When people are subjected to the predations of warfare, of bands of soldiers and deserters, thieves and killers, the trauma stays with them. The feelings of helplessness and impunity come back to them in all sorts of ways, but commonly this happens in dreams. In dreams, a soldier is an inhuman thing, an armed brute carrying horrifying weapons and stacked in anonymous plates of steel armour. A long-armed nightmare squatting in your house and sharpening its knife. A feral pack of stinking, shouting thieves, falling over one another to stuff your valuables away into sacks and packs.
These dreams are common and standardised enough that the images have been given names. They appear in dream bestiaries, and some academics claim to have compiled ethnographies and studies on them.
An uruk is an archetypal soldier, as seen through the eyes of a civilian that they have at their mercy. They are strong, brutal, cruel, and direct. They kill people without thinking much about it, and feel no pain. They are usually drunk and high, and can sometimes be outwitted, although most have a predatory quickness and sharpness in their thought. They hate law, police, and magistrates, because they know that if anyone found out what they are and what they've done they will be punished, possibly executed. For this reason they mass around leaders as cruel as they are, leaders unlikely to investigate or even care about atrocities in wartime.
A goblin is something like an uruk, but quicker, meaner, less sure of itself, less direct. They are sly, quick, thieving, cruel. Some people think that, if the uruks are dreams of soldiers, then the goblins are dreams of deserters or bandits. They are famously incapable of group organisation, and will kill one another over trinkets and baubles, or choice victuals, or the right to eat your children.
A bugbear is a stranger thing. They appear alone, usually (but not exclusively) in the dreams of children. The academics think that a bugbear is a dream of helplessness, usually begotten by memories of a single, nightmarish encounter with a soldier, rapist, killer, or murderer. A bugbear comes back again and again, and it has a personal relationship with the dreamer, it wants to scare them and see them suffer before it tears them limb from limb. It is known that the only way to kill a bugbear it to stop fearing it, something vastly easier conceptualised than achieved.
Of course, uruks, goblins, and bugbears are creatures of dream. They are dangerous to inhabitants or travellers in the dreamlands, but they do not trouble the waking world, and most people think of them as bedtime stories to scare children with.
There are rumours. That those who see uruks when they sleep become sly and brutal, hunched and goblin-ish. You can be tortured in your dreams. If you are captured you can be strapped down and force-fed filth, or have your limbs smashed and burned, and it can change you over time.
It is popularly said that there are more and more uruklike and goblinish people about, and it is true that the petty wars of the nobility, and the disorder and pillaging that always follows them, have multiplied in recent years.
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Dreamlands Uruk
HD2, sword or axe d6, burning torch or shield, armour as chain, speed as human, disposition: sadistic pillager.
Impunity: an Uruk is fearless unless they believe there might be some consequences for their actions. If you can convince a band of Uruks that their deeds are being watched or recorded, and that they might face justice at a later date, they will flee in terror and confusion.
Creatures of Dream: Uruks are only encountered in the dreamlands. When you slay one, another will immediately take its place and all uruks that can see you will mock your helplessness.
Dreamlands Goblin
HD1, long knife d6, armour are leather, speed as human, disposition: manic, skittish, cruel, scatter-brained.
Skittish: Goblins are cowards. If you can kill the biggest goblin in a band, the others will flee in terror.
Creatures of Dream: Goblins are only encountered in the dreamlands. When you slay one, another will immediately take its place and all goblins that can see you will mock your helplessness.
Dreamlands Bugbear
HD4, long clawed fingers d8 x2, armour as chain, speed: faster than a human, disposition: fixated torturer.
Nightmare: Bugbears are only encountered in the dreamlands. You can never outrun a bugbear, they simply appear behind you if you try. You can only defeat one by conquering your fear of it. When you damage a bugbear, make a WIS save - if you fail, you do no damage and the bugbear will mock your impotence.
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Design Notes: It occurred to me that the original orcs probably were something like Tolkien's worst dreams, or most savage archetypes, of the soldiers who fought in the wars that he witnessed. The rest followed from there.
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| Two Orcs, Alan Lee |
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