Gnolls.
“Our people are hated, pushed out to the sides, to the edges of the world, where we can be forgotten, where we are Vermin, where we are the thing to shake a fist at, to be disgusted at. They do not know our culture, and they do not care. But the Gnolls know, oh we know, we were there at the start. Your mighty cities? Built on Gnoll bones, Stormwind? That mighty edifice of stone? Gnoll land. When history tells the tales, it will be the rememberers of the dead who tell the tales, oh yes, my friend, even when your cities lie in Dust. We will Remember you. Oh…we will Remember you…
Colonel Fangore the Second.
The Skeleton exists. The model skeleton exists, it’s the Tauren model, just scaled down. We know Gnolls can be smart, they can cooperate in pirate collectives, and are intelligent enough to speak eloquently and tell the damned future! (Sayge in Darkmoon Fayre)
So lets go basics. The model exists. The Skins exist…Starting zone. Burning Steppes
Mounts: Desert Lions, those horrible old things, not proud golden Alliance ones, the actual savage and fierce things, the Skar to Mufasa…Things that can survive a desert environment.
Base them on a real life culture? How about the ones who actually -have- the legends about Hyenas, the Zulu’s and Masai…
The are fairly matriarchal, with the males tending to fulfil the roles of the Chiefs of the Impi’s, their warbands, famed ones being Hua’gar, known by the crude name of ‘Hogger’ to humans, because they cannot understand Gnoll words, Lieutenant Fangore, seriously, they ascribe the ability of a species to have a military distinction between soldiers and officers, and think them too simple to be classed as an intelligent people?
Why are they Horde?
Because the Humans drove them from their land, and they have just seen that a desert survivalist culture has been accepted, in the Vulpera. They have seen that the Horde is a place for those marginalised and driven away. And they know, oh they know, that humanity will never accept them, and if humanity will not, then the Alliance never will. Oh the Draenei possibly will There is no ill will there, but who cares what they think? Does anyone think that Stormwind will listen to the Exodar? Really….
Home city? Bantu.
A compact town, wattle and daub, with animal pens, The centre of it? The Cathedral of Bone.
It is made of bone. Bone and skins, some of the skins leather from the varied races the Gnolls have slain. But this is a place of reverence, not of contempt…for all those bones, all those flayed bodies?
They are a sign of the things the others will never understand.
“Bipedal Hyena’s” scientists and priests of humans call the Gnolls, but they never truly understand what comes with that. Hyena leave nothing behind. Everything has value. Value is key to Gnoll culture. Everything is of use. Even in death.
Their mocking yowl? That is an actual pre-emptive praise, a sign of thanks for what service the person about to die is going to fulfil in the future.
Those tents with the faces on them?
That is respect.
Young Gnoll cubs who emerge for their tent will be cuffed around the ears if they do not turn and utter thanks to the person who’s skin makes up their tent, every morning, and kept them warm all night.
“Whose tent is that, whelp!”
“My Tent! It is my parents tent!”
“NO! INSOLENCE! That is not your tent! That is not your parents tent! That Tent belongs to Lieutenant Parker of Stormwind! It is his skin leather that makes it! It is is face that is on it! You see the tattoos on the leather? His Tattoos, he earned them as a Warrior of a Stormwind Impi! You -will- show respect to Lieutenant Parker every morning when rising, or you will amount to nothing and become one of the Lost of no Value!”
Enemies are honoured. Their bones, can be turned to armour, their sinews, to bow strings and thonging, their skin, aye, to tents and leather, their flesh? Well, the Impi’s are mobile, and mobile armies must eat.
Gnolls are merciless…but they honour those they kill. Everyone has Value.
The main societal groupings are simple.
“Rainmakers” named for the rain they make fall, in terms of tears, they are the meat and bone of the Impi’s, they are Warriors, Hunters, those who Kill. It is a good career, but a high risk one. A Rainmaker will likely make a name for themselves, and it is a glorious profession, but equally is likely to regarded as a monster by Humans and Alliance types, and be slain as a simple ‘monster’
“Bonespeakers” Those who will commune with the dead, the Shamans of the Impi’s, who will speak with dead Gnolls and dead humanoids of other races, and ensure proper reverence is shown, Shaman is a catch all term, it can include those with more arcane leanings, or even those who commune with the “Worthless” as Gnolls call Demons.
“Marrowtalkers” These are the middle ground, the cunning politicians, diplomats and dissemblers, they, as named, can crack to the heart of a bone, to the very marrow, and understand it better than any, which applies to words, and not just bones… Humans may have SI:7, Gnomes may have GCO, Horde may have “The Shattered Hand” but within Gnoll society, .If you want the Trickster, the Beguiler, the One who can win with words, You go to a Marrowtalker.
Yeah. Gnolls…I’m just saying.
Gnolls…