Gnoll Thread

Eating sentient beings, worshipping children because of a difficult and often deadly childbirth, matriarchal. Compared to the orcs, they're far less technological and more barbaric, outright in stone age.

There's a start I guess.

>>52739258
I'm pretty sure they already do, but no wild pack of murderhobos has ever stopped to wonder about the culture of the things they're murdering.

>>52739258
To expand upon that empire reference...

Gnolls reign over their own empire in the "not!Africa" region; a tropical and arid land of savannahs and open scrubland. Their "hat" is "Decadent But Dangerous Easterners"; their empire is built on a combination of martial skill, trade in luxuries (fine metal work, gems, drugs, black magic).

The gnolls worship a pantheon of "dark gods", somewhere between demon princes who've chilled out on the whole "destroy everything" rhetoric and lesser gods. Chief of the pack is Lamashtu, who fits the "Dark Mother" godly archetype - wicked and lusty chief goddess with powers over nature and fertility. The lesser gods in the pantheon are focused on roles such as war, various forms of hedonism (gluttony, carnality, drug-use, fine art, excess decoration), and magic.

Driving philosophy of the gnolls is hedonism: the purpose of life is to seek pleasure and indulge yourself. They lean strongly as a race towards Chaotic Neutral; self-centered, impulsive and lazy, but not inherently hostile towards other races as a matter of default. A typical gnoll wants to throw parties where she can lounge around on silk divans wearing shiny jewelry whilst eating and drinking herself into a stupor, not destroy cities and eat live babies.

Technically, gnolls are matriarchal, as the females are bigger and stronger than the males and claim this represents the nature/blessing of Lamashtu herself. In practice, the prevalance of necromantic talents amongst the males means that many males exert open political power, as the empire depends on them to run things.

>>52739304
See, the empire's workforce is built on necromancy on a massive scale. Armies of skeletons, bone golems and other skeletal undead form the grunt labor that keeps the empire running by doing all the boring task.

The empire also makes heavy use of conventional slavery. As such slaves are required to do tasks that require independent thought and finesse, however, they are not as oppressed and downtrodden as they might be. A living slave is a valuable piece of property and treated as such. It's even possible for a slave to win freedom through loyalty and skill.

With none of the traditional constraints on drugs, alchemy or magic, the gnoll empire is a hotbed of black market trade and a veritable mecca for necromancers, warlocks and jaded hedonists.

Although its existence rankles many of the more hardline goodly faiths, the gnoll empire goes unchallenged because of its legitimate trade and because, so far, the other kingdoms have accepted it's better to have them content and lazy than roused to savage wars of vengeance; unlike hobgoblins, they're not particularly ambitious conquerors and so acts of aggression are comparatively rare.

>>52739304
>>52739321
If they're hedonists, they obviously need a god for every single type of pleasure, instead of one umbrella Slaanesh.

You've got a god of drugs, a god of sex, a god of music, a god of masochistic pain... a god of a really good bath... you get the idea.

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>>52739352
Maybe. Religions ain't my strongpoint when it comes to worldbuilding, so I could really use help on it; this is all I've come up with in terms of pantheon concepts.

In general: the pantheon is female dominated, with more goddesses than gods. This reinforces the matriarchal status of the gnolls, as assimilated from spotted hyenas.

The Chief Goddess: A female deity who serves as the ruler and/or mother and/or lover (or both) of the other deities. Maybe make her a Lamashtu riff, with powers over nature & fertility, which is Lamashtu's portfolio (just twisted) in Pathfinder.

The War Goddess: This is either a gender-swapped expy of Yeenoghu, or else steals a little from Ishtar and is goddess of both war and love. Savage, primal, vicious; revel in the carnage and butcher those against you. If a Gnollish Ishtar, likewise encourages you to be fearless and passionate in love.

The Pleasure God/dess: Probably the closest thing to a straight-up "good" god in the gnoll pantheon. Gender-shifting party girl/boy, who encourages its followers to eat, drink and make merry. Hugely popular in the empire in its current stable position. Essentially a less grimdark Slaanesh in gnoll format.

The Hunting God: Oldest of the gods next to the Chief Goddess, probably her consort. A Gorellik-expy with a dash of Erathis, god of hunting, wisdom and virility. Has lost some prominence due to gnolls no longer being tribal hunter-gatherers, but still respected.

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>>52739386
Had to split this into two for length reasons.

Gods of Magic: Not sure if there should be a single "God of Magic" figure, but gnolls in this empire would definitely favor AD&D's "Undead Master" kit, so there's certainly three specific mage-gods. God of Necromancy is the most powerful of the male gods in modern gnoll society, maybe a new consort and/or favored son of the Chief Goddess. Goddess of Conjuration is seen as the Queen of Fiends, summoning planar beings and forcing them to submit. God of Enchantment is an androgynous, whimsical creature, child of the Pleasure God.

God/dess of Chattel: Not sure if male or female suits this better; this'd be simultaneously the god of slavery and the god of agriculture, as the two practices are linked in gnollish eyes. Exhorts discipline and authority, but also not to abuse chattel. Stern, but not uncaring, really.

>>52739386
>>52739402

Sorry, what exactly you need then?
You've been asking for a pantheon, but you're posting it yourself.
Was there any need at all?

>>52739386
>>52739402
I feel like you could have a whole bunch of gods running around: after all, if the top goddess is a hedonistic mother goddess then I'd imagine she would've had plenty of children, of lesser gods and demigods and whatnot.

A god for each magical school, a god for each pleasure, a god for various types of warfare, several hunters, one god for farming and another for animals (and slaves) and a third for gardening, and so forth.

And many demigod heroes running around, of course. Take a page out of Greek myth for that. Make her a female Zeus that pops out these litters with different dads, some mortals and others divine, for each.

>>52739473
I'm trying to figure out:

Firstly: If this pantheon works as it is.

Secondly: if there are any roles I'm missing to complete this pantheon.

Finally: how to actually take each god from just this basic concept to a full-fledged deity. Names, behaviors, refining the basic concept, etc.

>>52739493
Oh, definitely agree with that. In fact, something I was contemplating is that the Pantheon recognizes a "Titan-esque" Elder Mother God, who birthed the first gods but who isn't really worshipped because she is basically a divine beast - doesn't really think like a sapient creature - and the Chief Goddess is one of her daughters who took over leading due to actually thinking like a person, ala Zeus.

>>52739538
>>52739473

Alright, let's see to go by points:
Probably the pantheon would go well enough as it is with an evil-based race, although consider potentially to add a deity about suffering, which gnolls usually like to inflict. Maybe a twin of the pleasure goddess, if a twisted one (gender shifted, maybe. Bonus points if they aren't twins, but the same entity that split in two).

One thing you should attempt to consider to build your whole pantheon , is the "creation" myth.
Did the Chief goddess create everything or just the gnolls in this scenario? Who's the first born from her? Who she hates? Who -doesn't- hate her? Being gnolls, I'd imagine there could be plenty of backstabbing (frontstabbing?) and infighting.
Maybe these conflicts among deities are how the gnolls justify natural cataclysms or certain events. Even seasons. For example, Spring could be the pleasure's goddess' doing, and so on.

