Everything about Trolls you might need to know.

By Marquel the Magnificent.

Troll Physiology

The first time anyone comes up against a troll they are likely to be taken aback by the creature’s ferocious demeanour and bestial appearance. Unlike the more ‘civilized’ greenskins, the troll is unlikely to be wearing any armour or clothing, and more often than not will be weaponless as well. Of coarse , this is not necessarily a good thing, for the troll has natural weapons in the form of wicked claws and a set of vicious, razor-sharp teeth, all of which are put to good use on the battlefield.

Although weighing in at an average of 500 pounds, trolls are often lanky to the point of seeming frail, but they possess a surprising amount of strength despite the thinness of their limbs. A troll’s arms are disproportionately long for its body, and the fact that the creature’s posture is stooped, with its knuckles often dragging on the ground when it runs, contribute to give it a somewhat simian appearance. Its skin coloration belies any resemblance to the simian races, as troll flesh runs the gamut from a moss green to a sickly grey, often with a mottling effect combining both colours. The skin is often lumpy and warty, and from a distance may resemble scales.

While female s are larger and stronger than the males, its difficult to differentiate between the sexes at a distance since females do not sport breasts any more so than gorillas or chimpanzees, and facial features bear very little sexual dimorphism. Trolls have no taboo against nudity and usually stride around unclad, viewing clothing and armour as something to be worn only when it suits an obvious purpose

Trolls have four digits on each wide hand, with three strong fingers and a powerful thumb each ending in blackened claws. Their massive feet bear only three similarly clawed toes, leaving unmistakeable tracks that rangers quickly learn to recognize in troll-infested areas.

Heightened Senses

A Troll’s most distinctive facial feature is its nose. As might be expected in a creature with such a well-endowed proboscis, a troll’s sense of smell is exceptional. It can detect intruders within thirty steps by sense of smell alone, and often uses its olfactory abilities to track down prey by their scent spoors. Furthermore, trolls can detect the subtle pheromones others of their race exude through their pores, and interpret the slight nuances in odour caused by differing emotional states. So important is the creature’s sense of smell that the size of one’s nose is not only a status symbol, but also a measure of attractiveness and a major influence in attracting potential mates.

Their other senses are slightly less impressive except for eyesight, which allows them to see perfectly well in the dark to a range of 90 steps, significantly further than most other races gifted with this ability. A troll’s eyes are dull and black, sunken into its face behind furrowed brows. Trolls dislike bright lights, but suffer no disability in combat even in direct sunlight. While their hearing is nothing spectacular – almost on par with that of a human – trolls are constantly alert to their surroundings and often pick up on small sounds that a human might disregard. Thus while a troll’s hearing covers a slightly smaller audible range than a human’s, trolls usually pay more attention to what they do hear.

Regeneration

The troll is perhaps best known for its extraordinary ability to heal its wounds almost instantly. Regeneration not only allows the troll to shrug off most damage, but also to reattach severed limbs or regrow lost ones; any appendage can grow back, even the head. If the troll’s body regrows a missing part, the original, severed part usually withers and rots away, despite countless rumours and numerous wives’ tales of severed troll hands continuing to scratch at their enemies or decapitated troll heads snapping their teeth at their intended victims.

Because of this extraordinary ability, there is little that can permanently  harm trolls, except fire and acid. Any wounds caused by either of these inflict damage the troll cannot regenerate, only heal naturally over time. However, since trolls regenerate all other forms of damage, burn marks from acid or fire  are the only types of scars a troll will ever carry. Also once burned , a troll’s flesh ‘remembers’ such scars, so that if a troll’s hand is burned and scarred and then later severed, the hand that grows back will bear identical burn marks to the ‘original’ hand.

Trolls can eventually be knocked unconscious by the same kind of attacks that would kill other creatures. Once a troll is unconscious, it is possible to perform a coup de grace to finish the troll off, but it must be an attack form that the troll cannot regenerate, meaning fire or acid. Because of this, most trolls are unable to slay others of their kind despite the ferocity of their attacks. This causes some stability within troll clans in a way, for they can fight amongst themselves with abandon, revelling in the bloodshed without doing any permanent harm to the clan’s overall strength.

As for troll’s blood, it is highly notable both in that it is green and figures prominently in recipes for many antidotes and non-magical healing potions. The collected blood from a single troll is enough for three such potions and can be sold to an alchemist. Unfortunately the tricky bit is harvesting the blood from a ferocious troll in the first place. Some alchemists rely upon captive trolls. Such practice provides them with a steady supply of troll blood, but it is inherently dangerous and not to be recommended.

