Races of the North

One goal of the Great Dungeon was to create a setting that incorporated all of the intelligent races from the original OD&D Monsters and Treasures booklet. But even that short list contains an astonishing array of races.

The following are those intelligent races native to the North.

ELVES were once masters of all the North, ancient and indifferent and inscrutable, ruling from their five shining citadels, the greatest of which was Norumbega of story and song. Their kingdom stretched from the distant mountains to the Sundering Sea. Their Goblin and Gnome servitors crafted works of great beauty and cunning, while their hobgoblin armies held off all trespassers. Human embassies from the distant south marveled at the bejeweled wonders and shining towers of Norumbega. But after centuries of rule, the Elves were overthrown by their Goblin servants, and in a blink of an eye three of the five citadels were sacked and one disappeared altogether from this world. The Elves persist in the North, but as only a shadow of their former glory, a few paltry kings ruling bands of wood elves. Only the Fair Spires, the last citadel of the high elves, still stands, ruled by the Elf Queen.

NORUMBEGANS are humans, once loyal servants to the Elves. In the days of old Norumbega they lived in tribes led by the Druids, a religious caste of neutral shape-changers who worshiped in secret rites. The Norumbegans have been mostly assimilated by the Southrons, but a few isolated barbaric tribes cling to the old ways. A Great Druid is said to wander the wilds of the North, assisted by the remnants of his ancient order.

GNOMES were valued servants to the Elves, master crafters in wood and gemstone, working side by side with the Goblins. During the uprising the Gnomes sided with the Elves, earning the undying enmity of all goblinfolk. Now they dwell in the woods just inland from the coast and in the Hollow Hills.

GOBLINS are scattered throughout the North in petty tribes, many allied with Southron lords. Expert miners and metalworkers, after the fall of Norumbega the Goblins established a great underground city built around rich silver and gold mines. Invading Dwarves from the Far Reaches fought a brutal war for control of the mines, and after decades of war the Goblins were finally driven out over forty years ago.

HOBGOBLINS formed the armies of old Norumbega. After overthrowing the elves, they enjoyed a brief reign under an emperor who united the many factious tribes under a single standard. But their days were numbered once the first Southron men landed nearly 160 years ago. Although the hobgoblin armies enjoyed initial success against the newcomers, the Southrons did not relent until the Hobgoblin empire was shattered 120 years ago. Today the hobgoblins are divided into a dozen or more rival tribes.

BUGBEARS are giant shaggy goblins from the Boundary Mountains. Never conquered by the elves, they live in small, fiercely independent bands.

STONE GIANTS, also native to the Boundary Mountains, were loyal servants to the Elves and the builders of Norumbega's greatest works. After the fall of Norumbega the stone giants returned to their mountains, where they remain today in reclusive communities.

CLOUD GIANTS are rare now, but said to have once ruled their own kingdom in the skies: a series of magnificent castles in the clouds. This giant kingdom fell at the same time as Norumbega, scattering many flying monsters such as griffons, hippogriffs, and giant eagles across the North. A wicked cloud giant is said to be the master of Louring Castle, an ominous, but thankfully rare sight upon the skies of the North.

MERFOLK, once valued allies of the Elves, still hold a marvelous underwater kingdom beneath the Sundering Sea, where they have been largely untouched by the hobgoblin empire or the coming of the Southrons. The King of the Merfolk famously keeps his own counsel.

LIZARDMEN claim they were the original lords of the North before the coming of the Elves, but can offer nothing to support this notion. Scattered throughout the fens and marshes in small tribal settlements, they generally avoid the other races though more primitive groups are rumored to be man-eaters.

NIXIES and PIXIES are sprites that dwell in the lakes and woodlands of the North. Friendly to the Elves, they are avoided by humans due to their mischievous and capricious natures.

BLACK DRAGONS inhabit the most dismal of fens and marshes in the North and are said to be all descended from one monstrous dam. Old Brokehorn is the most infamous of their number and makes his lair in the depths of Black Lake, in the shadow of the Great Dungeon.