The gnoll bit is probably a bad example for what you're trying to say. Default gnolls in D&D aren't a society. They don't have a culture. It's not like the orc or goblin situation because they have societies and cultures.
Gnolls are semi-autonomous extensions of a particularly murderous demon lord. My personal theory is that Yeenoghu's original homeworld was consumed by the abyss and the gnolls encountered by default are basically Yeenoghu's distorted memories of his homeworld. WOTC has said that the gnolls in the Monster Manual should be re-typed as fiends instead of humanoids.
This doesn't stop a GM from creating a society of perfectly natural gnolls unconnected to a demon lord but the default gnolls as we see are basically killing machines, somewhat less self-aware than a holodeck character, and they're demons, meaning they are functionally part of the spread of the abyss.
As to the narrator... I'm always willing for an option to turn it off. But I like the narration and would like to keep it.
Last edited by Thrythlind; 03/08/21 03:33 PM.
