Hobgoblins

Hobgoblins are stern, feudal warriors who enslaved the local goblins over 400 years ago after they fled the northern kingdoms for their new land of Uruk Gar. With their slaves growing food and doing most of the work, hobgoblin culture became mainly preoccupied with sport hunting and battle. Hobgoblins have their own pantheon, though they worship their heroes and ancestors as well. To hobgoblins, killing in battle or the hunt is the sacred proof in their right to lead their fellows, their superiority over all other races, their right to continue their ancestors' names and bloodlines, and the virtue of their gods.

A rival kingdom, Iri Gar, was founded in the Redflow Basin after a civil war.

Personality: Hobgoblins keep themselves neatly groomed, carrying flasks of perfumed water especially for this purpose, or else fresh milk. They betray few emotions; it is said that hobgoblins are incapable of love, the emotion having been stolen from them by their gods to enable them to better succeed in life.

They mate in a very practical way, only allowing the fittest among them to procreate. Great heroes often have multiple partners. Mating is celebrated by biting a chunk out of their lovers' flesh. Oaths are held to be an important sacrament with the ancestors and the dark rivers of the underworld.

Although they cannot feel the sensation themselves, hobgoblins can see romantic love in others and, in fact, identify it more readily due to their objectivity. Hobgoblins tell each other stories of romance with the same morbid fascination other races have with horror and fear, subjects that interest hobgoblins not at all. Their tales always end with a cautionary "that's why love is weakness," but they never get tired of hearing them.

Hobgoblin culture is set in very rigid lines defined by the goals and tradition of their ancestors. The gods sit beyond them, unconcerned with everyday affairs, while ancestors decide every aspect of hobgoblin behavior. Hobgoblins believe they have a responsibility to adhere as closely as possible to ancestral doctrine, and that if they were to fail they would become little more than bugbears.

Hobgoblins enjoy every kind of sport, especially hunting; the smarter the prey, the better. Often they release slaves into the wild and chase them for days, allowing them appropriate headstarts as befits the skill of the hunter. They also play chess-like games and hurl hard leather-wrapped balls of varying sizes at varying targets, often while trying to block the throws of their fellows.

Most hobgoblins live in yurts and shallow pits, although they keep a few large cities of iron and stone. They're renowned for their elaborate, colorful weavings and ceramic sculptures, and their smithcraft.

Physical Description: They are tall and usually well-muscled, although both skeletally-thin and grotesquely fat hobgoblins are fairly common. Their skin tones are various shades of reddish-brown to yellow. Males have blue mask-like areas covering their nose and cheeks; otherwise their features are similar to other goblin races, with wide mouths full of needle-sharp teeth, dull red eyes and large pointed ears. The nails on their fingers and toes are black and almost clawlike. They live an average of four or five decades.

Hobgoblins usually give birth to twins; triplets and singletons are considered ill omens and generally have to try harder to prove themselves. They reach puberty between the ages of eight and twelve.

Religion: The most important hobgoblin god is Kharrgat, Goddess of Love and War, pictured as a powerful female hobgoblin with metallic arms, face, and torso replacing the flesh lost in battle. It is Kharrga who keeps the emotion of love hidden in her iron chest; she knows if it were to escape the hobgoblin race would become weak as common goblins are. Lesser gods are patrons of horses, strategy, hunting, marksmanship, bladecraft, weaponsmiths, blacksmiths, pain, undead, magic, and domination. Beneath this pantheon is a wide variety of heroes, and the ancestors of each individual hobgoblin tribe.

The afterlife that awaits hobgoblins is a misty sort of purgatory from which only the ancestors and winged gods can free them. There is only room for a limited amount of ancestors in the afterlife, though there can be more if the hobgoblin spirits manage to expand their territory. Thus, there is continual warfare with the spirits of other races, although the sacrifice of horseflesh on the anniversaries of deaths is enough to get an ancestor's attention and aid.

The actual homeland of the hobgoblin gods is a place of blooming garden surrounded by two rivers: one made of oaths, and the other of flame. If mortal hobgoblins were to stop striving to keep their promises, the river of oaths would dry up, and the river of flame would engulf the land of the gods. Hobgoblin law is thus very stern, and hobgoblins believe it is their duty to try and fulfill the incomplete promises of their ancestors, or suffer the wrath of the gods themselves.

Language: Hobgoblins speak Gar, a language designed to be as painful to use as is possible. Older hobgoblins have hoarse, rasping voices, their voices destroyed by years of tortured speech.

Hobgoblin Names: Hobgoblins take the names of honored ancestors. The ancestors themselves are distinguished by the addition of the names of the gods they serve in the wars of the afterlife.