PSEUDOPENISES

>>52739738

Furthermore, just throwing random thoughts:

Chief goddess: her personality is generally 'benevolent' towards her kin, but she's prone to backlashing and not getting shit from anyone. Combattive, will stand her ground whenever it's a combat or just a talk. She'll do anything to keep the "Alpha Bitch" position.

War Goddess: likely first daughter of the Chief one, she took a lot from her mother. Ends up infighting with her, but she actually finds huge respect towards her. She'll butcher anyone in the Chief's name. Or her own name. Or for Bob "you know the one from that little town that got that nice bakery" 's name. Even without a name as long there is a good excuse.

Pleasure goddess: lazy, to a fault. "Black sheep" of the family, avoids all the squabble and just is laid back and enjoys life.

Hunting God: Could be either the lover of the chief, or the War goddess' younger brother. Probably in competition with the war one. The hunting god, might not be as strong as the war one, but clearly is more sly and smarter.

God of magic: I was considering a Voodoo-like deity of magic in this case. Maybe a sort of witch doctor that is "secretly" considering to overtake the Chief goddess. But biding its time, as it knows that his physical power isn't great enough, but his arts are growing more powerful and tricky by the day. Necromancy of course is his big jig, but other arts are also involved.

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>>52740003
>She'll butcher anyone in the Chief's name. Or her own name. Or for Bob "you know the one from that little town that got that nice bakery" 's name.

Sounds like the type to not only also to sleep around a lot, but also to fall in love a lot - and then do as you say she does. Intensely loyal to her family, to herself, and to whoever she's involved with at the moment, she will always come with an excuse to fight for their honor or pleasure.

Possibly a dual-goddess of war and love - true, legitimate love, not just lust and drug-fueled rutting.

>>52739258
Yes. 4e did. 5e undid it.

Enjoy your pseudopenisposts.

>>52740045
To further expand on this: due to her influence, in gnoll culture, all war and most violence in general has its roots in love.

>>52740510
Which in turn leads to most fertility rites of the gnolls to double as combat rites and training.

this allows the important females of the tribe to stay out of combat but remain physically fit and able to defend their title from usurpers and the like

>>52739258
I have them in a strong support role for another culture. They aren't movers or shakers, but they are influential enough that without them, the other culture would take a huge step down in power.

I have them as nomadic desert tribes that hunt giant earth elementals to harvest for stone, gems, and metals that they trade to the local kingdoms of crocodilemen. They started out hunting the largest to incapacitate them, so they can harvest goods, the largest tending to have an oasis growing on their back. But they soon found the demand for the goods they can get from the elementals were in good demand for trade, so they started hunting the smaller ones to break up and take back to trade. This allowed the Gnoll tribes to grow larger than before, so now large caravans can be seen crossing the desert.

They also ride dinosaurs.

Look up cynocephali. They're medieval dog headed men.

>>52740758
Go back to 2006, goon.

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>>52740758
>you will never gas a furry convention
>you will never torch a furry's house down with a flamethrower
>you will never construct a macabre monument to all of the furfaggots you have killed with the bloody, singed remains of their neon-colored fursuits

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>>52739258
>Has anyone ever felt like making gnolls into something more than just fuzzy orcs? Giving them a full-fledged culture of their own and making them potential players on the world stage?
Yes, and you've probably read my cliff notes on them since I was in the previous gnoll threads where you fleshed out aspects of yours.

Pantheons suck when it comes to making them. Getting the right feel is such a pain. I've been stuck on making mine for like 2 years, since I have the unenviable task of making at least 27 gods for my gnolls. The things I do to satisfy my worldbuilding autism.

>>52740704
>They also ride dinosaurs.
Huh, Id never really given any thought to dinosaurs being in that general area of my world, and having gnolls use tham like domestic beasts seems interesting. And if I mix that with the drakes, dragonets, and other draconic species, that would help flesh out and solidify the region since they sit right next to the big ol' dragon empire.

>>52740758
>>52740882
>(you)
There, now you can go off into another thread since we've given what you want.

Removing the savagery from them misses the point of them and their design.

>>52741106
Savagery is a point of view.

To a northern feudal knight, they're still uncivilized unwashed barbarians.

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>>52739738
I'd like to keep the race's general alignment in the Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Evil radius; as I said way up at thread start, Chaotic Evil gnolls are overdone, especially comparing 5e lore for them to 4e lore.

Still, thanks for the sincere offer of help. Hmm... how does this look as the seed for a creation myth?

In The Beginning, there were two gods; Grandmother and Grandfather. Grandmother was fierce and strong, a savage hunter who prowled the young earth, killing and eating whatever she deigned to track, gorging until her belly was full and then playing with the remains. Grandfather was wise and gentle, a calm god who sought only to care for his mate. He kept her safe and treated her wounds, and tried to keep her from danger. From their coupling was born The First Litter, the eldest of the Gods who watch over the gnolls today.

The First Litter followed Grandmother and Grandfather, until the day that, in her madness, Grandmother turned on Grandfather and ate him. The First Litter, aghast at their mother's behavior, drove her away into the wastelands beyond, where she still roams as a feral, savage monster. In honor of Grandfather, and Grandmother as she was, the First Litter created a people to embody the best of both their traits; the first Gnolls.

This is rudimentary, but I'm getting a very "pagan" feel from this pantheon, so lots of sex, violence and weirdness feels right to me. Plus, making gnolls metaphysically descendants of a giant, feral, divine hyena (sort of Gorellik & Yeenoghu's bastard daughter) and a more human-like god feels like it has potential.

>>52740045
>>52740510
>>52740623
You know, as I mentioned above, I wasn't sure if the War Goddess shouldn't be an Ishtar-inspired deity, covering War and Love, but posts like that really cement that it sounds a good plan.

The Chief Goddess almost has to be a gender-flipped hyena-woman version of Zeus, though. In both the Alpha Bitch who means well but tends to fuck things up because, well, she's a bitch sense, and in the "she's a hornball" sense.

>>52741143
>Savagery is a point of view.

This is your first problem. You need clear design.

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Also, if you've never read Digger, you should. It's got some pretty good grist for gnoll stuff, and is a good comic overall.

http://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/01/wombat1-gnorf/

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>>52741106
Who's doing that? We're just fleshing them out into something more than the one note savagery that 5e does. Besides, I started making my gnoll culture long before the shit that was 5e was even conceived, so i'm used to them being something more than just always hungry demonkin.

Here, have a gnoll princess from my preferred system that does them well. She's one of the big slave traders in the city of Katapesh.

>>52741300
Yes it does, and it is definitely a good read too.

So, hopefully relevant query; how weird do you think gnollish religion can get and still "feel" gnollish?

For example, gnolls and minotaurs hating each other has been around pretty much since Baphomet and Yeenoghu were both introduced. If the gnoll/minotaur enmity instead stems from an incident in which the gnoll goddess bit off the penis of the minotaur god for trying to rape her (or just being a lousy lover), which turned him into a goddess in turn, does that still feel like something you'd associate with gnolls?

