Non-rapey orcs?

So something that bugs certain people about half-orcs is the overuse of rape as their backstory and the subsequent characterization of orcs (and/or goblins) as all being violent misogynistic rapists. So I have a suggestion for making orcs less rapey without sacrificing their horror potential. What follows is a mix of influences, including Warhammer 40,000, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, 13th Age, Alien, and Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. 

Orcs are goblinoids (as per older editions of D&D) and the various goblinoid monsters are all instars or castes of a single species. They reproduce asexually by means of spawning pits and underground fungus wombs. They may reproduce in a quasi-sexual fashion by parasitic means too. One option is throwing victims into the spawning pits, where they are dissolved alive. Another is to lay eggs in a host with their teeth. The resulting offspring will inherit traits from the host, and this is how we get half-orcs. Goblinoids otherwise have no concept of gender or sexuality: humans and other demikind are seen as slaves and food, nothing more. Which is still plenty horrifying.

This raises a number of questions: What does it mean for goblinoids to be parasites, especially if half-orcs can become adventurers? What does this reinforce about the themes of the setting? Do the goblinoids inherit species traits or those of specific individuals?  Do they hunt down specific targets for the purpose of eugenics? How strict are civilizations about security, given that a bite can impregnate a person with larvae? Etc...

In a future post I'll discuss a treatment of orcs as demons that possess corpses.

Dwarfs in Norse myth were dwarfish trolls and dark elves

The modern stereotype of the dwarf was codified by Tolkien. Prior to his legendarium, dwarfs were ill-defined in mythology and folklore. To put it simply: dwarfs were not distinguished from dark elves, gnomes, goblins, kobolds, trolls, et al like they are in Dungeons & Dragons. In myth and folklore these fairies are largely synonymous.

Some unique traits displayed by dwarfs in Norse myth included:

• The dwarfs were considered a type of elf. They were called dark elves, as opposed to the light elves.
• The dwarfs were considered misshapen and ugly, like goblins or trolls. Likewise, trolls were described as dwarfs when they were not giants.
• The dwarfs, trolls, and giants alike all turned to stone under sunlight. The dwarf Alvis said his kind referred to the Sun as "Dvalin's Delight" (presumably ironically).
• The dwarfs forged abstract concepts into magical equipment, which they presented to the gods on multiple occasions. This equipment included Freya's necklace, Thor's hammer, and Fenrir's chain.
• The dwarfs were themselves forged by the gods from the flesh of the first giant Ymir (i.e. the earth itself) and/or the maggots that spontaneously generated from his corpse.

In other folklore they gain a variety of other properties and magical powers. For example, some folklore claims they spend the daylight hours as frogs or that they are members of the Unseelie Court. (See Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology by Theresa Bane for more details.)

Research links

• https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dwarf
• https://www.dictionary.com/browse/troll
• https://pantheon.org/articles/d/dvergar.html
• https://pantheon.org/articles/s/svartalfar.html
• http://piereligion.org/pantheon.html
• https://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta25.htm
• https://abookofcreatures.com/2016/02/15/dwarf/
• http://www.thecompanyofgoblins.com/svartalfar.html
• https://norse-mythology.org/cosmology/the-nine-worlds/svartalfheim/
• http://nordicwiccan.blogspot.com/2013/02/svartalheim.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B3tsognir
• https://www.geek.com/culture/the-origin-of-the-species-dwarfs-1665473/
• https://dwarvenglory.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/maggots-of-the-earth/
• https://ogresvstrolls.wordpress.com/tag/dwarves-gnomes/
• https://www.timelessmyths.com/norse/beings.html#Dwarves
• https://wormstunggod.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/dwarf-dwarf-dwarf/
• https://artipeeps.wordpress.com/tag/dvalins-delight/
• http://www.norse-mythology.cba.pl/page,77,dwarfs.html
• https://www.vikingage.com/HTML/Our%20Friends%20the%20Dwarfs.html
• https://books.google.com/books?id=BYCeXcTjB1MC
• https://books.google.com/books?id=Y5FKDwAAQBAJ
• https://books.google.com/books?q=editions:ISBN0786471115
• https://dotrollsreallyexist.blogspot.com/2013/07/troll-dwarves-of-norse-mythology.html
• https://youtu.be/8VpY_MAT2B8

Tribes of the centaurs, part 4: the beautiful centaurs

The callicantzaros (plural callicantzari) is a kind of fairy goblin in Balkan folklore with some similarities to vampires. It is included in this series because its name is speculated to derive from kalos-kentauros meaning "beautiful centaur," although this etymology is hotly contested.

Orcs and hobgoblins: what’s the diff?

As 1d4chan points out, there isn’t really that much of a difference between hobgoblins and orcs. There’s any number of ways you could world build a more convincing explanation in my opinion.

Reorganizing and reinventing goblins

Goblinoids are a standard monster in fantasy gaming. They also have legions of less effective imitators and an unfortunate history of being pigeonholed. I cannot change that, but in this post I can wax about my personal ideas and discoveries for making goblins less boring and stale.

Hobgoblins and bobgoblins

Dungeons & Dragons uses "hobgoblin" to refer to a bigger, meaner variety of goblin, but in the dictionary and folklore this is not the case. A hobgoblin, in the dictionary, is just a synonym of goblin, bugbear, bogeyman, etc. In English folklore, a hobgoblin is smaller, nicer variety of goblin; the exact opposite of the usage in fantasy gaming.

Why is this? It all goes back to Tolkien, who himself noted that the usage was incorrect. But Gygax and friends never got the memo, so now we got stuck with it.

The prefix "hob" has a number of possible etymologies. It may derive from the German halb meaning "half," a diminutive of the name Robin or Robert, a part of a fireplace, or a Welsh spirit of the hearth. The latter makes them similar to many heart spirits in a number of cultures and stories, such as the lares and penates of Roman myth and the character Calcifer in Howl's Moving Castle.

Somebody apparently went back to the original sources to give us the cartoon character Bobgoblin, a friendly goblin. Similarly friendly goblins may be found in a number of other cartoons, such as LEGO Elves: Secrets of Elvendale.

Goblins, LEGO Elves: Secrets of Elvendale

The diversity of kobolds

Kobolds are one of those monsters that changes noticeably in different media.

Goblin babies: a false dichotomy

Evil has always confused me as far an alignments go: a society of amoral sociopaths could not function. Dungeon crawling is crime fantasy, the fantasy genre is founded on racism and alignment exists more or less to justify genocide. So why equivocate? Here I present alternatives for those who want to portray "evil" societies in nontraditional fashion, tying into my reinvention of the Evil alignment as the Chaos allegiance. I have reduced the portrayal of savage humanoids to three basic archetypes based on the goblin baby dilemma: no goblin babies, goblin babies must die, and klingon babies.