Elder ogre

— The wiki's staff

 **Language(s)** | * Common
* Giant

**Elder ogres** are an intelligent and extremely dangerous variety of ogre. Much like ogre mages, they are rapacious and cruel by nature. They dwell in fortified structures or underground lairs, usually living in small communities, despite their self-absorbed natures.

## Ecology

### Description

An elder ogre stands just over 10 feet tall and weighs up to 700 pounds. Its skin varies in color from light green to light blue, and its hair is dark, though varies in color from red to blue to black. A pair of short ivory or ebony horns protrudes from its forehead. The eyes are dark with strikingly white pupils, and the teeth, tusks, and claws are either white or jet black. Elder ogres favor loose, comfortable clothing and lightweight armor. Many elder ogres are master artisans, capable of crafting mithral into armor and weapons of the highest quality.

### Combat

Elder ogres rely on their spell-like abilities, sneak attacks, and ambushes, resorting to straight physical combat only when necessary. When faced with obviously superior forces, they prefer to retreat in gaseous form rather than fight a losing battle. Elder ogres hold deep, abiding grudges, however, and the unwise person who crosses one would do well to keep looking over their shoulder. Elder ogres rarely use armor and weapons that are not made of mithral. Most prefer the greatsword and longbow, though some have become experts with the longspear.

## History

Elder ogres are the only remains of the ogre and troll god Vaprak’s union with the giantish goddess Othea, before the cuckolded giant god Annam, in a righteous rage, caused the race to degenerate into ogres and trolls. Some of the race’s sorcerers were able to protect themselves somewhat, by fleeing east to far-flung Kara-Tur, where wang-liang, and perhaps the ogre mage, evolved. Millennia ago, the ogres were the most civilized of the giant-kin, and the Great Gray Land of Thar was once the center of an ogre civilization much greater than most can conceive of now. These elder ogres had erected a powerful mythal-like shield to protect them from Annam’s wrath, tying the power of the shield to the power of their king, the Tharkul.

Fortresses, built of stone quarried and transported by slaves from the West Galena Mountains and connected by an infrastructure of roads, were built throughout the Thar. Near the center of the wasted moor, the giant cylindrical towers that were the castle of the Tharkul arose, surrounded by spiked earthen walls filled with traps of all sorts. When the Tharkul was slain, the power of Annam permeated the shield, and the ogre kingdom of the Thar dissolved into chaos and civil war, laying waste to their great citadels and ending centuries of civilization. Today, little remains but a few battered foundations and grassy mounds scattered about the moor. Still, a memory of yore persists, and the degenerate ogres of the Thar still speak of the day when the Tharkul will return and again bring them glory. Annam’s magic was indeed mighty, but so to was the magic of the elder ogres.

A few of the race’s most powerful sorcerers completely escaped Annam’s wrath, taking to the Realms Below. Forced to hide from Annam’s rage, the elder ogres are said to have then fled Thar for the Tortured Lands and places farther afield. However, in recent months, several citizens of Glister are said to have encountered somewhat more evolved and powerful ogre mages returning to claim their lands of old. A Silverymoon scholar who has heard of the rumors has suggested it may have something to do with recent deific events in Hartsvale on the border of the Silver Marches.