Keep in mind, hyenas themselves have a lot of sexual-related aspects in mythology. Spotted hyenas in particular were believed to be gender-benders who routinely switched between male and female.

>>52741446
Are your minotaurs all male? If they are, that sort of a thing would be plain hilarious.

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>>52740931
I totally stole pic for inspiration.

>>52741491
Not really.

However, I did some idle contemplation recently of a setting in which minotaurs are actually believed to be an all-female race... but that's because of the race's dirty little secret.

The "real" minotaurs are male demon-beasts, the females are an amazonian tribe who found they could take on the minotaur's strength and power by consuming minotaur flesh, so they secretly not only hunt demon-cults to capture new minotaurs to eat, they keep a small number of minotaurs captive and breed with them; daughters are kept to directly strengthen the tribe, sons are eaten to metaphysically strengthen it.

All you need to know about Gnolls are two quotes.

" Fisi, the hyena, hermaphroditic, self-eating devourer of the dead, trailer of calving cows, ham-stringer, potential biter-off of your face at night while you slept, sad yowler, camp-follower, stinking, foul, with jaws that crack the bones the lion leaves, belly dragging, loping away on the brown plain, looking back, mongrel dog-smart in the face; " - Hemingway's Green Hills of Africa

"We leap from branch to branch to suck the eggs, and we pluck the little birds; then we put their nests upon our heads after the fashion of caps.

"We do not fail to snatch away the worst of the cows, and we destroy the lynxes' eyes. Tearing the flowers, crushing the fruits, agitating the springs, we are the masters—by the strength of our arms and the fierceness of our hearts.

"Be bold, comrades, and snap your jaws!"

Blood and milk flow from their lips. The rain streams over their hairy backs." - Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of St.Anthony

>>52739304
>matriarchal
>in the genus that coined the term "alpha male"
Why?

>>52742723
Maybe because hyena aren't canines?

>>52742796
Touche, I suppose it is based off the spotted hyena which is the only variety where the males aren't the larger sex

So, really, what gods do folks think would be absolutely essential for the kingdom I outlined in the opening posts? What sort of things are important enough they need deities to cover them?

I drafted my list, but I'm really in need of refinement for it.

>>52741250
So, what do folks think of this creation myth seed?

If it works, how do I properly differentiate between "Grandmother" and the Alpha Bitch, our "she-Zeus"? Grandmother's clerics are more along the lines of mad, beast-worshipping druids than anything, but what kind of portfolio can the Chief claim?

how many nipples are we talking about here?

For Gnollish religion, it's also obviously important to put thought into who they consider to be their equivalent of an evil God, or one that is in opposition to the rest of their pantheon and stands as a symbol of opposition towards Gnolls.

I've been rolling around an idea wherein long ago, a demon in Gnoll form (or so they say) rose to a position of terrible power. Cruel beyond measure and immune to weapons forged in the mortal realms, it took the betrayal of her slaver-priests to finally wrest her from her psychotic seat of power. Even then though, they were unable to kill her, managing only to trap her deep underground. Keeping her there is an entirely different challenge though, as without regular blood sacrifice her powers will begin to return and she would be able to escape her oubliette. Slaves make up the runaway majority of sacrifices, supplied by a system of slave tithes paid by the raider clans. This is part of what makes Gnolls as aggressive as they are, they have a constant need for slaves.

Of course, if one actually WANTED to free The Bitch, who's actual name has been systematically scoured from every ancient record, they could begin making blood sacrifices TO her rather than AGAINST her. A corrupt cult could lead to a dramatic spike in slaver activity, as the shackle-priests are forced to butcher more in an attempt to offset the tribute sacrifices should they notice the swell of power.

>>52739258
The Gnoll empire is a bit of a misnomer. The Empire is the Suricat Empire, a loose affiliation of the meerkat-like Suris states and cities. The reason for the confusion is that while the Suri deal with the day to day paper work and politics of the empire the real ruler is the Bone White Emperor. This is a Gnoll only role in society and their entire society runs along these lines. The Gnolls in society live in two manners. One manner live in the wilds and feast upon small Suri villages as is their right. The other are slavers who run the economy nearly completely, selling Suri slaves and bringing in other slaves from nearby nations. The odd things is that Suri are school taught to bring up their price.

Most would say this is an outlandish manner of government and most would be right...until you learn WHY the Suri are so subservant. Legends tell of a time when the Suri were strong, fast, and large as the Gnolls. This all ended when the Gnolls cut off the limbs of the Suri till they became as small as they are now. The Suri still show the scars on their body from this time and they remember what happens when they try to fight. The Bone White Throne stays empty only to be filled when the Suri attempt to fight again.

>>52747290
An "evil" god would need to go against everything they hold good and holy.

In the case of established gnoll religion, she'd be a prude pacifist vegan.

>>52739258
I would fuck a gnoll.

>>52739304
>Chaotic Neutral
Huh? I thought gnolls were evil.

>>52749140
They've been leaning towards evil in all editions, and in 5e they're literally demonspawn and can't ever be not-evil.

But that's one-dimensional and boring, innit?

>>52749153
Well, but it has been defined that being 'evil' doesn't mean 'always evil'.

Like Orcs are evil, but you can find a neutral Orc.

I'm not familiar with 5e through. They are now pure evil?

>>52748498
To most men and elves, as a general rule, the lords of Chaos are the great enemy, while the lords of Law stand as the good guys.

To gnolls it's the opposite.

To Gnolls, Chaos represents not mutation and destruction, but rather freedom and joy. To them Law is not peace and stability, but instead choking conformity and restrictions. This great enemy deity will represent this.

>>52749208
So gnolls are okay with cannibalism and torture but oppose slavery?

>>52749233
Cannibalism and torture are just something that happens. Slavery is only them bossing the weaker ones around - and happens regularly among many chaotic societies even in the standard D&D.

Neither issue really touches the matters of Law and Chaos, at least not the way gnolls see it.

>>52749233
>>52749245
On the other hand, a lot of human nations reckon Chaos equals precisely all that wicked shit, which would easily result in all manner of misconceptions and grant gnolls a somewhat undeserved reputation as rapacious demon-worshipping raiders.

>>52746991
Grandfather and Grandmother prowl the young earth, but where does the young earth come from?

I also feel like you need to establish pleasure as a central idea pretty quickly. Why is pleasure the thing all Gnolls should strive for?

>>52749245
So in a gnoll society someone strong can boss those weaker?

>>52749338
Female gnolls rule by raw strength and force of arms. Male gnolls rule by dark sorceries and subtle intimidation. The ones with more of these will be higher up in the pecking order.

'Twas ever thus.

>>52749359
And could an outsider who kicks the ass of the previous leader have a gnoll minions?

I remember that in a previous thread, it was brought up that Gnolls become more aggressive at night, with some succumbing to a permanent feral state that required intervention from Ghost-Face assassins to destroy them and their shame.

How would that work in a setting where the nights are nearly-endless? I'd imagine most Gnolls would succumb to the darkness and become a ravaging horde that uses the brief daylight to scavenge together weapons for the next dive into darkness. Those that resisted might form nomadic packs that flee from their monstrous kin and the civilized races alike, making pacts with whatever demons, devils, or spirits exist in the region to secure their sanity and safe passage.

