Hobgoblins are the first of the goblin subspecies, as well as the most prominent. The Hobgoblins are notable for having both the numbers and capability to forge a nation of their own apart from other goblin groups. The Kingdom of Hobben is formed around their values, to serve their needs, wishes and desires. All of which are war.

When the Wood Elves created the Hobgoblins they did so to create shock troopers, and succeded. Hobgoblins are drastically different from the baseline goblins. While goblins have an overwhelming desire to reproduce, the will of Tol holds no sway over Hobgoblin hearts. Rather than spend their spare time seeking physical pleasure, the Hobgoblins seek to improve and test their marshal capabilities.

So great is the hobgoblin need to fight that Hobgoblin tribes have crossed all of Eyom to join wars nearly every time a major war has occurred.

Many people think of hobgoblins are mindless jocks seeking little more than combat. This is wrong. Hobgoblins are quite human in their general behavior, save they know exactly what they want to do with their lives, and that is fight. It need not be combat, it could be sport, or any physical contest whatsoever. Mindless berserking warriors could not run a nation for a thousand years. Hobgoblins delight in many things, as much as other peoples. Its just a hobgoblin will begin her day with a rigorous workout, followed by weapons practice, and will find it impossible to resist joining in on any given fight she runs across during her day.

Personality

Hobgoblins are born warriors. They feel feer like anyone else, but react to fear with what can only be described as a "slowly building arousal". It is as if their natural reproductive instinct abandoned its place as a family building tool and decided to replace courage entirely. When in danger, Hobgoblins go through a brief period of fear or terror, then will assault that which threatens them with a very much aroused zeal. Rather than sexually assault their target, a Hobgoblin will seek to dismantle, overcome, dominate, and or destroy the threat. It's simply how they are.

In every other way, so far as anyone can tell, Hobgoblins are very similar to humans.

are very communal, but competitive. They

Hobgoblins have an intrinsic need to be a part of a group, preferably a large community, and even more preferably one with a meritocratic hierarchy and assigned duties (Like a military). This need is compounded by their desire to be highly respected within the affirmation community if they cannot be the most revered within it. Consequently, Hobgoblins will seek to change their behavior to conform to a group without disrupting their individuality overly much. This is both a form of self-gratification and a deep seeded belief that if they had power, they could make life better for everyone and that the best way to get power is to become the biggest cog in an existing machine.

Hobgoblins inherently want to make their own standing in the world better, and there is no better way to do this in their eyes than to be the one in charge of their tribe, or by following the lead of somone clearly superior to themselves. Regardless of what a Hobgoblin does, they do it because they believe it will ultimately help others. At their core, no matter how misguided, no matter how uneducated, or misinformed, regardless of their specific beliefs, a Hobgoblin does what they do under the belief that ultimately it will help others or put them in a position to help others.

Even here there is great variance, specifically in the number of people a Hobgoblin seeks to help. They may seek only to help themselves, or their families, or town, nation, or even everyone. There is no means by which one can know this aspect of a Hobgoblin without learning it first hand on an individual basis.

Physical Description

Hobgoblins are a goblin variant which appears more like a short greenskined elf than a goblin. They are much taller than goblins, with their average height putting the top of their heads at the top of the average Imperial woman's chest. Hobgoblins are also much thinner than goblins, as they lack the goblin outer fat layer. In place of this padding, Hobgoblin have a very dense layer of interwoven organic polymer strands (specifically Poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide) which their body creates as they grow to adulthood from minerals and compounds they instinctively consume as dietary supplements.

The result of these changes to the basic goblin form is a taller, thinner goblin which shows off the dense and chiseled musculature found in all goblin species, who are protected by a layer of natural armor that is capable of stopping most handgun rounds.

Like all goblin species, Hobgoblins facial features are notably pointed, though the points are connected by curves. They possess long knife-shaped ears, which are not only longer than their head is tall, but quite broad, and highly expressive in a manner similar to most canid species. Hobgoblins eyes are notably large and vibrant, coming in any color one can imagine. Their skin is more limited in palate compared to most goblins, exclusively coming in greens, browns, tans, and oranges. Hobgoblin color perception is able to tell the difference between two seemingly identical shades of the same color.

Hobgoblin teeth appear identical to human teeth at a glance but are actually chisel-shaped, and harder than steel. Hobgoblins can easily bite through most substances and are fully capable of eating many seemingly inedible things such as wood, stone, bone, and even dragon scales (which are apparently a delicacy when roasted by the dragon which shed them). Their hair can come in any color known or unknown to mankind, but unlike your typical goblin, it has little to no volume and lays mostly flat against their head.

