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Description
Feared by civilized people as inhuman monsters and revered by wilderness tribes as ancestral spirits of the mountains and forests, trolls are in fact mere humans possessed of the affliction of trollism. Those infected by the affliction, most often through the consumption of tainted flesh, find their flesh slowly turning to a grey-blue stony texture and their bodies becoming massive and cumbersome under the weight of their new condition. In civilized towns and cities, unfortunate enough to be so afflicted is cast out by their community, believing them to be cursed by the monstrous trolls of the wild. Among the wild tribes of the forests and mountains, contracting the condition is considered a blessing and not a curse, as it is seen to represent one's elevation from morality to divinity. When one has completed the transformation, they willingly exile themselves from the community, leaving behind their mundane existence to live at one with nature. Regardless of their origin, the afflicted inevitably congregate together in the wilds, forming ad hoc communities. Both feared and valued for their regenerative vitality these collectives are routinely raided by outsiders and it is only through their relative isolation and communal strength that the trolls endure. If not killed in such raids, trolls risk being conscripted into forced labor and armed forces. There are dark rumors that some of their stock are even experimented upon, though for what purpose remains uncertain. Others whisper that captured trolls are killed and their stony hides flayed for protective leather. Yet for all their brute strength, trolls are a gentle and simple people, insofar as one could call them a people. Needing and fearing little, they have no need for open conflict unless it is forced upon them and those they love. They are simply content to endure the passage of time with tragic endurance, retaining enough of their intellect to recognize themselves as forever separated from the rest of the world.

Description
Feared by civilized people as inhuman monsters and revered by wilderness tribes as ancestral spirits of the mountains and forests, trolls are in fact mere humans possessed of the affliction of trollism. Those infected by the affliction, most often through the consumption of tainted flesh, find their flesh slowly turning to a grey-blue stony texture and their bodies becoming massive and cumbersome under the weight of their new condition. In civilized towns and cities, unfortunate enough to be so afflicted is cast out by their community, believing them to be cursed by the monstrous trolls of the wild. Among the wild tribes of the forests and mountains, contracting the condition is considered a blessing and not a curse, as it is seen to represent one's elevation from morality to divinity. When one has completed the transformation, they willingly exile themselves from the community, leaving behind their mundane existence to live at one with nature. Regardless of their origin, the afflicted inevitably congregate together in the wilds, forming ad hoc communities. Both feared and valued for their regenerative vitality these collectives are routinely raided by outsiders and it is only through their relative isolation and communal strength that the trolls endure. If not killed in such raids, trolls risk being conscripted into forced labor and armed forces. There are dark rumors that some of their stock are even experimented upon, though for what purpose remains uncertain. Others whisper that captured trolls are killed and their stony hides flayed for protective leather. Yet for all their brute strength, trolls are a gentle and simple people, insofar as one could call them a people. Needing and fearing little, they have no need for open conflict unless it is forced upon them and those they love. They are simply content to endure the passage of time with tragic endurance, retaining enough of their intellect to recognize themselves as forever separated from the rest of the world.