>>52749374
Certainly, although if it's a male barbarian or a female sorceress, they might get some strange looks and possibly misgendering.

>>52749233

Well depends how you look at it. Maybe Gnolls consider after death, spirit is off wherever, the body is just meat, or that by consuming it they are returning the lost strength of the member to the group. Torture is harder to justify but reasons can be provided.

>>52749338

Well look at it this way - he's stronger than you, so when you're lazing about he expects you to catch his grub, sure... what happens the next day you go into a fight and you end up hiding behind him, as he's cutting down Orcs or whatever?

There's a reason lots of cultures had a strong dominating the weak mindset.

>>52749386
>>52749392
Cool. Time to annex a gnoll tribe.

>>52749359
>Female gnolls rule by raw strength and force of arms

They also control breeding. You do good, you get to breed, maybe. You don't, death or just life of never getting any...

Which when your life consists of sleeping, hunting and eating, mating is a pretty much worthy goal, it's not like the male can contribute to the arts or something.

>>52749409

Hey, if you feed them they'll likely happily do whatever you want...

The real challenge will be, like most hunting animals anthro-fied, be teaching them the concept of property. No you can't eat that cow, it belongs to the farmer. No, you can't just take that dagger, it belongs to the Blacksmith, etc.

They might only have the concept of "group" property... three guys share the same bow/spear, one taking it for the day shift, the other the night shift, etc.

>>52749414
But wouldn't the male gnoll sorcerer go "if you don't breed, I cast wicked magics?"

>>52749457
That actually sounds like the plot of a Gnollish myth. A sorcerer enslaves his Pack's females to his whims, and a wandering Gnoll is able to withstand their magics and defeat them, proving that magic is a fickle thing, especially when compared to personal strength.

>>52749457
>>52749484
But if powerful sorcery is seen as a desirable trait, then a dark witch doctor would get laid anyway, wouldn't he?

>>52739258
Are half-gnolls canon?

>>52749603
True, true. If he arrived to a new tribe and started working his mojo to become a power behind the throne as it were, that might be more fitting in theme.

>>52749622
It's been established that gnolls respect strength and value pleasure. A human can prove themselves in the eyes of a pack. Logically this will result in having to participate in a raw, animalistic, drug-fueled sex orgy.

Half-gnolls ensue.

>>52749825
Lewd.

>>52739258
They are my enslavers in the setting, sometimes they do gladiator-like tournaments and then they feast of the dead slaves after being entertained by the matches. They attack in standard gnoll tactics but their objective is to capture and not kill, until they have enough for a great feast and orgy. They are no empire though, as this type of living only works due to their overall low population number or abundance of animal food. I haven't gone that deep on it because the players don't seem to care.

>>52749912
Those gnolls should be enslaved.

>>52749912
Them eating fallen gladiators is a pretty neat twist!

>>52750073
Logical conclusion is what it is.

>>52749409
Why would you want to?

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>>52739258
Obligatory

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>>52754304
Obligatory 2

>>52749179
Yep. 5e gnolls take fluff from 4e, in which they were hyenas corrupted by the demonic essence of Yeenoghu, and lose all of the aspect about retaining hyena souls and thus being able to turn their back on their demonic origins. s5e gnolls are, really, little more than zombies; they're essentially a kind of low-level fiend that lives on the material plane, avatars of Yeenoghu's insatiable hunger.

They're literally so evil that telepathically contacting one has a risk of driving you insane and turning you into a rabid, cannibalistic worshipper of Yeenoghu, at least in the fluff. So, in a way, they're more like the movie version of a zombie apocalypse than the gnolls of editions past.

I'm one of that small minority who vehemently detests this change in lore and sticks to the 4e version, if you can't tell.

>>52749315
I don't really have any idea. I was kind of thinking that the gnolls might handwave that in their mythos, or acknowledge the existence of other gods in making the Young World, but not worship them, because those gods have no investment in the gnolls. Does that make sense?

As for the pleasure thing... I don't have a good in-universe explanation for it. In traditional D&D lore, gnolls are basically described as being inherently lazy, for no particular reason. A hedonistic streak was my kneejerk idea for explaining this.

Basically, gnolls as a people lived the hunter-gatherer's lifestyle for some time. That's not an easy life. Pleasure was something you're lucky to get. So, they seized upon the idea of pleasure - or, rather, access to pleasure - as a sign of status. If you can afford to lounge around, then you're important enough that you don't have to struggle for food, sort of thing.

This is something I've struggled with to explain. The core idea probably remains; gnolls just don't like working physically all that much, and if you don't have to work, you need something to fill that time.

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>>52754323

>>52754345
>I'm one of that small minority who vehemently detests this change in lore

Frankly, I'm almost insulted by the modern D&D playerbase if folks such as you and me really are in the minority.

>>52749622
In any D&D edition of the past? No, not since the orc/gnoll hybrids from Dragon #44 back in the 70s. Would I happily add half-gnoll PC stats in any setting that uses the 4e gnoll fluff or to my "Gnoll Empire" fluff? Definitely.

>>52749315
Building on from my last post due to lack of space... gnolls are basically hedonists. Their dominant philosophy is that the purpose of life is to enjoy yourself. The most important thing in life should be to have time enough to indulge in what makes you happy.

Work is basically defined as something you might *have* to do, but which you don't *enjoy* doing. It's not so much that physical labor is "evil" in gnollish eyes as so much being forced to do it no matter your feelings.

A gnoll might happily tend to a garden because it finds sincere pleasure in working that way, for whatever reason. But being forced to labor from sundown to sunup (you don't want to be working through the hot savannah day if you see in the dark) reaping wheat? Now that's work.

>>52754475
>No, not since the orc/gnoll hybrids from Dragon #44 back in the 70s

There's also the Bastards & Bloodlines book, if you count it.

>>52754528
Personally, I don't, because that version basically makes them even-suckier versions of the half-orcs. I'd rather make half-gnolls be at least as viable as half-orcs & half-elves, but then, I've never bought into the "half-xes in D&D should be twisted and unnatural abominations" meme unless that's supposed to be the races point - half-illithids and whatever.

Are gnolls African or Middle-Easterns?

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>>52754583
What would non-hideous half-gnolls look like, anyway?

>>52754637
Could be both. Two entirely different nations, each then further separated to countless tribes and cultures.

>>52754641
anime style hyena girls I guess?

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>>52754641
Well, this character here is canonically a half-gnoll, and it's certainly not as fugly as yours, so... I basically presume something like this, personally. I'm open to discussion on the matter.

>>52752906
For pseudopenis.

>>52754661
>>52754637
or even a mix of both
their lower castes can be inspired by African culture with their weapons and attitudes and their higher castes can be like Arabian merchants and such

>>52752906
Now seriously, I would like to have my own race of minions. Like Overlord.

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>>52752906
pic related

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>>52754889
>tfw no gnoll gf

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>>52755038

>>52755038
I remember this gnoll and I also remember that the artist drew very explicit nudes of her, which I have fapped to on several accounts until I grew bored of his webcomic and didn't care about the characters, anymore.

