were forcibly bent to his will. When the Strife Emperor’s
armies needed skirmishers, he corrupted his Dranassar
slaves into tiny goblins. When he needed new legions,
he twisted them into hobgoblins. When he needed spies,
they became bugbears.
The Calamity has long since ended, but the effects of
the Strife Emperor’s subjugation of the Dranassar still
haunt Exandria. The goblinkin on Tal’Dorei are the
descendants of the armies who failed to dominate the
new continent. Only a handful of Dranassar remain in
Tal’Dorei, though they are more plentiful in Wildemount,
where the ruins of Ghor Dranas still loom across its
jagged peaks. They live alone in the shadows, trying in
vain to cleanse their twisted kin of the Curse of Strife.gOB lins
Goblins are like vermin. Any human knows that, and
it might be the one thing dwarves and elves can agree
upon, too. They breed faster than rats, and sire children
half as smart—or so the saying goes. Goblins have no
cities of their own, and only name their temporary raid
camps after the “kill-boss” who founds it. If not for
smarter, more organized goblinoid species, the lesser
goblins would probably have lost all semblance of civ-
ilization, and become just like wild beasts. If nothing
else, they are easily manipulated by threat of force and
promise of reward. Goblins can be found anywhere on
Tal’Dorei, and are surprisingly adaptive to unwelcoming
environments.hOB gOB lins
The hobgoblins of the Rifenmist Peninsula learn from an
early age that they are born to serve the Iron Authority.
The unholy Strife Emperor may have stripped the hob-
goblins of their free will, but their mortal Iron Emperor
has stripped them of free thought. Hobgoblin are among
Tal’Dorei’s foremost military strategists, and this tactical
acumen makes them potent propagandists, as well. Every
hobgoblin blindly serves the caste above them. For sol-
diers, this is their commanding officer. For serfs, this is
their feudal lord. For the Iron Emperor, there is only one
greater power: the Strife Emperor himself.
The hobgoblin warbands that threaten Tal’Dorei’s hill-
folk are slightly different. Though many owe allegiance to
the Authority, their distance from imperial propaganda
has given these field scouts a different perspective. Each
soldier within a company is unflinchingly loyal to their
commander, but they are also all a distinct individuals
with goals beyond merely testing the readiness of Syngorn
and Emon for conquest. A few rare hobgoblins have even
been known to defect from their company after tastingfreedom, though many have been too thoroughly indoctri-
nated to seek freedom, even if it is offered to them.BugBears
Ghor Dranas has long since fallen, and the bugbears
have loyalty for neither other goblins, nor the divine
Strife Emperor. Where hobgoblins are willing to give
all for the collective, bugbears are fiercely individual-
istic. Of all the goblinoids, bugbears are also the most
willing to collaborate with humans and elves, and are
renowned throughout Tal’Dorei’s criminal underworld
as top-notch burglars and bounty hunters. Bugbears
who choose to offer their services to the Clasp or the
Myriad are usually found in Tal’Dorei’s largest cities,
but those who avoid a life of crime typically live alone in
the wilderness. Despite the sinister reputation of their
kin, many of these hermits take up a life of peaceful dru-
idism, fighting only to protect their animal friends and
secure their own isolation.Orcs
Throughout much of Tal’Dorei, the word “orc” is synon-
ymous with slaughter. The people of the Dividing Plains
live in constant fear of wandering bands of orcs, especially
the bloodthirsty horde known as the Ravagers. Most live
in small, animalistic packs within the valleys between the
peaks of the Stormcrest and Cliff keep mountain ranges.
These packs are chaotic, leaderless, and easy to scare away
at the first sign of resistance. However, when a particular
orc distinguishes itself from the pack, either through pre-
ternatural strength or uncommon viciousness, it quickly
establishes itself as the pack’s alpha. An orc pack led by an
alpha rapidly grows in size by absorbing leaderless packs.
When the alpha believes its pack has grown large enough,
it runs rampant across the land, slaughtering and pillaging
everything in its wake.
Most humans have no remorse for orcs. They view
them as savage, bloodthirsty beasts. And in a way, they
are correct. Nearly every living orc is a ruthless killing
machine, driven by its animal urges to kill, devour,
and reproduce. But things were not always this way. In
the time before the Calamity, there were no orcs. They
were created by accident when the Archeart, deity of
elves, shot out the eye of the war god now known as the
Ruiner. The Ruiner’s blood poured from his wound and
rained upon the armies of elves and humans that served
the Archeart. These unsuspecting mortals were changed;
their muscles bulged, wicked tusks grew from their jaws,
and their minds burned with a thirst for blood.
Even today, some orcs still possess scraps of rational
thought. Though the Ruiner’s fiery blood sears their minds,
what remains of their human and elven ancestry longs to
treat others with love and tenderness, not with hate and
pain. This knowledge is all but unknown to the people of
Tal’Dorei—no one has ever studied the orcs, and those who
claim to have been saved from a raid by a merciful orc are
mocked, their story derided as a traumatic fantasy.“ Trying to reason with a hobgoblin is like trying to
have a conversation with a very sharp axe swinging
at your head. In fact, the two are practically one and
the same.”
—Vex’ahlia