Gnoll (Theian)

When the gnolls’ homeland was still young, would-be settlers hired the indigenous people to guard them from the desert’s myriad predators. During a return trip from one of these caravans, a band of gnolls stopped to tend their bulette and wyvern companions at a previously undocumented oasis. It was there they encountered a family of gnomes with no way back to society. Recognizing this, the gnolls helped the family.

As thanks for saving them, the matriach of the gnomes gifted the gnolls with the ability to see in more than just shades of blue and green. The world around them exploded with color in a million shades and hues.

The gnolls quickly found great appreciation for their adapted sense of sight. They began accepting multi-colored blankets and dyed cloth in trade for their services, and their families became some of the chief purveyors of trained wyverns for local racing circuits when it became a pastime for the residents of their region.

You might…

• Act as host and merchant to the other ancestries that live in or frequent your country.
• Raise beasts native to your homeland to aid in caravans or participate in sky racing tournaments.
• Have grown up in a vibrant world and decided to embrace all of the colors, people, and experiences it has to offer.

Others probably…

• Enjoy your enthusiasm for the things you create out of love for your work.
• Look to you as the authority in your trade of choice.
• Find your sudden shift in attitude toward certain cultures and activities peculiar.

Physical Description

Gnolls on Theia appear as humanoid jackals, hyenas, and pharaoh hounds. Those native to the country of Borboto dress in sophisticated colors, while their more feral cousins in Wutente prefer tans and grays that aid them while hiding in and around dunes.

Gnolls reach adulthood by 15 years of age, and they can live between 71 and 110 years. Most gnolls stand anywhere from 5-foot, 8 inches to almost 7-feet tall, with the females usually being slightly larger than the males in both height and build.

Society

Gnolls are not known to keep their own society, prefering small packs and families, either as hunters or when protecting caravans. The closest structure the race has to leadership comes when one must make decisions. If a fight breaks out, the rest of the pack does things the winner’s way, while those opposed are either killed or shunned.

Alignment and Religion

Borbotos gnolls lean toward good, although they can be a challenge to work with when there’s a misunderstanding. The feral gnolls in Wutente are, in contrast, usually chaotic neutral, with some having grown increasingly evil over time. Gnolls that practice religion often worship Brutus Peregrine, Theia’s god of travel and luck, or Blazoke, the Passionate Devastation.

Names

Gnolls often have a name by which their family refers to them and another representing who they become as they mature. It is this name that many gnolls present to the world. Family Names tend to describe either a task the family is known to do well, or a physical distinction between them and other gnolls.

Sample Names

Brokenearth, Chipgrin, Spot-Bearer, Sunseeker, Treefinder, Worldpainter

Heritages

Many gnoll families treat their family’s culture as their heritage, which may or may not play into an individual gnoll‘s choices as they mature. Choose one of the following gnoll heritages at 1st level.

Beast Rider Gnoll

You are especially good at riding traditional gnoll mounts. You gain an ability boost to Wisdom, an ability flaw to Intelligence, and the Ride feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

You also gain a +1 circumstance bonus to Nature checks to use Command an Animal on a bulette or wyvern mount. You can always select a bulette or wyvern as your animal companion, even if you would usually select an animal companion with the mount special ability, such as for a champion’s steed ally.

Caravan Driver Gnoll

Trade routes in some part of the world are largely populated by caravans run by gnoll families. Your own travels between countries regularly.

You gain an ability boost to Constitution and an ability flaw to Charisma. You gain the Pick Up the Pace general feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

Desert Runner Gnoll

You have spent enough of your life in the dunes to grow used to the arid environment. You gain an ability boost to Constitution, and and ability flaw to Wisdom. You also have fire resistance equal to half your level (minimum 1), and you treat environmental heat effects as if they were one step less extreme (incredible heat becomes extreme, extreme heat becomes severe, and so on).

Merchant Gnoll

Your family sells wares across the land , which has given you a predilection for learning languages quickly.

You gain an ability boost to Charisma, an ability flaw to Dexterity, and two additional languages of your choice, chosen from among the common and uncommon languages available to you, and every time you take the Multilingual feat, you gain another new language.

Nurturing Communicator Gnoll

A small, but growing population of gnolls bring their love of colors and growth to people and plants.

You gain an ability boost to Wisdom, and an ability flaw to Dexterity. You can communicate with plants on a basic level and use Nature—in place of Diplomacy—to Make an Impression on them and to make very simple Requests of them. Non-creature plants typically can’t fulfill most requests you might ask of them unless you have access to magic such as speak with plants. Beginning at 5th level, you gain the Green Empathy druid feat, which grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on your checks to Make a Request of a plant.

Spirewalker Gnoll

Murals depict spirewalkers as the elite gnoll warriors who guarded the cabaro when they more prominent in societies of the world. While that time is long past, the gnolls still live in those areas of the country and teach their offspring how to survive there as well.

You gain an ability boost to Dexterity, an ability flaw to Intelligence, and you can ignore difficult terrain caused by rubble and uneven ground made of stone and earth.

In addition, when you use the Acrobatics skill to Balance on narrow surfaces or uneven ground made of stone or earth, you aren’t flat-footed, and when you roll a success at one of these Acrobatics checks, you get a critical success instead.

Expanded Heritage Option – Aardgnolls

Aardgnolls make due in jungle environments. Natural selection has ensured the smaller gnolls survive in a region of dinosaurs and other large threats.

You gain 6 Hit Points from your ancestry instead of 8. You are Small, and your Speed is 25 feet. You gain an ability boost to Dexterity, and an ability flaw to Intelligence. You are trained in Stealth and Survival, and you can use creatures that are at least one size larger than you (usually Medium or larger) as cover for the Hide and Sneak actions, though you still can’t use such creatures as cover for other uses, such as the Take Cover action.

Ancestry Feats

At 1st level, you gain one ancestry feat, and you gain an additional ancestry feat every 4 levels thereafter (at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels). As a gnoll, you select from among the following ancestry feats.

1st Level

• Gnoll Lore
• Gnoll Weapon Familiarity
• Worldly Experiences

5th Level

• Lunge

9th Level

• Caravan Leader (Gnoll)
• Doyenne

13th Level

• Discerning Purveyor

17th Level

• Pack Leader