Blood of Morueme

The collective term Blood of Morueme originally was given to a subservient race of half–blue dragon hobgoblins and their descendants, but later was used to also describe a clan of blue dragons that lived beneath Dragondoom Mountain in the easternmost peaks of the Nether Mountains circa the Year of Rogue Dragons, 1373 DR. The hobgoblins selected for breeding came from the Red Flayers tribe which, at the time, occupied Doomspire castle on the slopes of Dragondoom.

Organization
As of 1373 DR, the Blood of Morueme consisted of four adult blue dragons, sixteen half–blue dragon hobgoblins, and about 120 draconic hobgoblins (offspring of the half-dragons and normal hobgoblins, and their descendants). In the long history of the Morueme clan, there were seldom more than six pure-blood dragons living together at one time. Female dragons born into the clan were driven out or killed once they reached maturity in order to prevent inbreeding.

Under the rule of the brothers Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim, the primary focus of the Blood was to increase their store of magic weapons, their knowledge of spells, and their library of arcane lore from the ancient lands of Ammarindar, Delzoun, Eaerlann, and Netheril. Each dragon had their own hoard and a selected group of hobgoblins from the Red Flayers as servants. At first the half-bloods, and eventually the more capable draconic hobgoblins, were sent out to gather wealth and magic for their respective masters. Clan status was measured by the amount each member contributed in coins, gems, magic, and arcane lore, listed here in increasing order of value. Those trusted to leave Dragondoom Mountain were given the freedom to choose how they went about their quest for acquisition, but all were expected to be absolutely loyal to the dragons and never betray the Blood or jeopardize their safety.

Base of Operations
The ancestral home of the Blood of Morueme was located beneath Mount Dragondoom at the far eastern end of the Nether Mountains overlooking the wastes of northern Anauroch. The entrance to their lair, known as the Mouth of Morueme, was high on the eastern slope of the mountain above a three-tiered fortified hobgoblin settlement called Doomspire. In addition to the Mouth, a few secondary entrances were located behind the walls of Doomspire. A switchback road led up to the castle under the eyes of those who maintained catapults and ballistae on the ramparts.

Inside the cave, the soft limestone had been eroded over the millennia by runoff and seepage from snow melt into a warren of large caverns separated by natural stalactite and stalagmite sculptures. Each dragon had their own treasure chamber and sleeping quarters with a staff of hobgoblin servants to attend them. In addition to the hobgoblin fortress outside and the phalanx of servants and guards inside, the lair was fortified with many passive defenses as well. There were passages with sharp turns to prevent effective ranged attacks and provide cover from even the breath weapons of invading dragons. For human-sized creatures (in particular, humans) there were numerous traps, the majority of which were rockfalls that could be triggered by yanking on a chain. The rocks were held in a mesh of chains, allowing them to be hoisted back up and set for reuse.

Possessions
Each dragon was rumored to have a hoard of hundreds of thousands of coins and piles of gems. In addition, the brothers Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim had secretly collected many spells and magic weapons by sending out their half-dragon offspring (the original Blood of Morueme) on missions and raids to acquire such items. Their most prized possessions were ancient tomes of spells written in Netherese, which they studied intently, trying to decipher their secrets. It was also believed that at least one page of the Nether Scrolls was in their possession.

History
Morueme was the name of a mighty blue dragon that ruled the Nether Mountains and surrounding territories during the Time of Dragons. The clan that resided in Dragondoom Mountain claimed to be descendants of this legendary wyrm and had occupied the limestone caverns beneath the mountain for at least a millennium as of the Year of the Tankard, 1370 DR.

During the Dracorage of 1018 DR, the ruler of the clan, Moruharzel, fell into madness and his adult offspring Kizilpazar was forced to slay him and take over the leadership of the clan. He and his younger mate, Idrizraele, eventually had two male offspring, Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim. As per tradition, all female progeny were driven off once they reached breeding age. One such female eventually laid the egg that hatched Krashos Morueme.

Less than a decade after assuming control, in the Year of Crimson Magics, 1026 DR, Kizilpazar began to insulate his clan from the outside world and "recruited" a tribe of hobgoblins from the High Moor, mercenaries known as the Red Flayers, to serve as guards outside the clan's lair. In the years that followed, the hobgoblins were completely beholden to their dragon masters, but they built Doomspire castle and thrived in the relative safety that the strong, defensible position afforded. The most intelligent or capable hobgoblins were selected to be servants to the dragons, each wyrm building their own cadre of near-slaves, either through fear, loyalty, or both.

Over the next few centuries, as Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim became mature adults, they believed that their sire's policy of isolation and their dependence on the Red Flayers was courting eventual disaster. Because their movements were under the scrutiny of their sire, the two males began a secret breeding program with promising hobgoblin females, producing half–blue dragon hobgoblins they called the Blood of Morueme. These progeny were raised, trained, and equipped to go out and seek new spells, magical items, and weapons and return them to the brothers without Kizilpazar's knowledge. The ones that returned successfully were given a few potential mates as a reward, and from their issue came the draconic hobgoblin mercenaries.

