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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 23:23:12
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I would like to compile any and all information known about the Gnolls/Flinds of this area...anything at all related to them.
I know it rests in the Tortured Lands, once there was a "Kingdom" of Gnolls here, and that PERHAPS the Gnolls are the "Twisted Ones" referenced concerning Tyranthraxus leading them. That last part is my own thought...and I'm perfectly willing to back down from it if someone can show me something to the contrary.
Anyone else have anything?
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The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 07 Aug 2010 : 01:22:36
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PURELY Homebrew:
In the now-famous (not really  ) Utter East thread on the WotC boards, I had some... interesting... history regarding Rakshasa in that region. I postuled that Flinds were really Gnoll/Rakshasa cross-breeds, in much the same fashion as Lizard-Kings are demon-Lizardman crossbreeds, and for the same exact reasons. The last vestiges of the ancient Gnoll empire of Urgnarash were living a semi-nomadic existance in the then-fertile Raurin Basin, but were forced-out by the expanding Mujhari (pre-Imaskari people) in the area. The Rakshasa had an ancient hatred for the people of Zakhara and the dgen, so the few who remained hidden in the region began to breed with the gnolls in order to create a race of 'super-gnolls' to defeat the Mujhari.
Unfortunately, their progeny - the Flinds - turned out to be just as hard to control as the gnols themselves, and although they did manage to rampage through the region for awhile, they were ultimately defeated and driven to parts unknown.
Since gnolls already have an established connection to demons (Yeenoghu), this line of thinking is not all that unreasonable.
NOW... we know that some portal must exist in the region of the southern Raurin/Golden Waters that connects to the northern area of the Western heartlands, because the Bedine are also of Mujhari decent. It would be a very large portal, probably well hidden, and most-likely only triggered by large groups of beings displaying a certain set of emotions (fear, anger, desperation, etc..) It could also be mobile, or even an area-effect that blankets the entire Utter East - a last remnant of the Scattering of Fate that drove the Mujhari from central Zakhara untold centuries ago.
Anyhow, IF all gnolls are descendants of that original group (Urgnarash), which makes sense given how far back that was, the quasi-aware portals of that region could have easily deposited a group of gnolls (and flinds, weather you use my theories or not) in the same place it dumped the Bedine - right at the eastern edge of the northern Anauroch. In fact, the two could even be related, depending upon how long the gnolls were there (one group chasing the other.
As for the portals, if you don't like the Zakhara tie-in (the Scattering of Fate is canon), they could be something left behind by the Imaskari - some sort of 'fail-safe' portal system for evacuations, or even be something created by the pharonic pantheon to help the Mulan escape the region after Imaskar's fall.
By the same token, they could be the last remnant of a northern outpost of Urgnarash - what was once a fairly advanced civilization has now been reduced to ruin, and its people have become bestial and primitive down through the untold centuries.
Since the gnolls are the only other powerful force around at the time of the creator-races that was not one of those races, it could be that they are Abeir-Toril's original inhabitants, or perhaps just think they are (which gives gnolls a certain feeling of entitlement). Or perhaps, they are the original interlopers instead - Urganash being either a colony of some distant Spelljamming Empire, or perhaps refugees who have fled their own world's destruction across the planes.
Or maybe... Toril was their 'farm-planet', where they were raising a specious of delicious 'naked apes' like cattle...  |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 07 Aug 2010 : 23:42:55
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Almost forgot - probably the most you will learn about gnolls will be in Unapproachable East, where they are written-up to use as PCs. Thay makes extensive use of them; probably the largest single clustering of that species in the Realms.
Tying them to fallen Urgnarash might make a fun mental exercise/project down the road. I can see them fleeing north into the Centaur plateau (Thay), escaping the burgeoning Imaskari, and then fighting for centuries with the centaurs of that wild land, until the Mulan arrive and subjugate both species.
Poor gnolls, that can't catch a break.
The only major appearance of them I can recall in a novel was in the first Erevis Cale trilogy - they worked as mercenary scouts/guides out of Starmantle, I think (or maybe it was Westgate).
EDIT: Just read the FR Wiki on Gnolls - lots of info there; wonder how much of it is canon, and where it came from. Some of it appears to be 4e (the stuff concerning warlocks). It also mentions a 'demonic connection'. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 07 Aug 2010 23:56:07 |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 07 Aug 2010 : 23:46:57
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I'm really liking your idea about the Pool possibly helping to create the Flinds...or some magical process derived from it.
Still thinking on it...
Though...if I watch my seven kids long enough (ages 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2) I kinda get an insight into Pack Mentality. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 08 Aug 2010 : 00:04:25
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I edited my above post, after you had posted above.
I'd like to add that you may be interested in yet-another intelligent canine-like creature - the Leucrotta. There is a very interesting entry for them - also about pack-mentality - in the Thar booklet that came with the El's Ecologies box. Considering the nearness of Thar to your region of interest, along with the similarities between the two species, I think at least some of that may be usable (the religious stuff is pretty cool). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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The Frozen Flindyke
