Hobgoblins
Basic Information
Anatomy
Humanoid
Biological Traits
Hobgoblins, also known as demogoblins, are a strange offshoot of the goblin race. They are taller, about the size of a average human, and stronger as well. This is due to their origins with infernal powers, making their nature not too dissimilar to Teiflings, but still with trace ancestry of the fey. They have fang like tusks and beating red or yellow eyes. They are able to withstand extreme heat easily due to their heritage, and use this to their advantage. In fact one of the most striking elements of their biology is that their blood is a burning orange ichor, which to other humanoids can result in third degree burns or even death. This is commonly used in battle where frontline goblins are used as meat shields to rain burning blood on enemies. This strange blood also seems to result in a unique talent for blood magic on top of demonic sorcery.
Genetics and Reproduction
Hobgoblins reproduce sexually, though faster at around 6 months like their goblin brethren. Hobgoblins tend to reach maturity around 10 years, but are not considered full adults until they pass their trials. The father is rarely known in traditional hobgoblin societies and children are raised comunally.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
They are scattered throughout the world in fortified strongholds and nomadic mercenary bands.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Hobgoblins have excellent low light vision
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Hobgoblin names are short and sharp. This makes it easy to bark out orders, with multisyllabic names being more rare. Typically these names are found amongst high ranking hobgoblins.
Gender Ideals
Typically eggalitarian. Though pregnancy obviously makes it difficult for females to fight when they are pregnant, in reality hobgoblins do not seem to care for strict gender ideals/norms.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Hobgoblins speak their own accented goblin. It is plain, and with far less clipped and chattering than basal goblin, though it still favors hard consonants.
Common Dress Code
Practical is perhaps the best word to describe the hobgoblin dress. Armor is typically chainmail, made to take a beating before looking pretty. They typically only add flourishes when those of high rank wish to flaunt their sucess, but even then they tend to air on the less impractical side. However they do have a curious obsession with taking the hands of fallen foes and nailing them to shields or their armor as grisly war trophies. While they do also take skulls, hands are seen as more impressive as it can not only represent a kill, but the taking of an enemies ability to wage war. It is hard swinging a blade without hands afterall.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Where the orc and other goblinoids pillage wildly and haphazardly, the hobgoblins wage war and raids with learned, drilled discipline. They are some of the most organized and well armed goblinoids around the world, and though their strongholds are few and scatterted, they are still a force to be reckoned with. They are purpose bred for war, and their society shows the ruthless pragmatism of this. Most days are spent in drills and fighting, for the wilds outside the cities are dangerous indeed. The social heirarchy in their fortresses is strict and harsh indeed, which does sometimes lead brash bands of hobgoblins to forsake the rigid citadels in favor of selling their services as sellswords. However this in itself is not shameful at all, in fact it is often accepted and applauded. War is war, it matters not for whos flag they march under, only that they are waging war. When hobgoblin children reach five years of age, they are split into units of ten and undergo the Kraachka "the forging". This is a brutal training process meant to hone their bodies and the children swear blood bonds with one another. After 10 years of brutal training, they take a final test and are tested, those who survive are respected adults in the eyes of hobgoblin society.
Typically this final test is fought against a millita of the strongest slaves available to the hobgoblins, and yes indeed the hobgoblins are known to take slaves from war spoils. While slaves are not the truest measure of a hobgoblins worth, in the brutal, wild socities they do play a key factor in ones social standing. To own a personal slave instead of using a public slave (differentiated by the names scheet, and schaaf respectively) is considered a great honor, and the more slaves someone owns the more esteemed they are. They work their slaves hard and vrutally, crushing all disent they may find, for they have no time to entertain revolts. They take slaves mostly however for the ruthless pragmatism of war, slaves do all the labor while the hobgoblins can focus on war.
Hobgoblins are hard, direct, and uncomprimising in nature, but never foolisih. They are pragmatic and cold, and tend to view other races as decadent as compared to their superior and pure way of life. They are also quite happy with their status as one of the bigger and stronger goblinoids, making sure to lord this over goblins as much as possible. However all this strict order and society can grate on even the most traditional of hobgoblins, and so many hobgoblins will form bands with blood bonded brethern or simply like minded strangers and form mercenary bands. These bands live nomadic lives, leaving in a small but grand ceramony out of the citadel gates, forever forsaking the trappings of cold walls in favor of pure war. These hobgoblins tend to be more mild in temperment, and are probbaly the ones most city folk are used to meeting, mainly because those that meet the other kind rarely escape alive or without chains.
History
"Goblins flee the world of light,
cursed and wretched in their plight,
make a race that can end the reign of elves, dwarves, and men,
hobgoblin, hobgoblin,
gather now by standards, by swords,
come unite the scatterted hordes,
by order hobgoblins will reclaim, the world that goblins fled in shame,
Don the armor of fallen foes and pick the flesh clean from their bones,
Hobgoblin tribes grow strong through war,
if they know peace they grow no more,
vengeful conquest now begin, all goblin kind, come serve your kin!
Hobgoblin! Hobgoblin!" -A poem of the Infernal Creation
Where the orc is wild, and the goblin is savage, the Hobgoblin is almost leaps and bounds the most advanced of the "wild" "brutal" races in the wilds. Where they come from is surprsingly, well understood given the amount of strangness amongst most goblinoids. It is believed the original creator of the goblins, Greshek the God Boss, was both pleased but also disapointed with the children he had sired with his first wife: Great Mother Gob. He yearned for something more, as he wished for more to conquer and pillage and kill. It is said that is when an entity known later as Dumna approached Greshek. She appeared as a being of beauty and seduced Greshek, who mated with her for days on end. However, Dumna was not an obident new wife, but a devil from the plains of hell, and this infernal deal led to her sireing the hobgoblin race. Greshek was angered at how they were not entirely beholden to his commands, but was also jealous of how they were goblins but better in many ways.
It is said Greshek would go on to hunt down Dumna and it is believed he killed her, but even after this his hold on the hobgoblins has always been tenious at best. To make matters more complicated, Vortenn the Orcish God of Mercenaries found the hobgoblins charming in their imperfections. Vortenn would take the hobgoblins under his watch, as well as inviting other planar entities to rule over with him as the Hobgoblin pantheon. With these affairs, the hobgoblins built fortified strongholds and have been a constant threat for much of the world. However, they are also strong allies and mercenaries just as much as they are seen as enemies, leading many to have very complicated feelings about them. Regardless, hobgoblins are soemtimes called "the tieflings of goblins" and this is not entirely wrong given that their blood still burns with both the fey and the stain of hell.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The hobgoblin truly is the most complicated of the goblinoids. Being from the goblinoid family already saddles them with many sterotypes and baggage, and indeed the citadels out in the wild care little for others opinions on them. However they also are a curious and explorative people, and the mercenary bands that work for anyone willing to pay can even be heroic and virtuious in many regards. Individuals are complicated, and even with their fiendish blood, they are a people of diffrences. While they do speak plainly, and many do still see themselves as a superior being compared to other races, they swearing of friendship to a companion is seen as perhaps one of the most unbreakable bonds that can be sworn.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
Around 70 years
Average Height
Around the same as a humans
Average Physique
Hobgoblins are stronger and more muscular in stature then their goblin bretheren, proving to be much stronger and more intimidating then normal goblins
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Typically hobgoblins are a pale-ish red in color, but just like their ancestors their body tint can vary wildly based on environmental circumstances.