>>52755107
What was author name?

Fun fact; in the ancient days of Mystara, the Lupins - basically a goodly-aligned race of wolf-folk, culturally divided between faux-French swashbucklers, werewolf-hunting Amerindian ripoffs who ride giant wolves, and nomadic tribes - were reputed to be descendants of human/gnoll interbreeding. So, really, it's not that implausible to say humans and gnolls can get along, in or out of bed.

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>>52754430
>>52754345
You can count me in that group who loathe the new gnolls. 4es changes to lore and game play made sense, and played on aspects of previous editions lore. 5e just shits all over it, throwing out so much and simplifying what's left into bland shit.

>>52754637
I made mine Kazakh and other such related groups. Semi-nomadic cultures with central towns, highly focused on animal husbandry, textiles, and hunting. However, most humans are only aware of the evil gnoll culture since it sits between the neutral to good gnolls and the human lands. So I get to have my decent gnolls, and my demon worshipping raiders and bandits too.

>>52755702
Just go here

http://www.btbcomic.com/

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>>52739258
Yeah. Been doing it for a solid ten years now. Have gnolls as a staple of my own setting. They've made for great PCs and fun NPCs, and are neat to develop based off of myths about hyenas.

They're also a great excuse to play what amounts to an entire race of white-eyed leather jacket biker moms whose sole goal in life is to make you uncomfortable and laugh at the absurdity of everyone's stupid bullshit.

i could see gnolls as having a few powerful kingdoms built upon slavery and the such and then have the barbaric nomads that inhabit the world's badlands

the second group would be considered uncivilized and stupid while the nomads consider the first group weak for 'embracing' human culture and the such

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also gnoll dump

>>52754304
>Ethiopians believed that metalworkers were werebeasts.
... Well, that answers questions.

>>52739258
Regarding a Gnollish pantheon one must first consider the culture of gnolls since i assume the your gnolls are cultured (well most of them) their gods should be important ,not all consuming in their lives so as such their gods should take over small parts of their lives;

Their chief goddess rules over fertility and "love" as reproduction is important to the gnolls

Their goddess of war should be savage and bloodthirsty and revels in a good slaughter

their god of the hunt- animalistic and cunning he should rule over guile and skill may also embody survival and physical strength

their god/dess of magic should be a fickle god who delivers both power and punishment in equal vigor and should rule over
necromancy ,pyromancy ,and divination

there should also be a god of wealth but not sure how that would work

>>52754304
>>52758278
don't forget the god of the forge

>>52758314
Would Gnolls have a god of the forge though? If Blacksmiths were seen as warlocks and shamans, it would make more sense for them to use spirits and such in their work, rather than pray to an established member of the pantheon.

>>52758314
>>52759255
Hmm... in fact, a Forge God is actally missing from my proto-pantheon (Chief Goddess with no defined portfolio, Ishtar-esque War + Love Goddess, Slaaneshi-esque Pleasure God, God of the Hunt, Gods of Magic, God of Chattel), so that's a definite worthy addition to the group.

>>52759313
I don't think a god of craftsmanship really meshes with their more savage society. The boudas were outcasts, so it makes sense that metalsmiths are in Gnollish society as well. All art shows Gnolls as having scavenged weapons and armour, which is fitting for a race based on scavengers. If you do want to go with a Forge God, consider a character like Hephaestus: too crippled in mind or body to be accepted by the pack, but too useful to kill or drive away.

>>52759372
The gnolls I'm doing aren't savages, though. That's something I stated up in, like, te second post. They've got an empire. Admittedly, it depends on mass labor provided by skeleton laborers under the control of gnollish necromancers, but still, they're not just sitting under hide tents and foraging for food all the day like your typical gnolls, either.

>>52756174
Thanks, anon!

>>52759415
Sorry friend, there's a lot of different lores being thrown around, it's hard to keep track of everything. My bad.

Still though, it just seems a little out of place for them to have fine craftsmanship. Brutal efficiency is where it's at.

>>52759565
Hey, it's no worries. I recognize it's hard to keep things straight, and I'm not really helping out as much as I should. Maybe I should try picking a god and actually giving it a basic outline, see if I can make it more than a bare-bones seed?

>>52759625
>Maybe I should try picking a god and actually giving it a basic outline, see if I can make it more than a bare-bones seed?

Do the love/war goddess first. She seems to be the one of them that has the most flesh around her bones, maybe discounting the Alpha.

>>52759658
I'm always down for ripping ancient Mesopotamian Lore off. Asherah and Ishtar are a good start.

Alright, let me give this a shot... names are my bane, so open to suggestions there as part of refining this.

"Ishtar-Gnoll"
Goddess of Love & War
Portfolio: Passion, Violence, Battle, Romance, Love, Sex, Hate
Domains: War, Love(?), Glory(?)
Worshippers: Mercenaries, Prostitutes, Lovers, Vendetta-Seekers, Battledancers, Swashbucklers
Symbol: Stylized heart with its top-half in flames, dripping blood
Creed:
* Let your heart guide you. for passion holds the key to truth.
* If you want something, then fight for it.
* The weak submit, the strong strive; show the former scorn, the latter respect.

Ironically, despite likening the Chief Goddess to Zeus in terms of personality, I really have no idea what to make her the actual god OF. Any suggestions?

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On a semi-relevant topic, how can you tone down a Slaanesh-inspired deity to be more Chaotic Neutral? Focus on the drive for personal satisfaction & growth (ie, she/he's the deity of mastery and skill as well as carnal appetites) and downplay the obsessive aspects?

>>52764510
Sounds about right. Less mutation and rape, and you've basically got it.

>>52764510
More or less the same, except s/he uses safewords.

>>52766315
Would a gnoll instantly cease attacking if you guess her safeword?

>>52768424

If you're not going to let a gnoll murder and devour you, the least you could do is buy her a drink, anon.

>>52769469
I will let her rape me.

>>52755702
Peter Anckorn

>>52769951
It's not a rape then, though.

>>52770059
She doesn't need to know that.

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>>52739258

I always thought gnolls were just a race of tremendous assholes. Like, orcs kill and pillage and shit because their god tells them the strong get to take whatever they want, and they're too dumb to figure out anything else, but gnolls do all the horrible things they do because that shit's hilarious.

They aren't always CE marauders, but they're pretty much always douchebags.

>>52770690
Laughing prankster hyenas...

So, I actually had some thoughts for the "Chattel God" and, whilst I'm not sure what gender to make them, I thought I might as well present the writeup.

Also, bumping >>52760635 for commentary

"Lash"
God of Chattel
Portfolio: Agriculture, Craft, Obedience, Domination, Slavery, Honor, Pack, Family, Law
Domains: Forge, Bindings(?)
Worshippers: Business Owners, Taskmasters, Slaves, Guardians, Gaolers
Symbol: Skull-weighted whip curved as if in mid-strike
Creed:
* Fill Thy Role: You have a duty to perform, so fulfill it to the best of your capability.
* Honor The High And The Low: Strength of all kinds should be acknowledged, whether it is the warrior's or the worker's.
* A Broken Tool Spites Only Its Owner: Do not abuse those who toil under you, for their labors support you.

