Ogre

WIP

Ogres are a race of near-giants who live in various areas of Avarion. Most of them are considered of lesser intelligence than the other folk races, and a great many troubles have come from nasty ogres, but there are good ogres and bad ogres alike. Most folk in A Hero's Tale did not understand this until they had met the good ogres themselves.

Ogres tend to be hardy creatures and some have small or large resistances to magic. This seems to vary between each individual ogre.

Tame Realm Ogre
The ogres in the Tame Realm tend to be barbaric and brutally primitive tribal creatures living in clans in the forests and rocky areas. They consume people and their flesh and loot their belongings, acting as bandits when hunting doesn't do enough for them. It is not uncommon to see these ogres align themselves with other groups and armies, though it is difficult to ensure a Tame Realm ogre's loyalty in the long term.

Most Tame Realm ogres used to have a tradition a century ago wherein every ogre who reached puberty was sent to battle against the humanoid folk, and they were rewarded for claiming skulls. Honorable clans believed that only armed kills counted, whereas the barbarian ogre clans did not care where the skulls came from. The number of skulls each ogre gained determined their place within the tribe. This resulted in the desolation of numerous villages, and great hunts were then enacted against the ogres, slaying hundreds of them. This tradition was abandoned at an unspecified point in time.

Despite being large and brutish, the Tame Realm ogre clans have always escaped total extinction at the hands of L'Imperium. Some might suspect they have had help from humanoids.

Blaecta Ogre
There are a breed of ogres with a small presence in the Tame Realm and a larger one in other territories, the Blaecta, a race of ogres so twisted for the sins of their forebears that they find pleasure in committing the most heinous of acts. Their familial lines are fraught with inbreeding and each suffers from at least a single deformity. Regular ogres are so taken aback by how savage and stupid the Blaecta are that they will disavow them as a mixing of humans and giants gone wrong.

The Blaecta are more common the farther away one gets from civilization, where they instead enact their terrors of warfare, cannibalism and molestation on other peoples, such as trolls. An exception, it is said, are a clan of Blaecta living deep in the mountains who have somehow escaped inbred deformities and would rather sell wares. There is a rumor circulating that these black-skinned exceptions secretly run a massive trade empire with the dwarves and other folk of civil nature. It is said that some halflings were hired on to cook for a Blaecta ogre trade lord.

Most Blaecta do not speak intelligibly in the common tongue, less so than the average ogre barbarian in fact, and will not even consider speaking with other humanoids. However, a very small number of Blaecta have made their way to the Slaughterworks and other arenas, and become fearsome gladiators.

Mountain Ogre
Mountain Ogres are ogres living in a small society in the far north. Their culture focuses on fighting and eating, largely due to a magic blood-curse that has made them so they never feel full. Mountain ogres have been known to eat folk, but are civilized enough to take up mercenary work or enter parley with some parties in order to increase their chances of getting into fights and finding foes to devour. The Folkcrunchers were one such band of mercenaries, who earned plentiful food and silver coinage. It is said that the Folkcrunchers somehow broke the curse and that they never go hungry.

Warbands of mountain ogres, usually led by small time warlords, have gone against their more civilized brethren and the dwarven kingdoms before. They have assembled trolls, harpies, and anyone else they can convince or enslave to form wicked hosts that by and large suffered gruesome defeats.

Mountain ogre histories claim they once had multiple kingdoms strewn throughout the north and just about every warlord to ever rise up out of their race believes in the claim, but historians can only guess at this point.

The civilized mountain ogres have been known to live in peace with harpies, who rely on ogres for protection and do not find them appetizing in the slightest. This is why the headship of some mountain ogre enclaves have "pet" harpies, shoulder-latching companions who they pet, feed, and possibly cuddle with.

Snow Ogre
Ogres in the snowiest regions of the world have been seen riding and herding many a beast, from mammoths and saber-tooth felines to yetis. There are vicious savages and small but decently friendly villages of hunters out there. Snow ogre magi tend to be followed by miniature snowstorms wherever they go.

Mantik Ogre
The Mantik ogres have a pair of communes on two islands, and are seafarers. Rather, they rely on other folk to ship them out so that they may earn a living fighting as mercenaries. Mantik ogres are buff, have a semi-decent intellect and are dedicated to lives of marshal prowess.

Ba'roha Ogre
Ogres who live in the Jungles of Ba'roha have a tendency to be covered in fur and sometimes moss. A number of them are peaceful hermits, some act as druids and shamans, and aside from the odd familial group they tend to be solitary creatures. One ogre summoned a pack of bark hounds and used then to hunt Rashinma until a member of the Loux family worked with a group of Rashinma hunters to kill them.

Eastern Ogre
The ogres living in the Desert of Dune and farther to the east have their share of ogre bandits and barbarians, however there are also enclaves and villages that contain civilized ogres that do not consume the flesh of folk. Members of their population claim that the ogres once had their own empire in the far east, but those days have long passed.

It is said that the Empire of the Harpy and the Rising Sun captures roving bands of ogres, encases them in metal plate armour and forces them to go hungry until they become half insane. Once the process is complete, they arm them with maces and hammers and let them loose upon the empire's enemies.

Orgus
The result of a union between ogres and some centaur-like race that also had scales, orgus used to be a big deal in the mountains and steppes until their nomadic groups and warbands were cut down. Now there are tribes of them, but very few. While not inherently evil, orgus are inherently aggresive, and the Blighted Orgus are basically inherently evil since the only reason they take up mercenary work is so that they can eat people and earn money.

Two-headed Ogre
It is unknown whether tampering by the gods or the Vampyres brought this about, it may be completely natural, but some ogres are born with twin heads. These ogres are smarter than the average ogre. Some have become rulers and warlords, some have become infamous magicians, and one was merely contented with being a scholar.

Magi Ogre
Some ogres are born with the ability to work magic. In some communities they are cast out and disowned, whereas in others their talents are beheld in great esteem. There have been ogre mages who led tribes or clans, and at least one has held a village hostage and only spared them in exchange for tribute.

The magi ogres of the far east have warrior traditions that tend to result in their volunteering for armies such as those under the Empire of the Harpy and the Rising Sun, and also the Lamia Empire.

One ogre magi, the aethermaster, gave himself over to The Lurker on the Threshold and believes that the dead of all species are but pawns to be raised for his use. He disappeared and has not been seen since.

Known Religions
Some ogres worship gods of hunting, plenty, warfare, and coin.