Book of Beasts

[Simon Darkshade]

Dragons
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Reptilia
Order - Dracoformes
Family - Draconidae
Genus - Draconis

Of all the fell creatures on Earth, the most powerful is arguably the dragon. Their combination of flight, intelligence, magic, physical attributes, age and sheer size make them an apex predator beyond compare. There are several different geographical groups of draconic sub-species, with Draconis Occidentalis, Draconis Orientalis, Draconis Africanus, Draconis Australis, Draconis Meridionalis and Draconis Americanus being the currently known variations, with the oldest fossils coming from China. There are further sub-species within each major continent, often named after their colour or other attributes.

Modern dragons are huge creatures, with a fully grown great wyrm over 100ft long, sporting a wingspan of almost 250ft and weighing more than an adult blue whale. Their bone structure and dense flesh provides considerable resistance to damage from a variety of natural causes and is thought to contribute to their resistance against certain kinds of sorcery. Dragons can fly at an ordinary speed of over 80mph and have been recorded reaching diving speeds of over 150mph. All known adult dragons have arcane abilities equivalent to a fully fledged mage, with their long lifespan giving much time for study and reflection. Dragon scales are harder than solid steel armour and their hides are oft embedded with gemstones and diamonds from their hoards. This outer protection combines with the dense nature of their flesh to make them highly resistant to damage from natural or manmade means. Their other natural defences variously include razor sharp fangs and claws up to 6ft long, great horns, barbed tails, a deafening roar and highly acidic saliva; even the blood of a dragon is highly toxic to most living creatures.. Their most potent natural offensive capability comes in the form of their breath weapons, which is in the case of many species takes the form of a great cone of flame, but ice, electricity, poisonous gas and enormous gouts of highly corrosive acid are produced by others. Dragonologists have concluded that this particular attribute is the result of exhalation of combustible gas in the case of fire-breathing, but close examination of this phenomenon has proved somewhat hazardous.

The precise origins of dragons are unclear. There are several schools of thought among learned sages and scientists, with the largest factions believing that dragons evolved from either pterosaurs or archosaurs some 125 million years ago. Exactly how the ancestors of the modern Draconis survived the Cretaceous extinction event that wiped out the majority of the dinosaurs is a mystery, with a number of strange gaps in the fossil record and out of place remains and artefacts proving profoundly inexplicable. Dragons continued to develop and evolve through the Age of Mammals, with their peculiar life cycle and hibernation patterns becoming more distinct. Even at this early stage of draonic evolution, they would hunt and feed heavily and then sleep for decades at a time, a cycle based on some strange conjunction of the moons, stars and burgeoning arcane field of the Earth. Their numbers remained low due to low breeding rates and ferocious aggression towards others of the same species outside of rare mating periods.

The development of distinct subspecies of draconis can be traced back to the Early Pleistocene period around 1,000,000 BC, some time after the formation of the land bridge between North and South America. The largest and most powerful creatures are the Draconis Orientalis, noteworthy for their sinuous and bearded appearance and cultured outlook and have a variety of colours. African dragons are large and aggressive and tend to shades of green, yellow and brown. Most Australian dragons are flightless and have colours reminiscent of their environment, save for the rainbow serpents of the tropical north. The feathered dragons of South America are found mainly in the Amazon and the snow-capped peaks of the Andes and have the brightest hues of any earthly wyrms. North American dragons range from the smaller forest dwelling varieties of the east to the huge reds, whites and blues of the Rockies. The dragons of Europe are the most classically familiar and come in a host of different shades and sizes and include the flightless worms and armless wyverns.

The modern dragon began to emerge in the Lower Paleolithic, with increasing levels of intelligence indicated by tool use and carvings. Competition amongst different dragon species and tribes reduced their numbers and heightened general traits of aggression and suspicion. As elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes, giants, goblinoids and primitive humans began to emerge in the Middle and Lower Paleolithic, encounters with dragons began to make their mark in recorded history and cultural memory. The ancestral memories of the threat of serpents are strongly linked to early human-dragon interactions. Draconic ‘civilisation’ predated that of the humanoid species, but the few remains discovered by arcano-archaelogical means are so alien as to prove incomprehensible to modern man. The general consensus is that tribes were collected together in specific territories larger hosts ruled by particularly large and powerful great wyrms, which in turn were subject to the rule of councils of elders. As yet, efforts to translate the ancient language of dragons have proved unsuccessful, so any true insight to the nature of those primeval days remains elusive to modern scholars.

The rise of the ancient civilizations of the elves and dwarves ended the Age of the Dragons, with many hunted down and destroyed by great heroes and kings and others subdued to the purposes of particular kingdoms and empires. The advance of the ice sheets in the last glacial maximum put an end to their greatness, with the elves falling back to the forests and the realm of faerie and the dwarves descending into their great underground realms beneath the hills and mountains. Atlantis rose and fell, scattering its vestiges on both sides of the ocean that bears its name and disappearing beyond memory. The first true human civilizations emerged around 6000 BC in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Mesoamerica and Peru and all were marked by the scourge of dragons. Periods of draconic activity have occurred regularly throughout human history and are thought to be due to a combination of astronomical cycles and arcane fluctuations. Legends abound of the terror of dragons and their deeds of evil and good.
In the Far East, dragons cemented a clear niche within the society and culture of Imperial China over 5000 years and were generally accepted in India as great sages and yogis. The history of China is replete with tales of dragon kings and wise councillors of the early Emperors and the tremendous Great Wall was ensorcelled by mighty magics woven by ancient wyrms. Many of the greatest dynasties in Chinese history based their military might around draconic forces long before the West and dozens of venerable dragons were worshipped as demigods and deities across the Oriental world. The great rivers of India were home to many aquatic serpents in days of yore and their legacy is preserved in countless works of Hindoo mythology; it is thought that the modern Nagas are descended from these primordial species. In the soaring heights of the Himalayas, some of the greatest dragons the world has seen made their lairs and served as benevolent guardians and advisors to an array of the mightiest rulers of the sub-continent. The elder silver Vishtariyna proved to be a significant factor in the rise of the Vedic Period following the chaos of the Aryan invasions.

Dragons in the New World can be divided into two broad strains - the feathered serpents of Central and South America and the larger drakes of North America. Draconic populations in both continents underwent a considerable decline following the Fall of Atlantis, but still play a large role in Indian mythology and folk legends. South American dragons were greatly associated with the rise of ancient civilizations in Mesoamerica, the Amazon and the Andes Highlands and a number of ancient creatures were worshipped as gods by the Maya, Incas and Aztecs; Quetzalcoatl proved to be particularly significant in the history of the latter. Fossil records indicate the sudden extinction of particular variants of North American dragon approximately 6000 B.C., coinciding with the sudden draining of Lake Agassiz. The largest wyrms in Pre-Columbian America could be found in the heights of the Rocky Mountains, but their lack of activity over hundreds of years confined them to the stuff of legend. The Indians of the Woodland Period hunted the small forest dragons of the eastern forests and reduced the population considerably. The fall of the great civilization of the Valsar, most notable for their grand pyramids at Cohakia, has been ascribed to the wrath of an awakened great wyrm, finishing the work started by the changing climate and newly arrived plagues.

The history of European dragons in recorded times is well enough known and their terrible role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages the stuff of legend. Over the next thousand years, the Middle Ages would see the lives and deaths of many dragons and dragonslayers, with St. George, King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Roland, Tristan, Beowulf, Belisarius, Sigurd, Harald Hadrada, Dobrynya Nikitich, Isaac of Rome, Sinbad and Robin Hood all featuring in grand tales of battle against vile wyrms. This period also saw the re-emergence of good dragons from their long sleep and the terrible Dragon Strike of the 14th century, when wyrms ravaged much of Western Europe in a series of frenzied attacks. Several small kingdoms were briefly established in the Caucasus and Carpathians by particularly ambitious dragons who imposed their will upon mankind and humanoids alike before falling beneath the blades of heroes. Those noble beasts that threw their lot in with the cause of good and Christendom did much to establish a new pattern of relations between dragons and humans and several specific bloodlines have been closely associated with the fortunes of several kingdoms of man in the subsequent centuries.

Advances in sorcery and technology and changes in the climate cooled the medieval ardour of dragons and they have been less prevalent since the late 1400s, many disappearing to sleep on their underground hoards for centuries. They have been used in warfare throughout history to great effect, with only a great hero or mighty wizard able to oppose them until recently. The introduction of anti-dragon cannons in the mid 19th century did not prove a fully capable countermeasure until the 1880s, but since then the guns of a fortress or battleship have often been able to ward off a dragon. Their comparative rarity has limited their use in combat over the last five hundred years, with the 25 dragons of the Royal Flying Corps in 1869 being the largest number in service in a Western nation. They saw some employment in the First World War and more decisive use in World War II in both defensive and offensive roles; rare was the occasion when a nation would risk a priceless dragon unless the need was incredibly dire. Fully-grown British and American dragons were capable of independent flight across the Atlantic and it was generally considered that a single adult wyrm was the equivalent of a capital ship or bomber division in terms of their broad impact and relative military worth.

Dragons are generally solitary creatures, with there only being a few recorded circumstances of small groups cooperating with each other beyond immediate family relations. Rogue dragons come in many forms, ranging from those forgotten wyrms awaking from the sleep of centuries to newly hatched wildlings rampaging instinctively. One of the last terrible deeds of Nazi Germany before its fall was the loosing of multiple maddened dragons upon the world. Taming a dragon is not regarded as practical, although some species can be persuaded to cooperate with human societies when raised from hatchlings among men. Breeding in captivity has only taken place over the last 500 years and is yet to produce any comparable beasts to those who have grown naturally in the wild. The mating habits of dragons have not been closely observed by naturalists, at least not by any who survived to record the experience, but females produce clutches of between one and four eggs after mating at particular times, apparently linked to lengthy astronomical and astrological cycles.

The personality of dragons does vary depending on their age and breed, but certain common traits are apparent across the species – a long memory for slights, injuries and boons, hoarding of treasure, intense territoriality and a terrible wrath when aroused. Some are highly tolerant of humanoid species, whereas other regard them as something between a bemusing joke and a delightful snack. All dragons, be they benign servants of goodness or the vilest champions of the dark regard themselves as superior to all smaller animals. Highly intelligent, dragons love knowledge and seek it out when given the opportunity; several noteworthy beasts have displayed a particular love of riddles and clever conundrums. Draconic diets are primarily based around the consumption of meat or fish in vast amounts and older wyrms can devastate a region when engaged in hunting. Linked to this is the fascinating ability of draconic hibernation, whereby a dragon can rest and sleep for years or indeed decades at a time after consumption of a heavy meal. Draconic religious beliefs remain something of an enigma, with some sources indicating a form of ancestor worship and others supporting the veneration of archetypal deities.

The maximum lifespan of a dragon is unknown and inquiries of the beasts themselves have resulted in responses ranging from the coolly impolite to fatal violence; the oldest known dragon, Aurancardius the Golden, recalls flying over the Great Pyramid whilst it was under construction when he was a hatchling. After hatching, dragons typically take 100-150 years to progress to the juvenile stage, which is characterized by increased independence, growing appetite and acquisition of their own lair. Adulthood is reached at some point after 250 years, followed by growth through a number of size and age categories – maturity, elder, venerable, ancient and the most formidable beasts being great wyrms of over 800 years of age. Observations of ancient dragons have shown clear signs of senility and decrepitude, but no clear pattern as to when or why this occurs.

Standing at the apex of the natural world, dragons lack any true predators save the intelligent humanoid species and their numbers have declined over the last five millennia to the point where they are regarded as extremely rare creatures of semi-legendary status. The contemporary world is one of rapid development of technology and thought and many of the niches filled by the dragon are being replaced by the relentless march of the machine. It is unclear what the future of the dragon is in this modern epoch of science and the atom, but their formidable physical and mental capabilities are unquestioned; the key factor in their survival in the age of men will be their capacity to change and adapt.

[Simon Darkshade]

Giants
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Primates
Family - Hominidae
Genus – Gigantus

From before the dawn of the age of men, giants have walked the earth. These huge humanoids have fallen far from the glorious epoch of their fabled kingdoms of yore, but remain deadly and fascinating facets of the rich pattern of life on this planet. Their prodigious size, intellect, appearance, habitat and behavior vary as much as that of the other intelligent races, yet all giants share certain characteristics. All of the major races of giant, be they frost giants, fire giants, mountain giants, storm giants, hill giants or the Formorian or earth giants, are notable for their strength, aggression and fortitude. These major sub-species are spread out across the continents and islands known world, where further local variations can be found. They are mighty and dread creatures, yet not all giants bode ill for humanity and they are equally known to serve the forces of good as those of evil.

Giants can range in size from 8 to 16 feet in height, depending on their age and species, although some incredible specimens have measured up to 24 foot. Their facial features bear a passing resemblance to those of men or dwarves, but can be distinguished by their protruding foreheads, broad noses, pronounced jaws and large hands and feet. Giantkind are extremely hirsute and of solid build, being possessed of tough skin, immensely strong bones and uniquely structured muscle tissue, which acts to support their great bulk, which typically ranges between 1000 and 3000lb. This makes them remarkably resilient to the effects of many weapons, including firearms. The strength of most giants is several orders of magnitude greater than the most powerful average human, with typical feats including uprooting trees, hurling boulders and bending bars of iron. Their gait is akin to that of yeti, sasquatch and is strongly connected to that of the great apes. Cognitive ability is highly dependent on their race and bloodline, with few modern giants reaching the heights of ancient achievement or being capable of anything above elementary shamanism, let alone the deeper secrets of the Art. Virtually all known modern subspecies of giant are notable for their voracious and omnivorous appetites, with relatively few tribes still known as man-eaters. The final factor which unites giants of all varieties is their small numbers, which are but a fraction of their age of glory.

The true history of giantkind is obscured by the trackless mists of time, but the majority of scientific opinion among paleoanthropologists believes that there was some divergence in the evolutionary development of hominids approximately 25 million years ago, possibly due to climatic or magical fluctuations. Fossil records indicate that the first giants emerged in the modern Orient, from where they spread across the Middle East and Europe and even to the Americas over hundreds of millennia. These proto-giants were somewhat smaller than their modern descendants and typically engaged in hunting and gathering in much the same fashion as early humans, dwarves and goblinoids. Evidence of the first primitive giant ‘settlements’ has been found in the Caucasus and Northern Persia that date back to just before the last glacial maximum. It is unclear what pushed these prehistoric giants into the first rudimentary developments of civilization, but some arcane research studies have concluded that there may have been some degree of uplift by the higher species. Whatever the exact cause, the rise of giant kingdoms in the Near East predated the great epoch of Atlantis and there is copious evidence of the subjugation of human tribes to giant rule.

For several thousand years, giant civilization grew and thrived before its mysterious collapse, sending its survivors scattering across the Old World. It is thought that the Fall of the Giant Kings occurred around the time of the Oldest Dryas and was precipitated by either a strange cosmic disturbance or a localized impact event. Its consequences were profound, with a large number of surviving giants forsaking their previous highland territories and cultures and migrating hundreds of miles to the west, where they became the first hill giants and Formorians. The Great Flood and the fall of Atlantis destroyed the remnants of the great giant cultures of the Near East and only a few shattered ruins are left to this day. The first dawnings of civilization in the Fertile Crescent was marked by stories of the mysterious demigods named the Anunnaki, or ‘Shining Ones’ who many scholars believe to be the last descendants of the giant kings of old; a few fringe theorists hold that this group had a more extraterrestrial origin. Tales of the Anunnaki are thought to be closely associated with the ancient Titans of Greek myth. The last of their kind died around 4600 B.C.

One of the most famous giants of antiquity was Goliath of Gath, the Philistine champion slain in single combat by David in the Valley of Elah. At over 10 feet tall, he bore the bloodline of the Anakim, a previous tribe of giants who dwelt in Canaan at the time of the Exodus from Egypt. His fall by the agency of a single sling bullet was typical of many defeats of giants in the Bronze Age prior to the Great Agefall as most were driven away from the Levant and the Mediterranean world towards the hard lands of the North, leaving behind them myths and isolated wanderers. It was in this time that Bran the Blessed rose to the kingship of Britain and the frost giants began to be pushed back into the mountains of Scandinavia. One subgroup of giantkind particularly notable in the Classical period were the one-eyed Cyclops, insular mutated creatures who dwelt on islands in the Central Mediterranean before they were wiped out by Greek heroes. Alexander the Great subdued several tribes of Anatolian giants in the early part of his conquest of the Persian Empire and added their warriors to his army on his quest to the far edges of the known world.

The age of Rome saw the destruction of the last vestiges of giantkind still remnant on the verge of the Mediterranean world and the last wretched specimen of the once great giants of the Atlas Mountains was killed in the Colosseum in 178 AD in front of a baying crowd. In the Alps and the Balkans, small tribes eked out some measure of survival, but the larger part of the giants of Europe were now found to the north, in the wild lands of Germania and Scandinavia. Among them were the ancestors of the mighty giant clans of the Black Mountains and the Carpathians, although many others made their living as warriors in the ranks of the barbarian tribes. The fall of Rome and the coming of the long, cold and dark centuries that followed saw something of a rebirth for the fortunes of giants and none were so fortunate as the frost and fire giants of Scandinavia, who forged the mighty kingdom of Jotunheim. Bearing the name of the fabled Norse homeland of all giants, this powerful realm thrived and prospered between 397 and 612 AD in the far north reaches of modern Norway and Sweden and is thought to be the origin of many later myths and legends of clashes between man and giant.

In this dire time of ruin and blood, great renown was to be gained through the slaying of the marauding giants that so troubled the northern world. Both Charlemagne and King Arthur won well-earned reputations as great scourges of giantkind, defeating terrible champions in single combat, but it is in the ranks of the dwarves that the greatest giantslayers of the Dark Ages can be found. King Helm Grundarke, Bandor Bloodaxe and Dhrus Skomnir are remembered to this day for their valiant feats over fell foes, but paramount among them is Torg Stormbrand, who slew twelve giants singlehanded at the Battle of Skarg Kell. In Arthurian Cornwall, the deeds of young Jack the Giant Killer became the stuff of legend and fairy tales that echo down to the modern period, albeit somewhat conflated with the far older tale of beanstalks and ogre treasure that came from the Near East. Elsewhere in Medieval Europe, the tales of Le Chevalier Blanc of France and the Bold Little Tailor of Germany encapsulate the long and hard struggles against the giants that culminated in the Giant War of 1154-1160, when the forces of the Emperor broke the power of giantkind in the West once and for all. With the dawning of the Renaissance and the modern period, giants were reduced to a mixture of a curiousity and a tool of mankind rather than their ancestral scourge, being used in war as shock weapons and in peace for the construction of mighty walls, cathedrals and other such arduous labours. Such is the lot of modern giantry

Elsewhere in the world, the development and progress of giants followed a different path. The giants of Africa come in two varieties – those who branched off from the Near Eastern ancestors prior to the fall of Atlantis and the older group which had dwelt in the Dark Continent for tens of thousands of years. The former became the desert giants of the Sahara and the Sahel, while the latter evolved into the jungle giants of tropical Central Africa and their extinct southern cousins, the plains giants. In all cases, their skins have been burnished deep brown and ebony by the burning sun and they are considered to be grouped under the broad category of earth giants. In Asia, the giants of India and China were soon subsumed into human empires and gradually grew rarer, save for those who dwelt in the skyraking ranges of the world’s greatest mountains, who developed into the cultured and intelligent mountain giants; to this day, some of the foremost guardians of the reclusive Himalayan realms are formidable giants. Across the ocean sea in the Americas, the unique flora and fauna of the New World lead to the development of several different regional varieities of giant, ranging from the forest giants of its wide and wild woods to the storm giants of the northern mountains and tundra. In general, both North and South American giants are slightly larger on average than their Eurasian relatives.

The general habits and behaviour of the main subspecies of giantkind have a large degree of variance among them. The earth giants of the southern reaches are the smallest type, making their lairs in ground level dwellings and generally eschewing contact with man due to ancestral memories of trouble and strife. The hill giants of Europe and Asia are considered to be the most brutish kind, given to savagery, man-eating and dreadful violence, but are also rank among those most often used for military and industrial purposes after being taken from the wild in early life or bred in captivity. The mountain giants are the most sophisticated and intelligent of their kind and cordially dislike dealing with humans, preferring isolation in the rarified climes of their soaring homes. The frost giants of Scandinavia have been driven to near extinction and the few specimens remaining in the wild are known for their aggression and twisted intelligence. Their hot-blooded and dark skinned fire giant cousins are even rarer, but rank among the most cunning and skilled of all giants and a large community can be found in the iron mining regions of Northern Sweden. On the other side of the Atlantic, the storm giants are also much reduced in numbers, but are the largest of all types of giant and work closely with humankind, having a history less marked by bloody warfare and mutual mistrust.

Their maximum lifespan can reach up to 600 years, but many of the lesser breeds struggle to reach a single century in the modern world. The diet of giants is marked for its lack of discrimination and incredible voracity – they will eat nearly anything and do so in large amounts. As a general rule, they will typically consume up to a twentieth of their bodily weight a day when they can find it; giants are also capable of making do on far less, a vestigal remnant of earlier days.Where once many giants would consume human flesh or that of other intelligent humanoids, this particular habit has been expunged through years of active persuasion.Giant culture is highly dependent on their type, intelligence and relationship with mankind. Few wild tribes remain in their natural state, so most giants have adapted to the ways of man over dozens of generations. Once most giants held to their own pagan beliefs and rituals, including blood sacrifice, but the incidence of this has declined with the rise of Christianity and modern civilization. Those assimilated to some degree within human society follow its general patterns of behaviour, but are generally excluded from everyday life and kept to the fringes of the world of mankind, whether in the workings of industry or of war. Whether in the wild or civilization, the lot of many giants in the modern age is not a happy one.

[Simon Darkshade]

Greenskins: Orcs and Goblins

Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Primates
Family - Hominidae
Genus – Orcus

Few species have spread so widely across the Earth and solar system as those collectively known as the goblinoids. Fewer still arouse the same degree of loathing and revulsion, a hatred long earned through thousands of years of bloody acts of wickedness. Yet for all their deserved reputation for cruelty and evil, theirs is a wretched kind with much to be wretched about and the roots of their deeds and reputation can be seen in their troubled history. The goblinoid family extends from the largest and most fell branch, orcs, through the bugbears, hobgoblins, the various races of goblin, kobolds and the tiny gremlins. All share similar attributes that stem from their ancient past as underground cave dwellers, but there is considerable variance across goblinkind. The modern era is one of great change for the goblinoids, with revolutionary advances in their relations with and treatment by other species coupled with the widespread disappearance of many of their natural roles and dramatic changes in their environment.

The common physiognomies of goblinoids are ferocious fangs, sharp claws, coarse dark hair, slanted eyes, distinctly pointed ears and stout snouts. These latter characteristics are connected with their extraordinary dark vision and highly developed senses of smell and hearing, born of millennia dwelling in caves and under the earth amid fell predators. The facial visages of many orcs and goblins seem to show occasional porcine and primate influences, but mixed with a bestial cast that is entirely of their own. Virtually all of the larger species are possessed powerful musculature and goblinoid skin is at least five times tougher than that of humans. This gives them a strength and general vitality beyond that of ordinary men, as well as a certain degree of resilience against glancing blows and minor injuries. They are highly omnivorous creatures and their strong digestive system gives them some measure of resistance to many toxins. Their colouring can vary, but most tend towards shades of green and grey, providing a measure of effective natural camouflage. The height of orcs typically range between 6 and 7 feet, although this is oft obscured by their stooped posture, another vestige of their origins, and their smaller cousins gradually decrease by height: hobgoblins and bugbears average 5.5 to 6ft, goblins 4ft to the 2ft gremlins. Contrary to the stereotypes perpetuated in tales, films and derogatory accounts, the goblinoid species are universally highly intelligent and swiftly adapt to new circumstances.

Goblinoids are thought to have emerged over 2 million years ago, during the great divergences in hominid species that accompanied dramatic changes in the the global environment in the Early Pleistocene. The various species of goblinkind share a most recent common ancestor in the form of Orcus troglodytes, a small yet agile cave-dwelling creature that emerged in Central Asia after earlier migrations from Africa. It is thought that they took to caves and the shallow regions of the Underworld in response to an extreme climate event or bollide impact in the far distant past. There they dwelt through hundreds of millennia, evolving and developing unique characteristics that set them apart from their cousins. The first major separation occurred with the split of goblins away from orcs, which occurred some 250,000 years ago. This sparked innumerable conflicts for resources, light and water, resulting in increasing numbers of both races being driven to the surface. There, they generally dwelt in extreme climes and hard lands rather than fertile areas, being driven there by their primary competitors – dwarves, men and Neanderthals. Interbreeding in the area of the Great Steppe produced hobgoblins approximately 130,000 years ago and all three species spread out across the Old World, reaching the islands of South East Asia and the northernmost reaches of Europe by 50,000 BC.

It was in this prehistoric age that the first of the great wars between goblinoids and dwarves took place. The circumstances of the conflict are now but the stuff of legend, but the results cannot be doubted, with many tribes of orcs and goblins being driven away from the dwarven heartlands of the Urals in two distinct directions. The first and smaller group fled down into the icy, rugged tundra of Northern Europe and the mountainous Scandinavian Peninsula. They were to develop into the Orcus borealis, the generally largest branch of goblinoids by physical size. One clan eventually made their way to the northern reaches of Britain over several generations, leading to the emergence of what would later be known as the bugbear. The orcs and goblins not only engaged in constant warfare between their feuding tribes, but came into conflict with the northern dwarven realms of the Scandes and the elven kingdoms of the West. The latter were to prove exceptionally deadly foes, establishing a racial enmity that continues to this day and driving the fecund goblinoids to the swamps and the dank reaches of the underworld beneath the Carpathian Mountains. These cramped conditions lead to one particular branch of goblins adapting to their circumstances, becoming the ancestors of modern kobolds, who are still mainly concentrated in Germany and Central Europe.

The second wave of movement was down to the area between the Caspian and Aral Seas, where they lacked both the resources of the great mountains and the verdant land of the Fertile Crescent in the Near East, which was even then an area of human primacy. Many scholars believe that this forced migration was one of the formative experiences that shaped goblinoid culture, language and development. In any case, the nature of their land and the fierce competition for resources encouraged the hunter-gatherer societies to evolve into aggressive raiders who engaged in almost constant conflict with each other. This in turn lead to certain characteristics and behaviours coming to the fore in what we consider the second major branch of the goblinoid family, the Orcus orientalis. This culture of war caused a series of long-running conflicts with the giants, which resulted in the subjugation of several tribes under the domination of the giant kings. A direct consequence of this was the goblinoid domestication of certain types of wolves, which gave them an unmatched mobility across the steppes. As the Ice Age receded, the power of the greenskins waxed and their territories once again expanded back to the mountains of the dwarves and the great forests of Siberia.

