Goblin Marches

The Goblin Marches was a narrow region north of Cormyr and the Storm Horns, south of Anauroch the Great Desert, west of the Stonelands, and stretching toward the Sunset Mountains in the west. It was populated by roving bands of goblinoid raiders.

Geography
The Goblin Marches was a desolate wasteland of crags, bogs, drumlins (elongated hills), and thorny thickets, as well as open plains and caves. South of the Marches, along the northern edge of the Storm Horns, were the Farsea Marshes and the High Moors (not to be confused with the High Moor).

The stony infertile soil of the Marches was unsuited for farming, and the climate was hot and humid in summer, and cold and windy in winter. The region was mostly rough grassland with sparse vegetation, small streams, rocky outcroppings, and isolated copses of gnarled trees. Caves and tunnels were carved into the bedrock by underground streams and pools. These caves provided lairs for many of the inhabitants.

There were few plants despite the abundant rain and ground water, with the exception of hardy grasses, flowering weeds, prickly ground vines, and various types of fungus. Low scrub brush was found throughout the plains.

Fauna
In ancient times, the region that became the Goblin Marches was green and teeming with wildlife. However, the rise of human empires with powerful magic, such as Netheril, disrupted the balance of natural predators and prey. The introduction of monstrous predators, including dragons and chimeras, caused further disruption.

As the goblinoid population increased, their wasteful overhunting contributed to the near-depletion of many species of game animals. These humanoid predators then turned on each other while they themselves became the prey of larger monsters. Those creatures that survived included the giant forms of normal animals, as well as dinosaurs, while smaller predators such as wolves and bears moved out of the area for less severe competition.

Architecture
Ruined castles and dead ancient cities were found throughout the Marches. These were the remnants of goblin fortresses dating back to the days of their great nation. Many of these ruins became the lairs of monsters, and most had been plundered of their treasures but still continued to attract hopeful adventurers. The goblins later made their lairs in cave and tunnel complexes while the orcs lived in villages and kobolds made their homes in deep subterranean caverns.

Government
Cormyr laid claim to the Marches (and the Stonelands) but was never able to control them. The goblinoids themselves were disorganized and most tribes were not much stronger than the others.

Trade
The Zhentarim maintained a trade route through the Marches, which inevitably led to frequent interaction with the goblinoid tribes, often hostile but not always. The Zhentarim attempted to recruit them on a long-term basis as an army, but the disorganized nature of the tribes and the threat posed by the Cormyrean military prevented this from happening.

They also endeavored to exert the same influence over the Border Raiders of the Stonelands. One of the tactics employed by the Zhentarim for these purposes was to install mind-controlled dopplegangers in positions of leadership among the goblinoids.

Direction for Zhentarim activity within the Marches came from Darkhold and Dagger Falls.

The orcs of the Marches were excellent miners and owned a number of iron mines. They used this iron to make weapons, armor, and tools but were never known to trade it to other races.

Defenses
The Cormyrean strongholds of High Horn and Castle Crag, located in the Storm Horns, kept the goblinoid tribes confined within the Marches.

History
The goblinoid races and their allies ruled this area as a powerful nation more than a thousand years ago, making extensive raids as far away as Suzail, Asram, and Anauria. The goblins were finally defeated not in war, but by the gradual and unstoppable expansion of Anauroch the Great Desert, against which they were powerless. Croplands were destroyed, the nation fell, and the tribes were scattered. They afterward established minor power bases in the Goblin Marches, the High Moors, and the mines of Tethyamar, which had been taken from the dwarves.

The earlier goblin nation was ruled by Hlundadim, or Great Hlundadim to the goblins, a being of great magical power from another plane about whom little is known. During this time the goblins were based in a great fortress in the center of the Marches called Araugul, or Goblin Mount, but they had other strongholds as well. With the encroachment of the Great Desert, Hlundadim disappeared and the goblins abandoned their strongholds.

In a later attempt to regain their former glory, the goblinoids made war against the western lands but were defeated at the Battle of Bones.

