gnolls leader dies they typically fall back into sloth again. Gnolls in this condition usually spend their days sleeping and nights raiding and pillaging the civilizations bordering the deserts. In this, they are little more than animals. Nonetheless, in the event of Gnolls somehow stabilizing their civilization they could become a force to reckon with. This was proven when, during the great calamity, all gnolls were freed from their curse of insanity and some formed an alliance with the Cyclops warlord Čynag Blue-eye to utterly annihilate much of Halfling civilization. The short-lived empire which arose from that war devastated the halflings, with many being sacrificed or eaten. However, within the century, the gnolls fell back to insanity.

Gnolls, being totally and utterly evil and insane, essentially follow two paths: The Creator or Devils. In the first, they continue to revere a mysterious and dark god as their creator, claiming their ancestors were elevated to sentience when they were allowed to drink the blood of this god. However, they claim that despite the gnolls serving him well, his forces were defeated by other, treacherous deities, who cast him into the void and banished the gnolls into the desert. Many gnolls believe that their insanity is actually the dreams of this defeated god, which are incomprehensible to mortals and therefore cause serious damage to the mortal mind. Those gnolls who continue to follow this god worship him hoping that their prayers and sacrifices can raise him from the void, which might make him stop sleeping and therefore no longer afflict them with their insanity. They claim this effort awoke their god for a brief moment, causing the Great Calamity and allowing them to consume many halflings- but that once they ran out of halflings to sacrifice their god fell back to sleep. If true, this would be a truly horrifying deity which must be kept asleep at all cost. Those gnolls that no longer believe in a creator god may instead worship dark entities such as devils or demons. Typically arising from an elevated gnoll which makes pacts with powerful demons and devils in order to gain strength, this sometimes raises to worship once the leader(s) intelligent enough to make such pacts dies off. Both of these religious trends tend to lead the Gnolls to attack even more aggressively than they otherwise might, as they reinforce the insane behavior with societal acceptation of such criminality. It should be noted that while Gnolls are categorically insane, prone to battle lust, psychopathic behavior, wanton rape and murder, and other crime, this is more on the level of mass murderers with no real tactics. They do have a limited ability to interact with societies, which is why when a Gnoll is able to control its urges and truly think they can be far more insidious, much as a sophisticated killer hides their identity and only unleashes it when they choose to.

Lifespan

40 years

Average Height

7'2

Magical Aptitude
Low
Physical Strength
High
Societal Organization
Miniscule
Birth Rate
Average
Lifespan Classification
Miniscule
Technological Progress
Low