Goblins & Orcs: Strength in Weakness & Weakness in Strength

To the peoples of Sublanarya, there is little difference in the orcish and goblinoid invasions from across the waters between the Dead and Dragon Seas. They are merciless conquerors, like locusts, who devour their crops, demolish their townships and enslave their peoples. They have sharp teeth, red, green or grey skin, pointed ears, speak strange tongues and worship strange gods. And yet, these two different groups fight each other as often as they fight the native population. They are, despite the surface similarities, psychologically opposed.

Goblins find strength in weakness and orcish weakness comes from their strength.

Goblinoids are a race that dates back to the Wyrd Wars. They were created by Gob the Horned Master, a diabolical duke associated with conquest and slavery, to serve him as his soldiers in his conquest of the material plane. Their legends say that he first tried to conquer a dwarven hold with his diabolical minions until both forces were decimated and brought to a standstill. The dwarven leaders offered a parley for peace. Gob was so disgusted that he hocked a mouthful of mucus onto the blood soaked mud at his feet. An army of diminuitive humanoids, green of hue as his mucus, rose up and finished off the dwarves. These were the first goblins and Gob imbued them with his ambition and cruelty.

Gob was slain by Urd the Forgefather, the patron god of the dwarves, and left the goblins without a master to guide them and a millenia long hatred for dwarves. The goblins were scattered across the world without leadership.

Goblins are a diminutive race, standing between 3 and 4 feet tall, with a dexterous frame with yellow to green colored skin (with some variance). They have sharp teeth, long & pointed ears, broad and pointed noses, beady yellow or red eyes, and with black hair-- males are prone to varying signs of baldness. They make up for their size and weakness with ferocity and numbers. Goblins breed and mature quickly, reaching adult age within 10 years, and often having broods of two to six per short pregnancy. This feature allows them to quickly fill the numbers for any horde.

Goblins live in familial tribes, usually building their lairs in caves far from other humanoids, and have a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. From a young age, goblins are taught that nothing is fair, that you have to fight for your own survival and that ruthless aggression is rewarded. Male goblins spend a lot of time gathering resources, usually through theft and banditry, and making short-term alliances with other tribes and monsters to raid villages. Goblins know they value of strength in numbers because it is their biggest strength. Female goblins usually rear the young and maintain their lair but, just as often, join the males in their raids.

Bugbears are the outliers of goblinoid society. With yellow skin, furry bodies, sharp claws, short-carnivore snouts and a hulking muscular form, bugbears are easily the most physically intimidating of the goblinoids.

They were created by Gob's son, Zorguhl the Brute, who valued strength above all else. Zorguhl is a cruel god who demands sacrifices from his priests who, unfortunately for Zorguhl, are few because of the inherent laziness of his creations. Bugbear are predators who live in small family units, but just as often prefer to live on their own or seek out a tribe of goblins to bully into servitude. Bugbears, like their god, are afflicted by laziness. Bugbears are opportunistic and cruel but lack the ambition or intelligence to lead like their hobgoblin counterparts. In goblin hordes, they most often serves as scouts, hunters and as brutal bodyguards for hobgoblin warlords.

Zorguhl was no replacement for his father Gob and he was leading the goblins with disastrous results of the goblins and bugbears fighting each other and making reckless decisions. Mal-Dorig the Dread Conqueror subdued Zorguhl and took the reins. Under Mal-Dorig, the goblinoids reached the zenith of their civilization. His biggest contribution was the creation of hobgoblins, from cross-breeding humans and goblins, to create a race of medium sized soldiers that are stronger and more menacing than their diminutive goblinkin and smarter than the brutish bugbears. They are leaders of goblinkind and the driving force behind any goblin horde.

Hobgoblins have shorter noses and ears than goblins, with orange to reddish hued skin, dark hair, often with facial hair, and stand between 5'6'' and 6'6''. Some hobgoblins have unique features with "blue-noses" being common among famous warlords. And there are plenty of famous hobgoblin warlords.

They are far more disciplined than their lesser kin, being born and raised as part of a warband mercenary group or an army. By nature, they are more "civilized" than goblins and bugbears, living in tents and forts, making their own weapons and armor, and making powerful alliances to form armies capable of conquering wide swaths of territory. They also are notoriously proud and haughty, feeding into the already caustic temper goblinoids are infamous for, and fly into violent rages when challenged or humiliated. Their reputation is more important than their own children.

Rank and position is the measure of that reputation. Unlike lesser goblinoids, open revolt is frowned upon. Instead, hobgoblins are expected to rely on earning their rank, challenging their superior to a duel, or, valuing subtlety, successfully assassinating a superior. Hobgoblins that are caught using subterfuge to get rid of a superior are admonished but are often let off easy if the performance of that superior had been lacking. Hobgoblins live for the glory of battle.

