World: Alfheim
Diet: Eggs, meat, fruit, leaves
Height: 15’11”
Lifespan: 120 years
Habitat: Forests
Activity Cycle: Nocturnal
Trolls are a diverse folk, found in a great many forms all across Alfheim. Their only unifying factors are that all trolls have two heads and an aversion to sunlight, which turns them to stone upon contact. In all varieties, one head handles the majority of the body’s functioning, including walking, while the other only controls a single arm and fulfills a secondary role as the Thinker, Dreamer, Speaker, or other more intellectual role for the pair.
Tallest among land-dwelling trolls are the tree trolls, so named for the fact that at first glance they resemble trees. In reality, unlike some fae they incorporate no plant matter into their bodies at all. What looks like bark is merely leathery skin, and both bony spikes and their prehensile noses mimic branches. With this disguise, they rarely move, pretending to be the trees they so resemble both day and night. By day this is not by choice, as they become stone like all other trolls, remaining as such until dusk. By night, they use this disguise to ambush prey, although like other trolls they are not particularly picky eaters, and will eat eggs, fruit, and even certain leaves and woody plants, often cooking all together in a hearty meal.
Tree trolls live in small family units like most trolls, each family carefully demarcating their territory with carved stones around the borders. For the first few years of their life, young trolls are kept in burrows guarded by their parents’ stone bodies during the day. Only once strong enough to survive the day’s sunlight do they leave, finding their own preferred spots to stand and play as saplings. They spend several decades living in the territory of their parents, long after they have reached full size, and will remain in contact afterwards, using spells to carry messages through fungal networks.
Larger groups of trolls sometimes form around the mighty fae known as leshi. The groups make a “leshguard”, an elite band of troll warriors dedicating to keeping their fae lord alive during the dry season. The role of a guardsman is fitting for the natural patience of trolls, and they tend to excel in it. A leshguard often takes up some form of agriculture to keep their larger group fed, and often these lands form small civilizations, with trolls forming only the core and smaller races fleshing out the rest.
