Hobgoblin

**Hobgoblins** are a goblinoid race from the Jade Mines, later forming the Command and invading Rahen. Their society puts a rigorous focus on family, discipline, and loyalty. The exception to these Hobgoblins is the Eagle Hobgoblins of Nomsyulhan.

## Appearance

Hobgoblins have red-orange skin, often falling somewhere in the gradient. They have pointed ears and dark hair with yellow eyes. They are known for having generally sharper features and being taller than the average halessi human, possibly due to typically having better nutrition and a martial culture. Hobgoblins tend to keep their hair long and males will frequently be seen with facial hair, along with keeping their long hair in buns or some other form of organization to keep themselves looking neat.

## History

### Beginnings

Hobgoblin history dates back in 2472 BA, with the the goblin-hobgoblin alliance. With the Jade Empire on a march to reclaim the Tree of Stone, Grimka the Despoiler, a powerful goblin wizard and unifier of the goblins of the Tree of Stone, offered an alliance to the hobgoblin clans that were scattered throughout the Jade Mines and the surface. In exchange for a united front against the dwarves, the hobgoblins would receive Grônstunad, considered the grandest dwarven hold of the east.

### Siege of Grônstunad

By 2470 BA the hobgoblin forces from Rahen had launched an assault on Grônstunad from the south, but a year later having had shut off all access routes from the east and west from Grônstunad, making all access between holds nearly impossible throughout the Jade Mines.

Though in 2460 BA Grimka would fall and the goblins forces disperse, the hobgoblins would remain united in their attacks against the Jade Empire. The war against the dwarves would wage on, the hobgoblins fighting several amethyst-peridot expeditions from the dwarves such as in 2438 BA.

With the combined forces of Verkal Ozovar, Hul-az-Krakazol, and Grôzumdihr, the three holds soundly beat the hobgoblins on the surface in open battle and move towards Grônstunad, where the hobgoblins had fortified the cave entrance in 2424 BA.

### Fall of Grônstunad

Finally, in 2419 BA, with Grônstunad's defenders facing starvation, emperor Moilin IV ordered an attacks on the hobgoblins at the southern gate and broke through, meeting up with the army of the three holds led by queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol. However, at the same time the western and eastern gates were breaches and as all forces enter the city in a chaotic battle, taking several months, Moilin IV of the Jade Empire (along with most of his direect family), and Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol fall. Grônstunad is lost and controlled by the hobgoblins.

Ovdal Kanzad would attempt to reclaim Grônstunad in 2394 BA, bringing cannons to besiege it, forcing the hobgoblins to regularly repel attacks and throw up temporary defenses. This siege would end just four years later as the hobgoblins forces managed to circumnavigate the dwarven forces, cutting them off and although they break through the surface hobgoblin army they are forced to return home.

With their departure, Vurdiz-Andriz is left alone and falls to the goblins and hobgoblins in 2368 BA.

### The First Unification

In the aftermath of destroying Grônstunad and seizing the wealth, the various hobgoblin clans would fight fiercely over its corpse, tribes would take control of the city from each other and establish High Chiefdoms in 2365 BA over subjugated tribes in nearby outlying tunnels and hills, the start to hobgoblin organization although it would be many years until The Command is born.

It would be in the 920s BA that the warring hobgoblin clans of the Jade Mines and Shamakhadi hills coalesced into a united confederation the size of which had not been seen since the destruction of Gronstunad some millenia and a half prior. Their leader was a mighty shaman, the Mage-Chief Shakuin, the Iron Spider. She and her generals organized the disparate clans of the depths and surface, the long-darkened jade mines and the high mountain peaks, and set out to conquer the ancient foes of the hobgoblins. On the surface her tribes clashed with the newly formed Rahenraj, but in the tunnels of the Dwarovar they set their eyes on the last remaining hold in the Jade Mines - Tuwad-Dhûmankon, beginning the siege. The siege would end on the last day of 908 BA the main gates would be shattered and the hobgoblins would take the palace.

