Goblin

Goblins are a short, tenacious humanoid species within the Remnants of Diaghal. Descended from fey creatures stolen from the Feywild, goblins are the most populous and widespread of the goblinoid species.

Physiology

Goblins are a short species, usually measuring only 3 ½ to 4 feet in height, and weighing around 40 pounds. They have skin tones that vary in ranges of tan, green, grey, blue, yellow, and red, and eye colours comparable to humans, with the addition of yellow and red tones. Most goblins had black hair, but other colours such as white could be seen in the species. The long ears and sharp teeth of goblins draw some non-goblinoids to describe their appearance as “bat-like” or “cat-like”.
Some lineages of goblins also had other physical traits. Goblins could be born with tails, a trait especially common among Barags. Short fur covering the body could also occur in the goblin phenotype. Horns can also manifest.
Goblin pregnancies were short compared to other species, having a gestation period of around 3 months. Goblin women living within communities of their own species often had many children as a result.
Goblins are known for their physical tenacity. They are agile, and often managed well in fights against foes larger than them. Some myths say that this was a gift given to them by The Queen of Air and Darkness. In addition to their agility, goblin constitution is hardy, allowing them to digest hardy foods better than most other humanoids.
Goblins reach maturity at age 8 and live to around 60 years of age.

Culture

Goblin culture was primarily divided into six ethnicities, with two of them comprising part of a wider goblinoid culture. The six goblin cultures are the Kutori, the Bhuka, the Pakkanihmi, the Barags, the Durgolin, and the Dokkaebi. Most of them are nomadic or semi-nomadic.
Kutori goblins could primarily be found around central Tuatha and Olcaris. They are often antagonistic with non-goblinoid cultures, raiding, pillaging and stealing from the settlements near their territory. Interactions with Kutori lead the species to sometimes have a bad reputation. While many clans lived only with their own species, some Kutori clans are pressed into service with other goblinoids to form hosts.
Descended from goblin clans fleeing Makutu, the Bhuka are a nomadic goblin culture primarily in southern Tuatha. Bhuka worshipped Kikanuti, a syncretic goddess of the Urbnatist interpretations of Erathis, Yondolla, and Avandra. Bhuka clans are led by a matriarch, who also acted as the priestess of the community. Bhuka were sometimes erroneously called “desert goblins”, despite the fact that they were not solely relegated to that environment. In fact, some Bhuka were nomadic seafarers, never having fully settled on solid ground after their exile from Lurean.
Pakkanihmi, sometimes called Snow, Frost, or Ice Goblins, inhabit the northern reaches of Diaghal, with the highest population in Ulferheim. Pakkanihmi clans acted both as allies and enemies to the Ulfknapa tribes of the region. Most Pakkanihimi had white, blue, or grey skin, sometimes with short fur growing over it.
Barags can be found mostly in the Feywild, or areas of Diaghal with strong connections to the realm. According to legend, they are descended from the goblins that escaped from the gods of the goblinoids after they transformed the Bogeys. Barags are most known for their love of mischief, and most of their lineages have tails. Many of these goblins are in service to the Archfey of the Feywild, acting as courtiers and messengers.
Durgolin are the goblins of the Durkolok Empire in the Dorin Sea. The lowest-ranked goblinoids in the imperial hierarchy, Durgolin act as the unskilled labourers of the empire, primarily farming and crafting. A few are permitted to join the military as common infantry and archers.
Of the goblin cultures, the Dokkaebi of the Mugashi of Tsekitiro are the most assimilated into the wider culture of their area. Compared to other cultures, it was much more common for Dokkaebi to have horns and fanged teeth.
Most goblin cultures had little sense of personal ownership. In goblin clans, tools and objects were always taken by whoever needed them at the time. As such, some goblins who had only ever grown up around their own species did not understand the idea of their borrowing of objects being “stealing”.
Goblins are proficient animal trainers. Rats and bats are common pets that goblins keep. Goblin mounts included wolves, tigers, and giant bats. Goblins also rode Worgs, intelligent wolf-like creatures. To be a worg-rider was a position of great honour in goblin society.
Goblin culture had a wide understanding of the fragility of their own lives. From this base perception, various philosophies were developed on how that fact should be viewed. The two most common philosophies were the polar opposites of khalchagaben and hommasteloy. Khalchagaben was the idea of survival at all cost. Goblins who followed this perspective tried their hardest not to die, even to the expense of others. This philosophy was more common among Maglubiyet-worshipping goblins, based on the belief of their afterlife being a hellish experience that needed to be delayed as long as possible. The other most popular philosophy is hommasteloy. This perspective states that there is no life worth living more than a life lived to the fullest. These goblins could be ambitious and nihilistic, even to the point of near-suicidal actions.
Many goblin cultures venerated, or are associated with, fire. Bhuka view fire as the intermediary between the mortal and the divine, the messenger for Kikanuti. As such, many of their funerary practices involved cremation. Pakkanihmi view fire as the one of the primary devices that allows them to survive, and fire-mages are valued in their culture. