A Note on Ogres

The mistake that all too many people make is to consider Ogres as an unintelligent, relatively harmless sub-species of Troll. In truth, the facts are more the other way around. Trolls prefer to lurk beneath bridges and in other damp, dark areas and lie in wait for passersby. They are far more feared than their altogether more formidable cousin the Ogre, because they are seen in their natural, horny, scaly form much more often.

Ogres prefer to remain undetected for the most part, a feat of no difficulty due to their appearance-changing gifts. However they are no less vicious for this appearance of shy nature. Able to change size and shape at will, Ogres can devour vast amounts of food with a seemingly insatiable hunger. Cunning, ferocious and wily as they come, Ogres form a formidable threat.

Below are marked a few different species of Ogre. These species are distinct from one another not only by their habitats, but also by certain characteristics that make themselves evident not only in the true form of the Ogre, but also in their own abilities and personalities.

The Mountain Ogre:

Perhaps the best known of the various species of Ogres, this creature dwells high up in the peaks of mountain ranges, both snowy and otherwise. When in their true form, they will appear as a large, stone humanoid, crudely formed and armored thickly with heavy rock. owing to this stony armor, these creatures are all-too often mistaken or Golems, giant clay creatures originating from the area of Constantinople.

Despite this cumbersome armor, Mountain Ogres move swiftly and are almost impossible to outrun. Able to change form as easily as any of the other species, the Mountain Troll’s abilities are however limited like all of their kind as they can only change to the appearance of creatures whom they have seen themselves. Therefore, it is rare to meet one that may change itself to a human form for humans will most often avoid the mountains rumored to house one of these creatures.

The mountain Ogre is possessing of a terrible bellowing call which has been known to cause avalanches in their mountain ranges. In addition to this, the Mountain Ogre is all-but immovable and its armor remains unbreakable while it stands with its two feet on stone. When on earth or in water, particularly that of a river, the Mountain Ogre is vulnerable to attack and overtime, running water will destroy it entirely. Also, like all Ogres, the Mountain Ogre is able to paralyze most creatures that make contact with its eyes.

The River Ogre:

These Ogres differ in many ways from their mountain-dwelling cousins. Firstly, their natural form is, while large and muscular as that of a Mountain Ogre, significantly less armored, possessing of little more than the equivalent of fish-scales over the bulk of their body save for their backs, where thick armor-plates grow. Their heads are rather larger than is usual, and extraordinarily flat at the top, which allows them to lurk in running water with only their pate showing above the flow so as to be mistaken for a stepping stone and lure unwary humans into their clutches.

Long green hair and weed clings to most of the body, which serves excellently as a disguise from untrained eyes. Also, as one might guess, these creatures can hold their breath for extraordinary lengths of time, sometimes staying submerged for hours on end before resurfacing.

Their hands are large and their long fingers are strong and tough. Once snared in the grasp of a River Ogre, there is little hope of it ever letting go.

One weakness of this creature is that it cannot change its appearance to anything that does not dwell in the water by nature. Therefore, human guise is beyond them meaning that they must rely far more on cunning than other Ogres in order to snare their prey.

The Man Ogre:

The Man Ogre is by the most cunning and perhaps the most dangerous of all the species. Their shape-changing gifts far exceed those of any other breed of Ogre, due to the fact that they are able to shift to suit the appearance of pictures of creatures as well as changing their shape to that of an lifeless substance such as wood, or stone, or glass.

As such, these Ogres are the species most often found in a well-populated area. It is rare for anyone around a Man Ogre’s home to realize what creature they are living by due to its uncanny shifting abilities. They most often seem extremely amiable, friendly people but possess the same insatiable hunger for flesh, and particularly human flesh, as the rest of their kind.

Man Ogres enjoy toying with people and are fond of killing humans to see the effect it has on others around them. They can grow strong on the negative emotions of others and so will often insight discord in whatever settlement they should house themselves in at a time. They will suck this place dry of everything they find of value, for they, like all ogres are extremely fond of trinkets, and, this done, will leave the place to find another, profitable area.

The true form of a Man Ogre, is unknown as no human eye has ever gazed upon their undisguised self in living memory.

  

Darn! looks like we're running out of space. I guess we'll just have to explain the rest of the species in another post.

Until then,

-T Baner