On a side note, hobgoblins are also famous for employing warmages in combat. Goblins are also attracted to the potential uses of magic but hobgoblins, who desire respect from their adversaries, have actually established scholarly keeps dedicated to learning and teaching magic to the most talented of their kind.

Ironically, the biggest survival trait of goblins is their weakness. They often survive situations that would otherwise decimate them by hiding, running or begging for their lives. The competitive and violent nature of goblinoids puts the smartest, cruelest and strongest on top. The problem is that while goblins are loyal to the tribe, leaderships is constantly challenged by rivalry and mutinies are a weakly threat. The best way for a goblin leader to survive is to make sure their rivals are occupied and nothing occupies goblins like making war. This all feeds into the ruinous cycle of goblin conquest, inevitably ending in their decimation.

The best way for a goblin to survive and thrive? To be weak, pathetic and cowardly. If other goblins don't see you as a threat, they won't see you as a rival, and they won't take you out. The most successful goblin tribes are those that are the most cowardly.

Some goblins have even escaped the cycle of violence and cruelty by taking on a new philosophy: profit! Goblin miners, merchants and bankers have built a new identity for goblins who leave their kin behind in the city of Mithrak. These entrepreneurs worship at the altar of gold and follow the teachings of Zreebo the Goldgoblin.

Orcs are strong. Orcs stand between 6 and 7 feet tall, powerfully built with grey to green skin, dark eyes, long hair, snort and flat noses, and pointed ears. Their most iconic aspect is their tusks which protrude from their lower jaw. They mature at a similar rate to humans, perhaps a little earlier, and breed often. Twins are extremely common among orcs.

Orcs live in small tribal groups, building tents and hunts or living in cave systems, led by a chieftain and a shaman. The chieftain is a position passed from father to son and they serve as the martial leader of the clan. The shaman is the spiritual leader who provides medicine and religious guidance to the tribe. Shamans communicate with spirits of the dead and share the teachings of Namu the Cave Mother. Orcs have no strict line of leadership outside of these roles, positions being based on meritocracy with the strongest being warriors, fastest being scouts, stealthiest being hunters and everyone else serving the tribe as caretakers of the young and elderly.

Unlike goblinoids, orcs are inherently neutral.

Orcs, ideally and by default, prefer to live unmolested, hunting and gathering, in their ancestral territory. When they need more resources or feel threatened by outsiders, they seek to expand their territory, often resorting to a psuedo nomadic lifestyle, and to expel outsides with extreme prejudice. They treat orcish and non-orcish outsiders alike and rely on their own strength and tenacity to overcome them. When their strength fails, orcs turn to drastic measures and seek power from a willing shaman's contact with a darker force. This is the source of all corruption of orcish society and leads them to a path of violence, conquest and savagery.

The orcish distrust of other races can be traced back to the primordial age when Namu the Cave Mother awoke after her brothers, the patron gods of elves, gnomes, and dwarves, and found herself alone. Namu was a capable huntress, strong and beautiful, but without her family-- her tribe-- she was lost. Orcs resent the other races for leaving her behind in the World Below. Namu wandered for some time before she was found by a handsome demon prince, Nago the Furor in the Dark. He deceived her, knowing of her importance, and used magic to enchant her to fall in love with him. When she gave birth to twins, Brother Rom and Sister Rem, he tried to steal the godlings away to corrupt them. Namu took the form of a great wolf, repelling Nago in his true form, a great demonic boar, but he left his mark on orc kind.

Their tusks are symbols of his influence and the fury of orc kind is his curse. Rom and Rem also bore the curse. They fight constantly. This symbolism is often represented in orcish heraldry with the symbol of two wolves chasing each other to represent inner struggle, growth and balance. Namu guides her children as a symbol of elders, wisdom and tradition. But some orcish tribes turn to Nago and other demonic forces for power. This leads them down a darker path.

Orcs that allow demonic influence to overtake their tribe become the cruel and violent brutes that other cultures think of. They destroy everything in their path, aligning with other evil forces, and make hordes that threaten to destroy civilizations.  They become stronger, their territories expand beyond their ancestor's greatest expectations and they destroy the very thing they were trying to protect by losing their sense of family to become power hungry beasts.

The temptation of power that is bred by this curse has defined orcish history but it doesn't have to be that way in the future. Half-orcs are often the end result of this cruel conquest but they can also be a bridge to their people to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors. This means throwing off the shackles of demonic influence and learning to trust the other races.

But this is only possible if the other races give them a chance.