Trying to write a gnoll-focused setting

[Morrison]

This has to do with racial representation in fantasy, so the opinions of gamers of colour would be especially helpful here. No joke answers, please.

I'm trying to write a campaign/setting with a more sympathetic take on gnolls. The backstory of the setting would be loosely modeled on The Lion King, but from the point of view of the hyaenas/gnolls: they were exploited, mislead, and ultimately betrayed by a (human?) demagogue, and upon realizing their betrayal, they turned on him at a key moment, ultimately leading to his defeat. The new "rightful" king, however, exiled them into the wilderness, and persecutes them even still.
I always liked the hyaenas in Lion King and I thought they never got a fair chance. I also like settings where the expectations of who is good and who is evil are inverted, or at least, less obvious.

So the logical choice is to model the setting - both in culture and environment - on places hyaenas live: most likely Africa (or maybe India), and then take the setting from there, filling it with monsters from the appropriate folklore, &c.

The problem is, what real-world ethnicity should these humans most resemble?

If these bad guys humans most resemble Africans, then great, I've written one of the very few fantasy settings modeled on Africa, except that the African people are evil. That's no good.
If these bad guys humans don't resemble Africans, then great, I've written one of the very few fantasy settings modeled on Africa, except that there are no African people at all. That's also no good.
If these bad guys aren't human at all, and the humans are off somewhere else, cool, but what are they? Catfolk? I don't want too many "beastman"-type races running around or else this will turn into the Warring Furries Setting.

Would this idea maybe work better in a setting that wasn't as specifically Africa-coded? If so, what would be some good starting points for a gnoll-focused setting?

[Darth Ultron]

Well, the easy answer might be to have the humans not resemble any real world ones.

Also note while 'modern' hyenas are only in Africa and a bit of Asia, they did once cover Europe and Asia. So you could use all them humans.

A non-human race works. And you can pick a non-furry one. A Rhino or Elephant race. Saurials, Thri-Kreen, Aranea, and any sahpeshifter.

For the culture, it might be best to just make a unique one not really based on anything. You can pick parts of some things, but then mix then all up in a melting pot.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Morrison
If these bad guys humans most resemble Africans, then great, I've written one of the very few fantasy settings modeled on Africa, except that the African people are evil. That's no good.
If these bad guys humans don't resemble Africans, then great, I've written one of the very few fantasy settings modeled on Africa, except that there are no African people at all. That's also no good.

This is too binary and simplistic for a believable setting. Why are you assuming that all humans on an entire continent have to be evil?


Originally Posted by Morrison
Would this idea maybe work better in a setting that wasn't as specifically Africa-coded?

Yes, because you avoid all the issues you’ve raised above.


Originally Posted by Morrison
If so, what would be some good starting points for a gnoll-focused setting?

If you want to keep gnolls as grassland/savanna specialists, then a continent with large expanses of grassland or savanna would be a place to start. For an alternative to Africa, you might consider South America, especially the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia and the pampas of Argentina and Brazil. Take a look at some of the species that were extant before South America came into contact with Central and North America (i.e. before 3 million years ago) and fill in the ecosystem to taste. Don’t be afraid to draw from grassland habitats in Central Asia, Australia and even New Zealand for additional ideas.

[Saintheart]

Just pull the Bright analogue and play the Elves Are Jerks trope; just sub in the gnolls for orcs.

[Blackhawk748]

If these bad guys humans most resemble Africans, then great, I've written one of the very few fantasy settings modeled on Africa, except that the African people are evil. That's no good.

Is there only one human kingdom? Cuz otherwise this is patently ridiculous and breaks Suspension of Disbelief for most people. If you're concerend add in multiple human kingdoms and have the rest be neutral towards gnolls, possibly with some anti-gnoll bias.



Would this idea maybe work better in a setting that wasn't as specifically Africa-coded? If so, what would be some good starting points for a gnoll-focused setting?

Just make up yu're own cultures that do their own things on their own continent. Hell, make it all cold and make the Hyena's shaggier and go with Fantasy Siberia. Eliminates everything you are concerned about.