There is a much-dreaded troll disease, the gunge, which temporarily shuts down a troll’s regenerative abilities. The gunge is characterised by an outbreak of reddish welts on the troll’s skin, which itself becomes flaky and peels off in areas. While the disease is not contagious , no troll in its right mind is ready to take the chance that it could be, and diseased trolls are immediately cast out of their clans until such a time as they can prove that their ability to regenerate works once more. In a way, such trolls are lucky, for the superstitions against touching a gunge-infected individual are probably the only thing preventing them from being slain by others in their group in an attempt to climb up the clan hierarchy. The gunge usually runs it course in a few weeks.

The troll lifespan is about 80 years, and elderly trolls around that age find their regenerative powers failing, taking progressively longer to heal damage until they finally unable to do so. A troll that reaches this condition usually leaves the clan on its own accord, before the other trolls find out. Trolls greatly enjoy attacking others of their kind when they are at such a distinct disadvantage. A troll unable to regenerate is weak therefore of little use to a troll clan. Nearly all trolls would consider such an individual to be a burden on the clan’s resources.

Dietary Considerations

Trolls are carnivorous by choice, preferring the taste of raw meat above all else but, at a pinch, can survive on raw vegetable matter as well. They have ravenous appetites and eat the flesh of anything they can kill. While they do not particularly enjoy the taste pf carrion, a sufficiently hungry troll has been known to devour it with as much relish as it does anything else in life. Perhaps because of their healthy respect for fire and permanent damage it can cause, trolls refuse to cook any of their food.

Another interesting thing to note about trollish diet is their lack of squeamishness regarding cannibalism. Trolls prefer carrion to the taste of their own flesh but, lacking any other prospects, will gladly devour their own kind, The interesting thing about troll cannibalism is that the victims are not killed . A hungry clan can rip and devour the limbs off its weaker members(usually males and children), but they heal, none the worse for wear. Cannibalism is a powerful incentive for the males to put some effort when they hunt for the rest of their clan. Being hacked and chewed may not kill unlucky hunters, but it certainly hurts.

As a absolutely last resort, these creatures can subsist on their own flesh if the needs arises. There is no known upper limit to this ability, and there have been documented cases of trolls surviving for several years in this manner.

Trolls have hearty constitutions and are capable of ingesting substances others would find deadly poisonous. Such fare includes varieties of mushroom and toadstool, as well as venomous creatures like scorpions and rattlesnakes. It should be noted that trolls cannot regenerate damage from poisons, so a poison deadly enough to overcome the troll’s ‘iron stomach’ slays it as easily as it would any other humanoid species. Trolls take note of any poisonous substance that kills one of their kind and take steps to avoid ingesting such substances themselves in the future.

The Troll’s Lifecycle

Despite having a warty skin that is often confused with scales, trolls are mammals. The females give birth approximately every five years after a six-month gestation period, usually to a single child, although twins and triplets are not unknown. They nurse their young only until their teeth start coming out at about two weeks later, when the whelp is ready for a diet of solid flesh.

It should be noted that pregnant females are in no way hampered by their condition, nor are they offered any preferential treatment by the other trolls in the clan. They are still expected to join in hunts for prey, scavenge food, and battle clan enemies. The signs of pregnancy are noticeable only in an overall growth in the size of the female’s abdomen and general increase in her hunger, crankiness, and vindictiveness. Pregnant trolls are the most vicious monsters an adventurer will ever want to meet, and males of all ages make it a point not to cross  their path, because they have no qualms about taking a bite out of the next troll that happens by if there is not enough food available.

Young trolls grow rapidly, reaching their full adult size when they are about ten years old. The first decade is a difficult time for growing whelps, for troll parenting skills appear barbaric when viewed through the lens of human civilization. Rather than protect their children from harm, adults go out of the way to expose them to all manners of hardship and pain, the better to toughen them up and make them strong. After all, a troll’s remarkable regenerative ability is of less use if it is afraid of the pain involved in limb-rending and subsequent regrowth. Trolls must learn to ignore all physical pain if they are to attain their full strength. To this end, troll children often suffer the periodic claws and bites of their elders to inure them to such pain. Furthermore, if a clan must resort to cannibalism it is usually the young that first give up their limbs to the community’s dinner table. This is done not only to help the young get used to the agonising pain of having their limbs rent apart, but also because their flesh is less gamy and stringy.

When a young troll finally attains full adult size, it demonstrates its usefulness to the tribe by chewing off each of its own limbs in turn. This rite of passage proves the troll has mastered the concept that ‘all pain is merely transient’, and is also a literal self-sacrifice to the clan. The clan leader is the first to partake of the young’s offering followed by the rest of the adults. This is the only time that trolls eat the flesh of one of their own willingly. When the troll’s limb regenerate and can once again stand before its clanmates, it is welcomed into adult society and treated accordingly.