Male Names: Marrgar, Garrgan, Birrgam, Palador.

Female Names: Garrat, Farrtha, Kikat, Blikit.

Goblins

Goblins are small humanoids who once ruled the Burnt Kingdom when it bloomed green; they were later displaced or conquered by the B'tor lizard men. They keep giant spiders for their silk.

Personality: Goblins are fastidious and neat, doing their best to keep themselves clean at all times. A dirty goblin is an unhappy goblin. Unhappy goblins tend to whine and sulk most of the time and are generally unpleasant to be around. Goblins tend to fall easily into depressions if they don't have a place to center themselves in and maintain, such as a house or even a beloved mount or pet. Happy goblins are hard, capable workers who tend to serve with loyalty and enthusiasm. Goblins have little sense of other people's feelings and can be casually cruel.

Physical Description: Goblins range from three to four feet tall and weigh thirty to fifty pounds. Male goblins are most often noticably bigger than females. They have large, pointy ears, broad mouths, and sharp, needlelike teeth. They have tough but neatly trimmed black nails. Their skin is the color of mud or clay, ranging from brown or gray to bright yellow or red; the males tend to be more brightly colored. Their small, narrow eyes are dull red, appearing black in dim light. Goblins achieve majority at four years and sexual maturity several years later, living until the age of thirty or forty. The oldest known goblin died at fifty-eight, a favored concubine of a hobgoblin general; she rarely got out of bed except to bathe.

Relations: Most goblins who encounter hobgoblins are enslaved by them, and apparently they resign themselves to this fate and do not rebel. They hate and fear the B'tor lizardfolk, driving them out violently when they can or surrendering to them when they must. They get along decently with dwarves despite some distrust on the dwarves' part, but humans often take advantage of them,trying to rob them or wipe them out in order to seize their underground tunnels for themselves. They avoid Daeldaekflar if at all possible, seeing them as incarnations of absolute terror. They have alliances with the bugbears in Faeg-Than and they sometimes interbreed with humans.

Goblin Lands: Goblins live in small, square houses, often with three dozen goblins or more beneath the same roof. Since their kingdom was destroyed, most of them live underground in cave systems where they feel protected from terrors that might come burning from the sky. They grow fruits and berries in lush underground gardens fed by subterranean energies and dark springs, and they raise rats, spiders, bats, and cats for food or pets. Spiders are also kept for their silk or as mounts.

Religion: Goblins worship the gods and heroes of the hobgoblins or their own pantheon of giant spider gods. There is some evidence that the spiders they worship are merely very ancient and powerful members of the same species they raise for silk, meat, and riding, living in secret cathedrals far underground off of sacrifices brought to them by their goblin minions.

Language: The goblin language, called Gobble, is gutteral and based largely on pitch, with lots of words without any vowels. Goblins also speak a pidgin language that uses words of Gar, the hobgoblin tongue. Goblins write their language using Dwarven or Hobgoblin letters.

Names: Goblins are given names at birth, usually the name of a dead uncle or aunt.

Male Names: Kitrkkn, Rrtkko, Bttfrrk, Grgghn

Female Names: a-Kitrkkn, a-Rrtkko, a-Bttfrrk, a-Grgghn

Adventurers: Adventuring goblins have often lost their homelands to conquerors, or else they're too independent to fit within goblin society or as a slave. They always look to find a pet, mount, or even security blanket to care for.

Gnolls

Gnolls are tall, hyena-faced nomads who dwell beyond the Hiades Pass in tribal groups in the northern plains near the Twilight Mountains where most of the Daeldaekflar clans dwell. They generally mind their own business unless their burial grounds or other sacred sites are tampered with. It is for this reason that they drove the B'tor lizardfolk into the Burnt Kingdom.

Personality: Gnolls run in clans dominated by their females which can comprise up to 100 individuals. Each clan "owns" a small stretch of plains, known as their territorial hunting grounds. Clans mark their territories by erecting standing stones or sharpened stakes at the boundaries. Females form the core of the clan, and they have a loose hierarchy where the stronger females get a larger share of food than the weaker ones, sometimes after fierce fights. The most powerful female gnolls tend to be very large and very fat.

Males tend to be smaller and even more violent, screaming and whooping, biting and biting when the females won't let them have their way.

Males exist outside the machiavellian politics of the females, but are still affected by them.

Gnolls will generally not eat members of the same clan, instead giving them deep, respectful burials in holy ground set aside for this purpose. Gnolls will eat the dead and wounded from rival clans and other species.