This then was the first Orcish Empire, a vast precursor to the horse nomad kingdoms of mankind that arose in later millennia. It was briefly lived, only existing for perhaps 500 years in the midst of the 14th millennia BC, and paled in comparison to later such entities in most respects other than terror. Bound in the south by the border with the giants and in the north by the dwarven kingdoms, who were undergoing that long period of introspection that followed the Great Schism, it ravaged the nascent human tribes of the area and lead to the destruction of several species of megafauna. Dire portents in the heavens and the rise of Galaer Ralodithyn, an elven prince with a particular loathing of the greenskinned monstrosities, lead to the War of the Broken Claw, which smote the ruin of the Orcish Empire and scattered its remnants into the far reaches of the steppes.

Across the vast reaches of Africa and Asia, other goblinoid variants had developed and evolved in quite distinct manners that were shaped by the physical nature and human cultures of their respective homes. Those in Africa had gradually spread out across the Green Sahara into the depths of the continent, adapting to the enormous jungles and trackless savannahs alike, but, like their human and dwarven counterparts, they lacked the easily available resources and suitable animals and crops to rise to the level of the Old World civilisations of Eurasia. The Asian orcs, goblins and hobgoblins often adapted the beliefs and mores of their general cultural area and their development occurred parallel to that of man. Those of Central Asia and Mongolia became highly nomadic groups, whilst those in China, Japan and Korea adopted more settled behaviours. Most Chinese goblinoids were progressively driven away from the prime areas of human settlement into the badlands of the West, whilst Japanese orcs were largely confined to Hokkaido after millennia of demographic pressure. In the Indian world, they developed a distinct identity in the manner of many other fantastical species, being collectively known as Kalapa, and experienced a higher degree of tolerance for their existence than in the Western world. None of the various Asian subspecies have a birth rate comparable to those of Occidental goblinoids, which lead to their gradual decline up until the Medieval period.

In the age of Atlantis and the nascent civilizations that grew following her fall, goblinkind seemed to fade into the background of history, save for occasional accounts of their defeat by various warrior kings. It was only in the time of Sumer that we see mention of the role of orcish tribes, which were one of the earliest groups defeated by the legendary Gilgamesh. Hieroglyphic records in the Great Pyramids of Egypt describe the presence of goblinoid slaves, particularly in the great works of the southern reaches of the Empire, where they served as partial replacement for the Israelites upon their departure to Canaan in the Exodus. The great Bronze Age Collapse that began in 1177 BC saw great goblin armies pouring out of the northern mountains into the Levant, triggering the fall of the Hittites and the wave of migrations of the Sea Peoples, and, in the view of some scholars, the Aryan invasions that put an end to the Harrapan era in India. Their impact was even felt in the Far East, where the pressures of barbarians lead to the construction of the first structures that would later become the Great Wall of China. The development of iron weapons and the early manifestations of classical magic turned the tide in favour of mankind, and one of the most notable relics of the Neo-Assyrian Empire is the Sargon Stele, which lists among his triumphs the Extermination of the Maskim, an Akkadian word meaning ‘fiend’. For the most part, goblinoids were driven away from the settled areas of the Mediterranean world as the Iron Age began and were regarded as semi-legendary pests in many areas.

The Heroic Age of the Greeks in the West saw many mighty warriors such as Theseus, Jason and Achilles win renown for their battles against goblins, but all paled before the great Hercules, who slew the three hundred strong tribe of the Terasidae in the wild mountains of Thrace in a single day. Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Perrsian Empire bought the eastern reaches of the known world under Hellenistic rule and further harried those remaining goblinoid tribes in the Middle East. Orcs still remained in the wild and vast barbarian lands of the dark North, but few were seen in the areas under the light of civilization. This situation continued in the epoch of Rome, whose legions occasionally battled greenskins out in the forests of Germania and the mists of Britannia, often describing them as savage forms of human akin to the Wild Men. The ferocious nature of their foes did lead to their association with Orcus, the god of the underworld, leading to the development of the modern word ‘orc’.

By late antiquity, the glory of Rome had given way to decadence and corruption, fatally weakening the already unsteady Empire. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire has been the subject of considerable scholarship, but the most notable external factors that contributed to its occurrence were the Barbarian Invasions amid the Long Winter, which is thought to have been triggered by the eruption of Rabaul in 364. In turn, the tremendous movements by the Franks, Saxons, Vandals, Alans, Burgundians and Goths were driven by the invasion of the Huns from Central Asia and the Orcs from the far north, which forced them from the lands of Odin. The progressive collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the cold, dark conditions of the 5th Century allowed the mass migration of goblinoids into Europe, where they established firm footholds in the forests, hills and mountains. Thus began the Great Orc War, which was to rage across Europe for many generations, even as the barbarian tribes settled in new lands and established kingdoms of their own.

Over the next six centuries, the Dark Ages would prove to be the Golden Age of the Orcs, with great kingdoms extending their control up from the underworld into the realms of mankind with tremendous success and savagery. Just as mighty Christian kings such as Charlemagne, Arthur, Sigurd and Alfred the Great had to beat back their human foes in the form of the Saracens, Lombards, Vikings and Picts, they also had to defend their lands from the wicked predations of the greenskins. The Viking raids which inflicted such damage and sorrow on Western Europe were sparked in large part by the dolourous effects of orcish advances in their homelands. Both humans and orcs employed roughly equivalent technology during this time, giving a tactical advantage to the physically larger and stronger creatures. It was not for nothing that in this age, the orc was given the deserved Anglo-Saxon name of fiende mancynnes, the enemy of mankind.

Christendom began to emerge from the long years of tribulation by the turn of the first millennium and the High Middle Ages saw the turn of the tide in the wars against their bestial foes. The development of new weapons, advances in fortifications and the rediscovery of potent magics all combined to give the men of the West a decisive advantage against the orcs and goblins. Five separate successful Goblin Crusades were waged against the greenskins in Germany and Central Europe, with each one resulting in the destruction of an orcish kingdom and tens of thousands of goblinoids slain. The mounted knight in plate mail armed with swords and lances of dwarven steel, men-at-arms with crossbows and polearms and the firebolts and shock blasts of wizards all combined to deal defeat after defeat on the enemy of mankind. The aid of the dwarven realms, which had reemerged from their long and bitter civil strife, proved instrumental in sealing the victory.

