Goblinkin

"The races known as goblinkin were actually created in the Genecraftor Age, as near as I can determine around 2450 AD, when conventional physics and nanotech and all the other similar technologies had seemed to hit a sort of wall. Some adapted races of human had been around for awhile, mainly the heavyworlders who became dwarves and the L-5ers who eventually became elves, but the entire idea of actually creating these entirely new species was catching on. Later it would produce the Inferials and doom humanity, but at the time it was all the rage.

"At this time several companies worked out a slave-soldier race. This was a short race with a short temper and a short lifespan, but one sufficiently prolific that you could always have a new batch of soldiers to replace the cannon-fodder you'd already released. These were the Goblins - with naturally tough skin, a digestive system that was 500% more efficient than a human so that they could survive on darn near anything, almost no sense of smell, and an intelligence just bright enough to be dangerous and work simple machinery.

"Several different companies then worked out 'upgrades' of the basic model. Orcs were larger, stronger, and about as smart as a dumb human. Kobolds were even smaller and meaner tempered - the small part being a selling point when you wanted to transport them or cryofreeze the current crop. Ogres were for those who wanted their soldiers to be big and imposing. Hobgoblins were the elite model - as smart as a human, with a natural penchant for order. Bugbears and Gnolls were created as special agents/troop overseers. There were also several other varieties which appear not to have survived the intervening millenia.

"Ogrii were made to compete with the ogres, but were a flop as that but made excellent strong laborers. A sort of elite with armored skin, extreme strength, and a much higher intelligence. Unfortunately lacking enough of a killer instinct to make for good troops. Well, unfortunate as regarded their original design function.

"Hobgoblins are natural competition for caiveh. Hobs were apparently used as bodyguards much as caiveh were. The two species don't get along that well. Still, it's better than some races do and you can find Hobs working around the Empire. They like fighting, they like having things stable and a chain-of-command - so many of them enjoy mercenary work."
Keian the Wanderer, "A Wanderer's Journey"

The Goblin Lands are seperate from Shadar and Nihon and consist of lands that no one in their right mind would want.

It is composed of a set of islands normally linked by lowland plains. Whenever a storm hits the area, these plains are quickly submerged. The remainder of the land is mainly rock with some scrub and caverns. Since one shared characteristic of goblinkin is an inability to swim, this frequent flooding does make things difficult for them.

HOBGOBLINS:
There are two exceptions within the Goblin Lands to the bare rock and caverns. One area was bare rock and a few pocket caverns. Over a hundred years of hiring out as mercenaries has brought one of these "islands" to relative wealth. The rock of the mountain has been reshaped to a fortified castle. Not a pretty one, but still quite functional. The hobgoblins maintain a wary and militaristic but relatively open society - after all if they killed anyone approaching they couldn't be hired. A number of hobgoblins bring back any number of strange ideas, so while they are a militaristic strength-worshipping society, they aren't idiots or completely ignorant.

Their biggest change in society was through Emperor Shades who introduced them to a type of culture from his society's fiction known as "Klingon." Within a generation (hobgoblin generation) the ideas, armor, philosophies, and weaponry (especially the weaponry) took hold within hobgoblin society. While still technically an evil society, this addition gave them a distinct cultural identity and (at least in the minds of the hobgoblins) link to their glorious past. It also made them hireable within greater society, because the increased emphasis on personal honor meant that your employer may act as if his head is filled with fish oil - but the contract takes precedence over the momentary pleasure one would get from trying to light it. Between the oriental influence from Nihon and the "Klingon" influence from Shadar, the hobgoblins basically reinvented themselves and are currently in a relative boom period.

OGRII:
Pacifists who were built for war. Dermal plating equal to plate mail. Bodies that are almost completely muscle over a reinforced skeleton. Extreme strength and durability. Theirs is the second of the two more habitable islands. Theirs, however, is a closed society. The gentle giants have ringed their land with thorn and wall to retreat from the violence of the outside world.

The remainder of the goblinkin are much as you might expect. Though some goblins have taken to sorcery and clericism, they remain more a nuisance than anything else. The occasional pirate band will land to either take slaves or new crew, but sometimes the pirates get the raw end of the deal and the goblins take to pirating as well as anything else.

GOBLINS:
Short green-skinned warty humanoids with some apelike features. Very tough though as befitted the "flagship" product of a megacorp building a soldier. They don't regenerate so much as heal normally, but their body can be practically shredded with 80% of its mass injured and still crawl off to lick their wounds and return to fight another year or two down the road. "Cobbler" goblins - those with the ability to learn magic, aren't always as vicious as their brethren, but they are fond of loud noises and things that go boom. Every fifty or so years, a charismatic leader will arise and try to unite the tribes.
The average goblin encountered will be a first level Barbarian.

GNOLLS:
Created from hyena and human genes and combining the worst aspects of both. Cannibalism is practiced by the Gnolls, they'll eat almost anything that doesn't fight back too strongly. A few Gnolls have become Flinds - which is a sub-breed that is slightly tougher.
The average gnoll encountered will be a second level Barbarian. The average Flind is a second level Fighter/Sorcerer or Fighter/Thief.

KOBOLD:
The race was created specifically to infest worlds and to drain and pillage whatever resources were available. They are as tough as Goblins - injuries that would kill an elf or even a dwarf might see the Kobold drag itself off for several years of healing to return and strike again. Originally genetically engineered from badger and pig and several forms of lizard.
The average kobold encountered will be a 1st level Barbarian.

ORCS:
A few heads taller than an elf, Orcs are muscular and thickly bodied. Pig and human genes were combined with several others to produce an elite sort of soldier. Orcs are known to go about to any of the other goblinkin races and "trim" their numbers - they don't eat their own kind but any non-Orc is seen as fair game. Not quite as tough as Goblins, but more prone to think about tactics. One in one hundred will be a "High Orc" - even more powerful but also more intelligent.
The average Orc is a level 2 Barbarian. The average High Orc is a Fighter/Necromancer of about 4th level.