Contents

• Society
• Art
• Pop Culture
• High Culture
• Communication And The Spread Of Ideas
• Holidays
• Gender and Gender Roles
• Subcultures and Alternative Lifestyles
• Universal Fears
• Money and Wealth
• Food, Meals, and Mealtime
• Leisure
• Charity and Welfare
• Health, Fitness, and Beauty Standards
• Values
• Patriotism
• Diversity
• Integration and Exclusion
• Aspirations And Goals
• Superstitions
• Bad Manners and Insults
• Family Structures
• Pregnancy, Birth, and Motherhood
• Coming of Age
• Rites of Passage
• Love and Romance
• Sexuality

Society

The majority of Gnollish's art is essentially commissioned by the wealthy. Artistic endevors are entirely funded mutual trusts, while artists themselves are generaly treated as tools. Gnollish uses the majority of its art as a general facet of everyday life, primarily by beautification of private spaces. Gnollish also uses its art for: celebrating life, illuminating texts for ease of understanding, questioning authority, creating new cultural norms, and immortalizing key events of history.

Gnollish's major laws relating to the creation of art are; may not depict obceen acts, and cannot be used for charitable donations. Art is concidered to be taboo if it deconstructs cultural roles, breaks the conventions of the art medium, or glorifies violence. Works which are either illegal or taboo are destroyed.

Presently, Gnollish culture greatly favors the visual arts. They primarily focused on painting, with their greatest works consisting of enamel on wood. Their art showed a particular emphasis on texture, shapes, and forms. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the painter Oc-43c 'Jenny', whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Gnollish's artwork of the current era.

In the Literary Arts, they primarily focused on literature, with their greatest works consisting of short written records containing compilations of folk tales, poems, and songs, typically grouped together around a central theme. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the author Oc-43c 'Jenny', whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Gnollish's artwork of the current era.

In the Preforming Arts, they primarily focused on music, with their greatest works consisting of a homophonic style which is atonal in tone, while favoring quiet to loud to very quiet Breathy sounds with movements generally making use of paterns of four and five note long melodies utilizing subordinate harmony with a random rhythm, all arranged in two sections of roughly equal length.. The foremost artisan within this medium and time was the musicisian Oc-43c 'Jenny', whose works are typically the first ones thought of and mentioned when discussing the Gnollish's artwork of the current era.

Pop Culture

Gnollish's popular culture is dominated by literature and ceramics. These arts are made avalible to the public through capitalist ventures.

Gnolls are best known for putting every new technological innovation to use on the battlefield, and then revising it for use in art. There is a tremendous cultural importance placed on being one of the first to adopt a new form of art and creating works in it. These two facts pair well together, creating a thriving scene of pop-culture expressed through the arts.

Every new idea entering Gnoll culture is reimagined and re-expressed via the traditional Gnollish arts. Gnollish culture is happy to import foreign material in the latest media, such as a Compound Disk of a new song, but it will be transcribed in tapestry for play via traditional methods. Gnolls perhaps more than any other Eyomic culture, are moved to genuine excitement by the arts, and always have been.

These facts combine to produse a culture where pop culture and high art are in harmoney. The common Gnoll sees high art as aomething to aspire to, not mock or ridicule.

High Culture

Gnollish's high culture is dominated by music and theater. These arts are made available to members of the cultural eliet through capitalist ventures.

Performance art within High Culture is restricted by clan specific exemptions to certain noise ordinances. The intricacies of these laws are too great to summarize. Such restrictions are only found in the performance and display of art. Gnollish culture places great emphasis and respect on the creation of art. Concequently, the only thing standing in the way of a would-be artist is their personal skill in their chosen craft and ability to network and thus become known for their skill, and thereby obtain a license from a clan.

Gnollish High art exists as a means of preserving culturally important pieces, as well as refining new arts taken in by pop culture into masterpieces. It is in effect a form of "remix culture", as seen within the Imperial Heartlands music scene. This is seen as the way things should be by the general populous; anyone may experiment and innovate within pop culture, but true artists exist to create great works to stand the test of ages. Mistakes are not allowed, at least, not within presented pieces.

