In the dawn of time, Eberron was the domain of the fiendish overlords… Rak Tulkesh, the Rage of War, commanded armies of vicious fiends, while the Wild Heart raised hordes of ravenous beasts. In the struggles between the two, the Wild Heart bred dire hyenas with the ability to consume the immortal essences of the Zakya warriors of Rak Tulkhesh. But the Wild Heart failed to anticipate how consuming fiends would affect its creations. Twisted from within by the immortal essence of the demons they’d devoured, the hyenas were warped into something entirely new, something that was neither beast nor demon: and so the first gnolls were born. Formed from both War and the Wild, gnolls were recruited and bred by both Rak Tulkhesh and the Wild Heart… Even after the overlords were defeated and bound by the Silver Flame, gnolls continued to be their pawns. The fiendish spark burned within them, and when they weren’t directly serving the Lords of Dust, most engaged in savage acts of brutality. The Rage of War seeks endless battle, and when there is no greater conflict, it delights in setting its minions against one another. For countless generations, gnolls fought troll, ogre, and other gnolls seeking blood for their hungry idols. Then, centuries ago, two gnolls from rival clans faced one another on a battlefield soaked in the blood of their kin—then questioned the path that had led them there. The two urged others to deny the voice that called for endless war, to refuse to chase death in the service of a fiend. Two became four, then eight, until entire clans heeded the call. Clan leaders dragged their idols to the place now known as Znir—a word that simply means “stone”—and there, they shattered the images of the fiends they once served.
As time permits, I like to answer interesting questions posed by my Patreon supporters. Here’s one from this month…
How would you incorporate Gnolls as Fiends? The 2025 Monster Manual and Flee, Mortals! both type Gnolls as full-fledged fiends rather than simply demon-worshipping humanoids.
Eberron was created for third edition. When a new edition changes the default lore, there’s always the question of how to respond to it. Should we change Eberron to adapt to the latest change, or should we maintain the integrity of the setting’s original lore even if it is contradicted by the latest set of rules? There’s one dramatic example of this in the original setting itself. Eberron was designed while the original third edition rules were in effect. Under those rules, afflicted lycanthropes could spread the curse of lycanthropy, which creates the potential for an exponential spread—one lycanthrope can bite five people, who each become lycanthropes that bite five people, who each become lycanthropes and before you know it, the entire population of Aundair is howling at the moons. It was with this in mind that we instituted the idea of the Silver Crusade, a brutal effort to eradicate lycanthropy—because as depicted, lycanthropy was something that could be seen as an existential threat. Except that D&D was evolving as Eberron was developed, and under the 3.5 rules, afflicted lycanthropes couldn’t spread the affliction… making the crusade seem arbitrary and cruel. With this in mind, we added an explanation that bridged the gap between the two editions—saying that at the time of the Silver Crusade, lycanthropy WAS infectious; the actions of the templars and Moonspeakers broke this power, leaving the curse in its weaker 3.5 form.
This is my preferred approach. I don’t want to simply ignore the new rules, but I also don’t want to undermine unique aspects of Eberron. So my question is always if there’s a way to maintain the original concept while also incorporating the current rules.
So first of all, in making gnolls fiends, I would emphasize the horror of that concept. The 2025 Monster Manual calls them Fiends in Feral Fleshand I’d really double down on that. The point is that these aren’t just humanoids that have decided to be cruel—they are shells housing ravenous immortal spirits of pure evil. I would go straight to The Exorcist and play up the deeply unnatural nature of this. In describing fiendish gnolls, I’d depict the fiend within twisting their bodies—hearing bones snap and reknit as their jaws extend to impossible width, emphasizing their unnatural ability to ignore pain and fight until they’re torn apart, their ability to consume impossible amounts of flesh. Beyond the physical, I’d consider other things that make them feel unnatural. I’ve talked before about gnoll mimicry; with fiendish gnolls, I’d straight up have them speak with the voices of people the adventurers have lost in war (because they’re fiends of Rak Tulkhesh), or have a troop of gnolls all speak with one voice. I’d consider having a gnoll with a distinctive personality who engages with the adventurers, who keeps coming back in the body of different gnolls. Because to me, the point is that the individual GNOLL isn’t a fiend; it’s a mortal creature of flesh and blood. But that mortal creature has no will or identity of its own; it’s just a vessel for an immortal fiend.
So I can work with gnolls as fiends, and I’d place those gnolls as ravenous servants of the Wild Heart in the Eldeen Reaches and as soldiers of Rak Tulkhesh in the Demon Wastes. The catch is that I’d keep the gnolls of the Znir Pact as humanoids. Considering the story from Exploring Eberronit’s not simply that those first Znir gnolls had a change of heart, it’s that they expelled the fiends from their bodies. This doubles down on the importance of the Hwyri exorcists in Znir society; the Znir know more about fighting fiends than almost anyone, because they were made to be vessels for fiends and drove them from their blood. The Znir gnolls still have traces of fiendish influence; the fiends still yearn to control them. But they are mortal humanoids, with the same free will and self-determination as any mortal creation, capable of having any alignment. In some ways this is a parallel to the Inspired and their Chosen hosts; the Znir gnoll is the vessel without the fiend, the equivalent of a Chosen who’s found a way to prevent the quori from possessing them. Which would also be an interesting story for a Chosen adventurer, who was saved by a Hwyri mentor who taught them how to keep their quori at bay.
So, I have no issue with the new Monster Manual presenting gnolls as fiends, and I’d be happy to embrace that and go all in on the horrific aspects of it… for the servants of Rak Tulkhesh and the Wild Heart. But the whole point of the Znir gnolls is that they have broken the hold the overlords once had over them, and I would keep them as humanoids in my 2025 campaign.
If you have questions of your own, I’m holding a live Q&A for my Threshold patrons at 6 PM Pacific Time TOMORROW, Wednesday the 22nd. You can get access to this and post questions on Patreon. Thanks for your support!
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