Young gnolls try to kill and eat one another from the moment they can walk, which is usually in a few weeks. They instinctively dig holes and pit traps with which to avoid the adults. Over time, a system of kennels was designed to house gnoll cubs until they get older and their bloodlust lessons in favor of sociability.

Females will mate only with males from other clans. Gnolls have no marrige customs; only a privileged few males are even allowed into the females' inner sanctums. Females are often witches.

Gnolls don't cooperate very well, generally hunting alone except when facing very powerful foes, in which case one or more leaders may organize a pack.

Physical Description: They crack bones with their powerful jaws. Their large shoulders and thick necks dominate their torsos, enabling them to carry large goats and antelopes like so many rabbits, their short, dark-muzzled heads hunched down below. Gnolls have spotted bodies and round, forward-pointing ears. They generally kill their own prey, but they will eat the dead if given a chance. Females have genitals that look identical to those of the males and they don't develop breasts until they're pregnant or nursing, so often the only way to tell the sexes apart is by their size, or by the female's jewelry, ceremonial body paint, scars, tattoos, and elaborate headdress.

Gnolls are released from the breeding-kennels at the age of two and are immediately allowed to tag along with the older hunters, being considered to be one of them at the age of eight or nine. They live around forty to sixty years.

Relations: Gnolls obviously don't get along with the B'tor lizardfolk and the often come into conflict with neighboring humans who disturb their sacred sites or simply don't like ending up as gnollish meals.

Alignment: Gnolls are violent and rough folk, with little room for kindness. Still, they have a code of honor developed by the males for dealing with the females. Essentially, it demands that respect be given according to deeds, not strength, and that the reasonable request of another gnoll may never be denied.

Gnollish Lands: Gnolls live on fairly flat, grassy plains with few or no trees. Some marshes and sometimes, rocky country. Within its vast range, the gnoll occurs in many different landscapes, from extremely hot and arid low-lying areas in the north and south to the cold heights of dense mist forests on mountains.

Religion: Gnolls bury those that were respected before death (i.e. shamans, great chiefs, etc.) in cave complexes.

Gnolls believe in invisible spirits they call the Riders, who take the bodies of gnolls and animals and aid and hinder them, as best serves their peculiar goals. Riders don't replace their rides' previous personalities, rather they supplement them and give them additional meaning.

Language: Barking and whining, their howls sound like laughter. They're not; they're often the harbinger of death.

The gnollish language evolved from this primitive beginning to become a rich and musical tongue which depends as much on rhythm and meter as it does individual words. The harmonies of Gnollish are wild and erratic, ranging from soaring wails to sharp staccatos, yet fitting together into a logical whole.

Names: Gnolls are named after the first Riders they ever gain, which usually happens during hunting or battle some time between the ages of two and twenty. Riders are named after their goals: Soul-Render, Wind-Tamer, World-Bridger, and Moon-seeker.

Adventurers: Gnollish adventurers are often males seeking new clans, or Ridden hunters pursuing their prey far beyond the lands they know.

Kobolds

Kobolds are reptilian humanoids who act as servants for dragons. They are said (by dwarves and some humans) to be the children of an ancient dwarven miner and an evil spirit.

They hate dwarves and seek to steal the wealth from the earth that is properly theirs.

Kobolds worship their dragon masters, praising them and sacrificing their lives for them, as well as all of their treasure.

Personality: Kobolds burn with ambition; they constantly scheme for greater status and recognition. They often pull malicious pranks on one another; they horde gold, magic, and gems in imitation of dragons.

Physical Description: Kobolds are mammal-like reptiles; they lay eggs, but have very advanced circulatory systems and some hair and fur. They grow throughout their lives, and seem to have no natural age limit; however, dragons devour those who get too big, so they rarely grow taller than four feet. Kobolds believe that if their gods permitted it, they would eventually evolve into true dragons.

Relations: Kobolds hate dwarves most of all, but think all mammilian races are insults to the Elder Days when only dragons ruled. They pray for a day when the young races are extinct, and they are allowed to evolve into dragons themselves. They have been known to trade with goblins for silk, information, and nocturnal fruits.

Alignment: Kobolds obey the commands of their gods and superiors without question, though they tend to interpret their orders with a malicious sense of humor (never directed at kobolds or dragons).

Kobold Lands: Kobold strongholds are built around a central egg chamber, which they defend to the death unless a dragon insists on an egg as a sacrifice. Younger kobolds are used as servants by the elder ones.

Religion: Kobolds worship their masters directly, and through them they revere the Mother of Dragons, who they call Timutt. They revere also her Twelve Consorts, including Bakidu, Ephelomon, Kurtalmak, and Thardunn.

