Sibeccai weren't always the soft, civilized, giant-worshiping lickspitles they are today. Yes, I know what you're thinking: they were wild animals before the giants uplifted them. Am I right? Well you're thinking wrong.

Tell me, are giants sculptures of flesh? Is the natural world their canvas, evolution their tool weapon and plaything? Can the giants twist and reshape living creatures into forms that better suit them? No, though they probably envy those who can: the dramojh.

It was the dramojh who first created the 'sibeccai' from common canines, though if you saw one today you'd never know it for what it was. Then, they were called gnolls. Savage creatures, they were; hulking beasts, drinkers of blood, eaters of giant-flesh, filling battlefields with their sadistic laughter and the bodies of their foes. The gnolls outnumbered the giants, often outmuscled them, and usually outfought them. Centuries before the giants would grow to become a world power, the gnolls very nearly eradicated them.

But while the giants weren't bright enough to work such marvels as the dramojh did, the best among them could discern the subtle flaws in the dragon scion's work. The giants gathered the greatest of their crude spellcasters and patched together the mightest spell that their race could ever cast: not to uplift, but to tear down. The giants' spell managed to weaken the greater dramojh magics which had made the gnolls such mighty warriors. This left the race it's self crippled, physicaly reduced to something little stouter than a man and mentaly vulnerable to further perversion by the giants. What eventualy emerged was a race of humanoids who looked and acted more like pet dogs than wild carnivores. The giants named these pathetic creatures 'sibeccai'.

The happy tale that the giants tell their slave race is far from the whole story. Though none of those self-absorbed megalomaniacs would ever admit the whole truth today, if any even remember it.

I wonder if any still do remember it? Well then, if not I'll soon remind them. How, you ask? Why, by changing the sibeccai back you fool.


Gnoll Transformation (Ceremonial)
After a wild ritual involving at least three sibbecai or gnolls and one mojh spellcaster, culminating in the murder of a captive giant, you transform from a sibeccai into a mightier yet more primal being.
Prerequisite: Must be a sibeccai, truemane
Benefit: The character looses all of his sibeccai racial features except for his ability modifiers, to which he adds a +2 strength bonus and a -2 charisma penalty. He gains a +2 racial bonus to all wilderness survival checks and a +4 bonus to intimidate checks against intelligent creatures when laughing or excited (dm's descretion). He still retains his automatic and bonus languages, however. A gnoll (character with this feat) may take a few levels in "gnoll" as a class to become less like sibeccai and more like the monsters who battled the giants.
Special: A character with this feat is no longer considered a sibeccai, but a gnoll. For example, he suffers no extra effect from sibeccai-bane weapons or spells, but cannot use magic item keyed to sibeccai. Any sibeccai racial levels the character has are immediatly converted to gnoll racial levels*.

Personality: Gnolls, like many sibeccai, are arrogant and haughty. They are scornful of virtualy all non-gnolls and of what other races consider 'fun'. They are also quite uninterested in learning or enlightenment, and very loyal to those whom they respect. However, they combine these traits with a taste for torture and mindless bloodshed. They always despise the weak but sometimes spitefully fear the strong, and are always looking for chances to prove their worth through battle. Or, if they get the chance, through outright slaughter.

The gnoll transformation warps a former sibeccai's mind far more than his body. Gnolls truely enjoy fighting and hurting others. As well as satisfying, they find the pain and death of other creatures extremely funny: the more prolongued or creative, the better. Supposedly, one of the giant's main goals in altering the gnolls was to curb their sick sense of humor, and as a result common sibeccai have no sense of humor at all.

Like nearly all mortal creatures, it is possible for tramatic events or revelations to change a gnoll's personality. However, this doesn't happen often: those who choose to become gnolls are usually the worst of sibeccai stock, and the transformation only perverts them further.

