Gnolls of the Brazen Peaks

Raiders and warriors, thieves and murderers, gnolls prey upon the spoils of other races—their refuse, their castoffs, and their vulnerable. Gnolls are often likened to hyenas, but with intelligence and the ability to walk on two legs. This comparison is both succinct truth and deadly understatement. Like the beasts they resemble, gnolls survive off the scraps of those greater than themselves, opportunistically preying upon the weak while cowering before the powerful. Unlike base beasts, though, gnolls know the value of organization, the inevitable deadliness of prolonged attacks, and the might of their own tribes. In others, gnolls see only the potential for prey and exploitation, and those too canny to serve as today’s meal might still serve as tomorrow’s feast.

In the shadow of Pale Mountain, gnoll savagery takes on a new dimension. Here, secreted among the dusty foothills and shadowy crags, the beastmen gather in bands of dirty, brutal curs, seemingly with few greater aspirations beyond their next meal. These gnolls are filthy wretches who demonstrate the horrors of inbreeding, seclusion, and murder, ravenous beasts that covetously guard the barren territories they claim as their own. Feared and loathed even by others of their kind, the gnolls of Pale Mountain embrace their brutality with the spread of a savage cult among their people: worship of the Rough Beast, Khro.

Further east in Ndata-mbanye, gnolls typically worship the demon princess Nga/ani the Warrior Queen (interpreted in the Two Kingdoms as one of Khro's daughters), who is often credited with raising them up from mere beasts. In the Pale Mountain region, the Carrion King—a merciless warlord sworn to Khro’s bloody religion— revels in the debauchery and savagery of his minions’ fear and faith, exulting as they raise icons to the god of wrath and howl his name as they ride to slaughter. As the Carrion King’s power grows, more and more tribes fall beneath his influence, sharing in the spoils of his savage rule and adopting the ways of his mad god. Now all of Pale Mountain quakes with bloodcurdling howls, but whether the gnolls of the Brazen Peaks will turn upon themselves or strike from their lairs, bringing new war upon unprepared Katapesh, none yet know.

From his throne upon Pale Mountain’s slopes, the Carrion King commands hundreds of gnolls, his emissaries and slaves having compelled or subjugated numerous tribes of slavering warriors into his service. Among the ramshackle hordes, bands of raiders and slavers, and lone murderers, four noteworthy tribes have come to serve the cruel warlord. Each known and feared in its own right, these four tribes existed before the Carrion King’s rise to power, having shared and warred over Pale Mountain for decades. Now they find themselves allies but, even under the claws of their brutal master, the resulting peace is a weak and little-enforced thing.

Of the tribes serving the Carrion King, each possesses a similar structure. A strong leader commands the activity of the whole pack, organizing hunts, placating the tribe’s deities, and leading them in preparations for raids and inevitable intertribal skirmishes. Even in this time of supposed truce between rival tribes, bloody conflicts are not uncommon. As individual tribes prove too small to sustain prolonged battles there might be weeks without any direct conflict, but a season cannot go by upon Pale Mountain without groups of gnolls dying in the jaws of enemy tribes. The Carrion King punishes conflicting tribes—often with murder and impossible commands— but such castigations are swiftly forgotten as rivalries and slights stir the embers anew.