Inhabitants
The region was home to various humanoid races including orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, gnolls, bugbears, ogres, and orogs (orc/ogre crossbreeds). They raided the few Cormyrean settlements that existed there, but they also raided each other with equal compunction. Travel to and from the Marches was difficult and most Cormyreans chose not to settle in that dangerous land.

The raiders also attacked trade routes in the Storm Horns and made occasional forays into the Farsea Marshes against settlements of humans known as Marsh Drovers. These marsh raids usually ended in disaster for the attackers as they would get lost in the unfamiliar terrain or were cut down by the swamp's monstrous inhabitants including trolls, tribes of bullywugs, and worse. It was theorized that the Marsh Drovers once lived in the Goblin Marches but were driven into the marsh by the goblinoids and the region's changing climate.

Specific tribes

 * The Neidlig:
 * Among goblin tribes, the Neidlig were the most numerous and held the largest territory. Based in the southern Marches, the Neidlig also raided and hunted in the High Moors and made their lair in the dungeon and caves beneath a ruined goblin citadel. They numbered around 600 individuals and employed (aside from their own warriors) orc mercenaries to help protect their citadel, and ogres who went with them on raiding missions. Their chief, Srubaash, attempted to unite the various goblinoid races in an effort to rebuild their fallen nation, and claimed to have been inspired to this purpose after encountering a spirit in a vision.


 * The Merrowdrinkers:
 * The Merrowdrinkers were a tribe of hobgoblins who were allies of the Neidlig and laired not far from their citadel.


 * The Colchar:
 * The Colchar were a tribe of orcs who were also on friendly terms with the Neidlig.


 * The Fenlis:
 * The Fenlis were a tribe of goblins who tried to unite other goblin tribes, but they were racial purists who despised the Neidlig's inclusion of non-goblins except as slaves. They numbered about 400 members and made war against most other races, especially the Colchar orcs. Their lair was surrounded by deadly well-hidden traps.


 * The Melial:
 * The Melial were a mixed tribe of orcs and hobgoblins in the western Marches near Skull Gorge, and represented the last vestige of that great army of goblinoids that fought in the Battle of Bones. Many of them were skilled practitioners of magic and included powerful shamans and witch doctors. There were also those among the Melial (mostly orcs) who were afflicted with lycanthropy and could transform into werewolves. The source of this affliction was unknown, but these werewolves were just as powerful as humans so cursed, and were given elite status within the tribe.


 * Teerac-on-Water:
 * The Teerac-on-Water (or simply Teerac) was an unusual tribe of goblins that lived on an island on a lake on the border between the Marches and the Stonelands. They were more intelligent and sophisticated than other goblins, but no less vicious and destructive. They built wooden houses and buildings not only on the island, but also on a fleet of boats tethered to it, and unlike other goblins they could tolerate sunlight with no ill effect. The Teeracs also had longer lifespans than normal, many of them well over 100 years of age, as a result of ingesting a plant known as the blood red lily. They excavated tunnels deep beneath the island and there encountered a force of bugbears, with whom they became allies.


 * The Teeth:
 * The Teeth were a mercenary force consisting entirely of ogres and was led by Jadron the Fang. They were based in the Stonelands but their sphere of operation also brought them into the Goblin Marches.

Other monsters

 * Behir:
 * The behir made its lair in one of the many caves found throughout the Marches. They were the enemies of dragons, and as a result the behir were more numerous in this region than in the Stonelands, while the opposite was true of dragons.


 * Chimeras:
 * The chimera was perhaps more numerous in the Marches than anywhere else in the Realms. They lived in caves, sometimes after driving goblins out of theirs.


 * Dopplegangers:
 * Dopplegangers lived beneath the Marches in caves where they assumed their natural form, working together and making plans to infiltrate humanoid communities which was key to their survival. They were parasites with no formal society of their own, preferring to live off others. Any doppleganger discovered within a goblinoid community was killed.


 * Dragons:
 * The Marches was one of the hunting grounds of Skurge, a female black dragon that lived in the Marsh of Tun just west of the Storm Horns.


