Species and Races > Trolls
Trolls
Trolls are a wide spread species originating from the plane of Niflheim. They are a less civilized race of brawny, powerful survivors, sporting dark grey skin and a skull-like faces, their long clawed limbs give them deceptive reach. They live by a shamanic culture that revolves around flesh and bone, inspired by their own regenerative ability. They dwell in some corners of Ithuan and Kerios, around marsh regions. They speak a dialect of giant, but their writing is mostly done with images rather than actual words. A healthy troll can live to around 200 years old, although Shamans tend to live longer.
Training
Education
Trolls are largely judged by their knowledge of ancient rites involving strength and repetition of various rituals. Feats of strength, hunting, or craftsmanship often serve as marks of skill, such as carving boats with their claws, or crafting structures out of bone and leather.
Beyond that, non-shaman trolls are relatively uneducated. The shamans train under necromancers, hags, or other less-savory spellcasters who have the patience and desire to teach them strange and unsettling magics. They often act as the leader of a tribe, due to their greater intelligence and their mystical powers.
Combat
Trolls mostly rely on a few things in a fight: strength, claws, regeneration, and surprise. They love to ambush foes in their territories to close the distance quickly. Then, they use their great physical power and long sharp claws to carve pieces off their opponent. While they fight, they rely heavily on their innate regenerative abilities to recover from harm, and even regrow lost limbs during the fight.
Older trolls gain thick layers of scar tissue akin to calluses that make them even more resilient. It is also common for champions who show skill in hunting or combat to drape and sew hides and specific bones into heavy cloaks. These not only create an intimidating silhouette, but adds inconsistent and ever changing armor that they use as a symbol of status, and as protection.
In terms of weaponry, most trolls will use bludgeons, with more distinguished individuals creating spears, axes, hammers, or even flails out of wood, stone, bone, sinew, and various leathers.
Meanwhile, shamans will dress with armor made of bones woven together, or dark robes, or even a sort of mail made of the armors from warriors of other races bound or forged together. They often wield staffs made of wood or bone, usually bearing the skull of their predecessor as the shaman, or some other foe if they are the tribe’s first. They utilize magics relating to fouler aspects of nature, as well as obscure hexes, blood magic, or even necromancy depending on their level of experience and knowledge.
Medicine
The medicines of trolls are rarely used due to their regenerative traits. However, Shamans, in addition to some knowledge of necromancy, often learn how to treat burn wounds, and other such injuries that trolls find difficult to recover from. With deadly poisons, or the rare diseases that infect them, the most effective cure are bottled mists of Niflheim, as most other cures and antidotes will be rejected by a troll’s hardy immune system.
Daily Life
Trolls, though simplistic, often take on roles within their tribe as required, with only a few elite members occupying continual positions. Trolls are omnivores with a preference for meat due to the difficulty of obtaining it. They believe in the gods, but care little for the immortal races, only worshiping survival and resilience, since their regenerative abilities lead them down such a path.
Government
Troll tribes are run by a Shaman who has mastered some amount of dark magic or strange spellcraft. Less frequently a Chieftain, or an individual who either knows how to channel magic naturally into combat, or an individual that comes into possession of a magic relic will supplant a shaman as the leader. Under them is the Consul, the elder in charge of assigning members of the tribe to certain tasks as needed. They act as an advisor or informant to the leader as well as an organizer for the whole group. The Craftmasters are the most talented hunter, gardener, warrior, scout, builder, and cook of the tribe, and they are chosen by the Consul to be judged by and possibly appointed by the leader of the tribe. Until a more talented individual comes along, they hold their positions. Trolls rarely vie for such roles, as both the Consul and the tribe’s leader may not desire to have to replace their Craftmasters constantly, and often go to great lengths to provide those individuals with assistance, materials, and even sometimes magic tools, which they loathe to repossess often.
Religion & Holidays
Trolls tell tales of great individuals from their own tribe, as well as legends of the Wyld Hunt, the Gods, and Niflheim itself. Beyond this they have little to hold completely sacred due to the harsh way they live, and thus don’t go to great lengths to have holidays or celebrations as a whole, and many traditions can vary from group to group.
Architecture
Trolls construct crude longhouses and tents from large bones and carved wood to support furs and skins. They also know how to make bricks from clay found in swamps and lakes to make fortifications. Their architecture is barebones and rather straightforward, and not much can be said for its unique craftsmanship or charm, with a few exceptions due to rare, abnormally skilled Craftmasters.