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Trolls are a natively violent species, and built for it. Their thick, hard skin protects them from heat and allows them to shrug off all but the most devastating blows, and they are dramatically stronger than any other sapient on Barashi. They typically top six feet and exceed 350 lbs, without significant variation between the sexes. Trolls have one thumb and three fingers on each hand. To compensate for their psychological tendencies towards warfare, trolls live in a highly ritualistic society with extensive norms around what constitutes an offense against another and the requisite punishment (usually a term of indentured servitude by the offender to the offendee).

Trolls organize themselves in communal clans of 50-200 individuals. Large clans split, and half moves to another location (or, in the case of nomadic clans, travel in a different direction). Each clan has a chief, a Screnak, and a warchief; these positions are typically hereditary, but any holder of the position may be challenged for it according to troll law. The chief makes decisions for the clan; the Screnak (often, but not always, a kama), serves as an advisor to the chief and a repository of clan wisdom, and often speaks for the clan to outsiders; the warchief organizes hunts and combat and is responsible for making sure that all adult trolls in the clan are capable fighters.

They routinely practice polygyny and polyandry - any troll may have an arbitrary number of spouses, who in turn may have an arbitrary number of spouses. Trolls are notoriously fond of spicy food; capsaicin has a much-reduced effect on them. Troll kyma are, as a rule, better acquainted with spirits qua spirits than are kyma of other species, who tend to view them as power wells.

Trolls get along well with goblins (and trogs) but tend to have poor relations with others. Trolls can interbreed with goblins (producing trogs) and trogs (producing trolls), but not, as a general rule, with any other species. The major language spoken among them is Trollspeak, but some clans or groups of clans have secondary minority languages as well.

Trolls come in the following colors:

• Blue ("Onekal")
• Red ("Kelek")
• Black ("Shekar")

  The non-color differences between groups of trolls are limited; it is generally not possible to determine a troll's regional or clan origins by other visual means. Trolls are always one of these colors, not a combination or blend, and may take after either parent in the case of a cross. Colors skipping generations (e.g. the Kelek child of a Kelek and an Onekal having an Onekal child with another Kelek as the other parent) is rare but not unheard of.

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