Editing Gnolls (section)

== History ==
The Gnolls do not write down their history, but instead keep it through oral tradition<ref name=":18" /> - a task that generally falls to the tribe's [Shaman].<ref name=":6" /> But while tradition is a major cornerstone of Gnoll culture, even some Gnolls themselves admit that this method is flawed, and much detail has been lost over the millenia.<ref name=":6" />

=== Ancient Origins ===
Gnolls are among the oldest species in Innworld. They predate recorded history - not just their own, but ''anyone’s'' recorded history.<ref name=":6" /> As the Gnolls recall it, they were present during all of history’s major eras and ages, which they have given names: the Time of Hiding (Gnollkind is forced underground), the Sunset of Flame (presumably the end of the reign of [[Dragons]] on Izril, though not specifically explained), the Faded Times (when magic died), the Rain of Scales (details unknown), the Age of Theft (the [[Selphid]] slave empire), the Twilight of Magic (the fall of the [[Half-Elves]]), Skyfall's Memory (the last war of the [[Giants]]), and many others.<ref name=":6" /> The current age has also been named by the Gnolls: the Waning World.<ref name=":6" /> This is based on the fact that, while Gnolls have historically been a world power, they have declined immensely since the Human invasion of Izril, and have not been able to return to their former strength.<ref name=":6" />

Gnolls have historically been found on all continents,<ref name=":6" /> but it is implied that they originated on Izril<ref name=":18" />. Both Gnolls and Drakes lived on the whole continent,<ref name=":18" /> but Gnolls were always more numerous in the north<ref name=":18" />. This could mean that the forested rolling hills of the north are the cradle of Gnollkind, while the Drakes originated in the swampy prairies of the south. Gnolls used to have eight "Heartlands" around the world, where Gnolls roamed freely.<ref name=":76" />

At some point in the past, Dragons ruled Izril, and kept their descendants, the Drakes, as slaves.<ref name=":25" /> The Gnolls, meanwhile, were hunted as food by Dragons and Drakes alike,<ref name=":18" /> and skinned for their pelts.<ref name=":65">[[Chapter 6.30]]</ref> To escape this predation, the Gnolls fled and hid wherever they could - ultimately, even underground.<ref name=":18" /> First in caves, then ever deeper. But Gnolls are outdoor creatures,<ref name=":26" /> and the darkness and confinement did not sit well with them. A number of Gnolls lost their minds, and eventually changed - they gave up their levels and their sentience, becoming a semi-feral, subterranean offshoot of the race that the Gnolls dubbed the Raskghar.<ref name=":18" /> They began to hunt the Gnolls, and the Gnolls fought back, declaring a total extermination war that is still in effect today.<ref name=":18" />

=== The Great War ===
The Gnolls, victorious over the Raskghar, eventually returned to the surface when the Dragons no longer ruled the continent.<ref name=":18" /> But they did not forget what had driven them underground, and they never forgave the Drakes. Eventually, this led them to declare war on the Drakes, too.<ref name=":18" /> As it was with the Raskghar, when the Gnolls declare war as a species, they mean business.<ref name=":18" /> The result forever redefined what the word "war" meant for both Drakes and Gnolls.<ref name=":18" /> It lasted for several hundreds of years, and spanned the entire continent of Izril, causing unimaginable bloodshed between the two races. No other war that they have been involved in since, not even both Antinium Wars combined, has come anywhere close.<ref name=":18" />

The Gnolls even broke the great Walled Cities of the Drakes.<ref name=":18" /> The ones the Drakes built to withstand the Dragons themselves,<ref name=":27" /> which would later successfully repel the Black Tide of the Antinium<ref name=":47">[[S02 – The Antinium Wars (Pt.1)]]</ref> - they fell to the vengeful Gnolls. Not just one, but many of them.<ref name=":18" /> And with each Walled City that fell, the Drakes lost something that they could never rebuild, lost population they could never recover, while the Gnolls just lived anywhere they pleased and raised new warriors.<ref name=":18" /> Slowly, generation by generation, the Gnolls were winning. And had the war continued as it was going, the Drakes might not exist anymore today.

Gnolls also built a kingdom for themselves in the Great Plains.<ref name=":74" />

=== Decline ===
But then, the Terandrian Humans invaded, bringing with them magical artifacts of unbelievable power.<ref name=":27" /> And they attacked both Gnolls and Drakes indiscriminately, taking merciless advantage of the fact that both of Izril’s major native races had already torn their lands and resources, and each other, to pieces over centuries of total war. The Humans just had to mop up what was left. Both Gnolls and Drakes were driven into the south.<ref name=":18" />

This southern retreat played out differently between the Drakes and the Gnolls, however. Southern Izril had always been predominantly Drake lands.<ref name=":18" /> And they still had Walled Cities there, where they could retreat and regroup. Not so the Gnolls, once the Kingdom of Gnolls fell for unknown reasons ([[Raskghar|Raskghars]] may have been involved, and the Plain's Eye tribe blamed the [[Doombearers]] for it), leading to a dark age for the Gnollish people.<ref name=":74" /> The north was their ancestral home, and the vast majority of their holdings. They fought tooth and nail for it.<ref name=":18" /> When Gnolls declare war, they mean business. They, as an entire species, almost fought down to the last Gnoll. They very nearly went extinct in the process.<ref name=":18" />

Afterwards, what little remained of the Gnolls made grudging peace with both Humans and Drakes,<ref name=":18" /> and retreated into the wilds, focusing entirely on themselves and their survival. It marked the end of Gnolls as a world power - as anything other than a footnote to the Drakes, really. Even today, the Gnoll tribes are still not back up to the strength they had before the invasion,<ref name=":18" /> and the world has largely forgotten that they were ever relevant.<ref name=":6" />

Around four hundred years ago, their last great library was destroyed by the Plain's Eye tribe, with the accidental aid of the Wyrm [[Rhisveri Zessoprical|Rhisveri]].<ref name=":74" /> They lost more of their knowledge and history as a result, which allowed Plain's Eye to start vilifying Doombearers in the eyes of the other tribes.

=== Resurgence ===
Recent generations have seen the Gnolls finally start making strides to re-establish themselves.<ref name=":18" /> However, there have also been setbacks, such as the death of the famous warrior-chieftain Kerash at the hands of [[Az’kerash|the Necromancer]] a hundred years ago;<ref name=":27">[[S02 – The Antinium Wars (Pt.3)]]</ref> the Drakes secretly repurposing [[Fissival]]'s teleportation network to supress the Gnolls' ability to use arcane magic, limiting their magical capabilities to shamanism; their current inability to obtain most casting classes and the subsequent falling out with Wistram;<ref name=":6" /> and of course the two Antinium Wars and all the chaos and destruction they wrought across the last decades.