Trolls

Trolls are a primitive and superstitious race who generally live on the outskirts of society, in bleak mountain passes, deep inhospitable forests, and dense and impassible jungles. Near-universally despised by most other races, they eke out an existence in their isolated hovels, which have slowly been ground down into smaller and smaller enclaves over time. Most trolls are occupied with the same thing their forefathers practiced- minor animal husbandry combined with hunting and raiding to find enough food for survival. These raiding parties are often formed around small family groups, though occasionally a few distinct families will form an alliance, seeking more loot. However, most such alliances are short-lived, almost inevitably collapsing into strife between the allies as each tries to claim more food than their due. The combativeness of trolls, even towards other trolls, makes it hard for them to come together and form any sort of real society unless forced by outsides, which accounts for the most successful trollish nations actually being led by demons, devils, or fey who are simply manipulating the trolls to do their bidding. Due to their violent temperament and incomprehensible languages, trolls are difficult to reach even individual rapprochement, much less cultural, so they also struggle to integrate into other nations. This has led to trolls either being slain on sight or taken as slaves, with giants in particular having long prized trollish slaves, thanks to trolls being physically powerful yet also small enough for giants to overpower them and force them to work.

All these problems are perhaps not inherent to the way trolls function- there are instances of trolls learning other languages and repenting from their violent ways, becoming productive members of society. However, thousands of years of violent reinforcement, combined with the reaction of outsiders to trolls and trolls to outsiders often being kill first, ask questions later, has made trolls unlikely to attempt diplomacy. Only when negotiating from a position of strength can trolls engage in meaningful dialogue, and only if they have made an effort to learn the language of those they seek to treat with. Far simpler to simply crush them with a rock and take their land. However, in the modern era, with technology and education rapidly advancing in the rest of the world and the lands safe to trolls rapidly falling, the necessity to reform has become far more potent, forcing some trolls to finally tentatively approach the international community. Should a trollish state that was actually ruled over by trolls and not an outside force reach sufficient power, it would not be impossible for the trolls to force their way onto the world stage and from there leverage their fighting prowess to obtain new technology. At the moment, however, this is but a pipe dream of the few trolls intelligent enough to realize their long-term social structures are doomed to failure- if not now, then certainly within a few hundred years.

Besides their fearsome strength, which is almost the match of the giants despite trolls being several feet shorter, the biggest advantage trolls have is their regenerative abilities. All trolls share this power, which take effect whenever a wound is not made with fire or acid. This makes trolls unafraid of charging into battle, though they also tend to flee in fear when fire is revealed, as any injury then sustained may become permanent. It should be noted that trolls can still regenerate limbs lost to fire or acid if they slice off the burned section and allow more time than usual. However, this process can take months, which when compared to the minutes to hours normal wounds take, makes trolls extremely fearful. Since trolls place a premium on physical strength, this loss in prowess is frightening. Their inability to master their fear of fire and use it for their own ends is a major developmental issue for their tribes, because it prevents trolls from forging metal, cooking meat, or providing lighting during the night. All of these problems have effectively combined with their violent temperament to further stunt trollish society.

Ancient trolls may have once spread across most of the continents in the northern hemisphere, but now they are confined to small pockets on just three of these- Ifyrial, Telgren, and Ærellion. There, they are divided into two subraces; boreal and equatorial. Boreal trolls, living in northern Ærellion and throughout Telgren, are most at home in mountains, continental forests, or subarctic terrain, and are scattered about these regions, mostly on Telgren. The Boreal trolls once also inhabited the Telgrener and Ærellic steppes, even within historical memory, but were wiped out on both by the centaurs as they rose to prominence. Boreal trolls remain a major problem on both continents however, as their remaining holdouts are havens for raiders who strike without warning. In contrast to the pocketed and isolated boreal trolls, equatorial trolls are a constant presence in the southwestern jungles of Ærellion, with their range stretching west to Ifyrial. Although their range is still split into multiple pieces by more civilized and developed nations, the equatorial trolls are often far less divided, which leads to more conflict between the various tribes but also makes it harder to eliminate them from regions, as they have many places to hide and later re-emerge to wreak havoc.