Goblinkin

Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears are three distinct races with a united past. They live across Tal’Dorei, most often in isolated communities, though many people in the realm have become used to the sight of goblin children playing catch in the street, hobgoblin mercenaries hanging around job boards, and bugbear apothecaries running shops in the hills.
The origin of the goblinkin is shrouded in myth and legend, but it’s generally accepted that these peoples were created by the Strife Emperor during the Calamity to be his perfect soldiers. The few records of that time hint that the goblinkin were once a single folk called the dranassar, a humanoid people of golden skin and green, violet, or yellow eyes who lived in eastern Wildemount. They dwelled in great numbers in the city of Ghor Dranas, which came to be the seat of the Betrayer Gods’ power in the Calamity.
For centuries, goblinkin were viewed as monsters by most other people of Tal’Dorei—particularly explorers and adventurers who regularly invaded and destroyed goblinkin settlements. But this ugly sentiment has undergone a radical shift in the past generation, during which countless goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears have fought alongside the other folk of Tal’Dorei in defense of their homeland against the Chroma Conclave and other threats. Today, goblinkin are a welcome sight in Tal’Dorei’s cities, and those folk who nurture old hostilities are invariably taken to task by the people around them.

Goblins

Goblins are a green-skinned people, short of stature and typically having thin, dexterous fingers and strong, nimble legs. They fit easily into settlements with significant gnome or halfling populations, whose residences and furniture are already appropriately sized. With long traditions of living in isolated family units in forests and mountain caves, many city-dwelling goblins dwell in large houses holding at least three generations of family and many different branches of their family tree.

Hobgoblins

Most hobgoblins are alike in stature to humans and have similar variations in build, ranging from thin and scrawny to broad shouldered and muscular. Their large ears, gleaming yellow eyes, and powerful incisors give them a vaguely feline appearance.
Hobgoblins are often stereotyped as having a warlike, martial nature—a sentiment that arose from rumors surrounding the Iron Authority in the Rifenmist Jungle. That empire is majority hobgoblin, and its cruel leaders have press-ganged the land’s entire population into compulsory military service. In ages past, most hobgoblins that became known to the other peoples of Tal’Dorei were scouts or captured legionnaires of the Iron Authority. Today, though, many escapees from the authority’s influence live in cities such as Emon, Kymal, or Byroden. Most of these free hobgoblins know only their parents’ stories of that distant empire, and are able to live happily free of its influence.

Bugbears

Bugbears are tall humanoids covered with brown, black, or blue-gray fur, which combines with large ears and yellow eyes to give them an even more feline appearance than their hobgoblin cousins. Though bugbears are tall, their posture is generally stooped, so that their heads are still roughly at human height.
Many bugbears are solitary folk, living in forests and mountains where their thick fur protects them against the cold. They typically gather in large groups one to three times a year to socialize and play games with friends, reunite with family, and find love—a tradition that has been reworked by those who live in permanent communities. Such bugbears often live with a number of romantic partners under the same roof, or “adopt” goblin families and dwell in their loving, chaotic, multigenerational households.