The Ogrish Empire

The Ogrish Empire started out as something in the distance, four kingdoms over, but my players seemed intrigued by it and kept drifting closer and closer to it.  Most of the inspiration for it came from the old module White Plume Mountain, where Qesnef the ogre mage wielded Blackrazor- a soul sucking sword.  Many grognards will recognize the sword's name and abilities, and know how hard it is to resist adding it to a game realm as background cheese.

Anyways, the Empire was always a vague idea more than anything concrete, I've nailed down a few of the vassal kingdoms within it, and mentioned that there were armies of Ogres, which was enough for the players.However, after sending a level appropriate Ogre Monk after the party, they realized that Ogres with levels other than barbarian are a cinch, so they started heading that way, and I needed to flesh things out.

Here's what I had laid out:

The Emperor Qesnef established himself several hundred years ago, having arrived through a portal upon escaping the destruction of White Plume Mountain.  He established a small area of control, easily taming a 'society' of Ogres in the area on the East coast of the landmass. Ogres weren't great for much other than shock troops, so he expanded his area of influence to cover some of the nearby human realms, vivisecting their leadership and rebel elements with Blackrazor and dominating the area until things were ripe for expansion.

Relying upon humans more than his ogre brethren, Qesnef was able to conquer quite a large portion of the continent, subduing several powerful kingdoms, dominating dozens of weaker ones, and disrupting many more.  It became one of the major powers in the realm, and in time would rival the mighty Alinor, were it not for Qesnef's personal fascination with acquiring named weapons after defeating their owners, the Ogrish Empire stood a chance of dominating the world.

The capital city was a sprawling metropolis with buildings built to fit giants.  There was a dedicated order of wizard-architects who would construct the amazing buildings that defied reason, with the Imperial Palace covering a dozen hectares.  Although comfortable for ogres, there were very few allowed in the city, as they were often ill tempered and disliked large crowds, mostly, the population of the Imperial City were humans, hobgoblins with dwarven and goblin slaves. The only ogres really allowed into the city were those who had proven themselves a cut above their brethren, many of which were either chieftains, in the Imperial Guard, or accomplished adventurers in their own right.

Vassal Kingdoms of Note:

Sabrah.  North of the Iron Mountains.
Andos.  Northwest of the Iron Mountains.
Mt. Everfall, home of the dreaded King Izar.  South coast of the Inner Sea, on the western edge of the Ogrish Empire.