Physical description: A first level gnoll looks much like a sibeccai, though the transformation ritual leaves obvious marks. Gnolls are taller but stooped, with mangey fur, long and thin but muscular arms, and green eyes. Their coats are spotted and patchy, ranging from sickly grey through brown to deep red. When angry or frightened they spit and snarl and growl gutteraly, but when pleased about something their voices are strangely high-pitched and have an unsettling sing-song quality (it has been said that they sound like madmen). A gnoll's yapping, hyena-like laughter is terrably disturbing: the only things more bone-chilling than the actual sounds being the thoughts of what a sibbecai might be laughing about.

As a gnoll advances and becomes more gnoll-like they grow larger and more feral-looking, with larger limbs, longer hair and sharper teeth. When the process is complete they look more like monsters than humanoids; with long powerful arms set in broad shoulders, bent backs taught with muscles, glowing eyes, and drooling muzzles full of knife-like teeth. A gnoll is at least six feet tall immediatly after transformation, but can stand up to ten feet tall when fully advanced.

Relations: It was the mojh who undid the giant's curse and restored the gnolls to their proper state. Thus, most gnolls hero-worship the mojh just like sibeccai do the giants: as glorious saviors responsible for who the gnolls are today. Though they insist on doing violence and refuse to be bound to such booring tasks as labor or guard duty, most gnolls are quite loyal to mojh. Needless to say, few are pleased by the birth of a race who serve mojh as sibeccai serve giants, least of all the giants and the sibeccai.

Gnolls have poor relations with other races. Because of their violent behavior, giants tolerate them no more than they would any other sort of dangerous beast, and sibeccai who know what they represent have been known to kill them on sight. Gnolls take no part in the society of other races. They usualy only interact with civilization when they are attacking their caravans or raiding their settlements, at which times they are obviously not well liked. For the gnoll's part, the feeling is mutual. Something about a verrik's cool, aloof manner irritates gnolls, and they seak to kill faen quickly because they are disturbed by talk of faen religion. Gnolls hate sibeccai who remain loyal to the giants with an unholy passion, the only creatures they hate more being the giants themselves.

There are exceptions, however. For example, gnolls have sometimes been seen in tribes of less-than-respectable litorians. Creatures who serve mojh masters are often tolerated, no matter their race. And at least one gnoll is rumored to be wandering the lands of the Diamond throne with a group of sibeccai, searching for a way to undo her transformation.

Among their own kind, gnolls have a strong sense of racial unity. Because most of them are created from adult sibeccai, they have no need to raise each other's children or create a stable society among themselves. They travel in small gangs or warbands which frequently cooperate to take down larger foes, occasionaly squabbling over plunder but otherwise showing no agression towards each other. The occasional trouble-makers are usually fully advanced gnolls, called "giant-rippers", who are both more agressive and more foolish than the common variety.

Outlook: Gnolls live to fight. They enjoy wealth and adore glory, but view both these things as little more than pleasant side effects of their quest to cause pain and death in other creatures, particularly giants. This endless slaughter is the real reason for their existance and their greatest source of joy. All other things are secondary.

Second to this, their greatest goal is to convert as many sibeccai as possible and kill the rest. The recognize that it is much easier to increase their numbers by converting than by breeding, and more importantly wish to see their race restored to it's former glory while doing away with the pitiful and shameful reminder of what they were in the meantime.

Most gnoll bands recognize only three laws: do not harm gnolls or mojh, do not steal from gnolls or mojh, do not let others harm gnolls or mojh. Deffenitions of 'harm' and 'steal' are sometimes bendable, but the laws themselves are virtualy universal and almost always enforced by death.

Religion: Gnolls worship their creators, the dramojh. They view mojh as something like priests of the dramojh, granting them great respect.