[Covenant12]

This is too binary and simplistic for a believable setting. Why are you assuming that all humans on an entire continent have to be evil? It isn't typical in DnD, but I'm mildly familiar with Palladium's TMNT series. A variety of mutant animals of varying alignments and personalities, humans are effectively all nazis trying to kill them. Also I read long ago a less-popular series where humans are all slaves to elves, who are all quite consistently evil. Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms don't often dwell on it, but there are all kinds of concepts for homebrew settings.

If all humans are evil, I'd advise against modelling them on Africa or any other continent or culture. Either make one up from whole cloth, or choose something like Mayans that won't bother anyone.

If you want to explore historical Africa, you could start them in a Tarquin-style Lawful Evil region. Then begin to encounter CG freedom fighters, and eventually LG or CG empires or city-states. (CE in my view just doesn't work). All Africans, all EVIL is a bad plan.
If you want to keep gnolls as grassland/savanna specialists, then a continent with large expanses of grassland or savanna would be a place to start. For an alternative to Africa, you might consider South America, especially the llanos of Venezuela and Colombia and the pampas of Argentina and Brazil. Take a look at some of the species that were extant before South America came into contact with Central and North America (i.e. before 3 million years ago) and fill in the ecosystem to taste. Don’t be afraid to draw from grassland habitats in Central Asia, Australia and even New Zealand for additional ideas.This is also a good point. Hyenas can be in many areas. Humanoid hyenas, like all humanoids, can adapt to even more environments.

[daremetoidareyo]

Some weird hyena facts: https://africageographic.com/blog/12-creepy-facts-about-hyenas/

Let's make a culture out of that! Matriarchal? Maybe. probably.

Cubs fight, fight! for access to nursing. Whether or not you keep this for gnolls is up to you, but consider that hyenas are crazy social and rely on cooperation and numbers for survival.

Exiled males at a certain age lends itself to a (likely brutal) ritualized coming of age ceremony. Or maybe something like a walkabout as a coming of age ritual.

Hyenae have anal glands and use them to mark smells all over the place and likely works as a sort of communication. So scent will be very important.

Hyena who dig deeper into guts will lose more hair around the face and neck. Baldness will be a sign of something, and it might be good, or it might be prejudicial.



If the large brains and great intelligence characteristic of primates were favoured by selection pressures associated with life in complex societies, then cognitive abilities and nervous systems with primate-like attributes should have evolved convergently in non-primate mammals living in large, elaborate societies in which social dexterity enhances individual fitness. The societies of spotted hyenas are remarkably like those of cercopithecine primates with respect to size, structure and patterns of competition and cooperation. These similarities set an ideal stage for comparative analysis of social intelligence and nervous system organization. As in cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas use multiple sensory modalities to recognize their kin and other conspecifics as individuals, they recognize third-party kin and rank relationships among their clan mates, and they use this knowledge adaptively during social decision making. However, hyenas appear to rely more intensively than primates on social facilitation and simple rules of thumb in social decision making. No evidence to date suggests that hyenas are capable of true imitation. Finally, it appears that the gross anatomy of the brain in spotted hyenas might resemble that in primates with respect to expansion of frontal cortex, presumed to be involved in the mediation of social behaviour.


So that leaves us with how does a brutal matriarchal humanoid hyena society operate, and considering the pseudo genitalia, and brutality you probably could do a straight up gender swap of any post agricultural society there is.

There is so much weird stuff here.

[Arcanist]

I'm trying to write a campaign/setting with a more sympathetic take on gnolls.

The thing you're going to really want to do, is normalize the actions of the Gnolls regardless of how absurd it might be. While my perspective of a neutral monster race (Gnollls, Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, etc) might be different, I think the best thing you can and should do is just really drive home that these things are just the way they are in their culture.

