Grull

Drakan 2200 — A grull encountered in *Drakan: The Ancients' Gates*.

Grulls are short, hunched beings with large heads. They resemble grotesquely mutated humanoid pigs, similar to standard swine. Short in stature, with limited intellect, they make up for lack of various attributes through numbers and sheer brutality. Although capable of using magik, it is at a rudimentary or basic level. theyre generally the minions of the much larger and fiercer wartoks, both species sometimes (erroneously) referred to as "orcs".

While some grull are capable of using ranged spell and magic, the majority of them rely on melee weapons and catapults to take down their enemies. Grull society is completely unknown, although it has been noted they have some form of religion, Shamans or Dark Wizards of a sort among their numbers, forming a primitive heirarchy. Grull are invariably hostile to human life and have been seen attacking various other creatures as well.

Grull appear to have a primitive pagan ritual. It is known as Pagan due to the words the Spirits summoned by the Wizard Zeggoro. They stated that one of the items required is The Blood Of A Pagan Altar, referencing a vial of blood found on a Grull Blood Altar. This is by no means true paganism but rather a cruder, primitive version of the sacrificial rituals used by some real-world cultures (like the Aztecs). Blood Altars can be found in many places, most in the Northern Lands where its colder.

The altars are horrifying, rock, ice and metal carved into tables and chairs, gigantic pots sitting under hanging human corpses with blood dripping into them. Although Grull have been seen killing animals, only human corpses are used in their altars. It is unknown if the victims are alive or dead when hung on the altars, and unknown exactly what the blood is used for or even how the bodies are disposed of.

Grull are essentially a beast slave race, used by both the Desert Lords and Wartoks as frontline troops. Utilizing massive carving knives, daggers and choppers as weapons, some grull are encountered using spells. Flame and Ice spells are used by the grull, but despite the (comparatively) limited damage they do, they're very accurate.

However, due to their primitive nature, grull are susceptible to infighting. This can be easily observed with large groups of them, flailing weapons and loose ammunition one or two grull get hit. They immediately turn on eachother and give one another a quick whack. If done properly, the player can take advantage of this fact and dodge a few blows, and the group will attack eachother.

Although very rarely, some Grull wear chainmail armor which can deflect arrows or sword blows. These Grull are easily recogniseable as being slightly larger than their nearby cousins. Grulls that wear chain armor, use ice magic spells projectiles and carry large knives (resembling meat cleavers) are found only in the Northlands- they are a subspecies called "frost grulls".