The goblinoid species entered a period of sharp decline from the 14th Century onwards, suffering greatly from the effects of the Black Death across Eurasia and becoming increasingly constrained by the rapid expansion of human nation states and empires. Many orcish tribes were destroyed in the Mongol conquests, falling victim to greater numbers. The wild lands which had once been their domain were now subsumed under the tide of civilization and a general movement back to the upper reaches of the underworld took place during the Renaissance. European discovery and global dominance lead to further advances on goblinoid tribal territories and the last independent kingdom was destroyed in 1542 by the armies of Muscovy. Human scholars confidently predicted the imminent extinction of the greenskins within a century, but the very act of conquest was to bear in it the seeds of survival. As the empires of Christendom spread around the world, so did orcs and goblins, being variously employed as slave labour, menial servants, beasts of burden and cannon fodder. This permitted a mixing of the various types of goblinoid species, homogenizing the previously distinct types and increasing their birthrate substantially. From the brink of annihilation, the orcs and goblins began to recover. In the underworld, free tribes remained, but for those on the surface, their destinies were now inextricably intertwined with those of men. Goblinoid slums grew up on the verges of many large cities, although they were subject to regular riots and strict oppression.

The Industrial Revolution would prove to be a turning point for the goblinoids. After several centuries where they were in search of a role, the growing need for a tough, unskilled workforce in the new factories, mills, gasworks, coal mines and steam plants presented a new opportunity in many countries. Smaller kobolds were considered particularly useful workers due to their compact size and selective breeding over several generations created the gremlins. As human slavery ended across the civilized world, some noted that the burden had been transferred and the question of orcish emancipation began to be raised. Machines and clockwork automatons eventually supplanted many of the more visible goblinoid roles, but they remained in certain dangerous and dirty industries. As the empires of Earth expanded into the vastness of space, the orcs and goblins followed, enjoying particular fecundity on Mars for reasons that have yet to be fathomed.

In the 20th century, the outbreak of the Great War saw all of the great powers give serious consideration to plans for the employment of orcish armies, but these were never put into action due to a combination of social restraint and the notion that there were some lines that civilization must not cross. The aftermath of the war saw a brief period of social advance for goblinoids in many nations during the 1920s until the crashing impact of the Great Depression set relations with humans back by decades. World war followed, more destructive and terrible than had ever been contemplated before. In its early stages, the most notable goblinoid-related development was the nuisance of gremlins in various RAF bases, but the character of the conflict rapidly changed. Many were the acts of evil undertaken by Nazi Germany, ranging from germ warfare to the blackest sorcery, but among the most infamous was their employment of vast goblinoid armies on the Eastern Front in the aftermath of the catastrophe at Stalingrad. Over one million orcs and hobgoblins fought and died as the war took on a character of utter savagery, leaving millions of noncombatant females and orclet children to be overrun by the Allies in Germany and Austria-Hungary. This tempered something of the spirit of vengeance and presented a unique logistical challenge. The years since the war have seen increased voices advocating reform of the legal status of goblinoids, including the noticeably radical Orcish Rights Movement, which has encountered some steady success in Britain and the United States.

The personality and behaviour of the modern goblinoid species are shaped by their history and lifestyle. Countless generations of dwelling in harsh conditions where survival was a constant struggle have made the greenskins a savagely brutal race. Selfishness is a common characteristic in orclings, but strong familial and clan bonds are forged that override such attitudes. Great aggression and competitiveness are more lasting features and resultant extreme violence is an intrinsic factor in all goblinoid societies. Many traditionalist orcs follow a strict if harsh code of honour which frowns upon weakness and glorifies strength. All goblinoids are prone to bloodlust and beserker tendencies in physical combat, a characteristic thought to have developed from thousands of years of consumption of certain powerful underworld mushrooms.

Few goblinoids remain in their ancestral natural habitats, having been almost entirely subsumed in modern society. Those that do are the underworld dwellers, who can be found in cave systems beneath the surface of the Earth where light, water and food are all scarce quantities. The majority of greenskins live within human nations, albeit almost entirely in segregated settlements. The diets of the various goblinoid species are extremely omnivorous, with a distinct preference for raw or extremely rare meat. Orcish taste buds function differently from those of humans, with a greater preference for bitter, sour and savoury and a general dislike of sweet foodstuffs. Cannibalism, once widespread, is now a thing of the past and is often raised as part of disparagement of the species.

Greenskin culture is built around the family and clan and loyalty is strongly hierarchical. Their children reach physical maturity after a decade of life and females will give birth to litters of up to six babies, a small minority of whom stand a good chance of reaching 100 years of age should they avoid accident, misadventure or war. Traditional beliefs have been mostly eradicated since the Middle Ages by the same impulses that have driven paganism to near extinction among the human populace. Many orcs have converted to Christianity, although some of their beliefs have attracted a backlash due to the perceived heretical nature of their interpretations. Dwarves regard goblinoids with distinct antipathy and they are viewed by elves as a pernicious natural pest; in contrast, relations with gnomes are generally amicable, on account of the relatively short period of interaction between the species.

Modern orcs and goblins exist in a world of flux and incredible change. By the second half of the 1900s, the future prospects of the greenskin species are uncertain, but have been injected with an unexpected note of positivity. The modern world is one that no longer seems to have a role akin to that they have filled since the 1400s, but the noted orcish scholar Professor Braak de Cheambre of the Sorbonne speaks for many when he suggests that the years of decline are coming to an end, one way or another.

[Simon Darkshade]

Ogres and Trolls

Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Primates
Family - Hominidae
Genus – Brutus

Hideous brutes looming up out of the shadows of time. Terrifying monstrosities used to frighten children since time immemorial. Voracious maneaters driven to fitting near-extinction. Such are the first labels often applied to ogres and trolls alike, yet none are truly applicable to either creature. Without the teeming numbers of the goblinoids or the sheer size of giantkind, both have made their mark on history in a number of different ways and have established firm niches in the modern world. Generally speaking, both ogres and trolls are large and powerful humanoids noted for their great strength and enormous appetites, but their various physical features, colouring, behaviour, culture and temperament can vary significantly. Both species are waning ones, but their future is seen as potentially brighter after the revolutionary developments of the last few momentous centuries.

Ogres and trolls share many common physical features, stemming from their long extinct common ancestor. They are physically imposing creatures, the tallest subspecies reaching up to 9 and a half feet when fully grown, and universally heavily built, possessing strong musculature and tough hides. Both have sharp fangs and claws, thick bones and exhibit exceptional strength. Trolls tend to have long, gangly arms and legs out of proportion to their bodies and generally have green or grey skin. Ogres come in a variety of shades which can change greatly over a lifetime and have a conventional limb structure. The intelligence of each species can vary greatly, depending on their location and history. Both species were renowned as monstrous man-eaters in days of yore, which contributed to their wicked reputation and decline in numbers, but in modern times practice extreme omnivorism. Certain unique characteristics mark them apart from each other and indeed from other intelligent humanoid species. Trolls possess an advanced form of regeneration of lost tissue and organs, up to and including limbs in some observed cases, and are capable of hibernation for long periods. Ogres not only possess the ability to secrete different scents, but are capable of subtly altering their body temperature to evade predators.

