While the hobgoblins are frequently hired mercenaries, they kept some degree of independence from the Ogrish Empire due to distance and harsh terrain between the two states. The fact that the Feyblight forest was between the two kept regular tax collectors away.
With the Iron Mountains forming the Northern edge of the Feyblight, that was commonly considered the southwestern border of the Ogrish Empire, and two Kingdoms were in that area.
Andos
The first Kingdom, Andos, was a cursed area that many feared to visit. It was the Andosi and the Hobgoblins who flushed the Dwarves out of their kingdom of Iron Haven within the Iron Mountains during a long and bloody siege. The nobility of the kingdom all suffered from lycanthropy. Over the centuries, they learned to harness their powers and now hold hereditary lines devoted to certain animals.
Major houses of the Anodsi:
House Verin are bound to rats, and have taken on the sigil of a red rat's claw over a black moon.
House Fenris are bound to the wolf, and have a sigil of a silver moon over a black field.
House Auresh are bound to the elephant, and have a sigil of a golden moon supported by tusks.
House Auresh is currently ruling, and uses the other houses for spying on neighbouring kingdoms and as soldiers. House Auresh also infects ogres who settle in their lands with lycanthrope, creating the terrifying ogre-were-elephants.
Fighting a guerilla war within the Andosi kingdom, and hunting down the nobles are a small band of rangers known as the Silver Fangs. They specialize in killing were-creatures and as a right of passage have their eye teeth pulled and replaced with razor sharp silver fangs--last ditch weapons should it come down to it.
Sabrah
The second kingdom, just North of the Iron Mountains, and guarding one of the major passes is Sabrah. The natives of Sabrah are known fore their exotic marial arts, and the fusing of martial arts with magic learned from the Ogrish Empire. There are several monastaries located on the Northern edge of the Iron Mountains, where their mystics have perfected their arts for centuries. Now, each has a mage tower overseeing their exersizes, selecting potentials for special missions and duties.
The mage monks of the Sabrahn kingdom are divided into four ranks. The most commonly encountered are the monks of the rod. These are low level magic users who are also initiates in one of the monastaries. They carry a rod of status(a decorated metamagic rod) whereever they go. The next rank carries a pair of nunchucks, with each rod being a metamagic rod, bound together with arcane tethers that allow them to work in unison. The most feared are those monks of the three section staff. Just the sight of one of these monks has been enough to route entire armies. It is fortunate that they are rare, perhaps one in a generation achieves this rank, and rumour has it that there are only ever three of them at a time. The last rank is only speculated, and has never been seen in public. It is said that the highest ranking monk will stay at the Imperial court and offer their wisdom to the Emperor.
One of the specialties of the Sabrahn monks is that of kidnapping political adversaries at the beck and call of the Emperor. Using both magic and martial arts, they are said to be able to snatch just about anyone from their bedchambers and disappear before the guards outside the door even realize anything is amiss. By the time anyone realizes something has happened, the kidnapped person is held in the dreaded Sabrahn Dungeon, deep in the lowest pits beneath the highest mountain.
Inside the Dungeons, newly captured targets are secured to the floor via rock to mud/mud to rock spells, and watched over by a golem. Should anyone dare attempt to teleport into the chamber, the golem activates and steps on pressure plates that emit nauseating clouds and waves of fatigue to subdue the would-be rescuers. The presence of beings without specific glyph-tokens also triggers a dimensional anchor to prevent escape. There are many woeful tales of heroes attempting to rescue their friends from the Sabrahn Dungeon, but precious few that are successful.
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