Ogre

Ogres are the crudest and most populous of giants, but generations of rampant inbreeding and crossbreeding have turned them into a mockery of  giantkind. As such, the other giant races detest ogres and treat these weaker cousins with derisive scorn. But with their insular families and sociopathic tendencies, ogres care little about these opinions, and an  ogre clan is just as likely to prey on a lone giant as on any other  creature. Ogres are twisted beasts that suffer from physical defects and mutations at a dramatically higher rate than any other race, due to  their habit of inbreeding as a method of cementing familial bonds. The resulting defects don't bother the ogres, who view their deformities as  the mark of whatever dark god they worship. This same superstition leads ogres to despise beautiful creatures; when given the opportunity, they  go out of their way to mutilate and torture the most attractive of their  victims. So they are monsters to the Dark Elves. -- Few adventurers are prepared for the fetid odors, blundering stupidity, and barbaric depravity that characterize an encounter with ogres. An ogre makes a dramatic first impression with its intimidating size; at 9 to 10 feet tall, ogres tower over most humanoids, and their hideously thick arms and legs bulge with massive, misshapen muscles.

In addition to being the most numerous of giants, ogres are the widest ranging, and they are encountered in nearly every sort of terrain. There are brown-skinned ogres wandering desert regions; pale-skinned, shaggy beasts roaming the arctic lands; and numerous clans inhabiting forests, swamps, and vast open plains.

Ogres normally form family groups consisting of half a dozen to a dozen adults and juveniles, led exclusively by a powerful patriarch or matriarch known as the "boss." Larger families have been known to exist, but ogres are so destructive that few areas can support a clan with more than a dozen members, and these groups usually break up because of hunger and infighting. The boss's power is absolute within the ogre clan, and the only law is that which she enforces. Favored members get the choicest morsels at meals and the best bedding, while those who have fallen out of favor go hungry and are singled out for harsh beatings and repeated abuse. In spite of this, ogre clans are fairly tightly knit.

Food and survival are both continual problems for ogre families. These large brutes require tremendous amounts of meat to survive, but have little patience for mundane tasks such as agriculture or animal husbandry, so they fill their larders by pillaging, robbing, and killing. Ogres aren't entirely reliant on murder; some also act as hunters and trappers. In lean times, ogres possess no reservations about cannibalism. The sick or infirm don't survive long during famine, and any perceived rival might be quietly killed to fill the stewpot and eliminate dissent. Even a family member that's healthy and in good standing might end up on the dinner plate if the boss goes hungry for too long.

Ogres hunt either by running creatures to exhaustion or by forming a big circle and driving prey into the center to be slaughtered. A small ogre hunting party might follow a herd of deer for days, picking off stragglers and bagging them for future consumption. Ogres use variations on these techniques to hunt humans and other intelligent prey. The actual hunt can provide more pleasure to the ogres than the eventual slaughter, as they delight in the fear and desperation of their prey. This has the unfortunate side effect of making many of their hunts extravagantly wasteful. Ogres also find gratification in pure torture, but their skill is limited by impatience and a poor understanding of the limits of humanoid physiology. These ham-fisted brutes' torture sessions usually end all too quickly, from the ogres' perspective—but as an early end hastens mealtime, most ogres have no regrets.

Ogres see smaller creatures as prey and stay their hand only if they feel that they wouldn't win in a fight or if they can be convinced there is a greater reward to be had by parleying. Adventurers tell stories of tricking ogres into releasing them with promises of secret treasures, and a few audacious humans have even had luck partnering with ogres. Eventually, though, most would-be schemers discover that the ogre's appetite overrules any thought of camaraderie or future reward.

Even the most foolish ogre families learn caution when in close proximity to populous human settlements. Ogres know humans band together when threatened, so clans most often prey on the fringes of society, concentrating attacks on small villages, poorly armed caravans, or isolated farmsteads. They tend to avoid elven lands, as elves kill any ogres who dare to enter their forests, and ogres have little interest in digging dwarves out of their warrens. Ogres view smaller humanoids like gnomes and halflings as the tastiest of the man-like creatures and often pursue tiny prey with rapt fascination, but it never occurs to them that such diminutive creatures might be cleverer than they are. There are many tales of halflings and gnomes defeating the large, foolish giants through guile. Ogres have been incorporated into large armies on past occasions, but usually only when another creature has recruited them with promises of food and keeps them in line with harsh punishments. Under the flag of a powerful giant (or even human) general, a well-equipped ogre regiment forms a devastating horde. Ogres' strength and dim-witted fearlessness make them excellent shock troops. Still, such commanders quickly learn to not send these brutish and impulsive giants against cities that they wish to capture with minimal damage to the structures and residents.