One of the easiest way of explaining the moral outlook of a species is to start with their religion: How do your Gnolls react to firm morals like Good-Evil, Law-Chaos? Do they worship Yeenoghu as a Demon Lord? Or do they view them in a benevolent light? Do they worship Gorellik? Or some other Gnoll god equivalent? Or are they purely atheistic? Or do they have some sort of Ancestral Worship? All of this will reflect the moral outlook of your Gnoll society. Personally? I would have them worship their Ancestors and organize their society around a Matriarchal caste system where Sovereignty is annointed to them via a guidance and council of a Spiritual leader of sorts (sort of like Rafiki). They live seperate from one another under various clans, guided by Clan mothers, but pay homage to a Matriarchal sovereign (a Grand Clan Mother) of sorts.

Another thing to consider is the technological level of the setting. Have they split the atom yet? Or are they still working with bones and twigs?


The problem is, what real-world ethnicity should these humans most resemble?

The interesting thing is, by introducing Humans as the "problem" species, you are actually taking away the diversity of these creatures you are trying to centralize around. The Gnoll Clans are just as capable of starting their own trouble as they are of fixing their own problems. Humans need not apply.


If these bad guys aren't human at all, and the humans are off somewhere else, cool, but what are they? Catfolk? I don't want too many "beastman"-type races running around or else this will turn into the Warring Furries Setting.

Other Gnolls, Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, Elves, Dwarves, Elementals with Genasi as a slave race if you want to take a page from my book. You have an entire monster manual of resources to work out.

[Dalmosh]

If you can track it down, the Mystara novel, The Black Vessel by Morris Simon deals explicitly with a very similar scenario, and is one of the better D&D novels I have read.

Basically setting only has humans, and gnoll tribes.

Humans are quite Spanish in culture, and suffering a corrupting plague that imbues most people with taint-style mutations.

Gnolls are mostly persecuted First Nation type folks, themed vaguely like American Indian cultures.
One is the remnants of a completely misunderstood advanced civilisation, stereotypically lumped in by humans with a bunch of completely unrelated tribes, including big dumb savage barbarian types.
The human civilisation is basically in the process of "colonising" this frontier.

[inuyasha]

There is a good 3rd party book by Green Ronin about playing D&D in a Biblical-Era Egyptian setting, and Gnolls play a big part in it (and I believe they're mostly Lawful Good and make good Paladins for that setting). That could possibly give you some ideas.

[Morrison]

Just pull the Bright analogue and play the Elves Are Jerks trope; just sub in the gnolls for orcs.

I'm going to do everything I can not to be like Bright.

[Morrison]

There is a good 3rd party book by Green Ronin about playing D&D in a Biblical-Era Egyptian setting, and Gnolls play a big part in it (and I believe they're mostly Lawful Good and make good Paladins for that setting). That could possibly give you some ideas.

That might be interesting. I'm a little hesitant to base things on Egypt, simply because I think fantasy versions of Egypt have gotten a bit standardized and played-out, but I'll have a look at it. Do you remember the name of the book?

I should clarify that I'm not planning on making all humans evil in this setting, but the main human kingdom would certainly be the primary antagonists of the campaign. There probably would be a few other human nations around but they would be pretty secondary to the plot.

[inuyasha]

The book's called Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra!

[Morrison]

If you want to explore historical Africa, you could start them in a Tarquin-style Lawful Evil region.

I'm not sure I understand the reference. Tarquin as in Roman?

[inuyasha]

I believe Tarquin in this case refers to the Lawful Evil warlord in Order of the Stick.

[Morrison]

I believe Tarquin in this case refers to the Lawful Evil warlord in Order of the Stick.

Oh, right. I haven't actually read the comic in a while.

I guess the alternative here is to have the bad guys be a colonial presence. Probably more along the lines of the Phoenician colonies in ancient North Africa than 19th Century European colonialism, because I don't want to be too heavy-handed.

[Covenant12]

Yes, sorry I wasn't really clear. More Tarquin's current city-state than the man himself. Pro-slavery, brutal torture and death for defying the powerful. In one word as LE usually is, tyranny.

Brutal colonialism could be a good theme, especially to start. Mostly moderately good gnolls fighting the evil humans isn't a bad concept. I'd just say more nuance and complexity by say, 10th level. A LE empire will always have *some* CG freedom fighters, if nothing else.