The Hobgoblin (Or Krieger in Querelle) is a race of goblinoids that is known to display militaristic and malevolent tendencies, they typically reside within the southern to central lands of Anvaris and throughout the southern wastes.
Physiology[]
Hobgoblins are a very interesting case in that they seem to have ancestors hailing from not only Goblins but Orcs, Men, Dwarfs and Elves as well.
Unlike their Goblin relatives, the Hobgoblins can breed outside of their own kind. But only with a race that shares enough similar traits to the respective Hobgoblin's genetic hereditary, the resulting offspring is almost always biologically infertile and is thus heavily in most Hobgoblin communities.
It's believed by many scholars that they may have at one time been a unique race of Goblins that had the ability to produce fertile offspring with a partner of another race, however, this ability seems to be gone in the modern Hobgoblins of today.
Nevertheless, This trait was used extensively many cycles long ago to selectively bred with various other races, effectively creating an entirely new race out of this meticulous selection of desired traits.
This makes it very hard to pinpoint their exact characteristics as they can differ wildly between specimens. Coming in a wide variety of skin colors, builds, and facial features. The most common features seem to be raised ears, tusks and an estimated lifespan of 50 to 60 years.
More specific physical attributes are associated with their sub-race or, as they are more generally called, their Legion or genetic heredity.
Legion Heredity[]
The Hobgoblin race is split between seven Legion heredities or bloodlines that currently exist and are recognized as living within the realms of Anvaris, there are two other known heredities but there is very little available information or records about these lost heredities within Anvaris.
All Hobgoblins can trace their more direct physical qualities back to their Legion heredity, as these bloodlines are so varied that they are considered by many scholars to be closer to that of a sub-race within the wider Hobgoblin race than that of a simple family tree.
And like the physical qualities, select mental features are also more likely to appear within certain heredities than others. However, like the physical traits, it is not guaranteed that all subjects within a heredity share the same exact aspect as one another.
Nevertheless, all of these heredities date back to the great Hobgoblin Legions of old, being the first sightings of the Hobgoblins within the lands of Anvaris, each Legion having a primary progenitor that was a basis of the collective Hobgoblin race. Each progenitor seemly created both the Legion heredities and the individual Hobgoblin cultures that continue to exist relatively intact to this day.
Known Legion Heredities[]
The Seven recognized Legion heredities, there are as follows;
The Third Legion 'The Battle Barons'; The Tallest of the known descendants. The most commonly seen as the leaders, officers or overseers of the race, spending much of their time planning and micromanaging to have everything in place, though sometimes to a fault.
The Fourth Legion 'The Night Haunters, Standing at the shorter end of the scale with an unusually dark grayish-blue skin tone. They prefer a nocturnal lifestyle; using more cunning and less direct methods to achieve their goals. They are often withdrawn and introvert individuals.
The Fifth Legion 'The Storm Bringers'; Commonly mistaken for lanky, hunched Orcs, these descendants share much of the same traits with that of Orc, both physically and mentally. Usually, preferring to be more martial and blunt in their actions.
The Sixth Legion 'The Bronze Bonded'; These descendants are often mistaken for a misshapen Human. this line of descendants is very close to a human in appearance with some common goblinoids features such as raised ears and tusks. However, they are known to be very conversable but are generally short-tempered and ill-rational.
The Seventh Legion 'The Warhogs'; This bloodline has a beastly appearance, for their faces share many features with that of a boar and having a reddish skin similar to the Third Legions'. Most wish to live in solitude among their kinsmen and are fairly passive in general.
The Eighth Legion 'The Storm Bringers'; Shorter than most others compared to their others on this list, this line of descendants are closer to the conventional Goblin. Though standing a foot or two higher than their Goblin counterparts, and are much more adventurous and foolhardy to boot.
The Tenth Legion 'The Siege Born'; Seen by many as a twisted, ugly reflection of the Dwarfs, these descendants have a very similar body build with an oftentimes comparable but more harsher disposition to the world around them. They also commonly share a preference towards iron working and forge craft.
