Ogres

Ogres
Ogres are the quintessential inhabitants of Gamb. They are big, bulky beings, towering above most races and creatures they encounter, with an appetite to match. Usually roaming in bands - known as pods - of between 4 and 8, they represent a significant threat to all creatures unfortunate enough to encounter them.

Ogres have a reputation - particularly in Tol - for stupidity, supposedly only concerned with the whereabouts of their next meal. In fact, as those who spend any significant time in Ogre territories will attest, an Ogre's single-minded devotion to eating drives them to some deviously clever plots to trick, ambush, and capture their prey (which is just about anyone and anything).

Perhaps one of the only creatures of Gamb that presents a true challenge for Ogres are the humongous Rhinocedons that dwarf even the ogres, standing at 4m tall at the shoulder. The massive singular horn atop their head able to easily rip through the body of an ogre foolish enough to try and hunt them.

It is the nomadic movements of the Ogres that force most of Gamb's other inhabitants to do the same, lest they become easy pickings for the highly mobile and voracious Ogres.

Whilst famed for their consumption of other creatures (sometimes other ogres), they are very much omnivorous, helping themselves to any sort of berries, roots, and other flora at every opportunity.

Appearance
A defining trait of ogres is their bulbous guts, as much muscle as fat, protruding from their bodies, never quite full - owing to their insatiable hunger. The rest of their frame is equally as robust, and equally clad in thick layers of muscle, making for a frightening opponent.

Most of an ogres body is covered in a layer of translucent hair, giving them added insulation (along with their massive stores of body fat) against the bitter tundral winds of the steppe.

Society
Ogres are nomadic, roaming across their vast territories within the endless steppe expanse that is Gamb. These territories are by no means set, with conflicts between pods a common affair. These clashes can, and often do, result in deaths, which incidentally acts as a form of population control, for few other beings can take down an ogre nevermind a whole pod of them.

Ogres are not picky, and will gladly benefit from scavenging, demolishing found remains and carcasses, bones and all. Ogre teeth are said to be as hard as steel, able to crunch through even stone. An ogre is constantly growing new teeth, which push out the older ones in a never ending cycle. Ogre teeth are highly prized, particularly by the goblins of the Black Forest, who shape them into all kinds of tools and weapons, such are the size and strength of these teeth. Even the Atroxi of Gamb make use of 'ogre products', scavenging the large front tusk-like canines that often protrude from the top and bottom of an ogre's mouth, turning them into spear heads capable of piercing even the toughest metal armour. Likewise, they will also keenly strip any ogre carcass they find of it's skin, which can be tanned into an incredibly tough leather used in armours. This, however, requires finding an intact dead ogre, a task in and of itself, given that if killed by another ogre, the carcass is likely to be consumed.

Black Forest
Some of the more southernly pods, despite initial apprehension, began to forage on the outskirts of the Black Forest, which separates Gamb from Tol. It's dense woodland, packed full of many kinds of fruiting trees and bushes, as well as a plethora of animals an ogre could catch and eat, ultimately presented an irresistible lure.

It was some time before they tread deep enough to encounter goblins in any significant numbers. They weren't unfamiliar with goblins, who would, in small hunting parties, sometimes make daring scavenging trips into the Gamb Steppe. But finding whole clans - villages of many hundreds of goblins - was a watershed moment. Initially, ogre raids wiped out thousands of goblins, as ogres gorged themselves on this new prey. Goblins are by no means defenseless, but certainly those living nearer the edge of the forest had little means of repelling the rapid assaults by various pods.

Deeper inside the Forest, ogres sometimes encountered massive Lumber-Goblins (trolls), which proved to be one of the few entities ogres had encountered capable of matching them. Killing a Lumber is seen as an incredibly prestigious achievement amongst ogres, as most would surely die to such a beast.

Warfare
Largescale, organised warfare simply doesn't exist within ogre culture, primarily because orges aren't organised, and aren't interested in anything except their next meal. Where inter-pod conflict does occur, however, is over their claimed territories, which they essentially view as their feeding grounds.

Destitution in one pods territory may send it's ogres outwards to pillage their neighbours. Or a particularly 'food wealthy' pod may see fit to expand their territory and chase off or eat a weaker pod, absorbing the remainder. Expansion of this kind rarely lasts, and despite age old concerns that a particularly powerful ogre might snowball into building a vast army, nothing of the like has ever happened. The larger a pod gets, the more food is required, and the harder it is for any one territory to support that pod. So, usually, a challenge occurs and the pod splits.