Gnollish High Art has remained fundamentally unchanged in its purpose and practices since time immemorial. While new mediums are added to the tradition every so often, the essence has remained pure, as it is intended to be a form of preservation, not innovation.

Unlike pop-culture, high art has no taboos. Anything which achieves the status of high art is considered a classic and not to be censored or obstructed, under pain of death.

Communication And The Spread Of Ideas

Gnollish culture excels in communication of its ideas within and without. THey have adopted all currently practical forms of communication including: Aethery, telegraph, public printing, and radio broadcasts. These are used to convey practically the full imaginable breath of conversation forms. Debates are key to the spread of ideas within Gnollish culture. They love to talk out issues, and the rules for formal debates are universally known such that children disagreeing with their parents often attempt to use formalized debate stratagems. The key concept in which ideas live and die is referred to as "the Free Marketplace of Ideas". Unlike every other known culture with such a concept, it works for the Gnolls.

While fact checking during rhetorical debate is seen as a faux pas factual correctness is considered critical. After a debate it is modern tradition for each side to fact check the other via Aethary Link. This is popular with Gnollish audiences, who have made fact checking an informal sport. While it verries from town to town Gnollish towns always have one day of the week split in two, with the firs thalf being for work, and the latter half being for keeping one's self informed. This is counted as part of the work week and seen as a large part of one's civic duty.

As the culture was founded by Gnolls much of the communication between parties is nonverbal. The slightest change in posture, eye contact, tooth showing, tail-wag-rate, ear pointing, and stance are often the determiners between such things as sincerity and sarcasm. This can prove to be a major challenge for non-beastfolk who lack certain anatomical features Gnolls possess. There is no formal method for making up such shortcomings, with many people simply insisting you need to take a humanoid's word at face value and speak to them with plain precision.

Holidays

The major Gnollish holidays are:

1. [Name] - A hunter's feast to celebrate the return of game in spring.
2. [Name] - An art and music festival.
3. [Name] - A grand historical reenactment, intended to celebrate the most important events in local history.
4. [Name] - A fair, which is centered around a play depicting the life of Ashlin.
5. [Name] - A fire festival, which is symbolic of the formation of each tribe.

Gnollish culture places importance on communal activities designed to make many families feel like a large family. This includes potlucks, sporting matches, competitive team games, and other similar activities. Due to this truth of Gnollish society, there are little to no formalized culture-wide traditions for how exactly someone is to celebrate something.

Manual Prompt:When is it held?

Gender and Gender Roles

Gnollish culture formally recognizes and contains rolls for four genders: female, ranged male, domestic male, and pruosk (meaning "non-Gnoll"). These genders are assigned based on biology, as Gnolls lack any transgender individuals they traditionally have seen no problem with unseprated sex and gender concepts. They have adapted to being a multi-species society by creating their fourth formal gender "pruosk", as a catch all for the seniority of other gender identities not found within their biology. This is a new tradition and practice and is thus not quite refined.

The gender rolls themselves are straightforwards. Females are expected to manage their house as the leader, while domestic males inherit the responsibility of carrying out her instructions. This is not a one way relationship as the female sets the policies, but the domestic males in turn can recant said policies in the event they are impractical or harm the house rather than help it. If the females were merchants, the domestic males would be the captains they hired. This is the oldest and most traditional of views and is falling out of favor as females tend to take positions in government and domestic males are often now the full masters of the home.

Ranged males are expected to be assets to a clan rather than a family. They tend to take on protective duties and positions and maintain marshal traditions. They are also expected to raise and teach the children, because they will do so weather you like it or not. It is most similar to how one expects the sun to rise the following morning.