Culture[]
The Hobgoblins are a highly militaristic and callous people that hold both marital and strategy mastery above all else, viewing weakness, and submission as the worst traits an individual can have. Their nature being ingrained in them since the creation of their race and little has changed since.
After the Age of Legions, the majority of the Hobgoblins had spit into many tribes and warbands. Many are traveling camps, always moving about the wild or on the edges of the Kindom, living a nomadic existence or are more rarely small holdouts hidden deep within forgotten lands. However, with the advent of the Kriegern Confederation, many of these tribes have left to immigrate into the greater Hobgoblin state.
Their societies are often extremely rigid, the laws of the land are considered to be of the utmost importance to an individual with their responsibilities second, leaving little space for joy or leisure in their lives. Their laws are very harsh but fair, though a single prohibited act is always met with harsh retribution and is taken with great shame by the perpetrator.
Traditionally, military service is seen as the last step on a young one's pilgrimage to becoming an adult. Using whatever armaments that they could find or build when in their adolescence years to armed themselves before pledging their life to their community.
These youths are usually given lax positions within their early years within the military. Being that a town guard or working as an auxiliary in a war camp. Nevertheless, many of these youths never see the light of battle in these first few years. Afterward, they may choose to end their military service and return back to their homes as a full adult among their communities.
However, many destitute Hobgoblins have found themselves living their lives as highwaymen or within shifty mercenary bands. Painting them in the eyes of the everyman as a frequent sight in the criminal underground.
Mythology[]
While the Hobgoblins are by large a fairly secular people, they do commonly hold a small number of religious practices and beliefs that are followed with great zeal. This religion of theirs is known as the Seigneurn with their primary source of scriptures being the Gotzen Ordres or shorten to just the Gotzen in Common.
The Seigneurn is the collection of values and ideas shared universally among the great Legions of old by that of the Seigneurs, a religious order that acted in the name of Kriguerre. They spread the Gotzen in order to strengthen the worship of their god, Kriguerre. Believing that if they were to follow these words to the letter, that they will be given a position in the afterlife as a Legionary of Kriguerre's First Legion.
The Seigneurn teaches that strength and honor come from patience, forethought, and discipline. That honor is not about a number of individual feats that one has accomplished but what an individual had done for their comrades as a whole. For collectivism is a core pillar in the Seigneurn ideology.
Cowardice and idleness are condemned as detrimental to the whole. Though foolhardiness is likewise shunned within the Seigneurn's teachings. Thus the Seigneurn preaches a pragmatic and cautious worldview for its followers.
However, even though the large majority of Hobgoblins adhere to the Seigneurn creed. There is an ever growing small minority of those who have begun following Andvarus, some even rumored to have even be given a place within the Lightkeepers for their devotion. Known Andvarus followers are often shunned by the greater hobgoblin community.
History[]
Hobgoblins are a comparably recent species within Anvaris' history, they have nonetheless have had a sufficient impact on the early cycles of Anvaris' and much of the Southern Wastes' history.
The Kreigmarshals[]
Though their origins are unknown, what is known during the early cycles within the Southern Wastes was there were nine powerful Individuals known only as the 'Kreigmarshals', believed to be the nine genetic progenitors of the Hobgoblin race, had formed a powerful Empire within the deep wastes of the south named the Dernrung Dominion.
The goal of the Dernrung Dominion and that of the Kreigmarshals was the absolute genocide of all other potential rivals and the complete occupation of the mortal realm. However, they needed a race that could serve their will without question and could march without end.
They then began to work tirelessly for many years on this task, using their servants to capture other races of value within lands far north. With the aid of the dark arts, they had finally created a worthy template to serve as the mighty core of their dreaded legions, the Hobgoblin.
With this milestone accomplished, they then began to march their newly reinforced Legions towards the realms of the north to forge a new age.
For the people of Anvaris, this event would forever be remembered as the Dernrung Invasion, The Iron Nightmare, The Age of The Legions.