Habitat

The ‘standard’ or ‘common’ troll prefers temperate or warm climates, and can also be frequently found living entirely subterranean existence. Surface trolls lair in caves or in crumbling ruins, depending of which is available and more comfortable. Otherwise, they usually dig underground lairs commonly refered to as ‘trollholes.’ In forested areas, trollholes are often dug at the base of a large tree and frequently have several entrances, each camouflaged with a large woven mat of twigs and leaves. These mats disguise the dwelling’s entrances to avoid unwelcome visitors, and they occasionally provide a free meal when an unsuspecting victim steps on it and crashes into the trollhole. Entryways are vertical shafts some five or six feet in diameter and ten feet deep. This makes it difficult for victims falling into the trollhole to escape, while the nine-foot trolls simply place their hands on the surface of the ground and effortlessly hoist themselves up.

Beyond the entrance, there are usually several tunnels slanted  downward in various directions, leading to the larger  individual areas of the troll families. Inside its own dwelling, each troll  builds a nest  out of whatever materials are available –straw, twigs, leaves, grass, and the like-, with remains of recent meals likely to be scattered about and incorporated into the nest as well. Troll habitats are filthy, often crawling with insects such as fleas, ticks and lice. Larger animals like rats and mice are scarce as they are large enough to warrant the trolls’ attention as a food source. Moulds and fungi growths are common and even encouraged in troll lairs, for those that are not edible can be put to use as primitive bedding.

Most of the treasure found in a troll cave or trollhole is all that is left from previous victims. Weapons might occasionally be put to use by various clan members, with any magical object incorporating fire or acid effects going directly into the chieftain’s hands. Armour is less likely to be used, and coins and gems are almost certainly tucked away in some corner as inconsequential, or at best shiny objects for the young to play with on occasion. Most trolls place no value on money. After all, it is not as if they are going to spend it anywhere, and even those trolls who recognize the importance other races place on gold and gemstones, are not likely to use their valuables to purchase goods when they can just take what they need by force.

Because of their inherently lazy natures, trolls tend not to move on to new territories once establishing a home unless forced to. While other races are more nomadic and willing to pack up and moves to greener pastures when food sources become scarce, most troll clans will resort to self-cannibalisation before finally admitting to themselves the necessity to move on.

When seeking out a new home, the primary consideration is, of course, food. This takes precedence over factors like defensibility and distance to potential enemies or allies. Trolls like having access to easy meals, whether those be bountiful forests filled with abundant wildlife, pasture land teeming with succulent sheep or cattle, or even small humanoid settlements. Trolls have been known to pick off the inhabitants of a small village one by one during a series of nightly raids until nobody remains alive, everyone having either been driven off in fear or become a day’s supper. Of the various humanoid races, humans and elves have the dubious honour of being favourite prey, but trolls will eat just about anything that moves.

One habitat the main troll species tends to avoid is deep water. Most trolls are not good swimmers, and they are well aware that despite their regenerative abilities they are just as susceptible to drowning as any other non-aquatic race. Probably the best way to avoid a predatory troll is to swim away to deep water. Despite their constantly ravenous hunger, most trolls will not pursue their prey into a body of water that rises above their own heads.

Troll Society

On the other hand, most troll clans are willing to let other trolls join them, as long as their ranks are not already too full, because new blood keeps the clan healthy. Naturally, once a troll enters a new clan the ‘pecking order fights’ begin almost immediately, as the clan members try to determine where the ‘new guy’ falls in their hierarchy. A troll supplicant to a new clan has the option of turning down such fights, with the understanding that he places himself at the bottom of the ladder.

Unlike most humanoid and goblinoid races, trolls very rarely name their clans. This is partly due to their inherent arrogance and superiority complex: as long as they know who they mean by ‘the clan,’ what do they care whether or not other races know who is meant? The closest a clan comes to having a distinct name is when the clan is referenced by the name of the chieftain. Thus, while there will not be a ‘Bloody Claw Clan’ or a ‘Clan of the Severed Hand,’ there might well be an ‘Oograk Clan’ or a ‘Clan of Vraask.’

Clan Structure

Within the clan there exists a definite hierarchy, and every troll knows where he or she stands in the chain at any given moment. Given the chaotic nature of trolls, however, this hierarchy is constantly shifting and changing as individual trolls fight amongst themselves, jockeying for position in the clan. Females, being larger than males as a rule, are usually found holding the dominant positions in the clan, but large males capable of fighting their way up the ladder can also attain power, prestige and influence. Nonetheless, the vast majority of troll clans are led by the dominant female.

