Pointless Anthroplogy - Hobgoblins

Yep, it's that time again. I've got a mob or unruly kids in detention and I want to look busy by typing away on the computer. Time to 'examine' another of the races of the Warhammer world and wonder where the bloody heck they came from in the first place.

Hobgoblins.

Lanky, Hairy, slightly more intelligent cousin to the orc have always been unfairly treated in Warhammer. First off they were only ever a sideshow to their bigger (and littler) cousins and only ever got a mercenary list in Warhammer rather than a nice, big, full army list like other folks. They were tucked away in the east, a place of vagueness and unkind racial stereotypes and a place that Warhammer rarely spent any time visiting. Then all of a sudden they grew big old goblinoid noses and became slaves to the Big-Hatted chaos dwarves without so much as a by your leave from any one!

So where does these oddballs of the Goblinoid race come from and how come they went from having a mighty empire which scared the crap out of far Cathay to being the whipping boys of the snaggle-toothed stunties?

HobGoblins originated in folklore as the country bumpkin version of a Goblin, Hob being a separate name from Goblin. Shakespeare's Puck was a Hobgoblin. They were essentially little house-hold spirits that played practical jokes and could be a bit a nuisance. Someone eat the last bit of cheese? That'll be a Hobgoblin then. Can't find your shoes in the morning? A Hobgoblin must have hid them. Candle keep getting blown out? Must be that bloody Hobgoblin again!

So far so English pastoral.

As bloody usual we have to go looking at Tolkien to see how the meaning of Hobgoblin changed. As we all know, old JRR was keen as mustard for nicking old anglo-saxon words for creatures in his worlds. Orcs and Goblins are essentially interchangeable within his lore and are explained as two words for the same thing. He does mention in the introduction to the Hobbit, however, that Hobgoblin is a name given to the larger sort of Goblin/Orc. So here at least we have the start of the Goblinisation (to borrow a term from Shadowrun) of the Hobgoblin.

Leap forward to the dawn of the Fantasy Age and Hobgoblins make an auspicious appearance in D&D and in AD&D and are described in 1977's Monster Manual as a Lawful evil race found pretty much everywhere that are known to bully Orc's and Goblins as well as build villages and forts. The idea that they are big enough to bully Orc's come straight from Tolkien but we can see them now as separate from their cousins rather than just a bigger version.

It's this leaping off point that GW take with Hobgoblins, and, to be fair, most races. As we've discussed before, the citadel range started as miniatures for RPG games such as D&D (which GW distributed in the UK) so it makes simple business sense to include your products in your own games.

The first couple of citadel Hobgoblin ranges didn't show any huge cultural signifiers, one range looked like scrawny goblins with horny helmets (C36) and then there was a Nick Lund range (N12) who were much more powerfully proportioned but not hugely different to his Orcs.

With Ali Morrisons Hobgoblins though, things started to take a slightly different direction. The figure physiognomy changed to give them a slightly eastern look. This has been pointed out as possibly racist in today's atmosphere and caution has to be taken when discussing this aspect.

 A quick look at anti-japanese propoganda from WW2 will give you an idea of why some may question the wiseness of this particular design choice but it must be tempered with the realisation that Ali was also sculpting the Oriental Heroes range at the same time (C05) which shows a far more respectful view of Eastern Culture. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this choice the range begins to bring in signifiers of an asian origin of the Hobgoblins. To be more precise, the figures start carry signifiers of a steppe-nomad origin or at least a simplified version of such. The Dolgan Raiders scenario from the Autumn 85 Journal has Hobgoblins as the main villains and is set in boundless steppe of what, in our world, would be Russia.