The Dernrung Invasion[]
The Dernrung Invasion was a period of endless conflict as the Kreigmarshals raged a long, bloody war against the races of the Man and with any others that dared to rise against them. As all but the Kreigmarshals themselves, we're seen fit to only either be ruled over with an iron fist or be wiped from the face of the realms.
Fulled with a firefly vigor, the Dernrung's Legions had taken nearly all of the lands of the southern wastes and were spreading deep into the Sylvanian and south-eastern territories, with some forces even pushing into the Varosian borders.
But the longer this great siege of Anvaris continued, the more their losses began to pile on and their supplies lines dwindling from the constant attrition. As when every great conquest had been finished, it meant more forces were needed to reinforce their forward positions from partisan attacks.
However, the end of the Kreigmarshals come about not from without but from within as the Kreigmarshals growing distrust of one another reached its breaking point. Ending in Kreigmarshals dying one by one between the hands of the enemy and that of themselves. The Legions were forever shattered in the wake of their masters' death and soon, the Legions began to fall themselves.
With the time of the Legions now gone with their holds quickly falling apart around them. The survivors were now scattered throughout the realm between the South-lands and the wastes, Hunted by the victorious armies of Man in name of retribution for horrors that the Legions had wrought on the lands.
The Wavering Period[]
Soon the great Legionaries, unable to withdraw back to the Southern Wastes, were forced to live like the common bandits to survive the changing climate that surrounded them. Creating holdouts with hidden forts and outposts along the outskirts of the known domains or adopting a nomadic and decentralized structure, splitting off into many traveling tribes that journeyed throughout the woodlands and the Sylvanian dunes.
Eventually, as the years passed, the Kingdoms that had forever condemned their race begun to focus on much more pressing and reverent matters. As the Hobgoblins were reduced to a pathetic shadow of their former selves.
Through the hatred that burned within the hearts of Kingdoms, while dimmed, still lingered enough to where that it was always an unfilled goal to keep Hobgoblins denied of any land or rest for their larger communities. As keeping the Hobgoblin as a whole scattered and broken was agreed to be the safest solution by the many.
And nevertheless, the Hobgoblins had more or less grudgingly settled into their new lives of poverty and despair, many often sought to take back their land through banditry and insurgency.
There was an equal number of those that sought to keep out of sight and out of mind of the Kingdomers, though this was mostly out of fear for they deeply dreaded the thought of the renewed acts of retribution towards them and their kin. Leaving the Hobgoblins fractured and lost as a whole.
The Lightwar[]
It was no surprise that a large majority of the Hobgoblins joined Kodan the Dark's forces when the Llightwar become known. Launching a relentless and brutal guerrilla warfare campaign within the Alliance of Light's home front, attacking as the unfilled as the Eleventh Legion.
However, one of Chief Hobgoblin Warlords, Krux, Was a fanatical follower of Andvarus and is believed to be a Lightkeeper member around that time, sought to change the majority of Hobgoblin's allegiance through a series of diplomatic talks and deals with other Warlords and tribesmen within the Eleventh Legion.
Though while Krux did spit the Eleventh Legion apart down into camps. The Majority of the Legion followed Krux and had soon become their Leader. Leaving the rest to either leave the war and go back to their roots of banditry or to support directly Kodan by joining his dark army proper.
Afterward, Krux took a committee of his top Warlords to pledge their forces to the side of the Light within Unity Point, though both sides were highly skeptical of one another.
But as Lightwar had gone greatly in Kodan's favor, the Alliance of Light made the deal that in exchange for the Eleventh Legion's unyielding service towards the war effort, they would be rewarded with a true Kingdom of their very own with Krux as its King.
The Eleventh Legion then went on to prove itself on the side of the Alliance of Light, acting as the forward point of the Alliance's spearheads down into Kodan's deeper territory. Earning the respect of even their more bitter enemies, the Eleventh Legion and the Hobgoblin race as a whole left the Lightwar victorious and distinguished by many.
