The position here is even more treacherous than in the Land of Iuz. Interracial and intraracial conflicts are deep-rooted and pervasive. Careful measures have to be taken to avoid these conflicts exploding into mass battles.

First, the numerically dominant hobgoblins have a strong rivalry between the northern and southern tribes. Southern can be taken to mean those hobgoblins whose homelands lie south of Molag, more or less. The northern tribes all follow the Power Maglubiyet in his hobgoblin aspect as their patron Power. Those to the south follow Nomog-Geaya, the hobgoblin Power. There are also conflicts within the northern tribes, with the dominant tribe being the 9,000 strong Hargrak Tribe, and within the southern tribes too, with the dominant tribe being the 4,000 strong Gerregak Tribe. However, these are strictly secondary to the north-south divide.

Secondly , the orcs are all members of one tribe, the wild and powerful uroz. Exceptionally strong and barbarous, the uroz are a deeply proud orc tribe.

The other races have their own differences. Gnolls and fiends are haughty and keep to their own homelands. They despise the orcs and hobgoblins, but are well aware that they cannot afford to battle such numerically superior opponents and their fiends leaders avoid battle if they can do so without losing face. The norkers are all allied with the hobgoblins, so they are part of the same north-south struggle. Three-quarters of the kobolds are allied with the uroz, the rest trying to make peace with the dominant humanoid group in the lands they share. Finally, around one-half of the ogres are allied with the forces of Iuz, but the others are opportunistic bandits and raiders with no alliances who survive because of their greater strength and brutishness compared with the other humanoid races.

These tensions are partly kept in check by Iuz’s leaders through control of territory. While much of the Horned Lands is a patchwork quilt of racial and tribal lands, the north-south division of the hobgoblin tribes is rigidly enforced by Iuz’s own troops. kazgund orcs play the major role in patrolling the Stonewall Road, keeping northern and southern hobgoblins separated. Likewise, many of the hobgoblins whose tribal lands lie within 20- 30 miles of this road have been exported to the Bandit Lands where they have ample opportunity for raiding and marauding, so that these areas have been depopulated, rather to the relief of their human inhabitants. The conflicts between the uroz, whose tribal lands lie around the western margins of the Fellreev Forest and the northern Horned Lands, and the hobgoblins have been reduced by using the uroz in walled garrisons, in Molag, and by shipping them eastward to act as “shock troops” along the southern margins of the Fellreev. Thus, Iuz’s priesthood attempts to separate the various races and tribes and keep conflict to a minimum. However, there is still unpredictability in all this.

Horned Society