Pruosk are expected to do their best to find a niche within their clan that they can help out in to the best of their abilities. There is no further expectations, and they are often forgiven for transgressions and misunderstandings. Pruosk who manged to fully integrate into Gnollish culture such that their family is able to forget they are not the same species are simply assigned one of the three traditional genders based on their personality, and everyone simply ignores their sex.

Gnollish culture sees the genders as entirely unequal, which is a good thing. Each is nessisary to them, and preforms an important roll within civilization. Members of Gnollish cultures are often very confused by other cultures discussions on sex and gender.

Subcultures and Alternative Lifestyles

Gnollish culture sees the creation of subcultures to be a form of game. A competitive one. A summer and list of their subculture is thus impossible. Contact the Imperial exporers nearest a given gnollish community for further information, and clear your schedule for at least four days.

Universal Fears

The top five most common fears found within Gnollish's members are:

1. Corporate Tracking of personal data
2. Reptiles [snakes, lizards, wyvrens, etc]
3. Terrorism
4. The start of another Gnoll War
5. A lack of break-ins

Food, Meals, and Mealtime

Gnollish members typically eat three meals, one at midmorning, one at noon, and one in the evening, which are eaten communally, with all nearby families pitching in for each meal. This came about as the direct effect of food shortages during wars. Eventually Gnollish settlements simply stopped returning to peacetime eating traditions. In the modern era, this tradition ahs created very close knit communities which tend to care for one another almost to the degree of direct blood relations. This is the foundation of Gnollish Clans.

The three core elements of Gnollish cuisine are the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding olive oil, bread and pasta, and wine. There are dishes beyond the core trio of oil, bread, and wine, such as roast lamb or mutton, meat stews with vegetables and tomato, vegetable stews, and the salted cured fish roe, bottarga, found across the region. Spirits based on anise are also popular as an appetizer to wine.

Gnollish culture has several prominent beer festivals, which are culinarily significant due to being the heart and soul of folk cooking. These beer festivals are often used for coming of age ceremonies, where a new adult is made to get blind drunk, partially for the amusement of the clan, partially so they understand not to drink too much.

Gnolish culture holds the greatest eating faux pass to be putting one's face into their bowl to eat faster. This is seen as both gross, rude, and entirely understandable. Conversely, it is considered the height of fine dining to take great care of the place settings and show respect and reverence for the host's belongings. A dire insult is to break the rim of a cup by biting it. This has led to several wars.

An interesting superstition common to Gnolish culture is that if you don't know where your food came from, you will be cursed by it. This is believed to have come into existence due to the common Ranged Male habit of bringing random slain monsters and animals back home for the family.

Leisure

Gnollish's members typically prefer to work most of the time, which is a pleasure regurlarly enjoied by the clergy, and less frequently by the the elderly, though plenty of average people still find time for recreation.

Popular adult pasttimes include:

1. Wargaming (Often with elaborate pre-and post war history simulation)
2. Engraving
3. Knitting
4. Jewelry making
5. Pottery

Popular pasttimes for children include:

1. Debate
2. Decorating
3. Reading and Writing
4. Worldbuilding (often for the adults wargames)
5. Meditation (to learn how to access inner metal potential)

Charity and Welfare

In Gnollish culture acts of charity are generally preformed out of compassion or as a display of power. Donors are typically seen as noble by the rest of their culture. Donations are typically made to assist the sick, though all groups in need are roughly equally assisted.

As with all of Eyom's cultures, general welfare is of excellent quality and reach. Food and shelter programs are ubiquitous, even if only to ensure all able-bodies members of society are healthy enough to be laborers. Programs to assist the poor with acquiring basic necessities such as clothing, tools for their profession, etc are also quite common. These institutions are typically backed by Gnollish banks, though most nations have set up their own financial institutions to handle these programs affairs more efficiently. Such acts are seen as a means of keeping society at large healthy and prosperous by limiting non-contributors to those who either cannot, or simply will not be productive members of society.

Gnolish Culture excludes bankers from all welfare and charity.

