The Jaws Of The Moon tribe is one of the single-most dangerous gnoll packs for an unfortunate traveler to run across. Members of the tribe are referred to as "devourers" individually, both within the tribe and by those who know of the tribe; a name earned from the fate typical of most of their captives.
This is because the is not only ruthless, aggressive, and sadistic in the extreme but also incredibly well organized and disciplined. Utilizing sign language, and coded calls and laughter and coordinated tactics, devourers vary their tactics between harrying their prey for hours before attacking and simply rushing silently out of the darkness to overwhelm unprepared caravans. It leaves those who need to travel the routes they patrol constantly on-guard, paranoid an attack will come at any moment, and their rapid, aggressive assaults leave no time for the unprepared to recover. Only the truly well prepared and trained can resist the Jaws Of The Moon when they wish to attack.
Fortunately for those the roads lead to and from, they attack only sporadically, spreading their feral 'empire' of sorts out over multitudes of routes, ensuring trade can flow freely despite the odd trade caravan (or lone, foolish travelers) ending up inside bloated gnoll bellies. Attempts have been made to eliminate the predatory pack, but after numerous (and costly) failures that ended in the hunting parties digesting in the bellies of their prey, acceptance of the fact that sometimes a caravan vanishes settled in, leaving only the occasional suicidal (or plain stupid) adventuring party to try to eradicate the threat.
The Jaws Of The Moon Tribe: On the Inside
Truth be told, despite the outer appearances they put on by assaulting rapidly (and often in darkness), the tribe isn't actually that large, but their advanced grasp of tactic, training, and judicious use of what sorcerers and shamans they have enable them to seem so strong as if to be a veritable empire of the woods, innumerable and insatiable. Scholars in towns and cities connected to the roads they patrol have theorized this is the reason they attack whole caravans. In reality, they do it because the pack finds it a fun, the captives are a delightful treat (and many serve as 'toys' prior to ingestion) and the loot is good.
Numbering around 150 individuals, the tribe often splits into three groups of fifty to cover more ground, or smaller groups if expecting little resistance or if letting a scout-group break off to do recon. They keep a roughly equal ratio of male-to-female, though like the feral hyenas gnolls so resemble, the tribe is strictly matriarchal, females jockeying for power and privileged, with no real means of 'advancement' for males beyond being regarded as good at a craft, good at hunting/fighting, or a good fuck. The closest to power one can achieve is to be mate to a high-ranked female or to be one of those with the gift of magic.
The tribe's weaponry is designed with their modus operandi in mind - subduing their prey. Most are armed with some form of baton or club in place of a sword, though speargnolls and archers keep their weapons very lethal to deal with threats like other archers, mounted defenders, or mages.
The tribe has few mages of it's own, no more than a dozen or so, but makes effective use of them, gluing down horses with entangling spells, confusing defenders with illusions, and making the tribe appear as if an endless army to crush enemy moral. Once captured, multiple captives are often awarded to each of the rare and treasured mages. As twisted and brutal as their more martial comrades, the mages constantly think up new ways to use and abuse their magic for increasingly perverse ways to play with their food.
Most dangerous of all, of course, are the lieutenants and Matriarch Thrae, for strength is surest expression of power within the pack, and every lieutenant is a dangerous foe, having kept their station by fighting off (and often devouring) all comers. Matriarch Thrae is in a similar situation - having become de-facto leader through sheer force of arm, and her ability to lead and direct, having helped establish the pack's tactical approach in her younger days. That Thrae is, even for a gnoll, monstrously large and power, covered with scars and adorned with magical trinkets doesn't hurt. Years of experience, skill, and a great degree of magical aptitude have made sure that no one in the pack expects anything short of time to kill the Matriarch. And they're not even sure about that...
On that note: Magic
The tribe's sorcerors manage a small cadre of 'apprentices' who often have very, very little (if any) magical talent, but handle the bulk of the word of creation of magical poultices and concoctions. One doesn't need magic to turn useful magical plants into magic potions, after all, and it provides the tribe with a variety of useful medicines, subtle and overt in their results and broad in their application.
Likewise, the tribe's shamans often perform complex rituals with various 'apprentices' who likely won't eventually become shamans themselves handling menial tasks in the ritual. Luckily for them, though, the least pleasant roles - often sacrifice - is typically played by criminals, prisoners or disobedient slaves.
On Captives
For the Jaws of the Moon, anything that is not a gnoll is prey - so stated by their religious doctrine, which holds the Moon as a creator figure, feminine in nature and strong, driving away the weaker, masculine moon and covering the world with darkness so that her gnolls may hunt the weak, light-reliant children of the sun.
Captive gnolls are treated with *some* modicum of respect if from another tribe, and show a slightly higher survival rate than non-gnoll captives, with promising prisoners tested (and if worthy) incorporated into the tribe, some of those showing little promise as fighters might find themselves pressed into use in cleaning and crafting (and thus, remain slaves longer before becoming tribe members), and others still might simply be dragged off as a dominant female's personal play thing. The rest tend to out-number the lucky by far, and serve the tribe as larger-than-normal meals.
