Trolls
GUTS AND GEARS — THE BEASTS AND MACHINES OF THE IRON KINGDOMS
A recognized distinction has existed for centuries between the diverse breeds of “full-blood” trolls and the civilized trollkin kriels. With the threat of warfare constantly increasingly, more and more full-blood trolls live and fight alongside battle ready trollkin kriels. These trolls rip enemies limb from limb in exchange for mutual protection and ready access to food. Experienced trollkin can, with time and effort, train trolls to fill a variety of essential roles on and off the battlefield that take advantage of the trolls’ strength, regenerative capacities, cunning, and ready aptitude for war. The raw strength and stamina of trolls allows them to comfortably wield massive weapons and to wear much heavier armor than their smaller kin.
Wild trolls have only the skill and intelligence to craft crude tools, weapons, and protective attire. They have proven quick to learn and adapt when provided with more sophisticated gear by their trollkin allies, however. Kriels that make use of trolls consider it well worth the added expense and time to hammer together thickened armor, forge heavy axes, assemble spears, or craft other suitably oversized weapons for these hardy warriors. The massive gear some trolls carry to battle has caught many adversaries off-guard, particularly those who may have only had experience fighting feral trolls.
Trolls will literally eat anything that moves. Trollkin who use trolls for physical labor, therefore, never fully trust them with handling food stores.
Similarly, kriels have quickly learned never to leave full-blood trolls unsupervised near enemy prisoners, as the troll’s constant gnawing hunger and ability to digest even the most noxious or inedible materials makes almost anything fair game as a snack. A troll’s ravenous appetite, particularly after battle, is a constant fact of life. The bulk of the hostile encounters between
humanity and trolls have directly resulted from troll hunger combined with their belligerently indiscriminate choice of prey. Some seem to actively prefer the taste of human flesh and to enjoy the excitement and panic associated with humans fleeing from them.
While a number of trollkin kriels commonly make use of full-blood trolls today, historically some trollkin communities have at times preferred to distance themselves from their feral cousins and have actively denied similarities in their bloodlines. This occurs most commonly among kriels attempting to live in close proximity and in harmony with nearby human cities or towns. Humans will eagerly kill any full-blood troll on sight as a time-honored precaution. For most of their history, humans have universally recognized trolls as a menace threatening both urban and rural regions. As adaptable as humans may be, trolls have proven their equal, and the two have often vied to occupy and hunt for food in similar territories. This universal animosity exists in every nation menaced by trolls. Both Rhul and Ios, in fact, have proven willing to kill any troll discovered within their borders.
These reasons perhaps make it understandable that the usually solitary and territorial trolls have found it beneficial to associate with the smaller and more intelligent trollkin, one of the few species to accept them. Ancient krielstones describe that full-blooded trolls have often found a place among the kin. Certain Dhunian shamans have long made peaceful contact with trolls and learned how to communicate with and control them. Mutually beneficial arrangements became more widespread and formalized during and after the great trollkin uprisings in 242 and 262 AR, called the First and Second Trollkin Wars by human historians. The trollkin have always selected the most intelligent and expressive trolls to work and fight alongside. Over time certain bloodlines have come to serve the trollkin through successive generations until this has become an accepted tradition.
While trolls unquestionably have simpler minds and less intelligence than trollkin, the cunning of full-blood trolls far exceeds that of simple beasts. Evidence indicates that, despite their small vocabularies and difficulties with abstract thinking, full-blood trolls have a clear sense of individual identity and even a rudimentary awareness of history. They recognize bloodlines in a fashion not entirely dissimilar from their more intelligent kin. Many wild full-blood trolls denote bloodline with recognizable marks resembling simple runes. Some trolls have found ways to mark their resilient flesh with long-lasting tattoos, often combining branding by fire and pressing colorful poisons into the sizzling wound. While not permanent, such scarification provides a long-lasting decoration that a bloodline might use to identify itself. Others prefer to carry their mark chiseled onto a rounded piece of stone, sometimes worn on a knotted cord like an amulet, and trolls working alongside trollkin kriels have learned to mark their identity using recognizable Molgur-Trul runes.
Trolls bloodlines and blood distinction goes beyond simply recognition of parentage. There is evidence that trolls of the same bloodline can immediately sense this affinity when meeting each other, either by smell or the taste of blood. Within these bloodlines trolls demonstrate a degree of familial loyalty and will avoid killing those they recognize in this fashion unless brought to the brink of frenzy by injury or berserk rage. Due to their regenerative capacity trolls that can avoid a death by violence have a life expectancy easily exceeding a century. Elder trolls have proven capable of remembering deeds and events far in their past, such as recognizing the runic name-marks of individuals that fought alongside them decades before. Similarly their periodic loyalties to trollkin kriels can run just as deeply, ingrained over succeeding generations.
Beyond subtle distinctions which only another troll could notice, bloodlines in different regions and that consume markedly different food have demonstrated a wide variety of appearances and coloration. While most trolls from the Gnarls and the Thornwood have flesh of a bluish hue, for example, several bloodlines in the outer Scharde Isles have a more greenish coloration. One breed near Scarleforth Lake in the Bloodstone Marches is notable for its earthy brown skin and violet quills. A full-blood troll’s digestive systems and metabolism, while not quite as robust as the larger dire troll’s, can extract nourishment from substances poisonous, inedible, or indigestible to other living species. Some troll bloodlines will even go out of their way to consume certain noxious substances just to achieve a desired skin and quill coloration, even when the substance provides no nourishment whatsoever.
Trolls living in more extreme environments, such as the frozen northern mountains or the desolate deserts of the Bloodstone Marches, have sometimes manifested adaptive physiological changes unusual enough to qualify them as separate species. While trollkin have no formal term for this distinction, most consider creatures like pyre trolls and winter trolls distinctly different from other full-blood trolls that possess a degree of physiological similarities to one another.
Trollkin categorize allied full-blood trolls based on the combat role for which they were selected and trained. Kriels from different regions use their allies for a wide variety of tasks in battle, limited only by the weapons and armor available. Temperament is one of the most important factors when deciding what role a young troll might fill. The ease of forging large hacking implements, extremely effective in the hands of the most aggressive trolls, has made axers common in both northern and southern regions. Trolls selected to become impalers and trained to throw heavy spears have calmer temperaments and demonstrate some degree of coordination and aptitude.
Bouncers, while highly valued for their protective instincts and skills, remain fewer in number. Chosen from among trolls that demonstrate an above average ability to form emotional attachments to trollkin, bouncers go out of their way to defend their smaller kin in battle. These trolls receive additional food to bulk them up, layers of armor, and a shield, making them among the most formidable full-troll warriors and extremely difficult for enemies to bring down. Fighting with a shield in one hand and a spiked flail in the other does not come easily to trolls, and the bouncers require considerable practice with this gear before they reach their full deadly potential.
While the warriors of the united trollkin kriels have recently gained tremendous strength from the sudden and unprecedented arrival into their ranks of dire trolls, such great and savage beasts remain few in number and difficult to feed and control. The full-blood trolls, creatures with whom most trollkin feel far more comfortable and more willing to entrust their lives to, form the mainstay of all the fighting kriels. Great bonds of fellowship are not uncommon between trollkin veterans and the full-blood trolls who fight alongside them. While trollkin may never see trolls entirely as peers, the creatures have earned a special regard among the warriors who fight every day for the freedom and future security of their families.
Fonte: No Quarter 15
