Imperial Goblins (Dragonstar)
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Goblinoids - the Lesser Goblin, Hobgoblin and Bugbear - are prolific races living on the fringes of the Dragon Empire. While lacking the expansionistic and imperialistic nature of orcs, goblinoids are the ultimate scavengers and mercenaries. When the armies of Asamet rage across the stars, goblinoid bands load onto their ramshackle ships and follow like scavengers, ready to fall upon anyone who shows weakness.
Goblinoids live all across the galaxy, but the spread of civilization usually pushes them away. Relegated to preserves or prison planets, they nevertheless manage to breed faster than most other races, and their hunger for more room and resources is endless.
As a rule, goblinoids are unwilling to work together for the betterment of all. Individual goblinoids bully or cheat others into working for them as much as they can. But sometimes a great project emerges, something so fantastic and ingenious that all goblinoids realize it is their purpose in existence to make it real. Such projects rarely make sense to other races, and include mad-cap plans for conquest, the building of humongous war machines or terraforming an entire planet into a place more suitable for goblinkind.
Unlike orcs, goblinoids rarely have powerful leaders. Naturally, there are prominent individuals among them, but these never achieve the status of great and charismatic warlords that orc chieftains do. Cult of personality is simply not a goblinoid trait.
There is very little difference between the sexes among goblins. Males and females look alike to non-goblins. Family life is basically nonexistent, as goblins are not monogamous and do not marry. Children are raised by the clan, and it is unusual for a goblin to know either mother or father.
Goblinoids are divided into three sub races; Lesser Goblin (or just plain goblin), Hobgoblin and Bugbear. These are races and not species, and can interbreed. Actually, any form of goblin can have offspring of any sub race, so a Lesser Goblin pair might get a Hobgoblin child. It is suspected that the feeding and upbringing of a goblinoid child can be just as important as it's generic makeup when deciding what kind of creature it turns into, but this has been insufficiently studied. Suffice to say that when goblinoids are poor and oppressed, most of them turn out to be of the Lesser Goblin or Bugbear varieties, while in times of success and expansion, the Hobgoblin variety is in the majority.
Each race has it's own role, explained in more detail in their own write-ups. In short, it can be said that the Lesser Goblin is a servant, thief and scavenger, the Hobgoblin is militaristic, disciplined and aggressive, while the Bugbear is the consummate bully, oppressor and gangster.
Race Guide | Lesser Goblin | Hobgoblin | Bugbear
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