Of course, the Hobgoblin's most notable feature is their musculature. As mentioned earlier, hobgoblin bodies do not hide their secondary muscular system. This gives them a sculpted and statuesque form, if they do not work out and eat mostly "Junk food". Most Hobgoblins care about their physical health more than that bare minimum. Consequently, they spend at least some time every day working out, and have a preference for nutritious food over tasty food. The end result is one would be hard pressed to find a hobgoblin who is not incredibly toned, very well built, and in essence, is the physical peek for their species.

Relations

Hobgoblins are typically dismissed as "jarheads", "meatheads", and "brutes" by the majority of Eyom. This isn't an entirely unfair view of their people, but it irritates many Hobgoblins who live outside of Hobben. Indeed, as all Goblin tribes often produce Hobgoblin children, Hobgoblins are no strangers to all of Eyom's curvaceous peoples. Most of those Hobgoblins end up immigrating to Hobben to find a place where life is fair and makes sense.

A place where one need not explain to the bank why their ranch house needs an armory and a garage for armored fighting vehicles. A place where its not weird to spend your break in the machine shop bench pressing a power hammer. A place where when you see a bar fight, you do not get in trouble for joining in. A place where no one bothers you for sex unless you're in the mood and need a good cool down workout after going several rounds in the ring with a worthy foe. A place where no one questions your decision to treat armor like clothing, just, in, case.

Hobgoblins consequently serve as security forces outside of Hobben. Even within they prefer to be a part of the military, even if merely a logistics agent. Their natural instincts do pose a limit to what they are willing to spend their lives on, but nowhere near as much as most people believe.

Unfortunately, these misconceptions are reinforced rather than corrected by the Kingdom of Hobben, which traditionally reacts to news of war breaking out by sending diplomats to get bids from each side for Hobben's military assistance. Then helps out the more poor nation to make the fight fair.

Settlements

Hobben is rather spartan with its constructions. So much so that their architectural style guide is the same book as their fortifications guide. Hobgoblins do not care much for how their buildings look aesthetically so long as they can withstand a full scale assault as a defense position. They see beauty in security and utility, not aesthetics. Nor do they care to stop people who want to decorate from decorating.

Consequently Hobben settlements are mismatches of styles from all across Eyom as non-Hobgoblin immigrants are informed the building code is "If the walls are bullet proof, and the doors are security doors, we don't care what else you do". Obviously, everyone then goes a little nuts and designs their dream home restricted only by their budgets and imaginations.

Alignment

Hobgoblins are inherently respectful of authority, codes of conduct, and other such social contracts. They treat them much like true contracts in that they expect those under a particular "contract" to act accordingly, and those not under said contract to not necessarily abide by it. This is a fairly normal view until one realizes they see the contracts as literal and something one must agree to verbally or in writing with any other form of acceptance of a "contract" being invalid. While seemingly chaotic on the surface, this means your average Hobgoblin will see nothing wrong with a Tauric citizen pulling them over for speeding for the officer was only doing their duty, but then object to being ticketed because as a non-citizen, they have not signed the contract and are thus not subject to its laws. Conversely they would immediately pay a speeding ticket issued by their homeland without hesitation or protest.

Fortuantly, their general willingness to help others counters much of the issues which could arise from their general practices with codes, laws, and operating parameters. Hobgoblins enjoy fighting and physical conflict, but despise social conflict as a rule. They work to keep groups happy, prosperous, and fulfilled. After all, if their group is doing well, then their group can better support them. Such assistance in day to day life is worth most any sacrifice in a hobgoblin's eyes.

Adventurers

Few Hobgoblins choose to become adventurers. While one would expect a life of danger, risk, and fighting monsters to be extremely appealing to a Hobgoblin, they prefer an ordered hierarchy and large organization to the dynamics of an adventuring party.

Hobben has several adventurers guilds for this reason, but few non-Hobgoblins join the guilds as the bureaucracy, rank structure and command authority take the fun out of it for most people.

The Hobgoblins who do become traditional adventurers are generally speaking, doing so because they have a crush on one of the other party members, and unlike a goblin, rather than just say so and ask if they'd like to enjoy their bed for the evening, the Hobgoblin will shyly try to impress their prospective mate with their deeds until they become incredibly frustrated, break down into a sobbing mess, and demand what sort of legendary accomplishment it would take to win their heart. Only to then have a bit of an existential crisis when told "Just... just say you like me so I know?"

This pattern is so well known that almost everyone simply asks who a Hobgoblin is crushing on if they join their adventuring party.