¶ Summary
“Long Fangs” is a general term used to refer to any number of the gnoll mercenary bands scattered across the cosmos. Renowned for their utter savagery, the very mention of these companies curdles the blood of all but the bravest opponents; when the Long Fangs descend on a target, they leave nothing but ashes and gnawed bones in their wake, and the dead are considered far luckier than any hapless captives who were carried off. No one with good intentions ever employs Long Fangs, and it is very rare for non-gnolls to join their ranks. However, they often keep bestial creatures as “war pets” to drive into battle as shock troopers.
¶ History
In dark ages past, mad priests of the demon god Yeenoghu collapsed the star of the Renoth sphere and ripped open a vast gate into their bloodthirty lord's Abyssal plane, allowing his armies of gnolls to pour forth into the unprepared cosmos. Wave after wave of war barges, stitched together from the skin and bones of the damned and powered by spelljamming helms hoarded over generations of plundering and pillaging, poured out of “Yeenoghu's Howl” and spread a tide of butchery across world after world. It took a desperate alliance of nearly every fleet in the galaxy to hold back the gnoll horde while a party of daring adventurers snuck into the heart of their territory and destroyed the temples holding the hellgate open. Cut off from their demon lord and from fresh supplies and soldiers, the gnoll legions quickly fell apart and broke down into war bands that fought each other as much as they did any common enemy. While many advocated for hunting down and destroying all of the demon-tainted beasts, far too many leaders found the gnolls useful for their own ends, and the mercenary nature of the Long Fangs came to be.
¶ The Blood Tides Will Rise Again
Only the longest-lived creatures remember when the gnolls decimated the settled worlds, and for many the stories seem like stuff of legend. For all their savagery, the Long Fangs are far too scattered and lacking in leadership to amount to an existential threat. War bands that grow past a certain point inevitably break apart due to infighting. The most cautious of doomsaying sages, however, warn that Yeenoghu still rages in the Abyss, and it is all too possible for him to raise up a champion strong enough to reunite the Long Fangs into a crusade of slaughter once again.