Winter's Children: The Hobgoblins

Loathsome and terrifying, the Hobgoblins have been a thorn in Sharoban's side for centuries. The tragedy is that once they were human and one of the first tribes to see the city's value as a trading partner for the nomads.

What changed has been the cause of much speculation and argument; entire volumes of scholarly and wizardly thought on the matter sit in Sharoban's libraries. What is plain is that before the coming of the Ice Walker there were no Hobgoblins at all, and afterwards a new scourge had arisen to harry the steppes. There are a number of competing theories; the following is the most common of them.

That winter was especially hard. The Ice Walker's march brought heavy snows and biting winds, which stayed even after the Six had sallied forth to defeat the ice giant. Food became scarcer than ever before, fresh water a distant memory. By the winter solstice the Szytedes tribe were starving, their herds had been slaughtered for hides and meat and their usual wintering places had been lost beneath the blanket of snow. Their leader, Kedves, knew that unless something was done, only a handful of the tribe would see the spring. He resolved to do something to save his people and turned to the Grandmothers for help.

Of the old women the only one who had time for  him, and did not berate him for thinking rather than doing, was Dalma; the oldest of the women in the tribe. Her reputation was as a wise woman, but also as a secretive and condemnatory one. The two of them had clashed frequently over the simplest of things, from marriage matches to the direction to take the herds in. It is not clear what made her listen to his fears, perhaps they mirrored Kedves' own; perhaps something else was at work. Whatever the circumstances, she listened to him and then, hesitantly, she told him of the Fekete Talicska; the Black Barrow.

Little is known of the Barrow in the west. The steppe dwellers shun the area it sits in, citing it as the cause of plagues and curses. They claim the dark gods have a fingertip of power within its confines and that the man who is interred there was not only the greatest leader the steppe tribes ever knew but also worshipper of the dark. In the centuries since his death his name has been lost; only his title 'Veres Kezzel Vezetto', the Bloody Handed Leader, has remained and in most people it prompts shudders of fear.

The barrow sits alone on the plain. None venture near and the land is truly wild and untamed. Once the Veszelosak tribe claimed the pastures and meadows for their herds, but they had abandoned the area soon after the Leader's death. But, despite this, Dalma was sure that the power that had driven the Leader to greatness was still there, waiting for someone to take it up.



If Kedves was sure; if he was prepared to pay the price for calling up the dark, then it seemed to be the only way to survive. The spirits the tribe summoned could do nothing to aid them. The Luminal Gods were distant and had not answered any prayers.

It seemed there was only one choice left, no matter how terrifying the thought of it was. Dalma warned him not to go; to take a shaman with him if he did, but Kedves did not listen. He could see no other way. He had to act, or the tribe would be lost.

Alone, he left the Szytedes and travelled south, to the Black Barrow.  He was half dead by the time he arrived and half mad from the acres of sheer white snow. In truth, it was a dark sort of miracle that he had survived the trip at all.

Kedves entered the barrow and made his way down to the bowels of the earth. He passed the burial chamber of Veres Kezzel Vezetto, pausing only to spit upon the stone sarcophagus the Leader's corpse mouldered in. He made his way through the horde of gold, gems and weapons the Leader had gathered in his life and went down into the darkest place.

At the bottom of the barrow he found the well, a shaft that penetrated deep into the earth. And it was there that he found the Giver. What passed between them may never be known, but can be guessed. In many ways it seems the textbook bargain gone wrong, though the fear that Kedves invited darkness upon his tribe willingly has haunted the other tribes ever since.

Whatever the bargain had been meant to be, its effect was to transform the Szytedes into something new. They gained the power to survive, no matter how harsh the winter, growing bigger and more hardy. Rotting meat would succor them, tainted water would make them strong. Even small stones could be eaten all of a sudden.  Their senses grew sharp, fresh kills could be smelt from ten miles away, further with a good wind.

Other changes were inevitable. They gained a new, feral, perspective. Meat became meat, nothing more. The first human they killed was Kedves own son and they feasted on his flesh. Soon they became a threat to caravans and other travellers, feared not just because of their ferocity and cannibalism but because they killed everything and everyone. Not even women and children were safe from their blades.

They carved a bloody swathe through the steppes; wherever they went the nomads muttered that a new Bloody Handed Leader had arisen. As they became more violent, the Szytedes became less human, their faces became terrifying, their teeth transformed into tools for rending flesh from bone. Within a decade, they had become so steeped in violence and blood horses would not carry them.

Kedves returned to the Barrow and struck one more bargain. Again the details are lost, trapped within the well, but the Giver had grown fat and was generous. New mounts would be found, if Kedves performed one, simple, task. The Bloody Handed Leader never emerged from the Barrow, but in the spring a group of wolves, unnaturally large and ferocious, found the Szytedes and travelled with them. In time, they consented to be ridden.

Since this time the Hobgoblins have become a true menace and the names of their tribe and their leaders have been struck from the horse tribes' lore. Only in Sharoban is there any record of them and those are safely locked away behind the immense doors of the libraries.