Overview
Trolls are thick-skinned, slow-moving humanoids of immense durability. Their defining trait is regeneration — wounds that would kill a dragon close in hours, and severed limbs regrow in days.
Habitat
Trolls live in The Brook Holds, a hold of black stone and cold water, where the strength is the only light and the oath the only law. They need three things: a hold deep enough to hold the strength, a brook wide enough to carry the carve, and a stranger who is worth the bridge. They are settled in holds around the brook-rings, with brook-lines across the mapped current; a troll who has not kept a carve in a season is called "the one who forgot the hold."
Appearance
The troll silhouette is the broad, heavy, slow shape — heavy through the shoulder and the flank, with the head sitting a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting for a carve. Males stand 2.13 m to 2.74 m, heavy through the shoulder and the flank, with a low, barked voice; they are the brutes, the first strike, and the ones who stand in the hold and do not move. Females stand 2.13 m to 2.74 m, leaner and quicker, with a thinner hide and a longer memory for the brook; they are the carvers, the ones whose hand perfects the bridge, and the ones whose nod is the hold. The base hide is a thick, deliberate stone-grey, the color of old hold-stone seen through a bright glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black patches along the flank and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the jaw and the knuckle that is the troll line's most persistent claim. The eyes are a dull, washed-out hold-grey, small for the head, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are counting the strike — and in most cases, they are, and the counting is the point. The hide is the mark: thick, slow, always wet, and always pointed at something, which is the troll line's most persistent claim. Males carry the line in the shoulder and the strike; females in the carve and the brook. Lifespan: centuries — few die of age, most die of boredom. They eat the hold: the strength, the name, the carve, and the brook that keeps the patience honest. Everyday wear: none, by choice — the hide is the armor, and a troll who wears metal has already decided the hold is not enough.
Behavior
Disposition: solitary, clannish, territorial, honor-bound. In peace, trolls are watchful, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the hold — they have the strength, and they let the surface know it. In war they fight as the brook fights: the strike first, the word second, the patient, precise holding of the carve third. Strangers on the surface are either a lesson or a bridge, and the bridge is the one the hold remembers. The social unit is the hold, solitary or in pairs — some deep-forest trolls form Brood clans with a single ancient matriarch, around the brook-rings. No hold follows a brute, it follows the carver whose carve is truest. Two signature quirks: a troll who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply keep the carve for the lie and wait, because the keeping is the point. And they keep the bridge for a lifetime: a bridge the hold has kept is a debt, and the debt is paid in carve.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the strength — the troll line does not fight in the open current; it fights as the hold fights, with the strike, the word, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already kept the carve. Armor: none, by choice — the hide is the armor, and a troll who wears metal has already decided the hold is not enough. Weapons: the strength that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the carve that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Carve-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left jaw for every carve kept, worn as a record of the long hold; the Brook-Knot, a single knot in the hair for every hold oath kept, in sea-black; and the Bridge-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first bridge the wearer ever kept, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the hold, their names spoken over the carve, and their carves laid across the threshold — a troll buried without their carve is buried as a surface.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: transmutation — troll magic is the will, the strength, the patient, precise shaping of the hold across the brook-rings. Secondaries: chaos and conjuration. Named inborns: Hold-Sense (a troll can feel the regeneration's mood a day before it closes, and the feeling is not a choice), Stone-Sight (a troll sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is not a choice), Carve-Carry (a troll's carve carries across the hold, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Brood's Word — a troll can speak a word in the hold tongue and let it land on a carve, and the carve will keep the word until the brook is done. Limitation: fire cauterizes faster than the troll can regrow, acid dissolves the strength, and the slow attrition of being pinned is the one end the hold cannot refuse. A troll who has spent their brood's word must sit in the dry dark for one day, and the day is the worst one of the hold.
Religion
Trolls keep Mordra, the Unraveler as their primary god — the chaos, the decay, the becoming that is the hold's own law. The brook is Mordra's, and the troll is the brook's strength. Priestly class: the Carver, who keeps the hold-temple and speaks the name at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken in the hold, and there is no rite for that one; the hold simply stops keeping the carve with the breaker.
Society
Solitary or in pairs; some deep-forest trolls form Brood clans with a single ancient matriarch, rank decided by the carve — whose strength is longest.
Home
They keep their strength in The Brook Holds, a hold of black stone and cold water, where the strength is the only light and the oath the only law.
Relations
The "you cannot win this fight, so change the fight" faction — pass neighbors whose toll is a price, and the ones whose nod is the bridge. The Ogres of the marsh are the big neighbors the troll does not fight — the ogre keeps the wall and the troll keeps the stone, and the two have learned that a wall that is not carried is a wall that is not a meal, and the not-carrying is the whole of the peace. The Orc clans of the fang are the neighbors the toll tests most often — the orc keeps the war and the troll keeps the pass, and the orc who has paid the toll is the orc the stone has already decided is a story, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The Dwarf clans of the delve are the kin the toll keeps at a distance — the dwarf keeps the forge and the troll keeps the bridge, and the two have learned that a forge that is not paid is a forge that is not a toll, and the not-paying is the whole of the distance. The Goblins of the warrens are the small kin the bridge tolerates — the goblin keeps the burrow and the troll keeps the pass, and the goblin who has been counted is the goblin the stone has already decided is a meal, and the deciding is the whole of the law. Above, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the toll tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the bridge keeps the toll for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. Uaellaen keeps a page of the pass in the wiki — the toll, the bridge, the nod that is the fight — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a troll who has been written about is a troll who has been counted with, and the counting-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the trolls are the bridge in the pass — the toll Uaellaen writes about when the fight is the law. The "you cannot win this fight, so change the fight" creature, and the classic beat: the troll who built the bridge is not the troll you should be angry at. The Forgotten keep their distance at the pass line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a toll came up from the pass that is not in the count — a toll the troll does not remember, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the pass keeps its toll, and the toll has started to count itself. The counting is the hand the camp has not been shown.
"You have hit me four hundred and twelve times. I have counted. I am now bored. Shall we discuss the bridge?" — a troll, mid-fight