Late second age. Whether before or after the fall of the EWF seems to be in dispute. Historical records of the time are doubtless unclear.
<< Could they have been a more elegant experiment of the EWF, like the centaurs? (Elegant in that their component halves are meshed better.)>>
That's the usual belief. I note though, that Tusk Riders don't actually have many trollish features. They don't seem to have darksense or the universal digestion powers of trolls, and I'm not even sure they're nocturnal. They certainly _look_ troll-like, but biologically they seem more or less idential to humans - just a bit stronger and tougher. So it's always possible, IMO, that the common description of them as half-trolls is erroneous (do Uz call them half-humans? :-)).
The tusk riders themselves claim to have been created by the God of the Bloody Tusk as a race of humans. They believe they took on their modern form some time after Aram-ya-Udum (one of the founders of the EWF, apparently) established their current culture. Quite why they think this happened is unknown - at least to me - but I imagine they probably think it's a blessing from their god. I'm assuming here that they don't think of _themselves_ as ugly, and think pig-like tusks and snouts look really neat.
Given the paucity of information, you could fit almost any explanation into your game without fear of it contradicting anything published. Personally, I'm happy to leave it as a mystery, but then, they don't play much of a part in my campaign.
Forward the glorious Red Army!
Trotsky
Powered by hypermail