Overview
Goblins are the base stock of the warren races — small, scavenging, ambush-happy, and the only race that considers a good trap a form of art. Every goblin line in the world is a goblin that decided to live somewhere specific, and the deciding is the point.
Habitat
Goblins live in the warrens — their home is Goblin Warrens, a warren of soft, loose ground where the trap is the only light and the scrap the only law. They need three things: a ground that is loose enough to dig, a scrap that is close enough to reach, and a hole that is deep enough to hide. They are settled around the warrens, with foraging-lines in the ground; a goblin who has not set a new trap in a season is called "the one who forgot the art."
Appearance
A goblin silhouette is the small, hunched, long-eared shape — narrow-waisted, long-limbed, with the head that sits a little too far forward on the body, like a word that is waiting to be spoken, and the ears that are a separate sentence from the head. Males stand 91 cm to 1.07 m, 18 kg–27 kg, hunched and quick, with the spine a little too curved and the hands a little too long; females 86 cm to 1.02 m, 16 kg–25 kg, leaner and quicker, with a straighter back and a longer memory. Skin is a muddy olive to a soft, warm grey-green, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones and a network of fine, pale veins at the temples that show when a goblin is roused. The ears are the crown: a pair of true, long, pointed ears, in the same olive as the skin, with a fine, clean grey at the inner edge, and the ears are the goblin's most persistent claim — they turn, always, toward the sound that is not a sound. The eyes are large and a pale, luminous yellow to a soft, muddy amber, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is the trap, and the trap is the point. The teeth are the tell: a set of true, pointed teeth, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, with the tooth-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the goblin line's most persistent claim, and the teeth are always bared, and the baring is the point. The head is the tell: the ear is the goblin, not the face — a pair of true, long, pointed ears, and the ear is the goblin's most persistent identifier. Males carry the goblin line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the ears. Elders are marked by a full grey head and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — an old goblin moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a warren that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: a patchwork of leather and scrap in a muted umber or soft grey, a tool-belt with more pockets than sense, and boots that have been modified at least twice.
Behavior
Disposition: cunning, social, pack, curious. In peace, goblins are cheerful, nosy, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the warren, and they let you know it. In war they do not fight; they trap. Strangers are met with a question about what they carry, and the answer decides whether the goblin offers tea or a demonstration. The social unit is the warren-pack, ranked by trap, not by age. Two signature quirks: a goblin who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work. And they keep their trap for a lifetime, and they remember who broke it, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: ambush and trap — the goblin line never attacks; it rearranges the ground. Armor: none, by choice — a goblin who wears armor has already decided the hole is not enough. Weapons: the thrown tinker, the short crossbow, and the trap that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Trap-Notch, a single, deliberate chip in the left claw for every trap set, worn as a record of the long art; the Warren-Knot, a single knot in the braid worn over the right shoulder for every warren oath kept, in muddy olive; and the Scrap-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first trap the wearer ever set, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried back, their names spoken in the warren, and their tinkers laid across the threshold — a goblin buried without their tinker is buried as a stranger.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: chaos — goblin magic is the trap, the patient, precise holding of the scrap across the warren. Secondaries: illusion and conjuration. Named inborns: Trap-Sense (a goblin can feel the ground's mood the way a sailor feels the wind), Scrap-Eye (a goblin can see the stress-lines in any structure, glowing faintly amber), Hole-Cunning (a gnome's mind is a locked room; charm and confusion do not find the door). Signature power: the Trap Word — a goblin can set a trap to repeat one action forever, and the trap will keep faith. Limitation: goblin magic is spent on the warren; a goblin who has spent their trap word must dig for one day, and the day is the worst one of the warren.
Religion
Goblins worship no god — the warren is enough, and the scrap is the only law. They honor the trap as their own, and the trap is the point. They do not pray; they set. A goblin who prays is a goblin who has already decided the warren is not enough, and the deciding is the point.
Society
Warrens of 20–80, led by the Trap-Keeper, rank decided by the trap — whose is cleverest, cleanest, and most likely to come back. The warren is the whole of the law, because the scrap is the only clock and the trap the only law, and a goblin who has not set a new trap in a season is called "the one who forgot the art," and the forgetting is the only kind the ground remembers. No warren follows an age, it follows the trap whose edge holds longest, and the following is the whole of the rank, because a goblin does not measure a goblin in the years, it measures it in the set, and a goblin who has set a trap the warren forgot is the one the hole calls the oldest. Outsiders in the ground are either a scrap or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the warren keeps; a mortal who walks the foraging-line is not a guest, it is a debt, and the debt is the whole of the warning — the warren owes a tinker to the one who stands the loose ground, and the owing is the whole of the bond. Young are raised at the hole, where the first trap is set, and a young goblin who has not set a trap of their own is not given a tinker of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the warren does not hoard the scrap — it keeps the art, and the keeping is the whole of the warren, and a mortal who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the ground keeps.
Home
They live in Goblin Warrens, a warren of soft, loose ground where the trap is the only light and the scrap the only law.
Relations
The base stock of the warren races — every goblin line is a goblin that decided to live somewhere specific, and the deciding is the point. The goblin keeps the trap and it measures everything in the set, and the measuring is the whole of the treaty. The Orcs of the surface edge are the rivals the warren counts, and the counting is the whole of the law — the orc keeps the fang and the goblin keeps the hole, and the two have learned that a fang in the ground is not a word, it is a set, and the set is the whole of the distance. The Humans of the camp regard the warren the way the sky regards the ground: with distance, and with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a goblin who has set a trap the race forgot is the one the hole calls the kindred, and a mortal who has broken a trap is the one the warren calls the debt. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the warren takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the scrap keeps, and the keeping is the whole of the promise.
In the Story
In the current story, the goblins are the hole below the camp — the warren Uaellaen writes about when the trap is worth more than the scrap. The Forgotten keep their distance at the foraging-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a goblin came up the loose ground with a trap that had not been in the warren — a set that is not in the art, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the warren keeps its scrap, and the scrap has started to move. The Trap-Keeper is keeping the set, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
We do not hunt. The hunt is for those who were not born to arrive. — a goblin elder