Dusk

Dusk is a stormshifter, a druid of claw and wind, though she doesn't necessarily know it by those terms. She considers herself simply a hunter with a few more tools at her disposal, whether it be a blast of cutting wind, or assuming the shape of a beast to track her prey. Lacking a pack after having been driven out of her original tribe and into the wilds, she travels the lands looking for a group of like-minded folk, hoping to find a new place for herself to enjoy life and the new experiences it brings. Though not the brightest, she is a curious sort after all, and will often poke her nose blindly into whatever catches her interest. This isn't always the smartest thing, but despite the number of times her snout has been singed, it has not daunted her recklessness or inquisitiveness. She is also unusually friendly for a gnoll, with most finding her attitude surprisingly good-natured as long as they remain cordial. Those who do draw her ire, on the other hand, do find out rather quickly that her claws are still sharp.

While there is a lot she still doesn't understand about the world of humans and elves, one thing she has taken to with a smile on her muzzle is cooking. Good food is one of the things she takes pleasure in, and after learning of how a skilled cook can bring out flavors you didn't even know were there, she took to it like a cat with a particularly plump mouse. Her shamanistic training had already laid a foundation for recognizing the uses of various plants and herbs, but learning of their culinary uses proved inspiring, and she now carries a small collection with her of spice blends she has grown fond of, though they often change over time as some ingredients prove harder to acquire than others.

When Dusk was born, her black fur marked her as unique among the tribe. Taking this as an omen, the tribe's shaman took her tentatively under her wing, pending her survival through the testing of the other pups. Despite a larger than normal array of challenges from the other children, she consistently came out on top, but much to everyone's surprise she left her challengers alive. Some took this as a weakness, while others, including the Matriarch, saw it as a show of strength.

When she came of age, the shaman watched over her as she undertook a vision quest, which would initiate her into their mystical traditions. In the vision however, rather than forming a bond with one of the spirits, she saw a spirit of the wolf leap into her, and when she returned to the physical world, she found she had become the wolf from her vision, though with a thought she was able to return to her own form.

This unusual capability frightened both the shaman and Matriarch, and Dusk was swiftly exiled from the tribe. Embracing her new ability, she spent a couple years living off the forest, honing her abilities to hunt, as well as expanding her shapeshifting repertoire. No creature could stand against her, but somehow it left her feeling hollow.

Drawing upon her teacher's lessons, she took herself on another vision quest, looking for what she was missing. First she saw a lone wolf, looking only half-fed. The image of the wolf then faded, to be replaced by a pack of wolves, all strong and healthy. Turning, they ran through the trees, and Dusk found herself among their number. Suddenly the trees fell away, and before her was a man-den, what they called a town. She hesitated a moment, and the rest of the pack stopped, turning to look at her. Without speaking, they told her that this was their den, and it could be hers, if she joined their pack. The pack then split into two groups to allow a large black panther to approach. It was twice, no, four times her size, and she sensed a ferocity she could only dream of.

"Little hunter," it said in her mind, with a voice like that of all the predators in the world, "your talents are wasted here. Greater quarry awaits you, and a new pack. Go to the land of the man-creatures. Find the hunters among them. They are stronger than you realize, and will lead you to new hunting grounds worthy of your claws."

With the words echoing in her mind, Dusk set out to find the nearest human settlement. Once she spotted it, she remained in hiding for a full day, observing how the occasional traveler entered and left. Once she was satisfied she knew how it worked, the next day at noon she approached the town gates, arms at her side and head held high.

The gate guards were confused at first as to why a single gnoll would approach, and thinking it could be a distraction, sounded an alarm. As she waited as patient as if she were stalking a skittish doe, the guards scanned the entire area and found no sign of any others, which made the unthreatening way she had approached even stranger. They tried firing a couple arrows as warning shots, but she did not move an inch. Finally, unsure what to make of her, they surrounded her and led her to the constabulary's jail, putting her into a cell until someone higher up could figure out what to do with her.

Finally, the sheriff came down to visit their unusual prisoner. When he let her know he was the one in charge, she couldn't help but let a bit of her surprise leak through her stoic demeanor that they would let males rule over them, but she suppressed it and did her best to explain why she was here - the spirits had guided her here and told her to hunt alongside them, and given a chance, she could prove her worth.

That came not more than a day or two later, when a minor noble's daughter was kidnapped and taken into the woods. Dusk overheard the discussion between the sheriff and the noble, and offered her services to tracking him down. Not seeing how it could make things any worse, he agreed and she went after him with an elf "watcher" to make sure she didn't try to betray them. When she confronted the criminal, he tried to run, but Dusk took wolf form and tracked him through the forest while the elf led the daughter back to town. After a long chase she found much more exhilarating than tracking ordinary animals, she finally cornered him and with a pounce knocked him out. Once he was unconscious, she brought him back to town, and earned herself a temporary place.

Dusk can be traced back to a gaming group I played with at my local game store, back in the 4E days. Druid had come out and I really liked how it actually would let you build something similar to a feral druid from World of Warcraft. That wasn't the only reason however, despite being a big fan of kitty druids, as the playstyle itself of pouncing about and tactically tossing in spells in-between I found quite fun. I settled on a gnoll for her base race, though I can't recall what inspired that at the moment, who would turn into a wolf, rather than a cat, and played her for a bit in that campaign, before it ended up falling apart. 4E was then ultimately forgotten by most, with the release of 5E, but then I found a play-by-post 4E game, and decided to revive her for that, even getting some proper art of her look. In personality, I originally pictured her a lot like Dinobot from Beast Wars, but leaning into the pack dynamics brought up in the 4E gnoll articles. That fell through though, and the biggest problem since is that very few game systems have really captured what I enjoyed about 4E druids as of yet. The shapeshifting is typically limited, so you can't freely bounce back and forth between beast and humanoid, and you're seemingly expected to -replace- your beast form, rather than upgrade it, as you level. this conflicts with my idea of her always preferring specific forms for combat, and being able to freely use it, while still taking other forms when necessary. Even the 5.5E moon druid, while closer, doesn't appear to be quite there yet. 5E also tried really hard to make Gnoll PCs no longer a thing, which doesn't help either in the D&D sphere.

I was able to bring her back a third time instead in another campaign using a system called Nimble, which was based off of 5E but simplifying some aspects and rebalancing others. While it still lacks the ability to freely go between caster and beast at will, it's far more freeing in how it handles shifting between animal forms, and provides ways to always be able to attain beast form. This version has somewhat superseded the original as, while it wasn't a super serious campaign and things were a little off the rails, I was able to finally explore her character more. This led to her becoming more of a "herbo"(female himbo) than a Dinobot expy, and a couple random moments in town before leaving on her first adventure inspired her love for cooking. I also leaned a bit more into the WoW feral druid influences that helped inspire her, as the way Nimble handles animal forms actually seems to encourage this, leading to her using her bear form for protection and a feline form for offense or movement, rather than the wolf form she would have had in 4E. It still has a place in her backstory, but going forward she will be far more likely to use those other forms instead, if I ever get the chance to pull her out of hiding again!