You can see the similarities between the Hobgoblins on the left and the D&D image above

The armour of Ali's Hobgoblins also start to hint at a steppe origin. The fur lined helmets, the leather tails hanging off the same helmets, the lamellar and Scale armour. It all points to Hobgoblins being a race of steppe dwellers. This is further confirmed in the WFRP adventure, "Something Rotten in Kislev". Ostensibly part of the Enemy Within campaign, SRIK, takes a wild detour into the land of Kislev and gives the players all kinds of information about the Empires Easterly cousin. Part of the adventure requires the PC's to negotiate their way through a massive encampment of Hobgoblins and in the meantime goes into detail about the organisation of the Hobgoblins and how they behave. A must have for any Hobgob fans. In addition to this there are the descriptions of Hobgoblins in both WFB and WFRP which tell us...

So what you essentially have is a horde of nomadic goblinoids ruled over by a single all powerful Khan or king. These tribes range from the borders of Kislev all the way to the walls of Cathay. This brings images of famous Warlords to mind, Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun, Tamerlane and transfers the image of these dangerous, fearsome, all -conquering, nomadic, Turko-Mongol peoples into a fantasy race dominating a large part of the world. The various steppe Empires were ruled by a variety of dynasties, the most successful of which were able to unite huge amounts of tribe and conquer massive areas. The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in the world at one point. All this gives you an idea of how powerful the Hobgoblins actually were and why they were such a huge threat to Cathay (and therefore could have been to Kislev and the Empire should they have chosen to migrate in full strength in that direction).

So what could have happened to have reduced the most powerful Goblinoid empire in the world (no Ork Warlord ever came close to the scale of the Hobgobla Khan's Empire) to miserable servitude under such a numerically small race as the Chaos Dwarves (If they need to have Slave warriors in their armies then their own population must be relatively small)?

If we have a look at history for clues then we can surmise a possible scenario for the fall of the Hobgoblin Empire. Firstly we need to understand that the strength of the Hobgoblins is in their unity. Their realm is bordered on all sides by aggressive adversaries. Cathay to the South-East is strong and magically able with a strong wall to keep the Hobgoblins at bay. To the North is the Chaos Wastes and the nomadic warbands and tribes who follow the dark gods. To the south west, over the Mountains of Mourn which are home to the Ogre Kingdoms, are the Darklands dominated by the Chaos Dwarves. Further west are the Lands of Man.

At some point in Empire there will come a point when power has to be passed from one leader to another. Even if the line of succession is simply from father to son, it can still be a dangerous time if the Father dies unexpectedly and the son is too young to exercise power. Sometimes there will be no sons and the failing health of the Khan and his inability to produce sons will be deemed as a weakness. Whatever the reason, on the death of the Khan, powerful usurpers will move to take power. If the moment has been a long time in the coming then there will no doubt be many who will wish to become the next Khan. This will often lead to civil war as the Empire splits along tribal lines. Individual Warlords proclaim themselves to be the rightful Khan and the Empire is split into smaller and smaller Khanates. The infighting will be devastating enough to the Hobgoblins but often the way with internecine struggles, one faction will attempt to enlist outside help in order to defeat it's rivals and in doing so will invite an wolf in their home. One Khan may have turned to the Gods of Chaos, one may have tried to ally himself with the Ogre's. Another may have agreed to accept suzerainty of the emperor of Cathay and yet another may have approached the Chaos Dwarves for help. In addition to the great powers all kinds of powerful wizards, warriors, mercenaries and warlords may have been sucked into the mayhem of the fall of the Hobgoblin empire.

Whatever the alliances made and the deals struck, in the end the Hobgoblins were diminshed. Tribes defeated tribes, Allies took advantage of bad deals, Chaos took it's chunk of flesh and Ogre's would have gotten hungry and in the end the Hobgoblin empire was no more. We can only surmise that the deal that was struck with the Chaos Dwarves resulted in those tribes foolish enough to make it being held in servitude for eternity. The scattered remnants of the great Hobgoblin Horde still wander the great steppe, wary of outsiders and only a shadow of their former selves.

But why do we not know more of this great and tumultuous event? The Hobgoblins didn't keep any written records, they had no need for such frivolities. The ogre's quickly forgot and the Chaos Dwarves have no interest in sharing their knowledge.

Maybe the libraries in Great Cathay hold the secrets of the end of the Hobgoblin Empire........

If only they still existed.