Ogres

Ogres: Bioweaving, Dwarf in Great Ape

The Ogres were created through Bioweaving by weaving the strength and endurance of the Dwarves into great apes. The Wardens sought a powerful laboring race capable of hauling immense loads, raising monumental works, and performing the countless physical tasks. Through bioweaving the great apes with dwarves as the donor they created such a creature. The result was a race of towering humanoids standing roughly ten feet tall, possessing immense strength, remarkable durability, and just enough intelligence to understand simple instruction and cooperate in groups. Though never considered equals to the Heirs, Ogres proved invaluable throughout civilization, serving as laborers, quarrymen, teamsters, and occasionally as beasts of war tasked with hauling siege engines and military supplies.

As mining expanded ever deeper beneath the mountains, even the Ogres reached their limits. The deepest tunnels suffered from near-total darkness, stale air, crushing confinement, and oxygen levels too poor for even Dwarves to endure. Rather than create another species, the Wardens reshaped the Ogre itself into a specialized subterranean variant that became known as the Cyclops, or more commonly, the Deep Ogre. Unlike Bioweaving, which sought stable new forms, reshaping emphasized certain qualities while sacrificing others. This reshaping in particular stretched the ogres existing qualities to their practical limits, demanding great sacrifice in return. Many Wardens considered the Deep Ogre among the most extreme examples of this practice, a creature stretched so thin that its stability bordered on cruelty. Few objected, however, as most regarded them as little more than unusually intelligent animals, hidden far beneath the earth where few would ever witness their lives.

Cyclopes lost much of their intelligence, bodily health, sociability, and daylight vision in exchange for extraordinary subterranean adaptation. They possessed an enlarged pineal gland that became their primary sensory organ, allowing them to perceive their surroundings in complete darkness, while their original eyes diminished into organs used primarily for depth perception. Vast lungs and an exceptionally efficient metabolism allowed them to survive where oxygen was scarce, rendering them unnervingly quiet and capable of working for long periods within the deepest mines. No people delved farther beneath the world than the Cyclopes. Even the Deep Dwarves could hardly descend to such depths, though they interacted with them more than any other race and were perhaps the only people to regard them with any measure of sympathy.

Physically, both Ogres and Cyclopes stand approximately ten feet tall, placing them between Orcs and Trolls in stature. Their bodies resemble immense mostly hairless gorillas blended with the dense proportions of the Dwarves with whom they were woven. They possess thick human-like skin over layers of heavy muscle and insulating fat, broad shoulders, powerful forearms, and a naturally forward posture. Their jaws retain large ape-like canine teeth that protrude from the mouth. Cyclopes differ chiefly in their enlarged chest, reflecting their immense lung capacity, and in the dramatic presence of their forehead eye, giving them their unmistakable appearance.