Overview
Hobgoblins are iron-skinned goblin soldiers of the bastion. They are the only goblin line that considers a formation a form of prayer, and the praying is the point.
Habitat
Hobgoblins live in the bastion — their home is Ironstock Bastion, a hold of iron and stone where the drill is the only light and the rank the only law. They need three things: a ground that is hard enough to stand, a wall that is strong enough to hold, and a drill that is wide enough to carry. They are settled around the bastion, with garrison-lines in the ground; a hobgoblin who has not drilled in a season is called "the one who forgot the formation."
Appearance
A hobgoblin silhouette is the small, hunched, long-eared shape with the iron — narrow-waisted, long-limbed, with the head that sits a little too far forward on the body, like a word that is waiting to be spoken, and the shield that is a separate sentence from the body. Males stand 1.07 m to 1.22 m, 25 kg–36 kg, hunched and quick, with the spine a little too curved and the hands a little too long; females 1.02 m to 1.12 m, 23 kg–34 kg, leaner and quicker, with a straighter back and a longer memory. Skin is a deep, iron-grey to a soft, muddy olive, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones and a network of fine, pale veins at the temples that show when a hobgoblin is roused. The ears are the crown: a pair of true, long, pointed ears, in the same iron-grey as the skin, with a fine, clean grey at the inner edge, and the ears are the hobgoblin's most persistent claim — they turn, always, toward the sound that is not a sound. The eyes are large and a pale, luminous yellow to a soft, muddy amber, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is the formation, and the formation is the point. The teeth are the tell: a set of true, pointed teeth, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, with the tooth-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the hobgoblin line's most persistent claim, and the teeth are always bared, and the baring is the point. The head is the tell: the ear is the hobgoblin, not the face — a pair of true, long, pointed ears, and the ear is the hobgoblin's most persistent identifier. Males carry the hobgoblin line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the ears. Elders are marked by a full grey head and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — an old hobgoblin moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a bastion that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: a patchwork of leather and iron in a muted grey or soft umber, a tool-belt with more pockets than sense, and boots that have been modified at least twice.
Behavior
Disposition: clannish, honor-bound, industrious, patient. In peace, hobgoblins are disciplined, watchful, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the bastion, and they let you know it. In war they fight as the formation, and the formation is the point. Strangers are met with a question about what they carry, and the answer decides whether the hobgoblin offers passage or a wall. The social unit is the bastion-garrison, ranked by drill, not by age. Two signature quirks: a hobgoblin who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work. And they keep their formation for a lifetime, and they remember who broke it, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: formation — the hobgoblin line stands and does not move, and the standing is the point. Armor: iron and chain, worn with the mail over the leather so the impact is taken twice. Weapons: the short sword, the shield, and the formation that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Formation-Knot, a single knot in the braid worn over the right shoulder for every formation kept, in iron-grey; the Bastion-Notch, a single deliberate chip in the left claw for every year spent in the bastion, worn as a record of the long watch; and the Drill-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first formation the wearer ever stood, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried back, their names spoken in the formation, and their shields laid across the threshold — a hobgoblin buried without their shield is buried as a stranger.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: oath — hobgoblin magic is the formation, the patient, precise holding of the drill across the bastion. Secondaries: stone-craft and chaos. Named inborns: Formation-Sense (a hobgoblin can feel the formation's mood the way a sailor feels the wind), Iron-Eye (a hobgoblin can see the stress-lines in any structure, glowing faintly amber), Drill-Cunning (a hobgoblin's mind is a locked room; charm and confusion do not find the door). Signature power: the Stand Word — a hobgoblin can set a formation to hold forever, and the formation will keep faith. Limitation: hobgoblin magic is spent on the bastion; a hobgoblin who has spent their stand word must drill for one day, and the day is the worst one of the bastion.
Religion
Hobgoblins worship no god — the formation is enough, and the drill is the only law. They honor the formation as their own, and the formation is the point. They do not pray; they stand. A hobgoblin who prays is a hobgoblin who has already decided the bastion is not enough, and the deciding is the point.
Society
Bastion-garrisons of 20–80, led by the Drill-Keeper, rank decided by the drill — whose is cleanest, sharpest, and most likely to hold. The garrison is the whole of the law, because the drill is the only clock and the formation the only law, and a hobgoblin who has not drilled in a season is called "the one who forgot the formation," and the forgetting is the only kind the iron remembers. No garrison follows a keeper, it follows the drill whose line has never broken, and the following is the whole of the rank, because a hobgoblin does not measure a hobgoblin in the years, it measures it in the stand, and a hobgoblin who has stood a formation the bastion forgot is the one the wall calls the oldest. Outsiders are either a scrap or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the bastion keeps — the passage is the whole of the warning: a mortal who has asked for passage is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the whole of the bond. Young are raised in the garrison, where the first formation is stood, and a young hobgoblin who has not stood a formation of their own is not given a shield of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the garrison does not hoard the iron — it keeps the formation, and the keeping is the whole of the bastion, and a mortal who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the iron keeps.
Home
They live in Ironstock Bastion, a hold of iron and stone where the drill is the only light and the rank the only law.
Relations
The only goblin line that considers a formation a form of prayer, and the praying is the point, and the praying is the whole of the treaty — the hobgoblin keeps the formation and it measures everything in the drill, and the measuring is the whole of the law. The Goblins of the warren are the kin the bastion regards as the unprayed line — a goblin who has set a trap the bastion forgot is the one the garrison calls the oldest, and the regarding is the whole of the distance, because the goblin keeps the hole and the hobgoblin keeps the wall, and the two have learned that a wall in the ground is not a word, it is a stand, and the stand is the whole of the bond. The Orcs of the surface are the rivals the garrison drills against, and the drilling is the whole of the law — the orc keeps the fang and the hobgoblin keeps the formation, and the two have learned that a fang at the wall is not a word, it is a stand, and the stand is the whole of the distance. The Humans of the camp regard the bastion the way the ground regards the wall: with distance, and with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a hobgoblin who has stood a formation the race forgot is the one the bastion calls the kindred, and a mortal who has broken a line is the one the iron calls the mistake. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the garrison takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the drill keeps standing for, and the standing is the whole of the promise.
In the Story
In the current story, the hobgoblins are the wall around the camp — the bastion Uaellaen writes about when the drill is the only light. The Forgotten keep their distance at the garrison-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a hobgoblin came up the drill with a formation that was not in the garrison — a formation that is not in the stand, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the bastion keeps its line, and the line has started to move. The Drill-Keeper is keeping the formation, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
We do not march. The march is for those who were not born to arrive. — a hobgoblin elder