Hobgoblins

For most people in the modern day, hobgoblins are associated with the thud of iron-shod boots marching in lockstep; perfect, disciplined ranks of pikes; the ashy burning smell of fire sorcerers in the aftermath of battle. They formed the backbone of the armies of Cha’mutte during the Great War, and in the years since have remained a significant and often implacable enemy of many human (and other) realms. News of hobgoblin armies brings terror to cities and towns, for stories speak of their grim habit of turning captured towns into brutal work-camps, or worse. Among priests, theologians, and theological cosmologists, it is claimed that hobgoblins have no soul, no connection to any of Divine Realms, and indeed many suspect that they actively repel the Divine Presence and its creations.

Appearance

Hobgoblins are often large and imposing, tending to be slightly larger and more muscular than humans, though with a large variation. Most hobgoblins have prominent fangs, ears, and brow ridges, and many have short horns protruding from their upper foreheads. A variety of reddish skin tones, red or golden eyes, and black hair is common.

Language and Naming

Most hobgoblins speak a common creole, derived from the language of Cha’mutte’s armies, that is called katonylev (or “army tongue”) by speakers, is typically referred to as simply Goblin by outsiders. Whether hobgoblins speak other languages amongst themselves is not known.

Lifecycle

Little is known about hobgoblin reproduction, age of maturity, family life, or aging. Hobgoblins have a natural lifespan similar to humans.

Settlements and Homelands

Since Cha’mutte’s defeat in the Great War, hobgoblins have gradually been pushed away from human realms, and now tend to occupy marginal land where they can, surviving at the margins of the Plaguelands, in the foothills of the Sentinels, and the northern slopes of the Fiatara Mountains.

Cultural Traits

Hobgoblin societies are organized around discipline and strict hierarchy, with hobgoblins inevitably seen as above all other species. Occupation of the realms of other species, when hobgoblins manage it, can be brutal, but hobgoblins are not mindlessly evil. While in some cases they will decimate towns or conscript large swaths of the population into bondage and slavery, those that surrender are often taxed and put to work instead. Hobgoblins are unusual among the species of Taelgar in their practice of slavery.

Whether hobgoblins have art, or music, or other creative endeavors is not known, though a small number of decorative arts, particularly martial items, are known.

Hobgoblins have no religion, worship no gods, and have never been observed to use divine magic.

Historical Perspective

The history of hobgoblins prior to the Great War is poorly known, though many fought in the wars between the Dominion of Avatus and Maseau, Wisford, Addermarch, and others, and hobgoblins were a major threat in northern Dunmar and the Aurbez Plateau area in the years before the Great War.

Much of the decades after the Great War, however, were defined by hobgoblin wars, shaping the history of Sembara, Dunmar, the Chardonian Empire, and more. In these years, hobgoblins often ruled human lands for a generation, or more, before being driven back.