Health, Fitness, and Beauty Standards

Gnollish culture holds physical health to be critical to their survival. There are countless diet and fitness plans found within their culture, some are matters of faith, others are matters of science. The ultimant goal of these plans is to ensure every Gnoll is fighting fit until they are too old to lift a weapon with their brothers and sisters.

Meantal Health is not seen as an issue nor subject within Gnollish Culture. There was simply no need for it. As Gnollish Culture is rooted in family ties and loving communities, anyone in any form of mental anguish or distress has always had the support of their community. Consequently, their rate of mental illness which impacts daily life negatively in an impossible to overcome fashion is very low.

The ideal forms of Gnollish Beauty are encapsulated and immortalized in art, notably sculpture. These sculptures remain the icons and ideals after milinia due almost entirely to the Gnollish female's tastes in mates. ALmost no individuals reach these standards, and this is not seen as a problem. To Gnollish Culture beauty standards are asperational, not prescriptive.

Patriotism

Manual Prompt:What is expected of the patriotic in times of war?

Manual Prompt:What is expected of the patriotic in times of peace?

Manual Prompt:What are the consequences for unpatriotic behaviour in times of war?

Manual Prompt:What are the consequences for unpatriotic behaviour in times of peace?

Manual Prompt:What are the rewards for patriotic behaviour?

Manual Prompt:What level of patriotism is legally required?

Manual Prompt:What are some examples of extreme patriotism?

Diversity

Manual Prompt:What diversity is evident in your world?

Manual Prompt:What laws exist to protect diverse characteristics?

Manual Prompt:What laws exist against diverse characteristics?

Manual Prompt:What cultural prejudice exists?

Manual Prompt:What diversity is concealed?

Integration and Exclusion

Manual Prompt:Who is fully welcomed in your culture?

Manual Prompt:Who is expected to make adjustments and integrate themselves?

Manual Prompt:Who is still striving for acceptance?

Manual Prompt:How does public opinion differ from the law?

Manual Prompt:What behaviour will result in exclusion from society?

Manual Prompt:What behaviour will result in exclusion from society?

Manual Prompt:Is there a chance of redemption?

Aspirations And Goals

The mos timpoertant thing to a Gnoll is being remembered after one's death. The reason for the remembernce can be anything at all, but the greater its importance and impact on their Clan, the better.

These values are instilled early in life, frequently on a tour of local tombs and mausoleums prior to one's coming of agge ceramony. These tours are nto seen as macabre, but as reverent, as each Gnoll strives to be buried with a headstone proclaiming their importance to their culture's narrative.

Later in life, great care is taken by employers to ensure each employee has time and room to seek their passions and aspirations. This is not out of kindness but necessity. A Gnoll unable to find a way to leave their mark becomes anxious, bitter, and often violent. Hardly an ideal employee. The most popular religion in Gnollish Culture, the Way of Ashlin, holds a primary tenant which states everyone is important in some way simply by being a part of society. This concept is of great comfort to many.

Superstitions

Some superstitions common to Gnollish culture are:

1. Jumping over a child will curse them to be short forever.
2. Uttering a short phrase on the first day of the month prevents bad luck from effecting you for the month.
3. Getting a haircut on a Tuesday will cause bad luck.
4. Gifting yellow flowers curses the precipitant with infidelity.
5. Red clothing magically attracts projectiles.

Bad Manners and Insults

Some superstitions common to Gnollish culture are:

1. Taking credit for others work.
2. Owning loud animals in urban areas.
3. Asking people if they have children.
4. Walking slowly in public streets.
5. Replying to an RSVP close to the date of the event.

Some commonly used insults in Gnollish culture are:

1. Tithead!
2. Buttface!
3. Asshole!
4. Shitface!
5. Boob!

Family Structures

Manual Prompt:Who is typically the head of a family?

Manual Prompt:How important is family?

Manual Prompt:How do the different generations live together?

Manual Prompt:How are family trees tracked?

Manual Prompt:How are marriages and partnerships organised?