Hobgoblin
Brutally civil
War is the lifeblood of hobgoblins. Its glories are the dreams that inspire them. Its horrors don’t feature in their nightmares. Cowardice is more terrible to hobgoblins than dying, for they carry their living acts into the afterlife. A hero in death becomes a hero eternal.
Young hobgoblins start soldiering when they can walk and heed the mustering call as soon as they can wield their weapons capably. Every legion in the hobgoblins’ entire society forever stands prepared for war.
Additional Information
Social Structure
As in any strict military hierarchy, every hobgoblin in a legion has a rank, from the warlord down through a cadre of officers to the soldiers that make up most of its number. These ranks, using the titles most often applied to them, are as follows:
- 1st rank: Warlord
- 2nd rank: General
- 3rd rank: Captain
- 4th rank: Fatal Axe
- 5th rank: Spear
- 6th rank: Fist
- 7th rank: Soldier
Facial characteristics
Hobgoblins have bear-like large, flat noses and pointed ears. Their hair is almost always black. Their eyes are usually yellow, gold, red, orange, or white (actually very pale yellow).
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
A hobgoblin doesn't have a name until he or she has proven mastery over basic weapons training. At this time they are named based on what proficiency or duty they have demonstrated most during their early lives. Hobgoblins also attach their banner name and legion name to their own name, and present themselves as being 'of the Blueshield, 13th Blitzkrieg'. Interestingly, male and female hobgoblins have no differentiation in given names.
Banner names generally consist of a color or metal and an implement of warfare. Legion names consist of a number and a descriptor given to the legion by the high warlord.
Given Name Examples: Ritter, Jäger, Ausbilder, Seher.
Banner Name Examples: Blueshield, Steelspear, Redhelm.
Legion Name Examples: 13th Blitzkrieg, 7th Panzer, 1st Flammenwerfer.
Courtship Ideals
Hobgoblins do not court. Rather, they have a strict system of arranged marriages, and within those they often have offspring quotas to meet before a predetermined amount of time has passed. Marriages may be arranged for political reasons, economic reasons, or other various factors.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Hobgoblins hold themselves to high standards of military honor. The race has a long history of shared traditions, recorded and retold to keep the knowledge fresh for new generations. When hobgoblins aren’t waging war, they farm, they build, and they practice both martial and arcane arts.
These trappings of civil society do little to conceal an underlying brutality that hobgoblins practice on each other and perfect upon other races. Punishment for infractions of hobgoblin law are swift and merciless. Beauty is something hobgoblins associate only with images of conflict and warfare.
The iron grip their philosophy holds on their hearts blinds hobgoblins to the accomplishments of other peoples. Hobgoblins have little appreciation or patience for art. They leave little space for joy or leisure in their lives, and thus have no reserves of faith to call upon when in dire straits.
Advancement in rank comes as a result of attaining glory, but for the achievement to mean anything, a hobgoblin must abide by the race’s code of honor in doing so.
Glory can be earned by discovery of great resources (such as finding a new vein of iron or a powerful magic item), by fine performances (writing and performing a great ballad about the legion), by designing and constructing a great defense or monument, and through other means. But the greatest respect is reserved for those who earn their glory in battle. In theory, the fortunes of war can elevate the lowest-ranking banner in a legion to the highest status. In practice, warlords are careful to position themselves and their banners to claim the greatest victories in any conflict, and they portion out opportunities and responsibilities to other banners as politics dictate.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Each hobgoblin legion has a distinct code of honor and law, but all follow a few general precepts that are at the heart of the hobgoblin honor system.
Follow Orders. Carrying out orders without question is critical on the battlefield, and hobgoblins follow this dictum in peaceful times as well in order to maintain stability in their society. Hobgoblins don’t shrink from following orders that they know will result in death if the act will bring glory to the banner or the legion.
Suffer nor Give Insult. As befits their warlike nature, hobgoblins believe that any insult demands a response. Suitably (and somewhat ironically), the outward politeness and civility that they demonstrate among each other enables them to avoid conflicts in daily life. This same form of “courtesy” is often extended to other races the hobgoblins have dealings with, much to the outsiders’ surprise. When such respect isn’t reciprocated, though, relations can swiftly deteriorate.
Reward Glorious Action. Hobgoblins never deny advancement in status to a banner that has earned it, nor do they withhold higher rank from a deserving individual. If a banner attains great glory in battle but is nearly destroyed, the handful of members who remain are welcomed into another banner, taking their banner’s name and colors along with them, and assuming places of leadership in the group.
Uphold the Legion. Hobgoblins care more for the survival of their legion than they do for others of their own kind. Two legions might battle over territory, resources, or power, or out of simple pride. Such a feud can continue over generations in an ongoing cycle of retribution. Each legion has a list of grievances against any others it knows about, and any legions meeting for the first time view each other with immediate hostility. Only a truly great warlord can force legions to work together as an army.
History
Hobgoblins are orcish love of glory and honor taken to an extreme. Some of the ancient Neanderthal tribe were trapped in Meara when it was destroyed during the Godswar. Rather than die a fiery death, they were thrown through reality to a new phase, one of chaos and war... Acheron. For millenia they stayed in that eternal battlefield, surviving only by adopting ironclad strict discipline. Their red skin is said to come from being dyed thusly by the unending deluge of the blood of their enemies.
It wasn't until The Culling that they returned to Torar. A ritual by their cousin Mag'har shamans to summon aid during that tumultuous time brought the beleaguered hobgoblins back to their home world. They were grateful and have since regarded all other orcs as charges to protect. In the wider world hobgoblins are seen as a cold, brutal, tyrannical society of rulebound butchers.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Homo simplex proeliator
Lifespan
Hobgoblins mature at the same rate as humans and have lifespans similar in length to theirs.
Average Height
5 to 6 feet
Average Weight
150 to 200 lbs.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Hobgoblin skin is in shades of crimson, sometimes being more of a russet brown instead.
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