Editing Gnolls (section)

=== Tribal Life ===
The vast majority of Gnolls lives in scattered tribes in the southern half of Izril.<ref name=":46" /> They make up a third of the population down there.<ref name=":46" /> Small tribes may count their members in the hundreds or thousands, while large tribes have tens of thousands, or even more.<ref name=":7.10 K" /> Many hundreds of different tribes currently exist,<ref name=":47" /> each self-sufficient in their own territory. Some tribes are friendly towards non-Gnoll outsiders, some are hostile.<ref name=":44" />

Gnolls do not build cities like other species;<ref name=":47" /> in fact, they rarely ever build any permanent structures at all.<ref name=":43" /> They are outdoor creatures, and don’t like solid buildings and enclosed rooms very much.<ref name=":26" /> Instead, they erect encampments of sturdy hide tents and huts reminiscent of Mongolian yurts, arranged to provide protection from the weather.<ref name=":9" /> The size of these huts can vary greatly, from small personal homes to large communal areas for the whole tribe to share.<ref name=":9" />

Gnolls are at least partially nomadic.<ref name=":39" /> Many tribes move at least once per year, employing carts, sleds, and sleighs to transport their entire encampment.<ref name=":66">[[Chapter 2.42]]</ref> Where the Gnolls erect their camp next is governed by their current needs and focus; each tribe has something they specialize in.<ref name=":7.10 K" /> These specializations are often centered on natural resources - the kind that can be hunted, cut, or mined.<ref name=":9" /> Gnolls don’t waste anything they harvest or hunt.<ref name=":9" /> Tribal Gnolls also raise livestock, but generally do not farm crops.<ref>[[Chapter 4.33]]</ref> Livestock can be moved with the camp, while planted fields cannot. Horses, for example, although Gnolls are good at running and often prefer it.<ref name=":7.10 K" /> They also have to be pretty large to comfortably carry most Gnolls.<ref name=":28" />

Gnoll tribes make and keep a reserve of pemmican in case their other food runs out and they're unable to find enough to eat hunting or gathering. A tribe in difficulty will go to another tribe and ask to see their pemmican stores. Tribal Gnolls have come to dislike it due to associating the taste with desperation, especially if they had to eat it often.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2023/10/28/9-64-bh/ Chapter 9.64 BH]</ref>

In a tribal camp, Gnolls share responsibilities; everyone does everything, to some extent.<ref name=":34" /> As a result, Gnolls pick up a few levels in a wide variety of classes early on in life. While this makes them adaptable and self-sufficient, it may also mean that they later level their chosen ‘main’ class more slowly.<ref name=":34" /> All ages contribute: children help out with tasks around the camp,<ref name=":9" /> and elders stay active in the affairs of their tribe until they die.<ref name=":48" />

Traditional tribal remedies include ointments that work a little bit like weak healing potions.<ref name=":9" /> However, the tribes are no limited to just that, and in fact have have made some unique advancements in medicine and healing. For example, the rare [Bone Surgeon] class is said to be only found among tribal Gnolls.<ref>[[Chapter 3.10]]</ref>

One of the most common mourning customs of tribal Gnolls is feeding the animals, which means that the Gnolls would take care of their flocks of animals, feeding them as much as they could, giving them a rare treat, and pampering them as a community. Then they would tell stories about the deceased. The first day, they told a silly story about the person, the next a story of failure that they may never have shared, and on the third day they told a story of triumph and how they died.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/06/07/9-01/ Chapter 9.01]</ref>

==== City Gnolls ====
Sometimes, though rarely, a Gnoll might leave their tribe and live in cities of other species.<ref name=":9" /> In doing so, they cut their ties to Gnoll society, and are considered outsiders among tribal Gnolls,<ref name=":9" /> who are referred to as Plains Gnolls by comparison.<ref name=":60">[[Chapter 6.09]]</ref> There is no active shunning involved; Plains Gnolls and City Gnolls will still talk to each other.<ref name=":9" /> Nevertheless, the term “City Gnoll” is sometimes used with pity, disdain, or confusion.<ref name=":6" /> Why would anyone forsake the bonds between Gnolls for ''that''? They just don’t understand.

The City Gnolls themselves, meanwhile, have a different perspective. They cherish their personal freedom, not being required to submit themselves to their tribe’s needs, and not having so many... connections, to potentially thousands of family members.<ref name=":60" /> And perhaps they disagree with the traditions of Gnollkind, as well. Perhaps they feel that an established city is a more comfortable place to live than a temporary camp. Perhaps they feel that their tribe would not provide them with the means and the approval to follow unusual dreams - like those of the Gnoll who lives in Pallass, the ‘City of Inventions’, and tries to develop a means to fly without magic.<ref>[[Chapter 5.01]]</ref> Or perhaps they harbor unusually well developed xenophile tendencies. City Gnolls are certainly much more at ease talking to strangers and integrating with - or even marrying<ref name=":60" /> - other species than their tribal cousins. And naturally, any Gnoll children born to City Gnolls are never exposed to the traditional way of tribal life, and thus they automatically are also City Gnolls.

There is a curious incongruency, though, in regards to achieving significant rank or status in a Gnoll's chosen city of residence. Because that status, no matter how important it might seem to city's dominant culture, does not translate into Gnoll hierarchy at all - not unless it also grants the Gnoll worth in the eyes of other Gnolls. And this even extends to Plains Gnolls. Even a well-known City Gnoll senator might instinctively know themselves way down the social ladder when meeting a Plains Gnoll with actual pull in the Gnoll hierarchy.<ref>[[Interlude – Numbtongue (Pt.1)]]</ref> Perhaps the ties that bind Gnolls together are not so easily severed even for those who willingly and vocally choose to do so...

Among the [[Walled Cities]], Oteslia is the one with the highest relative percentage of Gnoll citizens.<ref name=":71" /> However, [[Liscor]] likely has even more. A decade ago, the [[Silverfang Tribe|Silverfang tribe]] sent a large number of crafters and traders to live and work in Liscor.<ref name=":39" /> Although that ostensibly makes them City Gnolls too, they have not forgone their affiliation with Plains Gnoll society - they just happen to live there temporarily, because their mission requires it.<ref name=":6" /> Still, they admit that they have come to cherish the bonds they have built there,<ref name=":6" /> and have developed many qualities of City Gnolls, such as being generally more open-minded towards other races.