 * Giants:
 * Hill giants could be found throughout the Marches and the High Moors. Like ogres, they were sometimes in the company of orcs and goblins, usually as leaders or mercenaries. This was a risky arrangement, for the giants often grew tired of such cooperation and would turn on their former allies, treating them as slaves or dinner. They lived in caves in small tribes led by the largest male.


 * Ettins were not frequently encountered in the region but they were sometimes in the company of hill giants. An ettin would occasionally use any treasure it found to hire orcs and goblins to perform various tasks. One tribe of orcs near the Storm Horns had an ettin slave that had been bewitched by the tribal shaman.


 * Giant spiders:
 * Giant spiders in the Marches were both predators and pests. Orc warriors made monthly patrols of the area around their communities and killed any they found. Giant flying spiders had the power of winged flight. They did not spin webs, but came up at night from underground caves and flew in search of prey. They avoided flame and were deterred by campfires.


 * Hieracosphinxes:
 * Hieracosphinxes dwelt along the northern edge of the Storm Horns and flew into the Marches to hunt goblinoids. They also flew into Anauroch where they hunted androsphinxes and mated with gynosphinxes. They usually operated alone in the region, but powerful humans were sometimes rumored to use these creatures as mounts and companions.


 * Medusae:
 * A medusa in the Marches typically laired in a remote cave, an abandoned goblin lair, or a cottage in a remote ravine. They had no enemies in the region due to the fear of their stony gaze. A medusa would often seek out a maedar, the male counterpart to the medusa, for companionship. The two creatures shared a genuine emotional bond and mated for life. A maedar in the Marches who was not mated with a medusa sometimes lived among orcs or goblins as a welcome ally. It is rumored that the Zhentarim attempted to convince the medusae and maedar to work for them as special agents against Cormyr, but whether or not such attempts were successful is unknown.


 * Perytons:
 * Perytons inhabited the southern Marches and preyed on humans and humanoids.


 * Trolls:
 * Trolls were rarely encountered on the surface of the Marches, but they sometimes emerged from the Underdark to attack orcs and goblins who were regarded as food or sources of treasure. They feared giants and respected gnolls, and a troll occasionally served as a bodyguard for a gnoll chieftain or shared the company of hill giants.


 * Wemics:
 * The nomadic wemics roamed the plains of the Marches in prides led by male chieftains. They were generally enemies of the goblinoid tribes, but once in a while they established uneasy truces. They were meat-eaters and were known to hunt dinosaurs and behir if smaller game was unavailable. Their existence was useful to Cormyr, for in times of great danger they could unite to form a single wemic nation in order to counteract (for example) the rise of another goblinoid army.

Rumors and Legends

 * A mated pair of gold dragons were said to dwell in the southern peaks of the Desertsmouth Mountains on the southeastern edge of Anauroch. It was rumored that they provided information to the rulers of Cormyr regarding planned goblinoid attacks from the Marches, and that these dragons had destroyed an entire army of orc raiders.


 * Rumors concerning a human cult of Cyric stated that they had an underground temple in the center of the Marches. They were said to have hired orcs and ogres as mercenaries and built a labyrinth using goblin and kobold miners. They had undead servants and attempted to create a dracolich using magical formulas taken from the Cult of the Dragon.


 * The ruins of a forgotten city were said to exist somewhere in the High Moors according to an ancient book called The Yielding Tide. The wizards of this city were very powerful and somehow captured a goddess in order to steal her power. This unnamed goddess is still imprisoned beneath the ruins, and may reward her rescuers with their hearts' desire or slay them in vengeful anger.


 * A tribe of goblins was rumored to have bred their worgs to exceptionally large size through crossbreeding or by magic. These wolves were said to have stood almost 10' at the shoulder.


 * Some claimed to have encountered a previously unknown insectoid being in the Marches. It had four arms and stood only five feet tall but had the strength of a giant. It caused great destruction while screaming in an unknown language. A cleric who cast a tongues spell said that the creature had demanded to be returned to its own world.