Trollkin

 

Today we are talking about another major race on Gal Hadre, leaving only the Peshtar and Vrak before we start covering more minor groups.

Trollkin are the closest thing Gal Hadre has to orcs.  Created more than a millenia ago by an incredibly powerful and power hungry mage, Trollkin are a fusion of humans and trolls, created by powerful dragon magic.  Created in vast numbers to be strong, but susceptible to his mind magics; they have since bred true.  Trollkin are not capable of producing offspring with humans, the changes wrought by the magic are too extensive unless significant magic was used.

 

 

Trollkin have a variety of skin tones from a variety of greens to yellowish browns, that skin is thicker and tougher than a human’s closer to hide.  Trollkin also posses a limited regenerative factor, it is not enough to fully regrow an amputated limb, but it would seal over the stump and almost certainly keep the trollkin from dying of shock or blood loss. They have excellent night vision, and thus often hunt or raid at night when they have a relative advantage.  They tend to have higher strength and constitutions than humans and can maintain travel paces that most other humanoids would struggle to do.  Trollkin stand roughly the same height as humans, but due to their increased strength generally weigh about ten percent more.  As their regeneration often causes them to take outsized risks, many trollkin have a least one significant scar.

They tend to live in the less civilized parts of the world, in large clans numbering in the thousands to low tens of thousands.  The largest gathering of these clans is within the Undil wastes, where over the centuries there have been between six and a dozen such clans.  These exist in a constant state of low intensity conflict both with each other, and with the other clans of the Waste and relatively frequent raids into the civilized lands around the Waste.  Due to Trollkin’s regeneration, the casualties tend to be low, but produce hardy and skilled warriors.

 

 

Each clan controls several villages and small towns that are in many ways self-sufficient, but part of the larger clan alliance.  Each village has its own elders, warrior cadres and shamans that are contributed as required if the clan chief or warlord requires them.  Villages are surrounded by dry moats, and usually wooden Palisades.  The larger and older villages have more elaborate defences, with towers and gatehouses or a keep at the centre.  Stone walls are rare, but a keep or gatehouses may be made of stone in particularly large villages.  Most clans largest holding is a town that has multiple layers of walls, and more stone construction than the villages.  On the rare occasions that armies from the civilized lands invade the wastes it is usually to attempt to destroy one of these capital towns and the ruins of several towns destroyed but such actions exist, generally close the edges of the waste.  Isolated homesteads are rare due to the constant raiding that happens; the smallest settlements are around 100 Trollkin.

Trollkin mages from the clans outside the civilized lands are generally known as shaman.  Shamans tend to focus on one of the more elemental paths, with the path of life often a secondary path; few shamans ever study more than two paths, preferring power over varied abilities.  It would be rare to see any sizable trollkin raid without a shaman or two providing magical support.  Shamans often have extensive ritual scarring that is somehow connected to the training they receive as apprentices.

 

Trollkin in the more civilized lands tend to find jobs in very physically demanding fields, like mining, or acting as bodyguards or mercenaries.  There are entire mercenary companies that only recruit trollkin.  Unfortunately, trollkin often face racial discrimination, threats and harassment, as they are blamed for the crimes of other members of their species.  This creates a dangerous cycle of forcing many trollkin into illegal activities and work, further fueling claims they are dangerous.  These complex issues prevent trollkin from gathering in any significant numbers outside the mercenary companies within civilized lands and generally put downward pressure on their population percentage there.  Because of all these factors, Trollkin from civilized lands are the per capita group most likely to join a dragon cult.

These mercenary companies tend to be around 100 warriors, primarily melee fighters with some archers or spear throwers, and a shaman or two.  There are no Trollkin cavalry mercenary groups and if a wealthier company has a few horses, they are for officers or a couple of scouts.  Trollkin tend not to fight in quite as organized a fashion as the trained retainers of nobles, fighting more as individuals roughly grouped together.  However when unleashed against levies, the levies stand little chance.

 

 

The Trollkin keep creatures known as Trollhounds for guard and hunting duty.  Once barely domesticated dogs, they were fed a diet of troll meat for so long that they have taken on a similar aspect to Trollkin, or at least that is one version of their creation tale.  Trollhounds are savage and angry creatures that are willing to hunt anything short of a dragon.  

Trolls have an inherent connection to those that are connected to them, thus they can often be found in the trollkin clans, fed and cared for by their far more intelligent hybrid kin, and unleashed in battle when required.  This gives large trollkin forces a terrifying and powerful shock element that other armies often struggle to deal with.  Of course this doesn’t always go as planned, and more than one clan has lost a battle when their own trolls raged into their battle lines.  No one would make any claims that these trolls are any more domesticated than their feral relations.

Hopefully you enjoyed this blog post, and are interested in the other major races that haven’t yet gotten a blog post.  Let me know what things about the Trollkin you want to know more about.