On The Leadership Of Females

The largest and strongest female in a troll clan is almost always the largest strongest troll in the clan and thus she acts as the chieftain. Leadership of a troll clan is held only through combat, and any time another troll think she (or, less commonly, he) can wrest power from the current incumbent, a battle for power ensues. No proper etiquette to these challenges, no ritual and no oratory as to why it is being made; an attack can come at any time, without warning. These battles are seldom fought to the death, thanks once again to the troll’s remarkable regenerative abilities, but the victor traditionally decapitates the loser’s head and display it on a stick after proudly parading it around in front of he other clan members. Meanwhile, the defeated troll has to lie there and wait for her head to grow back. Often, once the loser’s head has regrown it is forced to wear its ‘previous’ head on a rope or chain around the neck for a week or so as a constant reminder of its previous defeat and public warning against further dissidence.

Fortunately, such challenges for leadership are rare, as a troll only attains the level of chieftain by proving to all other clan members that it can easily defeat them. Furthermore, most males realise they will never be strong enough to wrest power from one of the mighty females, let alone the strongest of them all, and most females are patient enough to wait for a moment of weakness on the part of their leader before striking.

The chieftain’s duties primarily consist of leading the clan on their nightly  forages for food. She might approve of sending off a small group of trolls to hunt other areas or she may insist that the clan stays together. She is also in charge of overseeing the proper raising of the troll children in the clan. This usually means that she is the main dealer of ‘necessary pain’ to the young. This has the added benefit of teaching the whelps to fear their clan chieftain, even as they learn to master their fear of pain. Chieftains see being feared by the members of their clan as an obvious boon, helping them to cement power at the top of the clan.

Along with greater chances of assuming clan leadership, adult females have positions of power over the lowly males. Trolls seldom mate for life, and this is at the preference of the females, not the males. Female trolls choose their mates or, more frequently, choose two suitors and let them fight it out to see who wins the right to breed. This ritual has several benefits, for the bloodthirsty males it is a chance to fight and demonstrate their combat prowess to the other females in the clan, because even the loser stands to impress other females if he makes a good showing. The female gets the thrill of having two males fight over her, and the ensuing offspring is sure to enjoy a strong set of genes. Once impregnates, the female maintains the male as her mate until she delivers her child. During this time, the male is seen as the ‘property’ of his mate and is ineligible for breeding selection by another female. This keeps the gene pool healthy by preventing the single strongest male in the clan from siring children with all of the females.

Another female duty is the keeping of the oral history of the clan. Since trolls do not bother with a written language, the only means they have of recording the clan’s past accomplishments are the stories they pass down from generation to generation. Usually, only female trolls take on the duties of storyteller, a s the males are generally seen as too lazy and undependable. Nearly all females will know some of their clan’s stories, but there is usually one chief storyteller per clan. She is liable to know the complete history of the clan going back many decades or even centuries.

Males are typically the drudge workers of the troll clan, and different pecking order exists among them so that, when females start giving orders, the can delegate ‘dawn the chain’  to those weaker than themselves. Of coarse, all troll males dislike having to take orders from females, let alone other males, so most male-to-male orders devolve into a quick battle to see whether there ought to be a change in male hierarchy. Once a victor has been established, the loser is forced into doing the work unless a female gets tired of the bickering and steps in, at which point both males are likely to end up with the chore.

The Outcast

Some trolls, especially males in low standing, dislike the thought of spending their lives under the dominance of the females and may decide to do something about it. They leave the clan and strike out on their own. These self-exiled outcasts often hook up with groups of other humanoids like goblars, goblins, orcs or even ogres, ettins or hill giants. A troll living among much weaker creatures upgrades his social standing significantly, often going from lowest male in the clan to the most powerful creature in the new tribe. Life is good for a troll among goblars or goblins, it is valued for its strength, can demand the lion’s share of all food, strike fear  into the hearts of everyone around, and does not have to put up with constant demands from pushy female trolls.

Female trolls are well aware of this male tendency and keep a sharp eye to prevent them from deserting in such fashion. A successful troll outcast usually attains his status by sneaking off during a raid when the females are too engrossed in the heat of battle to notice, or by slipping away during the day when most trolls are in blissful slumber.

Of coarse, some trolls become outcasts by being exiled by the chieftain, This is seldom done as a punishment for wrongdoing, as chieftains would rather subdue such transgressors, render them helpless in the lair, and torture them until the lesson finally sinks in. The most common reason for casting out a clan member is if he or she succumbs to the dreaded gunge disease.

The lowest troll outcasts are those that failed to master their indifference to pain. Adults that still fear pain despite their regenerative powers are seen as cowards and failures in the eyes of other trolls, and no clan will harbour such a drain on their resources. These outcasts find refuge among goblinoids, at least until their new tribe discovers that the ‘added muscle’ they have been supporting is afraid of battle, at which point the outcast troll finds itself running for dear life. Goblinoids like nothing better than to attack and destroy a troll that fears pain, as they do not often get the opportunity to bring down such powerful prey.

Troll Spirituality

Troll spirituality is relatively easy to categorise: non-existent.