Gnoll Origins

Revision as of 05:59, 3 August 2016

The Tale of Yeenoghu and Gorellik

Long ago, there were two great hyenas named Yeenoghu and Gorellik. Gorellik was so great and powerful and smart that he learned to walk on hind legs and fight with the weapons of the two leggeds. He taught this to Yeenoghu. They often trained together, learning more advanced killing techniques. Their power continued to grow until their bodies couldn’t hold anymore. Yeenoghu and Gorellik were not satisfied.

They began to eat. At first, they ate the smaller animals; rabbits, deer, some large birds. And they grew. They saw some pinkies, the kind who used to chase their kind away from food, and they looked real tasty. So they ate the whole village. And they grew. The more Yeenoghu and Gorellik ate and the more Yeenoghu and Gorellik grew, the more powerful they became. So Yeenoghu and Gorellik kept eating. They ate some orks,but they were too salty. They ate some goblins but they were too bitter. And still they grew. They ate some ogres but they were too sour. They ate some kobolds, but they were too tart. And still they grew. Gorellik never found anything that as good as pinkies so he decided that was all he would eat from then on. Yeenoghu and Gorellik kept eating and growing until they were tall enough to see over even the tallest tree in the thickest forest.

Yeenoghu kept eating monsters, and Gorellik told him to knock that shit off. Yeenoghu didn’t listen. Gorellik tried to explain how pinkies were the enemy and the more they ate the sooner they could have control of the world. Gorellik got angry and started fighting with Yeenoghu with tooth and claw as they had grown too large to use the two legged weapons. The battle raged for days, with both too powerful to fall. On the eighth day, Gorellik got an upset stomach from the sweet meat of the pinkies. A great belch rose upand as Gorellik let it out, he stumbled, giving Yeenoghu a chance to slice open Gorellik’s throat. Blood spilled forth and Gorellik fell, dying in a circular pool of his own blood. Yeenoghu, tired with wounds of his own, laid in a forest and took a nap. Yeenoghu still sleeps to this day, dirt and stone as his blanket.

Hyenas of all kinds were drawn to the pool of blood. They drank from the pool and felt Gorellik’s power. They drank more and more until they became like Gorellik, walking on two legs and wielding weapons. These became the first gnolls. None so great as Yeenoghu, the deadliest and laziest of us all.