>>52772302
Given how little gnolls value work and effort, I'd imagine any god watching over that stuff would have to be male.

>>52754346
see this is why i love /tg/. We come here with an idea an build upon it and someone with a gift would incorporate it into something beautiful.

I might not be able to see this unfold in a game, and i might not ever incorperate it into a story of my own, but i feel better having read it. And i think it also gave my creative muscles a good stretch.

thanks /tg/

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>>52772352
Makes sense. Besides, males in this gnollish culture are the sex with more affinity for arcane magic, and most of their slave labor is actually done by zombie/skeleton laborers, so making the God of Chattel a son or brother (or both) of the God of Necromancy makes a lot of sense in terms of the pantheon.

>>52739258
I have a gnoll empire in my setting. It's fascist and matriarchal, and is working hard to oppress other more independent gnolls of a different ethnicity who still have a tribal lifestyle. The empire got started after throwing off the yoke of Elven colonists, who came in and built universities, hospitals, general infrastructure, and generally oppressed them.

In other words, they're Africans. Although there was just local plantations rather than a slave trade, so a bit like India as well.

Actually... I mentioned before that it feels logical to me that a gnoll-devoted pantheon would be pretty "paganistic". Lots of freaky soap opera-esque stuff with incest and gender-swapping and rape and cannibalism and unnatural pregnancies.

I mean, let's face it, even with their usual slot on the alignment chart switched from Chaotic Evil to Chaotic Neutral, don't gnolls feel like just the sort of race where the chief goddess trying to eat other divine women whose beauty she's jealous of, or the god of God of Chattel being born from the God of Necromancy when the gender-bending God/dess of Pleasure fucked the Necro-God's mouth whilst he was sleeping and made him pregnant, kind of feels right?

Or am I just letting magical realmism taint my idea under the excuse that real-world polytheist myths are full of all kinds of weird shit (virgin pregnancies, gods eating their children, male gods turning into women or getting pregnant, etc)?

>>52772576
Pretty much all pagan pantheons were full-on magical realm. It may seem lewd and all, but if you fight it you will never get the right mindset to this stuff.

>>52772555
Oh, and religiously speaking, they have a God Empress now. Based a bit on Exalted's setting. The primitive gnolls, and old fashioned folks in the empire, worship the Moon. Traditionally, the moon is the one who gave birth to all gnolls. Other than that they mostly venerate esteemed ancestors, mostly women. It's a bit of a bhodivisata thing. The Empress has asserted that she's the latest and greatest of these, but is also working to establish a central church influenced by elven theology. With her at the head, naturally.

>>52739304
So you literally just ripped off Codex Alera but threw some D&D gods in since it wasn't bland enough?

>>52748498
>>52749208
Don't forget weakness. The devil of gnolls should be weak, but tricky, taking advantage of honor or hospitality, and stealing through deceit rather than claiming by force.

>>52772998
I kinda see her more as a lawyer, actually, rather than a thief or a trickster. Binding other gnolls with strange oaths and contracts.

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Query; in a civilized, Chaotic Neutral gnoll empire where hedonism, rather than annihilation, is seen as sacred, would there be professional gladiator pits? Places where warriors show off their skills for the sake of glory and proving they're the best?

Also, half-gnolls, would you argue that these make sense, given humans have been able to breed with orcs, elves, dwarves, gnomes,
and goblins, across different settings?

>>52775701
Yes and yes.

>>52775701
>>52754475
>>52754583
>>52754641
>>52754750
How would you stat half-gnolls?

>>52776453
Half the ability score bonuses and penalties regular gnolls have, possibility for having both human and gnoll feats and abilities. That's usually how half-races go.

>>52776553
True, but also depends on the system. PF gives all half-humans a +2 on any score and whatever sort of special vision the other half has. And gnolls need more feats. Also a bite attack, since they have the whole hyena thing going.

>>52776453
Well, for 5th edition (my preferred so far), my current draft looks like this, statwise:

Ability Score Modifier: +2 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision
Filth-Eater's Gullet: A half-gnoll has Resistance to Poison and Advantage on Constitution checks against Poison and Disease.
Ripping Jaws: A half-gnoll can choose to Bite as an Unarmed Strike. Doing so causes its attack to inflict 1d4 Piercing damage as a basis.
Rampage: When a half-gnoll reduces a creature to 0 hit points on its turn with a melee attack, it can take a bonus action to move up to half its speed and make a bite attack.
Runt's Survival: A half-gnoll gains Proficiency in one skill of its choice.
Keep Up: A half-gnoll can add its Proficiency to Constitution checks made to resist Exhaustion.

Basic idea is that half-gnolls really push the "smarter than purebloods" angle that half-orcs lightly touch on. Some gnollish hardiness/toothiness, but mostly, they're the brains of the pack.

>>52739258
The problem with fantasy games that use the
"Race as a basis for a culture / nation"
to the exclusion of others is that it forces you to determine their differences. You find the race's strengths and weaknesses, and then, once those are figured out, you play up the conflict. Those differences breed distrust, distrust begets war, and then, on the global stage, you have huge unforgivable conflict that will end only when one has become the victor.

So, you then are left with the top-dog civilization, or broken shattered remnants.

So, A) If gnolls are a full-fledged culture and potential players on the world stage, why haven't they conquered already? If they do, what happens to the other races? Should other races be allowed?

B) If gnolls are not the ascendant race, then why should you bother fleshing them out. They are likely to be hunted or mistreated in context of the ascendant civilization.

Actual advice --> Don't make mono-cultures. It's a shortcut to bad writing. People accept the diversity and use their strengths to become all of their strengths. The best civilization is going to be a mixed-bag of cultures, tactics, and races, that is putting aside their differences to steamroll all chump opposition.

>>52776737
So, what do anons think of this statblock? 5e is very appealing to homebrew for, but I'll be the first to admit that balancing is an issue I'm having a lot of trouble with.

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I am a weak man. I humbly request MOAR sexy/pretty gnoll pictures.

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>>52776737
>>52779477
Some stuff (read: most stuff) on the "dandwiki" homebrew page is pretty fucked up, but I think they've got pure gnolls down pretty well based on the Monster Manual examples and I'd definitely use them as inspiration basis for half-gnolls. In your case I think I'd still give them SOME physical edge and maybe replace one of the two ability score bonuses (maybe Wisdom) with Strength. Rampage and the natural bite look good, but I'd definitely remove or rework one of the other traits since your half-gnolls seem to be a little heavy on goodies compared to what a "pureblood" would have.

>>52781409
How sexy/pretty are we talking? I can probably post a few, but it might be a tad difficult considering it's a blue board and artists of gnoll fanart seem to be pretty fan of errant nipples and naughty bits.

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>>52781722
Whoops, in my haste to find some gnoll pics I forgot my screencap to go along with the first two replies. The standard gnoll homebrew for posterity.

>>52781722
How're dandwiki's own half-gnolls?

>>52781738
Races of the Wild also has gnolls.

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>>52784233
Can't seem to find any entry for them, at least not for 5e. Not sure what their guidelines are for submissions, but seeing as a few homebrewed races listed are literally copyrighted from other books/movies/games I'm sure it's not an incredibly strict process. You could probably be the first to submit half-gnolls to the collection.