Non-gnoll captives on the other hand, receive no respect. The tribe does not view non-gnolls as true people - for gnolls are the only true people and all others exist to be hunted by the children of the moon. There is no rule on what can be done to captives beyond freeing them, and they are typically divided up and given up to the ones who brought them in, with a small "communal" pool of slaves useable by anyone. Typically, female captives end up with male gnolls (who often are all too eager for something feminine they can fuck whenever they please), and males ending up with females. Exceptions, of course, exist, and can provide a rather strange scene for the captive as two large hyena-people try to work out a deal over whom gets to do horrible things to them.
Anatomy and Physiology
There aren't particularly any noticeable variations from gnoll physiology among the Jaws of the Moon tribe. Like any gnoll, the average member resembles nothing so much as a massive, hyena-people, covered in thick, spotted fur (in a variety of colors), with a digitgrade stance, tails, rending claws and massive fangs. Dense, sturdy bones provide ample anchorage for densely-packed muscle.
Like the hyenas they so resemble, gnolls have inverse sexual dimorphism compared to most sapient races, with the females being larger and stronger than the males, and much more aggressive. And with even gnollish males being stronger and larger than the average humanoid male, this leaves them formidable foes in close combat. The race's typical disbursement and divisive nature (as well as the incorporation of more civilized tribes in society), and lack of arcane talent (comparatively) has kept them from overrunning the other races of the world.
A figure of some controversy and speculation among early scholars, female gnolls have heavily 'masculinized' genitalia, having sex and giving birth through an enlarged and modified clitoris commonly referred to as the 'pseudo-penis' by scholars. Local names for it vary (and are often obscene), and with the lumps of fatty tissue located beneath the re-purposed clitoris resembling a male's scrotum, initial thought was that gnolls were a race of hermaphrodites.
Further research however has shown that they utilize male-female sexual reproduction like other humanoid races, even if the female's genitalia is highly modified and specialized. Debate on the origin of this oddity continues on, with civilized scholars offering up complex theories, and gnoll tribes often giving simple (or no) explanations, based in their moon-focused religion, usually claiming the reverse (that males are merely in possession of a pale imitation of their sexual organ) and favor putting it to use like an actual phallus when humiliating captured enemies, male or female.
The unusual nature of their sexual organs makes it difficult for a male to couple with a female gnoll, and paired with their larger size and strength, all intercourse is effectively at the female's discretion. And it a rare (male) captive who engages in traditional sexual intercourse with a female gnoll, though sometimes they are employed for a bit of satisfaction when birth control poultices run low and a female wishes a consequence free romp.
Of course, almost all such males become intimate with the female's insides in a very different way once supplies go back up...
Conclusion
All conventional wisdom, experience and intelligence gathered by escaped slaves or captives, theorized by scholars, and released by more talkative members of the tribe paints a picture of a very organized, and very dangerous group in whole. Travelers should exercise extreme caution in lands they have been known to inhabit and pass through quickly. Adventurers and explorers should avoid their territory entirely, while they assuredly have access to stores of jewelry and trinkets of great value purloined by looters, the risk is far too great to attempt recovery.
And for the love of the gods, stay away during nights of the full moon!
----
Notes:
- My characters are bad people, by and large. I on the other hand am pretty nice (or try, anyways) so don't be afraid to say hi, whether it's just to inquire about an RP or just to chat. Sometimes nothing is happening and just talking is nice.
- This 'character' is obviously oriented towards unwilling and generally dark stuff, so basically ask about an RP if you want your character to be used, abused, and generally meet an unfortunate demise. Don't expect to get one if you want sunshine and flowers out of the RP - it doesn't really jive with the theme and it's not really interesting to me. No offense, just each to their own, eh?
- On a similar note, if there's things you don't like I can avoid them and steer the RP towards a sort of 'desired ending/event', heh. So if, say, you want to avoid hard vore and end with being soft vored (or abused in a certain way before hand) that's doable. I can also omit the more.. unique aspects of gnollish physiology if you're not a fan, heh. Whether that's through simply keeping to the other sex (as males are fairly 'standard'), use of magic or magic potions ('tis not rare for the ladies to try out a temporary transmutation to see what the more 'standard' feminine equipment is) or something else (sky's the limit if you're creative enough and I'm receptive to the idea).
- Similarly, despite the prominence of the females, it is a 'group' character and males are very much available. It's just they have lessened political pull within the pack and so almost all the 'important' gnolls are female. That said, there are plenty of horny or hungry males who'd love to have fun with a non-gnoll. You can easily go an RP interacting with just the guys (or girls, if that's more your thing), or mix between both groups.
- While I do both public and private, I prefer private. Not because I'm really that shy, but mostly that given some of the subject matter I deal with is kind of squicky, so I keep it out of the general public's faces and that as a group character it's kind of a complicated thing already. It gets a bit 'noisy' or confusing in public, y'know?
- I'll probably think up more notes as I go on. First time with a 'character' like that so these are prior-to-start thoughts. I'll update as I get more experienced playing like this.