Earliest existence: 19,900 BR
The Bugbear was not a race simply born; it was forged in the cold, unforgiving peaks of the Falhollow Mountains. This brutal landscape demanded a brutal people. Their earliest existence, around 19,900 BR, was a long savage evolution driven by the granite and the ice. They were ghosts in the crags, powerful silhouettes adapted perfectly to the rock. Family units stalked the shaggy beasts of the high passes. There was no tribe, no shared purpose, only small desperate groups fiercely guarding their hunting kills and hidden dens. Survival was a solitary act of sheer violence: kill or starve.
The change began around 19,596 BR with Khorok. He wasn’t the largest warrior. He had no great lineage. But Khorok saw the wasteful endless violence that bled their people dry. He saw the potential of a dozen families fighting together instead of apart. With strategic cunning, not just brute strength, he led a series of hunts so daring they brought back a true bounty. That shared kill forged the first tribe. Warlords were born then ruling by strength of will and brutal practicality. Life became slightly more stable. They established temporary camps and began to push back against the encroaching Orc tribes from the northwest.
Tribalism was strong but fleeting. By 18,939 BR the single warlord system crumbled into a patchwork of powerful, warring clans. Low-level conflict over resources was simply a way of life. But one group, the Stonefist Clan, had a different vision. Their leader, Grulak Stonefist, was an architect. He didn’t want a camp; he needed a permanent unassailable stronghold. In a sheltered valley they began to cut a city from the mountain’s living rock. This massive undertaking, started around 18,700 BR, would become Mordath.
Mordath was still rising when Borogor the Uniter arrived in 18,614 BR. His reign was not built on strategy or shared feasts, but on overwhelming force. Borogor saw the weakness in the clans’ scattered might and gave them a stark choice: subservience or annihilation. His campaigns were a bloody whirlwind. He defeated and absorbed every dominant clan, consolidating them under a single iron-fisted chiefdom. Mordath, the formidable fortress, became the chiefdom’s natural grim capital. Borogor turned the terrible ferocity of the clans outward toward their old enemies the Orcs.
For the next fifteen hundred years the Chieftains ruled. Their warriors no longer tearing at each other’s throats became legendary. But the constant raids and battles were an endless drain. By 17,105 BR, the Bugbears were strong but utterly exhausted. A single powerful ruler was no longer enough. The stage was set for a weary peace, a new cooperation a shift in the very soul of the mountain people.
For a more complete history to present day, see Awyr