>>52786745

>Those hips
>Those eyes
>That top
>That big fuckoff polearm

I'm not really into gnolls, but that's getting dangerously close to some of my weaknesses.

>>52754430
Well there's the influence that has grown more recently of people who are only familiar with things like warhammer and think everything must be based on that standard.

You see them shitposting across the board that the only acceptable animal inspired races should be unnatural demonic beastmen that only exist as an unthinking source of destruction and anything is just furry tumblr sjw dindunuffin bs.

It's kinda funny that in their obsession to preserve what they, in their ignorance, think of as the standard normalcy they actually often diverge from and corrupted established traditions and culture, both on this board and throughout media.

>>52788361
Admittedly, that's been pretty much the standard since Tolkien. Anything that isn't of the six player races (and occasionally half-orcs) more often than not just exists to be killed, and we usually accept it and always have long shit threads about the baby orc dilemma which would never be a thing were there any more grayscale at all.

>>52788395
Oh sure but it seems like there's been an increase, at least in how loud the voices are if not how many, along with the increase in /pol/ leaking out of their containment since the election.

>>52788395

To be fair, gnolls aren't exactly a race that lend themselves to moral ambiguity. They're slavers, they eat people alive-in many cases they were explicitly created by a demon to make other people's lives miserable. And while there have been some pretty good attempts to flesh them out, they still hew pretty close towards the "killable bad guy race" mold in many people's eyes.

I should point this thread is creating homebrew and gnolls have always been an evil race.

>>52788566
>>52788606
As I said, just about all the monster races are like that - murderous sadistic bastards with few redeeming qualities. But there's still a world of a difference between them just being like that culturally, and them being literally demon spawn. In the former case you could pick one up as an infant and raise them right (unless you listen to /pol/, anyway).

>>52788625
Why are you so intent on the /pol/ boogeyman?

Killing 'Always Chaotic Evil' is a staple.

>>52788655
That's not the original anon who mentioned /pol/(me).

You can chant boogeyman all you want but when people start shitposting across threads about the crusade against the evil liberal marxists trying to take over 4chan for the sjws it's pretty obvious who's behind it.

Honestly it's just kind of sad at this point how much /pol/ is dedicated to their whole shtick of "what? /pol/? I have never heard of such a place and certainly aren't from there, in fact I'm sure no one ever comes from /pol/ to shitpost and really this boogeyman conspiracy must be engineered to distract from the REAL issue of the jew-backed sjw nigger fags!" even though no one buys it.

>>52788655
>>52788846
Yes, yes, the point being, always-evil gnolls are pretty boring aren't they?

>>52788625
I don't need /pol/ to tell me that keeping a pet tiger is a bad idea.

>>52789027
Raised correctly in the right enviroment, tigers can actually be quite cuddly.

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>>52789027
>>52789046

>>52789027
If you think there's something inherently evil about monster races that drives them to savagery and villainy even if you raise them with the same love and care as a human, then you subscribe to /pol/'s worldview.

>>52789088
Presumably talking about pre-5e gnolls...

>>52788917
Yep. Hells, gnolls have actually been playable in literally edition up until 5e. You had Orcs of Thar for 1e, Complete Book of Humanoids for 2e, Monster Manual for 3.0 and 3.5, Unapproachable East for... 3.0?, Races of the Wild and Savage Species for 3.5, and Dragon Magazine #367 for 4e.

Heck, I posted the Playing Gnolls PDF further up the thread: best, most well-developed fluff that gnolls have ever had, in any edition.

>>52788917
That depends, are they in the story as characters (NPC or otherwise) or as an allegory? If they're there as a morality play then it's okay to have them one-dimensional since it serves to make a point, like a dragon can be a personification of greed and so on.

>>52789180
Yeah but if you mention that stuff you'll trigger misinformed people who started with the latest edition of dnd or who only really know about other systems like warhammer.

Obviously, the only acceptable version is ALWAYS always evil mindlessly cruel killers with no personality or culture who you can't reason with and can kill without any possible moral questions and who can act as a stand-ins for you to project your issues with real world racial groups and dindus.

>>52789390
>who can act as a stand-ins for you to project your issues with real world racial groups and dindus.
Which is entirely a-okay if you and your group set out to play a campaign of Pol: The Cuckening. Whether varied, morally gray monsters are good or not depends on the tone of the game you want. It's not inherently right or wrong way to go about it is all.

>>52789390
>who can act as a stand-ins for you to project your issues with real world racial groups and dindus.
>this saltness
When did tumblr get here? Do you think that Orcs are now niggers?

>>52789586
You'd be surprised how often that exact comparison is made.

>>52789462
I didn't disagree with that, if you actually read that post I was objecting to people who think that's the only valid option, often while ironically ignorant about the lore and canon.

>>52789586
There have literally been multiple /pol/ bait threads about how orcs/gnolls/insert "monstrous" race are dindu niggers and playing them as anything but mindless always evil monsters is just tumblr sjws invading 4chan.
Kinda ironic with your crying tumblr.

Hey, we managed two and half days before the thread inevitably descended into shit-flinging!

Nice going, /tg/. Let's aim for full three next!

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>>52739258

>>52781722
>How sexy/pretty are we talking? I can probably post a few, but it might be a tad difficult considering it's a blue board and artists of gnoll fanart seem to be pretty fan of errant nipples and naughty bits.

Try and throw in any of the SFW ones. They can be pretty without being naughty.

>>52757998
Gnoll rugby/football looks interesting.. Unless you're human.

>>52792049
Could be VERY interesting if you were a dullahan

>>52781409
http://spacegoblin.deviantart.com/

>>52792057
Indeed, put a nice visor on the head for a first person camera view.. Strictly pay-per-view ofcourse.

>>52792383
Gnoll-pro cameras anyone?

>>52739258
I like to pull a bit from African mythology, make them famously skilled smiths, but only for weapons. It's actually sacrilege in their religion to forge anything not made for killing .

>>52792440
I'd imagine them being incredibly inventive about that rule, though.

"Oh, you mean these horseshoes? They're so that my horse can kill shit too." etc.

>>52794646
Everything that isn't a weapon is covered in gratuitous blades and spikes so technically it still counts.

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>>52791970
After going through my collection I gotta say this is harder than I thought it would be (no pun intended). Pretty much everything gnoll I have is one or more of the following:
>NSFW
>possibly too cartoonish, futuristic, or "furry"
>Nurse Verity
>already posted

>>52795504
>Gnoll
>Too furry
Anon. Have you seen gnolls? they are practically walking doggos

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>>52795539
Yeah, it was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment considering /tg/ frequently has pretty hilariously inconsistent definitions of what "furry" is. I frankly couldn't care either way, just noting that I don't have many pictures on the same quality as >>52781722.

Here are some space gnolls. Or galaxy gnolls. Gnollaxies.

>>52795621
Gnoll aliens
Gnolliens

>>52795633
Dammit, Jim. I wish I were that clever.

>>52795649
Im in all honesty pretty ashamed of that one.

