Gnoll clans are matriarchal.
Gnolls learn to sing in the Howling College. All their music is narrative and all their history is oral. They have three distinct genres: Lowings, Whoopings and Gigglings.
The City of Smoke is the seat of the Mother, the ultimate ruler of the gnolls. It is called the City of Smoke (or Shit) because the cow dung burns constantly here. The Great Mother rules currently; upon ascending to power she ate the hearts of all other matriarchs - save three, who escaped.
The Great Mother united the clans and invaded - with the help of Grumluda - the south. They recently crushed the Golden Realm and extract tribute from others.
Soon after the fall of Bergolast, when the gnolls first came to the Burning Lands, the gnolls were led by a Grand Chieftan whose supremacy was established through mortal combat. The Defiler was the one who led the gnolls into the Burning Lands; his skull can be worn as a helmet and caused whole armies to quell. Its current location is unknown.
Gnolls practice the devouring art, the eating of the heart of a beast to gain its power. However, they believe that this prevents the devourer from finding peace in the afterlife - unless they are buried as elephants are by painted elephants. The Great Mother desires to eat an elephant heart.
The gnolls fought the Gnawbone Wars against Shuttered, in which they drove the men of Shuttered from the Burning Lands. The southern dwarven nation was forged in the wake of this war, as detailed in 31.27.
Male gnolls who reach adulthood without finding favour with a matriarch live in Abbalah-Doon (15.28), a village of bone huts. These gnolls are more peaceful and have more solemn songs.
At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, gnolls and Nekh meet at Ogo Tassak (14.27) to perform rites to ensure another season of game.
Jahur’s Scent Barrier (21.29) deters gnolls because of their sensitive noses.
Hairy Jack lives close to a clan of gnolls - and some claim he is intimate with one of them. (37.21)
Gnolls honour the wyvern of the waste (29.29) and gnoll bards sing of a time when warriors rode wyverns into battle.
The gnolls brought back Teodo, a golden lion statue, from the Golden Realm. A slave, Abassi, converted some gnolls to the King in Splendour. These ‘praying gnolls’ meet secretly near Teodo (50.30)
To communicate with lizardmen, bards of the Howling College gather whistling reeds (50.26)
A band of gnolls can be found around the Broken Spear (40.06)
Gnolls learn the Song of Dust and Flame from the Fire Fang, the furthest campus of the Howling College. It is next to a sinkhole where begins a fire ley line (32.32).
By ancient gnollish custom, if you defeat the Keeper of the Gate you have gnollish blood. Otherwise, to enter the Burning Lands requires a non-gnoll to pass through the Gates of Blood (or Gates of Official Travel Pass Sanction) and receive a rat’s head as a token (50.29)
The flindbar is a spiked nunchuku developed by the gnolls.
Connections
- Like the position of Grand Chieftan, the Champion of Thring is also decided by one-on-one combat