Editing Autia (section)

====The Troll Holds====

People:

As the region known as the Troll Holds is split up into four individual warring countries, naturally each would be home to many types of trolls. In the northwest there are swamp and forest trolls, in the northeast there are ash trolls, in the southwest there are rock and crystal trolls and in the southeast there are sea trolls.

Swamp trolls are a subspecies mutated from living their whole lives in poisonous swamps that are feared for their ferocious stench which is likened to a deadly poison. They often battle and sometimes tame the giant alligators living in their swampy homelands as pets. They are good friends with the forest trolls.

The forest trolls, through staying in gloomy woodlands filled with mushrooms have became a host for many of these organisms as fungi freely grows on many parts of them. They use this fungi to practice a primitive form of medicine and grind it up into a powder and consume when the moon comes out going into a frenzy. They are good friends with the swamp trolls.

Ash trolls are the rarest out of all the trolls that have gathered in southern Tismo and evolved from living right next to volcanoes and bathing in them. They are massive, even more so than other trolls with a resistance to any forms of fire and black skin. They spend most their days sitting around lazily in pools of lava or geysers, using the scalding liquid like hot springs to stay alive during the cold winters.

Rock trolls live next to the great mountains that dot Lurk (the southeastern section of the troll holds) and are far more rotund than most other trolls, being quite durable as a result of this. They have a very chubby neck and commonly drag boulders around to throw at animals and each other as a sort of sport. The one who can throw a boulder the farthest is instantly crowned the leader of of their own tribe.

Crystal trolls have chosen to live inside the mountains of Lurk unlike the rock trolls who live atop them and have gained a far paler appearance because of it, having massive crystals growing out of their back. They rarely venture out of their caves where they spend most of their days sitting around chewing on crystals and rocks as a food source but when they do it's very reluctantly as they hate the sun. They absorb the crystals they eat into themselves leading to the crystals sticking out of their skin and can take on the traits of what they eat, with a troll who ate diamonds for example having extremely durable skin far surpassing plate armor with stronger teeth as a result of how hard it is to chew on diamonds even for a troll.

Sea trolls live in the southeast nation of Burk and as their name implies have learned how to swim due to the nearby islands having a wealth of food to eat. As such they live on both of the islands near Burk and on the mainland and are distinguished from other trolls by having a far smoother body and a fishy looking face.

Religion:

Trolls are animists, believing the earth around them has a life of its own and it is what their ancestors become a part of following death. They build towers of rocks scattered throughout the Troll Holds as a form of homage to their ancestors.

Magic:

Trolls do not have magic, instead they have a high regeneration factor and the ability to adapt to a new climate extremely quickly. This is why the trolls of the Troll Holds are so different from one another and why they in turn are different from the trolls in other continents.

Military:

The trolls do not maintain a professional army because they simply lack the intelligence needed to manage to logistics of a proper army. This does not mean they can't defend themselves however as individually a troll is quite tough to take out because of their regeneration factor, tough skin, giant weapons and their size being somewhere in between ogres and giants. Because of this a proper army isn't needed as when a troll sees intruders they will gladly smash them apart with their hammer. They use crude stone weapons such as giant stone warhammers, stone clubs, stone staffs etc. for their melee weapon. Alongside this each troll species has a secondary means of fighting with forest trolls releasing deadly spores, swamp trolls using their stench, ash trolls spitting out hot ash, rock trolls throwing boulders, crystal trolls using the traits gained from their food and sea trolls outspeeding opponents with their greater maneuverability from other trolls. The trolls do sometimes bring monsters with them such as giant alligators, lynxes, huge cave lizards and other such creatures that live near them.

Economy:

The trolls do not interact with the outside world much and hunt their own food so the only form of economy they have is occasionally exchanging items with each other in a form of trade. Trolls do sometimes leave their homeland should one be captured or bribed with a surplus of food with these trolls serving as warbeasts in the armies of others.

History:

The four nations of the troll holds have been there since time immemorial as the trolls within got acquaintanced with the surrounding world. Occasionally trolls stumbled upon each other leading to fighting over the best berry bushes and lakes and the trolls grew to resent each other. At one point however their leaders decided enough was enough and told their subjects to share the food as there was enough for everybody. Each hoped to make their trolls into a power strong enough to push against the Empire of the Jade Pyramid as while the gnomes never succeeded in their invasion attempts as they was always smashed apart the trolls never were able to take parts of the gnomes lands for themselves. The leaders of the trolls then tried to hold a conference so they could officially state their new truce but when they arrived at the conference table they realized there was one seat to little. None of them wanted to stand but as the delegate of the swamp trolls pushed aside the rock troll delegate to sit in the last chair, the rock troll struck the swamp troll hard on the head with a nearby boulder killing him. This drew the forest troll delegate into a rage as he attacked the rock troll with the crystal troll coming to defend his ally while the other trolls were aching for a good fight and started fighting each other too. The meeting collapsed and the troll onlookers decided that they were now allowed to fight each other and they started hitting each other with their hammers. The one chance the trolls had at becoming something greater was ruined by a single chair. In the end nothing much became of the trolls as the national divisions remained and they never made peace, leading to the current situation. The gnomes were never able to be invaded but they in turn could never enter the troll holds and the isolation of their lands from other threats led to the trolls never evolving past their current state.