Troll
Trolls are a sapient species native to the Mirror Lakes, usually found in mountanous regions. They visually resemble beings made out of rock (though they are not), which gives them excellent camoflauge for hunting.
Strengths and weaknesses
Trolls are notoriously durable and resistant to blunt or sharp force trauma. Their skin is coated in a hard, rocky-like crust, sometimes referred to as their exoskeleton though this is inaccurate. A healthy full-grown adult's crust cannot be pierced by even the sharpest blade or dented by any force less than a cannonball. This makes them valuable on the battlefield, and for many tasks which would be hazardous to other people. However the troll's strength is also one of their greatest weaknesses. The crust's purpose is to protect the flesh inside, which is particularly delicate. Enough pressure applied to the troll's body can result in crushing it inside its crust, like the troll constrictor, one of the most powerful snakes in the Mirror Lakes. The troll's sensitive digestive system also makes it vulnerable to toxins, with most poisons being more dangerous for them than for other species. It also cannot properly digest cheese except in small doses, despite trolls having a taste for the foodstuff (for some an addiction). This can cause cheesegut, a very painful condition involving intestinal blockage. The skinside of the troll's crust is springy and flexible, enabling parts of it to grow and shrink as needed as the troll's body changes. However fractured skincrust takes many months to heal, and any kind of damage caused to the crust makes the troll more vulnerable to injury. Sometimes a fragment of the crust can break off and do serious internal damage.Basic Information
Anatomy
Trolls are shorter than most sapients, standing at 3-4 feet tall on average.
Troll hair is different to other species; it's been shown to resemble coral on a cellular level, which makes sense considering the crust on which it grows absorbed cells from trollcradle as it first formed. Healthy troll hair is long and thick. There is a direct connection between unhealthy crust and hair loss. Male trolls almost always have beards, which is as much a biological trait as a cultural one, as one would need to shave at least four times a day to remain clean-shaven.
The troll's crust is made up of seamless overlapping parts which enable the joints to move without resistance. Otherwise, it looks completely solid everywhere but the face. In order to perform required bodily functions, a small section of the crust opens up in the required place at the appropriate moment. This process can be artificially replicated for medical requirements e.g. surgery.
Genetics and Reproduction
Trolls are often mistakenly thought to lay eggs. This is not true, though there is in the vernacular such a thing as a “troll egg” outside the mother's body. Trolls have a unique reliance on a particular type of coral called trollcradle, which encloses a newborn troll in a cocoon (usually referred to as an egg) while they develop their crust.
Childbirth
During and after childbirth is when trolls are at their most vulnerable. Although trolls are born with a very thin, flexible crust, it drops off after about a week. By now, the extra layers of crust which the mother built up through pregnancy have also dropped. These are spread over a growth of trollcradle, and the baby laid on top. The coral then envelopes the baby, forming a cocoon to protect it while it develops its own crust, which is based on a mix of the mother's crust and the coral itself. This takes about a month, but the cocoon can be occasionally opened to check on the infant inside without disturbing the process. Babies can develop their own crust independently, without the trollcradle, and/or the mother's sheddings. Pieces of another person's crust can be used in place of the mother's, if the child is orphaned, lost or abandoned and the birth mother is beyond reach or identification. However the crust takes longer to become as strong as it's intended. And without trollcradle, the crust takes several times as long to develop in the first place, and will never be quite as healthy as it should be.Ecology and Habitats
The preferred habitat of trolls is rocky or mountainous areas, primarily because that is where trollcradle grows.
Dietary Needs and Habits
The diet of a troll is less varied than that of other sapient species because of the limitations of its digestive system. Cheese is the famous food product it has trouble with, but there are a number of other foods which trolls either cannot digest at all or can only do so in minimal quantities.
Genetic Descendants
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