Using the magic weapons they had acquired from their proxies, Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim attacked and killed Kizilpazar sometime during the Year of the Unstrung Harp, 1371 DR. Idrizraele, their mother, was allowed to live but was forced to leave immediately, and never return. She apparently flew the entire length of the Nether Mountain chain and unwisely attacked the Lady's Hand Monastery, perhaps hoping to gain powerful Netherese magic, rumored to be stored there, to use against her treacherous offspring. After she had destroyed the tower of the Lady's Hand, the Loviatan monks, led by High Whipmistress Lorthalae Shamrass, unleashed their secret weapons upon the former matriarch of the blue dragons and she was utterly destroyed in mid-flight.

When the shocking news of Idrizraele's death reached the new co-leaders of the clan, they quickly decided that the violent death of a Morueme (by someone other than another Morueme) could not go unanswered and they mobilized their army of Red Flayers. The exact number of blue dragons that razed the Lady's Hand Monastery is unknown, but most of the buildings were destroyed and several caverns were breached by their rampage. The dragons then backed away and sent the hobgoblin army in to finish off the monks who had retreated to the deepest caves. Armed with their Netherese weapons and in an entrenched position, the monks held firm and eventually drove out the hobgoblin army, but barely forty Loviatans survived the devastation. After suffering heavy losses, the Red Flayers numbered about six hundred, but only because most of that number had been left behind to guard the Mouth of Morueme.

Relations between the Red Flayers and the Moruemes were deteriorating even before the coup and subsequent defeat at the hands of the Lady's Hand monks. Each new generation of hobgoblins questioned and rebelled against the servitude to which they had been indentured by ancestors long forgotten. On top of this, the brothers were fixated on their breeding program which made the choice females off limits and gave the Blood the best of everything. As the months stretched into a year, about a third of the tribe was ripe for change and only lacked a leader with the charisma to incite a rebellion or a mass exodus. But it was not to be.

On the first day of Hammer, 1373 DR, prophetically called the Year of Rogue Dragons, the lich Sammaster set off a Dracorage that lasted nearly a full year. The brothers and their mates flew out of the Mouth of Morueme and hunted down their hated enemy and favorite food source, the orcs of the Thousand Fists tribe, rooting them out of their caves and warrens in wholesale slaughter. Roraurim and his mate Faenphaele left behind their wyrmling son Arharzel, who by draconic standards was still wet from hatching, being a youth of scant years. The Blood of Morueme were less susceptible to the Rage, but it eventually overcame their will and they rallied around Arharzel, who led them in a devastating assault on the purebloods of the Red Flayer tribe. Being attacked from within, Doomspire was overrun in less than a day, but Arharzel was killed in the fighting.

When their madness finally faded, the brothers and their mates returned to Dragondoom to discover what had been lost during their absence. They grimly put to death the remaining male hobgoblins and gathered the females for breeding new generations of the Blood. Except for a few that may have escaped, the Red Flayers were effectively extinguished and the Blood of Morueme took over the castle of Doomspire and the job of defending their kin and the clan of dragons that sired them.

Relationships
The orcs of the Thousand Fists tribe earned the enmity of the Morueme clan generations ago when a patriarch of the clan fell in battle with an orc horde. Orcs and ogres were always a favorite food of the dragons as well. Relationships with members of the Lady's Hand Monastery were never warm but after the razing of their enclave they were inclined to attack first and ask questions never. Members of the Blood of Morueme generally avoided humans in the wild.

Once the chaos in the aftermath of the Dracorage was brought under control, the brothers Nahaunglaroth and Roraurim returned to their original plan of opening up relations to the outside world, and reversing some of the isolationist policies of their sire. The half-dragon Lothouryte Morueme was sent to Silverymoon as an ambassador with a proposal for a non-aggression pact with the peoples of Luruar. She was granted an audience with the High Lady of the League of the Silver Marches but the outcome of that meeting was not made public. In addition to being an accomplished bard, Lothouryte was a dragonsong lyrist and hoped to earn a position at Utrumm's Music Conservatory and generate renewed interest in the study of dragonsong.

Notable members

 * Akkanrithux: A draconic hobgoblin talon of Tiamat.
 * Arharzel: Offspring of Roraurim and Faenphaele.
 * Eshaedra: The mate of Nahaunglaroth.
 * Faenphaele: Roraurim's mate.
 * Idrizraele: Kizilpazar's mate.
 * Kizilpazar: Patriarch of the clan, 1018 DR – 1371 DR.
 * Krashos: Lived among the drow of Ched Nasad.
 * Lothouryte: Emissary to Luruar.
 * Maruxthal: A draconic hobgoblin dragonkith.
 * Nahaunglaroth: Co-leader of the Blood of Morueme, 1371 DR –
 * Roraurim: Co-leader of the Blood of Morueme, 1371 DR –