Editing Gnoll (section)

=Religion=
In [[Dungeons & Dragons]], gnolls traditionally worship a [[Demon Prince]] named [[Yeenoghu]], the Beast of Butchery. In the earliest editions, they originally worshiped the god [[Gorellik]], a giant hyena-like lesser member of the [[Giant]]'s pantheon, but not only could he not claim to be their creator,(who is, is never explained) he was such a lazy, disinterested, stupid god that Yeenoghu was able to steal the gnolls away from him and he never even noticed. In 4th and 5th edition, gnolls were directly tied to Yeenoghu and given status as his creations; a fusion of demon and hyena that he engineered in 4e, and hyenas that spontaneously transformed after scavenging from his kills in 5e. This, incidentally, also gives them a religiously motivated hatred for [[minotaur]]s, as ''their'' patron [[Demon Prince]], [[Baphomet]], is a bitter rival of Yeenoghu's.

Some obscure fluff in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] says that the gnolls once had their own pantheon, but their gods have perished. The only other gnollish deity ever named in D&D history was [[Refnara]] the Moon-Biter, a gnollish lunar goddess with provenance over fear who only made a single appearance; in the adventure “To Bite the Moon” in [[Dungeon Magazine]] #48.

In 3.5's MMIV, it's stated that the gnolls reconcile worshipping a male Demon Prince with their own principles of matriarchal leadership in that the female pack-leaders view Yeenoghu as the ultimate male, the perfect mate for a female gnoll to acquire - IF she can prove herself worthy.

In [[Pathfinder]], gnolls worship [[Lamashtu]], a [[Demon Prince]] turned full-fledged evil goddess of monsters, mutations and misbirths, who they claim literally gave birth to them. Ironically, this leads to them having better relationships with [[minotaur]]s, who also claim to be children of Lamashtu. In [[Pathfinder Second Edition]], the kholo are cemented as the Non-Evil Gnoll Culture by rejecting Lamashtu - called "Old Mother" by the kholo, she is invoked only as a very last resort, and otherwise begged to stay away. Instead, the kholo largely practice ancestor worship, but also revere a small pantheon; [[Calistria]] and [[Shelyn]] are revered as Elder and Younger Sisters, the twin goddesses of power and beauty, whilst [[Nethys]] is revered as The Brother, patron of the bonekeepers.

In [[Wicked Fantasy]], dach'youn fear the sun as a creator god who, alongside his nameless wife, created the world and all life, but then grew angry with them and now wants to destroy the world, having murdered his wife when she tried to stop him. Consequently, they refuse to honor him, instead regarding him as a cruel and merciless monster to be feared. Instead, they worship the moons as a set of six or seven (there's actually only six moons, but many gnolls believe that the "moonless nights" that occur every 85 days are actually guarded by a black moon) goddesses; these Kachta, the sun's daughters, angrily chase him away every night, forestalling his plans to destroy the world each day. The Sister Moons are Cha'ppa (The Swift Red Moon), Hav'ha (The Deadly Silver Moon), Gu'sha (The Wise Blue Moon), Gur'gha (The Enduring Green Moon), Or'gha (The Cunning Yellow Moon), Sh'va (The Lovely Violet Moon) and Vax (The Black Moon).

Perhaps the largest, most complicated and arguably most interesting gnollish religion can be found in [[Midgard]]. Here, whilst the gnolls of the [[Southlands]] can potentially worship any of the deities of that realm, there are a number of faiths particularly associated with gnolls. The largest gnoll faiths are those who have become central to the political power structure of the gnollish "nation" of Dabu: these consist of [[Bastet]], who is regarded as the patron goddess of all gnolls (and this isn't as weird as you'd think; despite their vaguely doggy looks, hyenas are more closely related to ''cats''); Bastet's consort [[Anu-Akma]] (whose connection to [[Anubis]] is the stuff of much debate); the [[Yeenoghu]]-equivalent [[Laughing Nkishi]] (who wants to become a monotheistic patron god to the gnolls, but is facing an uphill struggle against the other faiths of Dabu); The Huntress ([[The Hunter]] envisioned as a female gnoll, because Southland gnolls are matriarchal); and Xeviosah (who is to [[Xevioso]] what the Huntress is to the Hunter). Other popular patron gods for Southlands gnolls include the trickster-god [[Kwansi]], [[Veles]] by its local name of Djyy, the war god [[Takhar]], the [[archdevil]] [[Arbeyach]], and the raider goddess [[Selket]].