Today I'm going to take some time to talk about Seddian Gnolls, including one in particular that I met on my travels.

I understand that other worlds, be they fact or fictions, often treat Gnolls are the utter minimum before considering a species intelligent, they're often barbaric murderers and worse who will kill and despoil everything in sight. Seddian Gnolls aren't like that- At least, they aren't anymore.

What exactly happened to the Gnolls is a secret only known to themselves, but there was some kind of race-wide "reform" that went on with them. What was once a race of hostile xenophobes opened up basic dialect with the government of the Unchanging Forest - a nation so named because it's locked into autumnal weather conditions and appearances - and made a bid for peace; let the Gnolls keep their territories and don't encroach, they would allow safe passage for travelers and they would also work to making relationships a little bit better. Since then, Gnoll travelers appear here and there, often as bodyguards or muscle, but with the opportunity to explore more, I was able to get a meeting with one of their leaders, the Matriarch Rysa Thorncaller.

Like Hyenas, Gnolls are a strictly matriarchal species, the females lead them, and are larger, stronger, more magically attuned and frequently more aggressive than males. One major thing to note about Gnolls as a species is they can't speak basic languages well - their throats are biologically designed in such a way they simply have a hard time with words, and Gnollish to the outside perspective tends to be a lot of snarkling, grunting, growling and cackling, which makes it downright impossible to learn for others. It isn't to say they're impossible to communicate with, they CAN become fluent, but you can frequently hear their voices strain to communicate well and they tend to be blunt and terse (as both a frequent species personality quirk and simply to facilitate getting their point made with the least miscommunication probability possible).

Being what I am, I listen for "the voice of the soul" instead of spoken words, which automatically makes me an omniglot in both directions. This came in handy to say the least as I was led to the matriarch of the clan, 9ft tall and loaded with muscle, she relaxed on a chair made of rough bramble in a forested village that was made to interfere with nature as little as possible - canvasses of leather kept the rain out, and still living trees and hillside caves were their shelters. When I met Rysa, I could immediately sense something odd about her that wasn't normal.

The Unchanging Forest is a land where magic and spiritualism meet up the strongest due to its location, thus elementals manifest far more frequently. When I asked her why she smelled so strongly of Life magic, she gave a toothy grin at me and stood up, and the chair she was resting on retreated into the ground, showing me immediately she was attuned to Life, a druidess in any other word. She welcomed me warmly as a guest, offered me food (Gnoll cooking is deceptively amazing, by the way) and had almost more questions for me about what a dragon is, what we do, and - to my surprise - why I on the other hand smelled like Death.

In the spirit of -not- cursing her by figuring out my nature without my permission, I told her what I was directly which she shrugged off, acknowledging me as the other needed side of life. She looked me in the eye when I asked about their recent reform and then started to laugh a laugh that only their species can nail before standing up and brushing my chin. This is what she told to me, verbatim in their language;

"We were sick, very sick. It made every Gnoll sick in the same way. Then one tribe woke up, they thought about it, they learned, and they reached out to the spirits. Now we're not sick anymore, we live, and we help life." She explained, before explaining in better detail that they had shifted from a society of pillagers and murderers to a society of naturalists who found harmony and balance in helping the world around them. They still had some old habits - I could smell their decomposition pile from where I was. But it was as much compose as it was sating their ah... baser instincts as scavengers, to help trees and plant life grow and flourish around them as well.

To describe Rysa herself though, she was... intense. She wasn't mean or cruel, she was a perfect host but she also made it clear she was the boss, her tribe knew it, and any visitors (myself included) would have to acknowledge it. To get anywhere with her I had to take a knee and acknowledge her as the Matriarch and ask her any questions I had politely, but she responded with politeness in kind with her own kind of politeness, despite her terse wordings. She made it clear she was absolutely one of the reformists among their society, she wanted her people, including her tribe, many of which were her children or mates would have a future in Sedd without being seen as monsters anymore and fodder for errant heroes wanting to make a name for themself. She would do everything in her power to make them honorable and respected in their own way, even if they often kept to themselves.

She showed me around her clan's swathe of forest, showing off how everything they did - from shelter to bonfire was done in sustainable ways to live with the nature spirits of the region, anything hollowed out for homes was kept alive even with the carvings inside of it, anything stripped or cut down would be regrown by druids, even animals they make sure they don't overhunt, all of which is a major difference from the utter despoiling that Gnollish war parties of the past would commit.

I caught nothing but good feelings from Rysa though, I think with her heading up such a large clan, relations can only improve.

- Veluren Thanazel, the Sights and People of Vakkert Sedd.

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Here's one I've wanted for a bit!

So, recently WoW came out with an expansion and put Gnolls on the brain bigtime, so I decided now was the perfect time for my own to get in on the action, so here's one for you all!

I wanted to move away from DnD and other so such worlds by having my own twist on Gnolls be that of a druidic/naturalist tribal society, advanced in their own but different ways and with a sense of honor and hospitality. (In other words, I took a lot from Warcraft Orcs instead of other settings' Gnolls)

Rysa joined Iruka and Raijin in "big beefy woman who will break you" but manages to have a more domineering theme to her, being from a society that intrinsically looks to females for power and leadership, she acts a lot more like a boss who wants to be acknowledged as the boss and will treat you well once you do, while also being a powerful druidess with control of plant life to aid her as well as her stupidly effective physical prowess.

There's plenty in the cards with her, so I hope that you all like her!

Rysa Thorncaller belongs to me!

Art is done by  Sweetburn who did amazing working with me to bring this idea to life!