Undoubtably the largest amount of variance of ogre species can be found in the Occident, where the four major strains of Ogrus can be found. The golden ogres are the largest and most curious specimens, with their development apparently linked to a long dormant genetic mutation that has left modern scientists quite baffled. They are possessed of considerable intelligence and a higher degree of manual dexterity than any of their fellows. The blue ogres are the smallest of their kind, but are almost as intellectually capable as their golden kin, being given to underground and indoor activities and eschewing the sun. Green ogres make up a small majority of their kind, heartily enjoying manual work and violence, although the latter tendency is more focused on competitive sports and military service in the modern era. Red ogres are perhaps the most primitive of their kind and tend to shun the ways and company of man in favour of their fellows and traditional life. The oni of China, Japan and India come in a variety of colours, but can be distinguished from their Western relatives by their horns, great fangs and wild hair. The Indian belu in the modern world can mainly be found in Burma and the mountains of Bengal, where perhaps the last of the truly wild ogres of the world can be found by the fortunate or not so fortunate traveller. Trolls are largely divided into the mountain and forest trolls, with the former possessing an almost stony grey hide and having an extremely powerful build; it is thought by some sages that the combination of these factors and trollish hibernation lead to the folk stories of trolls being turned to stone by the sun. Forest trolls have a green, mottled appearance suitable to their environment and are notably smaller than their highland kin.

Both ogres and trolls share a common ancestor that broke off from the giant family of development approximately 1.6 million years ago in what is now Eastern Europe. This was apparently a large brutish creature that dwelt in the foothills of the Carpathians. Dramatic climactic events resulted in the split of the species between the larger primordial trolls of the northern mountains and the somewhat smaller proto-ogres of the swamps and forests. The two types then spread out across the Old World over tens of thousands of year, although the range of trolls did not extend into the Americas due to intense competition with the earlier sasquatch. By virtue of their differing environments, the distant cousins grew further apart, with the ogres forming large tribal groups that dwelt in their own distinct territories, whilst trolls remained in small packs that would hunt and scavenge above and below ground in the bitter cold of the highlands. Distinct regional types of ogre emerged in this period – the oni of the Far East, the belu of India, the fir bolg of the outlying reaches of Western Europe and the eponymous ogrus of Caucasia and the Balkans. As human civilization emerged in Atlantis and elsewhere around the world, ogre villages and the first glimmerings of primitive kingdoms arose in the more fertile uplands of the Levant, often subjugated by the more advanced giants, as the majority of the ogrus rufus were tough, powerful hunter-gatherers, but backward compared to their larger relatives and the smaller humans. In the same period, as the great glaciers finally receded, the trolls multiplied and began expanding from their mountain homes in Scandinavia across the northern world, albeit in a far more primitive, tribal state.

In the last years of Atlantean expansion, a tribe of ogres had been placed into servitude by a colony in modern day Georgia and, through exposure to an advanced sorcerous artifact, developed into a highly intelligent and advanced community noted for their goodly ways and golden skin. These golden ogres were apparently wiped out in the cataclysmic events that followed the fall of Atlantis. The dawn of the first great civilized cultures built up around cities in the Old World resulted in a waning of the fortunes of the ogres, just as the giants receded with the advance of mankind. With their greater size, natural ferocity and strength, ogres held the upper hand in individual combat until the introduction of composite bows and chariots turned the tide in favour of humanity. Throughout the Fertile Crescent and the wider Middle East, the ogre tribes were gradually but ruthlessly driven into the high mountains, although many faced outright extermination at the hands of the warlike Assyrians and Hittites. In this time, separated from the more easily accessible food sources of the lowlands, several different varieties of ogre returned to the habits of preying on humans as a source of nutrition, which had mostly been left behind in their own rise from the Neolithic darkness. This in turn lead to further warfare betweens humans and ogres and is considered by some scholars to be the basis for a number of the prototypical fairy tales that occur across many cultures. Far off to the west, the fir bolg had a brief period of dominance in the north of Ireland before being crushed by the Tuatha de Danann and their human vassals, their fate lost to the pages of history.

As the glory and grandeur that was Greece and Rome swelled in the height of antiquity, the ogres of the Mediterranean world came close to extinction, with the survivors being driven into the hardlands of the Barbaricum. Trajan’s Dacian campaigns resulted in the destruction of one of the few ogre kingdoms in his furthest expedition to the banks of the Dniester in 105 A.D. This lead to the first change in the dynamic appearance of ogres in recorded history, with a gradual shift towards more green-tinged hides rather than the red hue that had developed in the warmer lands of the Middle East. Many ogre tribes found a niche alongside the various groups of goblinkind dwelling in the areas, being employed as heavy fighters in the constant state of battle that characterized the age. Trollkin enjoyed a brief flourishing of fortunes, before being dealt a disastrous defeat by a coalition of dwarven kingdoms in the War of the Green Hand in 258-275 A.D., which resulted in their harrying into the heart of the Scands.

The fortunes of both ogres and trolls turned with the onset of the Long Winter, reducing the strength of their greatest foes and leading to much chaos and flux across the northern world. Mass migration cleared out space for both species to surge forth into the forests and mountains of Europe, with the ogres swiftly asserting a place at the head of orcish hordes in the Great Orc War and the trolls establishing a large range over Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles. The gradual reestablishment of civilisation came at a great cost in blood and much of it came from the savage green ogres of the north. A bizarre sorcerous experiment by an unknown wizard in the Eastern Baltic sometime around 600 A.D. is thought to have been responsible for the development of the blue ogres, a notably intelligent subspecies that promptly took to the underworld to escape the barbaric slaughter above. The trolls of Scandinavia were the most advanced of their kind and their power reached its apex of development during the Viking age and their rapacious raids upon goblin and orcish villages lead in turn to an increase in their attacks on the humans in the lowlands and coastal areas. Undoubtably the most famous of all trolls was Grendel, the mighty scourge of Danes of King Hrothgar, who was slain by the hero Beowulf along with his insane monstrous mother in 562 A.D. It would be the coming of Christianity to the Viking world that would spell the beginning of the end for the trolls, who were subsequently viewed as wretched wild animals suitable only for slaughter rather than the much-feared supernatural entities of the heathen epoch.