Though the Hobgoblins have finally been rewarded with a land of their very own by the end of the war. They did not come out of the Lightwar without scars of their own. Taking heavy losses and that of their newly crowned king, Krux, during the final stages of the war.
Modern Times[]
The Hobgoblins have been slowly recovering from their losses in the Lightwar and have been hard at work in trying to build their new nation, The Kriegern Confederation.
Created after the core members of Eleventh Legion decided that one King wasn't going to able to mend the rising tensions between the various Hobgoblin tribes, electing to instead have a governing body lead by representatives chosen by each tribe's Warlord.
Many of the survivors hailing from the Eleventh Legion we're peerless veterans coming out of the all-encompassing conflict. With their leadership, the Kriegern Confederation's military went on to become among the first to fully recover from the hardship of the Lightwar, establishing the Kriegern Legion as a standing army to safeguard the sovereignty of the Confederation. This has made the Kriegern Confederation quite the military powerhouse by the Kingdom standards.
But yet, many pressing issues have risen to face this young state, from the sudden rush of Hobgoblin refugees to the lack any substantial trade with little to no natural resources native to the land has had dire repercussions on the Kriegern Confederation and its people as old grudges begin to flare up among their neighbors.
Notable Inventions[]
Rhinmand Artillery[]
The Rhinmand is a massive artisan guild that oversees the production of the crafting, smiting and general creation of the weaponry used by the Kriegern Legion and also serves a large political entity in its own right. Their greatest and most valued creations are that of their cannons. As these tools of warfare are renown among the lands for their quality.
Ranging from the mightily Bombards to the swift Falconets and the deadly accurate Culverins and Demi-Culverins in between. Each pattern of Cannons has been refined since the age of the Legions, modified and improved by every generation of blacksmiths that comes after the last. These weapons are known across the realm as one of the greatest assets that the Kriegern Legion can deploy on the battlefield at a moment's notice due to their very large wheels and comparatively light construction.
While the majority of the existing Rhinmand weapons hail from the days of the Legion, a rising number of them have been created within the last 50 years. Though the lion share of these new guns is the smaller Falconets and Demi-Culverins, most of these newly crafted cannons lay in the hands of the Kriegern Legion. However, there is a small number of recovered artifacts serving within the armories of various kingdoms and collectors, in varying states of repair.
The Demi-Culverins and Falconets proving to be especially useful in that of the mobile battlefield that the Hobgoblins have often found themselves fighting in, from the times before the Kriegern in the waving period in the hands of mercenary bands and insurgent groups.
The Mauskiss Snaplock Calivers[]
These extraordinary firearms have only been found among only the most elite units of the Kriegern Legion, crafted out of a burning desire to protect Her compatriots. The crippled legionary turned gunsmith thought to create a weapon to defend Her homeland from human invaders. One that could be easily trained by to be used by the dozens and could pierce the armored breastplate of a charging knight.
Drawing from her harsh experiences from working within the Dwarven army camp as an indentured laborer, She sought to create a weapon comparable to the Dwarven Flintlock but at a more easily produced number as Her nation lacked the natural skill of craftsmanship within the Dwarven Holds.
The resulting creation was that of the Snaplock Caliver. A firearm that while still very difficult to reproduce, has been proved to be largely superior to that of the common Matchlocks of Sylvanian and Varosian make.
The Snaplock Caliver was popular enough to gather the interest of the growing Rhinmand guild within the Kriegern Legion. Thus, the Caliver is slowly being replicated by many gunsmiths for use within the Kriegern Legion. Although its the production has recently been slowed even more so due to a scarcity of iron, as the few shipments are being rerouted towards the creation of more artillery pieces to fortify their borders as tensions rise around the Kriegern state.
Nevertheless, the weapon has earned the high praise of the rare few within Kriegern Legion that has been issued with it. Those being the Royal Guard and only the most elite of military units.
However, there are rumors that Mauskiss has become quite unhappy with his creation and has sought to isolate Herself from his fellow craftsmens within the Guild to pursue the goal of crafting a superior weapon alone.
Media[]
