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Message: <blockquote data-quote="QuietBrowser" data-source="post: 7301498" data-attributes="member: 6855057">So, I really don't like overloading folks with stuff, there's so much brought up to discuss already, but I thought I'd share some details on my plans for Hobgoblins in this setting.In a nutshell, my inspiration for this setting was born out of a common complaint; why use hobgoblins when you have orcs? And why use gnomes when you have dwarves? Add in the inspiration I found in Dragon 419's brilliant Winning Races: Hobgoblins article, and I knew I wanted to try and use hobgoblins in my setting in lieu of orcs.The key to the hobgoblins of Quietus can be found in their Nentir Vale lore, which I'll try and reproduce in bare essentials format here:Hobgoblins in this setting are, in their way, a civilised race - but one that believes the key to survival and prosperity is through strict order, discipline and military might. I hate to use the term "fascistic", but that is what honestly comes to mind as the first descriptive term.The homeland of the Hobgoblins, known currently as the Hordelands, lie far to the east across the Sea of Catastrophe. The raging storms and deadly monsters of this turbulent body of water keep contact between it and the Known World fairly sporadic. The coastal settlement-stronghold-nation of Viltheed theoretically remains in contact with the homeland via the equivalent of radio, but even this is not 100% reliable.The founding of Viltheed occured roughly 100 years in the past, when a certain celestial alignment calmed the Sea of Catastrophe enough to allow for a hobgoblin invasion fleet of unprecedented proportions to raid the unprepared nation-states of the eastern coastline. Though the Republic's forces threw them back, the hobgoblins fought with fanatical zeal, strengthened by the sudden disastrous return of the Sea to even greater fury than before, trapping them on the coastline. Eventually, the butcher's bill grew to the point that both sued for peace; the hobgoblins fortified their strongholds on the coast, named themselves the nation of Viltheed, and have slowly built up their power ever since.Some things I want to preserve with this setting are that dark is not necessarily evil, that morality comes in many shades of gray, and the tides of fate can make strange bedfellows. The hobgoblins of Viltheed are "The Enemy", as much as that title can be applied to anything. But, they also conduct non-hostile relations with their neighbors. There are hobgoblins who leave Viltheed and found new lives for themselves in the Republic. And hanging over Viltheed's head is the fact that they may be experiencing too much "cultural contamination" for the homeland to approve of - that there may well come a time, for some of their city-states at least, where the arrival of fresh forces from the Hordelands is as much a threat to them as it will be for the Republic.In short, hobgoblins aren't mono-dimensional warmongering idiots like Warhammer's Orcs & Goblins.Hobgoblin "technology" is brutally functional. Noxious fumes, black metal, spurts of chemical flame; it's ugly and harsh, utilitarianism mixed with barbarism, made to function and, at most, to be intimidating, not to look pretty. It ain't subtle, it ain't elegant, but it's tough and it does the job.I'm currently thinking to include Goblins and Gremlins - and maybe certain other goblinoids of the past, like norkers, varags or vrill - as branches of the hobgoblin family tree. Goblins, for example, are deceptively strong and hardy slave-laborers who are forced to toil for their bigger, more warlike cousins, whilst gremlins are anarcho-technomancers, specializing in making tech of the kinds that burn, explode or butcher....That's all I can think off of the top of my head, but I hope it gives you all a glimpse into what I want hobgoblins to be like and inspires you to make comments, ask questions, or offer suggestions.</blockquote>

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