Painted Gnolls are tall and lean creatures, the shortest adults are rarely less than six feet tall and most are around seven feet tall weighing in around 275 lbs. Their oily fur, when not painted, is a light brown, with darker stripes or spots, very rarely a Gnoll will be born with pure white fur. A slight mane runs from their heads down their backs. Female Gnolls have a tendency to be slightly larger and more powerful than the males. Gnolls have a quick maturity cycle becoming fully adult around eight years. Most Gnolls only live to their early thirties, due mostly to the conditions of the Fumigated Sea, warfare, and starvation. Given optimal conditions Gnolls have the same life span as humans.
Painted Gnolls have a number of adaptations that have allowed them not only to survive in the Fumigated Sea but thrive. They have a translucent extra set of eyelids that they can deploy and retract at will. The eyelids, known as a nictitating membrane, allow the Gnolls to see while in the many gases and vapors common here. While they can see, the vision is somewhat blurred, and they are only able to since movement and bright colors. This membrane also gives off a bright red reflection whenever they catch the light.
The respiratory system of a Painted Gnoll is much stronger than any other humanoid. They have extremely keen noses and are able to tell from sniffing the wind which gases are in the area and where they are moving. They also produce large volumes of thick mucus which wile giving them temporary protection from most of the noxious vapors causes them to be clearing their thought almost constantly. Gnolls do this by a series of high pitch fast coughs often mistaken for raspy laughter.
The society of the Painted Gnolls is based around the pack. Gnoll packs are tribal like extended families. Blood ties are central to Gnoll culture, or as the Gnolls themselves refer to it ‘Kin above all, Kin above self.’ Gnolls view other pack members and brother and sister, and are fiercely loyal allies. While Gnolls may squabble, even come to blows among fellow pack members (as all siblings do) these conflicts are quickly forgiven and forgotten. This desire for a pack will cause isolated individual Gnolls to form their own surrogate packs from close friends and group members. Gnolls will also sometimes ‘adopt’ individuals, both fellow Gnolls and other humanoids, into their packs.
The packs are ruled with a combination of matriarchy and egalitarianism. Gnolls are not monogamous, and it is very difficult to tell who the father of a litter of pups is. Rather they trace decent from the mother. Leadership rolls however are decided solely by skill and ability and not by gender. The leader of a pack is known as the ‘color-keeper’ as they control who gets access to the various dyes and colors the Gnolls hold sacred.
The Painted Gnolls make their homes in the isolated mesas and hills that exist above the smog line. These havens are few and far between and often no larger than a hundred square meters. The packs go to great lengths to fortify and defend their homes. Improvised walls made from large rocks and scrap metal jut with spikes, pit traps dug deep and lined with scrap and broken rock, lava tubes are used to create ambush points and escape routes. Gnolls will defend their homes to the death, but will occasionally allow visitors to their mesas and hideaways if they are on good terms with the pack.
There is very little arable land in these settlements and what is arable is usually dedicated to growing ash yams or other starchy tubers. Painted Gnolls are primarily meat eaters, but will rarely turn down anything edible. The majorly of their diet comes from hunting, mostly spikey crabs, rock worms, and Thermadors. Unlike many humanoids Gnolls have no cultural taboo regarding other humanoids, save for eating other Gnolls as that is an extremely spiritually impure act.
The Gnolls reputation for savagery and violence is an unfortunate stereotype born of from their first interactions with humans. With resources being so limited in the Fumigated Sea, Painted Gnolls are fiercely territorial. Hunting and scavenging parties of anywhere from four to eight Gnolls can be found wandering below the smog line. Most of these parties will go out of their way to avoid conflict with other humanoids, however explores into the Fumigated Sea say that there are few things more disturbing than sets of red eyes peering out of a poisonous fog bank, watching and cackling.
The reputation of Gnolls being scavengers however is much more deserved. Very little metal occurs commonly in the Fumigated Sea and even if it did the Painted Gnolls do not have the technical understanding of smelting and iron working. Rather than mining, Gnolls harvest the Iron Hail. Large teams of Gnolls will tear the spheres apart, after ritualistically disposing of the corpse inside. Every metal object that the Gnolls have is derived from either the grave goods from the Iron Hail or from the Iron Hail itself. In particular they covet the parts stained rainbow from exposure to high heat.
The Painted Gnolls use this scavenged metal to make their arms and armor, as well as their tools and fortifications. The metal that the Gnolls harvest is not easy to work with and most Gnoll objects are rather primitive looking each piece being unique. Their armor is made of overlapping connected plates, similar plate mail adorned with the many jagged scraps of salvage they make as primitive spikes. Their weapons are equally crude, are often just large pieces of scraped sharped to a rough edge. Most Gnolls are armed with a shield and either a sword or a spear. While Gnolls prefer melee combat, slashing with their swords and spears and basking with their spike shields and armor, they also keep a sling and a small pouch of rounded scrap shot. They mostly use their slings to hunt prey or to harass when inside one of the many noxious clouds that roll below the smog line. Gnolls prefer hit and run tactics, darting in and out of poison clouds and ganging up on a single target, preferably the weakest first.
The noxious vapors and the many colors of the Fumigated Sea form the basis of the Painted Gnolls spirituality. Gnolls believe that vapors, smokes, and clouds are spirts. They also believe that the spirts must be cleansed within the bowels of the earth, before escaping to the sky to become white clouds. When a Gnoll dies, or whenever they encounter a mummy in the Iron Hail, the Gnolls will ritualistically flense the corpse in one of the many geysers and hot pots that dot this sea. The then cleaned bones are then laid to rest within the great fumaroles and smoking chimneys so the spirit may descend into the underworld to be spiritually cleansed before they can ascend to the sky as hot white vapors. In other words, steam. Steam is one of the few vapors that will rise above the smog line. The noxious vapors and poisonous clouds that dot the landscape are impure souls that are seeking a new host to lie in.
Color also plays a large role in Gnoll spirituality. Each color has a complex set of meanings and emotions tied to it. For instance, white is the color of death, bones, finality, purity, and escape. Red is the color of violence, food, vision, and hiding. Transitions from one color to anther make for nuances emotions and ideas. Gnolls also believe that the spirts leave colors on the surface of the ground during their purification process. These substances are not minerals or bacteria in the mind of the Painted Gnolls, but are comparable to the human concept of ectoplasm. They also believe that these colors bring protection and good luck. Gnolls harvest this material and dry it out to make dyes and powders. Gathering large handfuls of the colors the Gnolls with blow the dyes on their arms and armors before battle, on new born pups, on homes and on fortifications, on just about everything that possess. Most notably they rub the dyes into their fur giving them a blotched rainbow appearance; it is from this appearance that the Gnolls earn the painted moniker.
Very few Painted Gnolls exist outside of the Fumigated Sea. Given how deeply engrained the pack is in Gnoll culture there are very few individual Gnolls who are willing to leave. Most of individual Gnolls found outside of this sea were either adopted into another culture at a very young age or are outcasts. Given their preference for color Gnolls make surprisingly good artists, if they can learn technique. Their hearty constitutions and nigh immunity to most noxious vapors has made the Painted Gnolls a particular target for slavers for use in mining.
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