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What kinds of gnoll makes the best assassin?
Grassy gnoll.

>>52739304
Ive seen this posted word for word so many times it might as well be copypasta.

>>52741300
Came here to post this.
It's one of the few comics where it has anthro characters but not one iota of furfaggotry

On top of it, there's a lot about the gnoll stuff that's very much based on actual hyenas, including mythology

>>52740931
Eyyy can i get those notes boi

I wanted to do gnolls really different in my setting. Many 'savage' races have really mundane places in society in my setting. So I made them as wild as I could imagine... and made them cajun.

They're very folksy, very wry, love a wager more than warfare, and are more prone to taking levels in Bard than Barbarian. They're a very superstitious and religious folk though, even though their weird voodoo religion makes sense to no one else. It deals a lot with water though, try to chase away 'bad spirits' to prevent floods and storms, while also preventing the rivers from running dry. Everything they do has a dozen stylized rituals, and ain't one of them not follow through with it out of fear of bringing the bad spirits down on their whole Clan.

Because they're a people naturally attuned to the 'other side' they're often found working with the dead in slightly more conventional ways. Clans of Gnolls might run a funeral business for example. They have very fancy, and lively funerals that other races may take offense to, but they celebrate life and see the dead off to the next life laughing. They TRY to be doctors and healers, sometimes, but find other races anatomy is too different or that they do not take a prescription of snake healing seriously enough.

They're also frequently sea traders (or pirates), due to their affinity with the gods of Water and Fortune. One of the main reoccurring NPCs is a Gnoll Bard who trades spices from exotic lands and offers the party to ride his ship... though usually its some sort of contrived trap to get them to help him with some other problem. They keep falling for it, but I think it's just because they love the terrible accent I put on.

I could have done a more serious African mythology approach, but when I think of African spirituality I either think of boring trips to the Art Museum during Black History Month, or I think of New Orleans and cajun vodoo. It was really interesting to look up and learn about too.

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>>52798078
There are roughly three groups of gnolls: the northern civilized group who are a mix of kazakh and northern indian cultures with a matriarchal/matrilineal bent. They worship a large number of gods and spirits with O'Istidir leading the pantheon.

The central culture which is more nomadic and mostly herders, with much more ancestor worship and sometimes are demon cults and worshippers of Odur, Lamashtu, and Pazuzu.

The western border is pretty much filled with demon cults and every awful stereotype of gnolls from D&D, and is the border that leads towards notEurope. They tend to be incestous hillbillies, prion diseased bandit cults, and degenerate tribal people. Their basically criminals and exiles that have been driven from polite gnoll society.

The southern border of their lands is a DMZ with the Dragonborn empire and is basically a 10 mile wide by several hundred mile long wasteland that kills most anything that strays there. Its maintained by powerful Truenaming magic inscribed on giant obelisks created by an act of powerful divine magic during great war far in the past.

They are the strongest at truenaming magic, strong traditions involving occult classes from PF (mediums and spiritualists in particular), with small elements of psychic magic (DSP Psionics classes, mostly for the weirdness and folklore about third eyes in hyenas).

Current Gods named so far: O'Istidir (She is Fiercer), Arch Matriarch, fertility, wisdom, strength; Mother of Earthquakes, goddess of earth, caves, and metals; Blood and Snow, god of death, winter, and darkness; Skin Painter, goddess of art, magic; Hunts the Sky, archer deity; Grim Eyes, goddess of warriors; Odur (Formerly He Is) the nameless former consort of OIstidir and head of the evil gnoll pantheon.

Unfortunately I'm trying to piece together what little I can remember since I lost access to a hard drive that contained many of my notes.

>>52795504
I appreciate your effort, for that one is pretty nice.

Gnolls are different than hyena people.

>>52800231
How come?

>>52798928

Which of those is the female?

>>52800240

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnoll

It's like taking the spiders and living underground away from Drow. At that point just make a new race.

>>52800257
>Which of those is the female?

The one on the right.

My DM has Orcs basically be Vikings, with Gnolls being Aztec jungle-tribals
There's plenty of ways to flavour 'evil douche raider race'

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My Gnolls are based on the best and worst parts of Iroquois Native American culture.

>Councils of women share governing power with male war chiefs, large matriarchal vibe.
>Entire economy of tribe runs on the idea of "Mourning Wars." Where the women in the tribe will demand replacements for their lost sons in the form of slaves. This leads to losses in battle which leads to the need for more slaves and more Mourning Wars.
>Slaves can be adopted into the tribe as a replacement family member, but are often just eaten instead.
>Neither Gnolls nor Indians mind cannibalism I guess.
>Strange foreigners bring new technology and new ways.
>Missionaries can piss off, but rifles and metal are desired.
>Gnolls tribes form large trading markets in the plains where exotic herbs and animal pelts are traded for slaves, weapons, and metal trinkets to be scrapped and repurposed.
>Locals figure out that it's better to trade with Gnolls rather than be eaten by raiders. Gnolls take trading very seriously and see it as a former of gift giving.
>Most Gnolls loyalty can be bought with gifts. Yes people abuse this a lot.
>A Gnolls prophet has just appeared after several years. Preaches strange new ways. Single handedly defeated Snake-Haired Sorceress Gnoll with his magic comb. Then yiff. He is now uniting many tribes together and Gnolls are actually becoming a political force for the first time ever.

So they kind of take the spot of "untrusted savages, but they're at least willing to talk to us before eating us." A little political grey faction that allows for players to play a beastly race that isn't just a half orc, and bridges the good aligned cultures with more evil aligned ones.

>>52800273
You could conceivably turn them to other sort of canines, though.

Also a good way to get rid of pseudopenis.

>>52749622
Check out the 3.5 book Bastards and Bloodlines. Only place I've seen half gnolls.

>>52806151
A pity their art and stats are so crap, but then, that's hardly unique to them in that book. Love to figure out some decent stats for pureblood and halfbreed gnolls for a 5e setting I'm putting together, but I just can't seem to come up with anything.

Fun fact: way back in Basic and then AD&D, the Lupins - a race of wine-loving, swashbuckling, Faux-French wolf-people who were one of the few races besides Humans capable of being Paladins - were reputed to be the direct descendants of human/gnoll interbreeding.

>>52803403
why would you take away the best part

>>52807266

>Wine-loving, swashbuckling, Faux-French wolf-person paladin

Not going to lie, that sounds like a fun adventuring buddy.

>>52809226
Tell me about it. Would love to try and put together a "region writeup" where humans, gnolls and lupins all co-exist for fluff-related (ie, "human + gnoll = lupin") reasons, but I have even less of a clue how to do that than I do my Stygia-inspired gnoll kingdom way above.

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>>52789135
I'll never not be mad about that.

Gnolls were playable since 1e, and then nuWotC decides they shouldn't ever be because TEH EVIL even though Tieflings and Drow are in the core fucking rulebook.

>>52755050
anon, that is obviously a werewolf, don't let the gnoll scum trick you

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>>52811783

Gnolls would never try to trick anyone, anon. They're too friendly and helpful.

Look, this one's protecting his helpless human friend, who was brutally stabbed by some unknown third party.