Language: Their language is a simplified form of the Draconic tongue, pronounced in high-pitched barking syllables. The dragons believe that the draconic language has been debased by kobold mouths and tongues. It may have some influence from Terran and Gobble, though these profane elements are dropped when speaking to dragon-gods. They write using draconic script; the egg-chambers and temples are covered with elaborate histories, most of them made up on the spot.

Names: Kobolds keep their names secret. They share their names with precious stones given to them at their time of birth. If one of these naming-stones were to be lost, they believe whoever owns them would have power over the associated kobolds. However, because a naming-stone is too private a thing to ask about, other kobolds usually have no idea whether or not their neighbors still have theirs.

Adventurers: Kobolds go on quests for their dragon masters. Sorcerers often lead the clans, but they cast out rivals with sorcerous potential, forcing them to learn their trade in the world outside.

Bugbears

Sly killers in the night, bugbears are large, fur-covered headhunters and brigands related to goblins and hobgoblins. They believe robbery is a sacred act that liberates goods and craniums from the unworthy. Their initiation rites, blood-soaked woodland sojourns, allow them to accept all who survive them into their tribes.

Bugbears groom one another with bone combs or with their claws. They often rub each other briskly by way of greeting. They sleep communally in large hairy piles. When pleased or nursing, they purr.

Bugbears capture the heads of their victims, keeping them as grisly trophies, drinking cups, and occasionally enchanting them to act as guardians or oracles.

Bugbears are left in the homes of goblins and humans at a young age; they lurk in the shadows under beds and in closets until old enough to murder everyone who lives there. Afterwards they escape into the forest and join the first bugbear tribe they meet, presenting them with the heads of their former hosts to use as fetish objects to house their names.

Personality: Bugbears eat your Grandma. Do not try to eat their porridge or sleep in their bed.

Bugbears are savage and untamable, but cold, with no sense of mercy. When hunting, they enter a trance which gives them a powerful but strangely inverted empathy for their prey, giving them pleasure from terror and pain.

Bugbears often wrestle each other and even box.

Physical Description: Bugbears, the Buheer, stand six to eight feet tall. They have large goblin eyes and ears and grin with wide, fanged goblin mouths. Their fur is normally brown to black, though albino bugbears are fairly common. Bugbears live short lives, joining the adult hunters at ten years and living to be fifty or so. Bugbears speak the same language as common goblins, but prefer silence.

Relations: Bugbears are isolationistic and elitist, dealing with none except to kill and steal, unless they've proven themselves in the traditional Buheer way.

Alignment: Chaotic Terrifying; bugbears respect no laws but the laws of strength, and then only when accompanied by violent nocturnal rituals where the shadows seem to come to life and the woods and air seem to turn against those who would dare to change the existing hierarchy. Still, bugbears seem to delight in these rites, performing them nightly if possible.

Bugbear Lands: Buheer live where the wood and wild have never been tamed, far from the lands of men and goblins. Hobgoblin chieftains have been known to approach bugbear tribes in an attempt to get them to act as mercenaries in their endless wars; few survive the initiations. Those that do have been known to spontaneously transform into bugbears themselves.

Religion: Male bugbears worship spirits of hunting and fear, while the females have a terrible goddess of hunger that they worship in secret. A minority of Buheer have turned to a more kindly entity known as Little Brother (Meriadar), who advocates peace between monstrous races.

Each bugbear must have the severed head of at least one sentient being for the spirits to hold their names in during the nighttime revels. Additional heads can hold the names of additional entities; bugbears believe the spirits can snatch them randomly from all over the world, and a bugbear who assumes the name of another gains that being's power, and thus position.

Language: When absolutely necessary, bugbears growl or whisper in a feral form of the goblin language Gobble, mixed with the tongues of wolves and owls. Most of the time, they say nothing at all, allowing the spirits of the wind to speak for them.

Names: Bugbears do not have individual names; they are known by their titles, such as Alpha Chieftain, Gatherer of Roots, and Night Priest. Even these names may change nightly, as the hierarchy reshuffles. Each night, all title-names are put into fetish objects for the spirits to keep safe until the rites are over. It is said that the night-time spirit dances do more than determine who is stronger; they may actually change the fundamental nature of those who participate, granting them strength or taking it away when they manage to snatch their new names from the spiritual maelstrom.

Adventurers: PC bugbears may worship Little Brother, if they are to be more than shadowy presences commanded to travel with outsiders by the spirits for reasons unknown. Even acolytes of Little Brother will want to engage in frightening midnight dances with those they travel with.