Gnoll

Note: This chart may need to be updated.

The orc-dryad hybrid known as the gnoll is a leafy creature which thrives in hilly regions much as dryads prosper in forests. Gnolls are tall and lanky, yet quite strong. Like orcs, they are not inherently violent, though as with orcs, a gnoll with a cause is capable of becoming violently angry without working too hard at it. Gnolls can berserk like dryads, and it takes a lot less to set them off than it takes to set off a typical dryad. Still, gnolls do their best to contain themselves most of the time. They are as obviously emotional as orcs, but their dryad heritage imparts a certain desire for restraint, even if it doesn’t come naturally.

Gnolls are typically tribal, with a great dependence on ritual. Most of their rituals emphasize peace and harmony with the natural world, with the major exception of one which involves ripping the head from a hyena, then wearing it around in public and shouting. This has earned them a reputation as ravenous, inhuman, and vicious, and they are often characterized as delighting in the torture of innocents. Their species has in fact run into considerable difficulty in recent years, ever since some thoughtless person took this unfair description of gnolls very seriously and wrote a book on how to slay them. As a result, in some areas gnolls are starting to become endangered. Though a tragedy in itself, this sad fact has also resulted in dangerously high hyena populations.

Although few gnolls ever discover this (due to the rarity of firearms in general, and particularly in developing areas of the world), their species is naturally proficient with rifles, and gnolls without tribal backrounds often develop an interest in shooting. A favored gnoll target is the mongoose; most gnolls have a deeply engrained hatred of the creatures and will attack them on sight.

Character Concepts

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