Gnoll

Gnoll
An illustration of two Gnolls.
Characteristics
Type	Humanoid
Image	Wizards.com image
Stats	Open Game License stats
Publication history
First appearance	Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
Based on	How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles

A gnoll is a fictional creature in the Dungeons & Dragons game, which resembles a humanoid hyena.

The creature described as the gnole first appeared in 1912, in Lord Dunsany's 1912 story "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles", and reappeared in Margaret St. Clair's The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles. In Middle English the word noll could refer to a stupid or very drunk person.

Lord Dunsany's story gives little or nothing in the way of physical description of the gnoles, but they live on the edge of a sinister wood and watch intruders through holes bored in trees. They are said to own emeralds of very large size. In St. Clair's story they also live on the edge of a wood, watch through holes bored in trees and prize emeralds, but a "senior gnole" is described as looking "like a Jerusalem artichoke" and, although he has feet, has tentacles rather than arms and no ears. His eyes are small, red and faceted like a gemstone.

The gnoll, as introduced in the earliest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game, is the literary descendant of Lord Dunsany's "gnoles", who were clever, evil and nonhuman. In the Dungeons & Dragons "white box" set (1974), gnolls are described thusly: "A cross between gnomes and trolls (...perhaps, Lord Dunsany did not really make it all that clear) with +2 morale. Otherwise they are similar to hobgoblins..."

With the 1977 publication of Gygax's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual gnolls were described as hyena-men, a characterization that continues to the present. This book also describes Yeenoghu, a demon lord that many gnolls devote themselves to.

The flind, a more intelligent but less physically powerful relative to the more common gnoll, was introduced in the Fiend Folio (1981).