Overview
Shadow Goblins are the packs that moved into the dark and stayed. They are nearly blind, and they consider the light a noise.
Habitat
Shadow goblins live in Umbral Hollow, a sunless sinkhole lit by pale fungi. They need three things: a dark deep enough to be honest, a fungus pale enough to read by, and a stranger who is loud enough to be heard. They are settled in dark-clans around the fungal rings, with listening-lines across the hollow; a shadow goblin who has not listened in a season is called "the one who forgot the dark."
Appearance
THE shadow goblin silhouette is the small, flat, quick shape — narrow at the shoulder, low at the waist, with the head sitting a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting for a sound. Males stand 91 cm, flat-faced and nearly blind, with mirror-dark eyes that catch no light at all; they are the hunters in the deep, and the last ones you want to meet, because they are the ones who do not see you coming. Females stand 91 cm, sharp-eared and quick, the listeners — they read the dark by sound and shadow, and they decide what the pack hears; they are the ones who say "there is something there," and the pack moves. The base skin is a pale, almost grey, thin and cool, the color of old cave-fungus left in a shaded hollow, with a faint pattern of deeper, slate-black patches along the shoulder and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the ear-tip that is the shadow goblin line's most persistent claim. The eyes are the mark — dark, still, and they do not reflect, a mirror-dark that reads as black in the light and as nothing in the dark, and the not-reflecting is the point. The head is the mark: a flat, narrow skull with a pair of long, sharp ears in the same pale grey as the skin, set high on the skull, turning always toward the sound that is not a sound, and a short crest of fine, soft fur growing in patches along the ears, which is the shadow goblin line's most persistent claim. Males carry the line in the face and the hand; females in the ear and the voice. Elders are marked by skin gone a deep, dull cave-slate and a crest gone full silver — an old shadow goblin moves slower and hears further. Everyday wear: a wrap of stitched cave-fungus at the waist, a single pale bead at the throat, and no boots, because the dark is the ground and the ground is the house.
Behavior
Disposition: shy, clannish, territorial, cunning. In peace, shadow goblins are quiet, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the dark — they have the hollow, and they let the light know it. In war they fight as the dark fights: the silence first, the sound second, the patient, precise holding of the listening third. Strangers in the hollow are either a meal or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the dark remembers. The social unit is the dark-clan, 20–50 strong, around the fungal rings — no clan follows a hunter, it follows the listener who hears the most in the silence. Two signature quirks: a shadow goblin who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply listen to the lie's silence and wait, because the silence is the point. And they keep the listen for a lifetime: a sound the clan has heard is a debt, and the debt is paid in dark.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the sound — the shadow goblin line does not fight in the light; it fights as the dark fights, with the silence, the sound, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already heard the ending. Armor: none, by choice — the pale, cool skin is the armor, and a shadow goblin who wears metal has already decided the dark is not enough. Weapons: the short cave-fungus blade, the silence that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the sound that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Dark-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left claw for every hunt survived, worn as a record of the long listen; the Fungus-Knot, a single knot in the tail-braid for every clan oath kept, in slate-black; and the Sound-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first sound the wearer ever heard in the deep, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the fungal ring, their names whispered over the dark, and their blades laid across the threshold — a shadow goblin buried without their blade is buried as a light.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: shadow — shadow goblin magic is the dark, the silence, the patient, precise holding of the sound across the hollow. Secondaries: divination and death. Named inborns: Dark-Sense (a shadow goblin can feel the dark's mood the way a sailor feels the wind, and the feeling is not a choice), Sound-Sight (a shadow goblin sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is the sound), Silence-Carry (a shadow goblin's silence carries across the hollow, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Listener's Word — a shadow goblin can speak a word in the dark tongue and let it land on a sound, and the sound will keep the word until the dark turns. Limitation: shadow goblin magic is spent on the dark; a shadow goblin who has spent their listener's word must sit in the light for one day, and the day is the worst one of the hollow.
Religion
Shadow goblins keep Vessurax, the Veiled Eye as their primary god — the shadow, the secret, the truth that no one ever told. The hollow is Vessurax's, and the shadow goblin is the hollow's listener. Priestly class: the Listener, who keeps the dark-temple and hears the sound at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken in the clan, and there is no rite for that one; the clan simply stops hearing the breaker.
Society
Dark-clans of 20–50, rank decided by the listen — who hears the most in the silence.
Home
They live in Umbral Hollow, a sunless sinkhole lit by pale fungi.
Relations
THE "you can see us, and we can hear you, and that is not the same thing" faction — patient ones, and the ones whose ambush is the sound you make when you stop breathing. The Goblins of the warrens are the noisy kin the shadows do not tolerate — the goblin keeps the warren and the shadow-goblin keeps the dark, and the two have learned that a warren that is not silent is a warren that is not a house, and the not-silencing is the whole of the distance. The Kobolds of the deep warrens are the small neighbors the listener tests most often — the kobold keeps the burrow and the shadow-goblin keeps the silence, and the kobold who has been heard is the kobold the dark has already decided is a sound, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The Rat Men of the underwarrens are the kin the shadow keeps at a distance — the rat-man keeps the secret and the shadow-goblin keeps the hearing, and the two have learned that a secret that is not heard is a secret that is not a word, and the not-hearing is the whole of the peace. The Liches of the crypts are the dead kin the shadow does not invite — the lich keeps the crypt and the shadow-goblin keeps the house, and the lich who has been invited is the lich the dark has already decided is a sound you make when you stop breathing, and the deciding is the whole of the law. Above, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the shadow tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the dark keeps the hearing for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. Uaellaen keeps a page of the house in the wiki — the hearing, the silence, the ambush that is the sound — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a shadow-goblin who has been written about is a shadow-goblin who has been heard with, and the hearing-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the shadow-goblins are the dark in the house — the hearing Uaellaen writes about when the silence is the law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the house line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a sound came up from the house that is not in the dark — a sound the Listener does not remember, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the house keeps its silence, and the silence has started to hear itself. The hearing is the hand the camp has not been shown.
You bring a light into our house. Thank you. Now we know exactly where you are, and you have made it easier for us. — Listener Mora