Moon-Gazers

The Moon-Gazers are an gnoll people who have live in the Urra Highlands, an arid region in eastern Thadria. Descended from tribes that migrated out of the Taizzan Expanse millennia ago, the Moon-Gazers are best known for their religion, centering around a unique lunar deity, as well as for their expertise in the treatment of injuries and diseases.

History

The ancestors of the Moon-Gazers left the gnoll communities of the Taizzan Expanse long ago, mostly likely in the seventh or eighth millennia. Their oral histories recount a time spent in the lands between River Qaro and River Qes that was ultimately brought to a close by persistent conflict with the dragon-lords and city-states of Ishtar. Continuing their migration north, the gnolls settled in the rugged Urra Highlands, establishing new villages in the remote region.

Geographical location

Moon-Gazer gnolls live almost entirely in the Urra Highlands, especially in the eastern reaches away from the Zakros Range, where giants and dragons are a persistent threat. Some Moon-Gazers occasionally venture into Forloroth & Valadhel, Erenon, and Ishtar to trade, raid, or hunt, but generally stick to themselves in their highland communities.

Culture

Religion

Moon-Gazer religion centers around a deity called the Moonlight Guide. This god is a protector of the souls of the dead first and foremost, a beacon who leads the deceased to the moon Abashmu. Most Moon-Gazer tribes believe that dead souls rest on Abashmu, safe from the violence and hazards of the world, though some instead believe the souls form the moon itself. Regardless of the details of the faith, totems to the Moonlight Guide dot the landscape of the Urra Highlands, circles of stacked spherical stones where worship of the god takes place. He is often depicted as an ashen faced gnoll, holding a flame in one hand and the moon in the other - many of his clerics and oracles rub ash or powdered bone into their fur to give themselves a similar appearance.

For millennia the Moonlight Guide has been heavily syncretized with the Chaskan deity Shai, after increased contact with the expansionist Viridia brought many humans and their religion to the borders of the Moon-Gazers territory. Some missionaries from the Dominion attempted to convert the gnolls to the worship of the Chaskan pantheon, but the Moon-Gazers simply saw Shai as a natural aspect of their own god, adopting some influences from his domain and depiction while still fundamentally retaining the Moonlight Guide as their own deity.

Architecture

In the rough landscape of the Urra Highlands, the Moon-Gazers prefer to live in places of high elevation. They often establish their communities next to cliff edges, on bluffs or on stone spires, or elsewhere in locations with clear lines of sight so that any potential threats can be quickly spotted. Their homes are most typically circular hide tents, usually arranged around a central lookout tower that is built to be as tall as is manageable.

Medicine

The healers and herbalists of the Moon-Gazers are experts at treating all manner of physical injuries, having no shortage of patients from whom to learn and perfect their techniques. But the gnolls are particularly renowned for their skills in managing and curing diseases. While they use magical means regularly, they do not rely solely on such methods of healing, as they also know many medicinal uses for plants and minerals that can be found around them. This knowledge is passed down from dedicated tribal healers to their apprentices, who study under their teachers for much of their lives before ever considering treating a patient themselves.

During the outbreak of the plagues in Erenon some refugees found their way to the Moon-Gazers, who, though they struggled against the Restone Plague like everyone else, attracted a reputation for being able to manage its symptoms and halt its spread better than others who tried.

Raiding

Moon-Gazer tribes sometimes launch raids from their hideouts in the Urra Highlands, striking smaller towns and villages in the hinterlands of both Forloroth & Valadhel and Ishtar. These raids are infrequent enough so as to not invite major reprisals, though they are by no means small. Rather, the gnolls devise large, detailed plans of attack that might bring together several tribes against a single target, each responsible for a different role to ensure that collectively they make off with as many resources as possible. Elaborate night-time maneuvers and distractions are commonplace in Moon-Gazer raids, all designed to obscure their numbers or positions while the looters strike. These raids generally only take place in times of pronounced scarcity, as desperate efforts when other means have failed.

Moon-Gazer leaders are well-regarded as military strategists, even if they might simultaneously be hated or feared when they put their talents into practice. Some Ishtaran cities have attempted to hire Moon-Gazer bands as mercenaries against their rival city-states, but the gnolls have little desire for such employment, preferring instead choose their own targets.