Race: Hobgoblin
Hobgoblins as a concept are probably public domain, at this point. A lot of the specific information below is heavily influenced by a particular thread that I'll link to later, as well as the d20 presentation of the idea.
Where the clavats are sort-of Japanese, the hobgoblins are sort-of Chinese/Mongolian with some Roman influence thrown in.
Hobgoblins
- <complex hand gestures>
In the jungles and savannas of the dawn of the Age of Empires, a stealthy apex predator slowly came to sentience. Similar in origin to tigers and other large cats, these were instead primates, and combined with a strong sense of hierarchy, eventually developed pack tactics that would - gradually - result in intelligence. Given the "survival of the fittest" nature of their way of life, the moment true sentience appeared, these small packs rapidly evolved into small tribes. Between a combination of their innate sense of superiority and inferiority in relation to others, and their rapidly improving intellects, it did not take long for these small tribes to become united under what other societies would recognize as warlords.
Their evolution into fully-realized sentient people was quite rapid, and encountering other races - who wielded tools the likes of which they were unable to craft at the time - led the hobgoblins, as they began calling themselves, into an internal technological arms race, resulting in a highly militaristic, highly entrepreneurial society. As their numbers grew, the innate sense of leadership was unable to keep distant members of the tribe in-line, and thus began the cultivation of the hobgoblin sense of "honor." That their society seemed to improve incredibly quickly compared to others led the core of the hobgoblin race to believe in their cultural superiority, and slavery became part and parcel of hobgoblin culture.
Eventually, the various factions of the Age of Empires rose to dominance, with the Arkeyan Empire of primary importance to the burgeoning hobgoblin khanate. Specifically, the khanate was absorbed wholesale into the Arkeyan Empire: due to the sizes of the political entities involved, this noticeably altered Arkeyan culture, with hobgoblins becoming a significant portion of their population and spreading throughout the Empire.