Improvements in human military technology and rediscovery of potent magics turned the tide against the brutal ogre tribes on the Continent and a host lead by King Alfred and his dwarven ally Baldar Morngrim routed out the last organized groups in England in 885 A.D., showing the beasts no mercy. As the Middle Ages proceeded, the ogres of Europe were increasingly driven to the verges of the land, to swamps, mountains and forests by the relentless expansion of mankind. The end of the days of trolls and ogres alike seemed nigh. Even as the Church and emerging nations worked for their eradication, some knights and local warlords began to make use of enslaved ogre warriors to gain advantage over their rivals. In one well-known case, a band of ogre guards of the infamous French wizard Rastabonde Quelle slew their wicked master and took over his lands before being slain through the clever schemes of a magical cat, but on the whole, they gained a reputation for fearsome skill at arms and loyalty. Particularly in the Germanies and Italy, small bands of ogres established themselves as mercenaries under rather unscrupulous wandering knights and they progressively became greatly prized in the armoured infantry armies of the day. The survival of the trolls was doubted for a long time, with sightings and attacks being ascribed to superstition and banditry by the 14th century as they faded away into the northern mountains, a circumstance assisted by their habits of hibernation.

In the Eastern world, the circumstances of the oriental ogres, the oni and the belu, were considerably different. Both had developed reputations for sophistication and intelligence, being employed in the armed forces of all manner of emperors, kings and potentates. Their greater degree of acceptance can be ascribed in part to the teachings of Eastern religion as well as the more ordered nature of their societies and to a large degree, they were assimilated long before their Western kinfolk. The armies of Imperial China featured contingents of ogres from the Han dynasty forward, being used particularly for the defence of the Great Wall against the northern barbarians. A notable exception to this generalization are the Japanese oni clans, whose cruelty and mischief became legend as they established a firm position as bandits in the mountains of the Nipponese islands. The renowned ronin Miyamoto Musashi proved to be a great scourge of the oni, slaying six in one battle. Concerted military campaigns by the forces of the Tokugawa Shogunate finally put paid to their menace in the early 18th Century, with the surviving oni being placed into ceremonial service with the Imperial Guard.

The medieval era gave way to the Renaissance, and, amid plague, reformation and the advances of science and magic, a remarkable occurrence changed the course of the development of the ogre race. In 1432 A.D. in Bohemia, a young and highly intelligent ogre warrior named Maugwrm Grogr determined that he was discontent with his intended lot in life, and quested to find a means of changing it. Through many long and perilous adventures, he rediscovered the forgotten blue ogres deep in the underworld and heeded their wisdom, leading the few remaining tribes of red ogres out of the Caucasus and reuniting the western ogres for the first time in centuries. He painstakingly authored Scriptum Ogrus Virtus, a collection of his meditations on morality, philosophy and the future of ogrekind. It was under his stewardship that the first golden ogres in modern times were born, resulting from a union between the long-lost branches of the family. Grogr’s main thesis was that ogres needed to adapt to the ways and beliefs of man whilst still retaining their own distinct identity in order secure a future for their species. He took his petition for an autonomous ogre community to several great courts across Europe, but was met with a mixture of ridicule and hostility until finally being given succour by the Doge of Venice. The ogres of Venice became a major factor in the good fortunes and security of La Serenissima over the next three centuries and their descendants gradually spread out across the Mediterranean world and into Northern Europe.

The onset of the Industrial Revolution created a new niche for ogres, who were well suited to heavy labour in the hard conditions of the new factories that spread across Europe. It was in this role that the first ogres were transported to North America as contracted workers for the construction of the Trans-Canadian Railway, particularly for the tough slog through the terrain of the rugged Canadian Shield in Northern Ontario and Manitoba. More surprises were to come in Scandinavia, with the rediscovery of the remnant troll population by prospectors seeking iron far in the north. Less success was encountered in the use of trolls as beasts of burden in the mining and timber industries, but it was soon discovered that young trollings could be used to some effect so long as they were spayed and kept isolated from their kin. A number of enterprising businessmen tried to import trolls to the New World to fulfill a similar role, but the attempt met with disaster after a mass breakout of trolls in Labrador in 1846. In the 20th Century, ogres were recruited by the militaries of all major powers for service in the World Wars, although their large size was increasingly becoming a liability in the age of modern firepower. This latest circumstance of cooperation between ogres and humans has lead to some talk of emancipation and normalisation of ogre rights from some liberal politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. For the trolls, the introduction of modern machines has obviated their previous brief use, leaving them as a wretched species largely viewed as a relic of a bygone age.

The general personality and behaviour of trolls and ogres has often been depicted as driven by bestial hunger and violence, but this is perhaps a simplification, particularly in the latter case. Being creatures of great size, they have been driven over much of their existence by the requirements of basic subsistence, but both have strong familial and tribal instincts that characterize their behaviour. Trolls form lifelong pairs and, should one mate be destroyed, the other will enter into a rogue state, becoming homicidally ferocious to trolls and other species alike. Modern ogres that dwell inside of contemporary human society have mostly adapted themselves to mannish mores, but even those that remain in the wild or villages have close ties with their extended family groups and many of their customs and celebrations revolve around the simple pleasures of home and hearth. The remnants of ancient polytheistic ogre beliefs persist in ceremonies such as the hallowing of the feast, tempered by the more secular lessons of Maugwrm Grogr, whose maxims are celebrated as the salvation of their species. Many ogres within human society have been drawn to various sports and physical competitions, where they enjoy great success, but the few proposals for the integration of ogre leagues with those of man are met with the disdain they deserve. Whilst the brain of trolls is not substantially smaller or less capable than that of the ogrish kin, it seems to function on a more basic and bestial level in a manner than baffles most scientists. Perhaps the most curious functional consequence of trollish regenerative capacity has been to stimulate an apparent obliviousness to danger or physical threat; injuries that would put other humanoids into shock seem only to excite and provoke trolls. It is for this reason in particular that extensive medical research and behavioural experiments on trolls, including vivisection, have been conducted over the last several decades in several different nations including the United States and Soviet Union.

Arguably the most clear sign of the separate paths of development taken by ogres and trolls can be found in examination of their habitat and diet. Ogres, having been almost entirely assimilated by human society, have left behind their ancestral diet and now consume broadly similar foods to those of their cultural neighbours, with a greater emphasis on protein-rich meats and substantially larger quantities. They can typically be found in ogretowns in larger cities or in industrial housing close to their places of work, with their dwellings being functional and dimly lit. They have considerable capacity for the consumption of alcohol, but, at the same time, a tendency towards dependency on the same substance over time. Trolls, on the other hand, are generally found in wild regions across the north of Eurasia and North America and exist as primitive hunter-gatherers, much disassociated from mankind. The lack of plentiful prey has resulted in gradual changes to the trollish diet, although they relish meat and fat when they can find it, whatever the source. They are subject to various degrees of protection from hunting in the Western world, but this is often honoured in the breech rather than the observance and the situation is completely reversed in Iceland, where traditional troll hunting is greatly celebrated. Despite their common origins, the destinies of trolls and ogres seem to have diverged decisively in the modern era, with the latter able to successfully evolve in both culture and development, whereas the former have never fully arisen from their savage roots and are thus facing a high degree of uncertainty.