Though they understand and respect the very real power posessed by the dramojh, less concrete forces frighten gnolls. They fear human dieties and giantish ancestor spirits, and a faen's talk of thousands of dieties residing in everything makes them shudder. Often, a pack of cackling, sickle-bearing gnolls can be struck silent by the meir mention of Splonk, dreaded goddess of people who trip and stab themselves with pointy weapons. Gnolls try to stay well clear of priests and greenbonds of all races and are sometimes uncomfortable around totem warriors. Gnoll warriors have been known to have nervous breakdowns late in their lives, consumed by the irrational fear that they are being stalked by the angry souls of all the creatures they have killed.

Languages: Gnolls speak all the languages they did as Sibeccai. Some also learn draconic.

Names: Gnolls always abandon their sibeccai names, alowing the mojh responsible for their transformation to choose new ones for them. Thus, gnoll names sound like somewhat simple mojh names or draconic words: often strange to human ears.
Gnoll Male Names: Dargo, Zzatht, Borthast
Gnoll Female Names: Yeth, Ashtaka, Kem'reth

Gnoll characters:
Gnolls are most often unfettered, charging wildly into battle with spikesticks or the dire greater battleclaws which they call "beast claws". Warmians are less common due to the lack of formal training or disciplin among gnolls, and most of the few gnolls who do advance as warmians were already warmians before transforming. Occasionally, a gnoll overcomes his fear of greater spiritual forces to become a bear, wolf or wolverine totem warrior. Such gnolls almost always become leaders of their kind, as do those fanatic enough to devote themselves as champions of death. The rare gnoll oathsworn is generaly a sibeccai who became a gnoll to further her oath. She then continues to pursue it with little reguard for the rest of her race, much to the bafflement of other gnolls.

The only non-warrior class which gnolls occasionaly become is the witch. Gnoll witches are often iron witches. A gnoll's witchery always manifests violently, in forms such as hail of metal or liquid fire.

Whatever their class, gnolls favor cruel or creative weapons that are fun to use over traditional swords and axes. Looping off something's head with a blade before it can scream is only funny the first few times, but weapons like manglers and dire greatclubs delight them to no end.

Gnoll racial levels
Level BAB Fort Ref Will: Special
1 +0 +2 +0 +0: +1 strength, +1 natural armor, 100-foot darkvision
2 +1 +3 +1 +1: +1 con, +2 strength
3 +2 +3 +1 +1: +1 con, -2 wis, increase size to large, bite
Hit Die: 1d8
Skill Points at 1st level: (2+int)x4
Skill Points per level: (2+int)
Racial Skills: climb(str), craft(int), intimidate(cha), jump(str), listen(wis), spot(wis), swim(str), and wilderness survival(wis)
Proficiencies: A gnoll with racial levels is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor, and sheilds.

First: At first level a gnoll grows stronger and his skin becomes tougher, granting him +1 to his strength score and natural armor. He also gains darkvision with a range of 100 feet, a quality which causes his eyes to glow red in dim light. The vast majority of gnolls have a single racial level and no class levels, and are sometimes called 'grunts'.

Second: At second level a gnoll begins to grow much larger, gaining +1 constitution and +2 strength. The average gnoll raider has only two gnoll levels, and gnoll leaders usually have two gnoll levels in addition to whatever class levels they may have. Statisticaly, an average gnoll with average stats and two racial levels is identicle to the gnoll entry presented in the Monster Manual, with the exception that AU gnoll's gain racial skill bonuses and sometimes take a talent in place of their power attack feat.

Third: On acheiving his third racial level, a gnoll undergoes a magical ceramony (again performed by a mojh spellcaster) in which his transformation is completed. He gains +1 constitution, looses 2 points of wisdom, and grows to large size. He also gains the bite feat (or weapon focus: bite if he already has the bite feat), his powerful jaws and knife-like teeth dealing 2d4 points of damage plus the gnoll's strength bonus with a 19-20 threat range. Most gnoll leaders stop at two racial levels. Only the most fanatic and savage among them complete their transformation to become 'Giant-rippers', for the process leaves them even more bestial and psychologicaly twisted than their kin.


*Converting skill points can be a pain: it's the dm's call, but I wouldn't worry about them.