Coyotl as a replacement for Gnoll
by Marc SaindonWhile the Hyenafolk are interesting, they are not consistent with the wild west atmosphere, so the idea is to replace them with something similar: Coyote Folk, or Coyotl is they call themselves. Naturally, human settlers call them mistakenly "Gnolls", akin to how Native American are still inacurrately called Indians, despite India being an ocean or two away.
The Coyotl are still split in 3 tribes: the once dominant Long Legs (who hate human settlers), the Chiriquis, and the Dead Yuccas. The last two tribes trade with Cimarron, and are content with current status quo.
The ruins of Buenos Viente was actually, in this version, an old Coyotl city, destroyed by humans long ago. And one of the reason why the Long Legs hate human presence in their sacred area.
Despite a rich culture, the Coyotl have a fragmentary account of their past.
Originally, the Immortal Pflarr foresaw the doom of his beloved Hutaakans, and before transplanting a group in the Hollow World, another attempt was first made on the Savage Coast. Pflarr brought a small Hutaakan population, along with Traladaran slaves to serve them. They built the brick city. And established commercial ties with the Oltecs. The Oltecs, having no name for the jackal -- an animal they never encountered -- called them Coyotl (as coyotes were more familiar to them). The name struck, a bit like English settlers becoming Yankees or Americans over generations, or how the French colonists became Canadiens or Québécois over time in our world. The Hutaakans starting refering to themselves as Coyotl to distinguish themselves from their distant homeland.
Eventually Hulean upheavals, Oltec civil wars and humanoid invasion destabilized the region enough that the Traladaran slaves had an uprising and a massive exodus, taking to the seas and joining Slagovich. Hutaakans who survived the revolt either fled to the hills or bolted themselves indoors. When the dust settled, the Hutaakans, having always been a minority among humans to start with, were in a shortage of labor and troops to defend and maintain the city (it was built for a population of 3000). The Oltecs were gone, many taken to the Hollow World, so trade took a dive.
Successive waves of humanoid invasions made the Coyotl abandon the city over time, leaving it empty and eking out a living in the wilderness. What was once the military caste became the Long Legs tribe; the clerical caste became the Dead Yuccas, turning to (non-celtic) Druidism (or the optional Shaman class) over time as prayers to Pflarr seem to fall on deaf ears. The courtiers became the Chiriquis.
Meanwhile, Pflarr wrote off the project as a failure, and concentrated instead on two new ideas: a sort of hidden Shangri-La valley in Karameikos, and a settlement in the Hollow World. The Coyotl were indeed left to their own device.
Over time, the Coyotl re-built their numbers, but also forgot much of their past. And when human colonists returned, they called the lost Hutaakans "Gnolls".
(Image from: https://ian-moore.artstation.com/projects/18LQQK)
