Page 127 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

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