### Bloodscrawl-Hobgoblin Wars

By 110 AA, about 800 years after the rise of Shakuin, the hobgoblins were once more disorganized, bringing them to conflict with the goblin Kringar Bloodscrawl, master of Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol. The Bloodscrawl quickly conquer Tuwad-Dhûmankon in the first surprise attack, beginning a series of brutal wars to attempt to conquer the countless layers of Grônstunad from the hobgoblin clans.

For a time the Bloodscrawl are successful, Kringar declaring himself Jade Emperor from the old throne of the dwarves, Grônstunad, in 119. However, the unity of the goblins did not outlive Kringar and they descended to infighting for a decade, by 182 the hobgoblins had expelled the Undergrowth Goblins and enslaved the majority of the Blackstep and Stolen Gem goblins that had chosen to side with their western cousins. Using the power vacuum left in the defeat of the Bloodscrawl, the hobgoblins would decieve the Stolen Gem and Blackstep clans to fight eachother, creating temporary alliances to slowly deplete the strength of both groups to weaken them, allowing the hobgoblin Stone Panther clan to capture Verkal Dromak in the mid 200s.

### Rise of Harimar

With the rise of the Harimraj, as the hobgoblins were pushed out of Shamakand a group of hobgoblins would be separated by the power of Harimar's armies. the hobgoblins of Maruvad were forced to retreat into the heights near Kharunyana, the God's Wall. Discovering a secret passage, these hobgoblins would escape into Nomsyulhan, becoming Eagle Hobgoblins.

### The Great Mage Crisis

In the aftermath of the Godloss, sometime between the 440s-580s, some mages tried to restore their influence. Attempting to unite tribes through shows of force and gaining incredible power from the dark knowledge of the oni, an uneasy alliance of powerful mages leads a huge invasion of Shamakhad, catching the Raheni off-guard. With the armies of the Harimraja attempting to reconquer Lianzhou in the east, the Great Hobgoblin Army rampages south  and are eventually stopped at. They are forced to fall back due to rebellions and attacks from anti-mage hobgoblins in the rear resisting their influence. Need to respond to this shatters the unity of the mage coalition, and the following decades are efforts to track down and kill the high mages hiding in the strongholds. Mages become increasingly oppressed during this time because of anti-magic sentiment that grew in the population.

### Banner of Black Vultures

In 614, led by High Chieftain Saitochi Black Vulture, many veteran warriors who have grown restless at the end of the hobgoblin mage wars migrate away from the Jade Mines and head west into the Tree of Stone, carving out a subterranean kingdom that stretched from Tuwad-Dhûmankon to the caverns around Ovdal-az-Ân. This would fragment into multiple hobgoblin clans over the next century, and would be swept away and destroyed or forced to flee to the Jade Mines when the Orcish incursions of the 800s began.

### Surface Wars

From the 950s-1100 there hobgoblins wage a series of wars against the major surface kingdom in Ghatasak, who had attempted to seize the Jade Mines Foothills and even the hold of Grônstunad. Beleaguered from the wars against the orcs, the hobgoblins remain on the defensive. Ultimately these would end when Jaher crushes the Shamakhadi in his campaigns, ending the wars but also pushing the hobgoblins out of the valleys and into the mountains.

### The Command

It would be between 1136-1200 that the Command system would be created, completely revolutionizing hobgoblin society and shaping their future. As the Command spread throughout Haless so too did the hobgoblins, some even becoming Swallow Hobgoblins in Lot Dekkhang.

## Society & Culture

### Religion

The majority of hobgoblins follow Godlost, a denouncement of the shamanic ways of the goblin cults since the Godloss. Godlost focuses on family and country over religious practices, where discipline and loyalty is virtue and disobedience is sin. This philosophy was born from High Philosophy from Rahen.

### Culture

Hobgoblins have an incredibly martial culture, focusing on discipline, loyalty, and martial skill. This is not only reinforced by their adherence to Godlost, but also by the stratocractic nature of the Command. In addition to this, they put immense importance on family. Familial values such as tending to the elderly and raising the young are seen as vital to the society. Many of the core tenants of hobgoblin society were codified under the Command by the Ten Reforms.

## References

1. ↑ Hobgoblins and Who They Are by Jassa Ahuwalia Mirrani