The **devouring art **is the name for the gnollish practice of eating raw hearts to gain the strength and characteristics of the creature. The gnolls say that this ancient ritual binds their soul to the spirit of the animal and gives them great strength and other powers. This is usually done with aurochs but it has been known to have been performed on everything from mammoths to ghost apes, with varying effects. The gnolls report that the gnolls who do this enjoy no afterlife, for the souls of the gnolls are too closely entangled with the spirits of animals to leave this world and drink the honeyed milk of the Mother of All.
The Great Mother took power when she had the dying Great Mother’s heart fed to a captured matriarch, that matriarch’s heart fed to the next matriarch, and so on until the Great Mother ate the final heart. Entwined with her own soul was not only the dying wisps of the soul of the previous Mother but the vibrant ones of all of the matriarchs (save three) of all the gnoll clans. One can almost see the souls roiling within her and the ghostly images of writhing arms and snapping jaws surround the Great Mother in a terrible halo. Gnolls are unable to withstand her and all who come into her presence grovel before her, even those of other species find her voice, which howls in a hundred tones at once, impossible to ignore and difficult to disobey.
The Defiler was a master of the art. It is said that in his youth, he swallowed at least one heart from every creature known to the gnolls. However, the turning point came after he made a journey to the Grey Mountains, disappeared for several months, and returned with strange blood upon his lips. After that time, none could face him in battle, and he quickly rose to the rank of Great Chieftain.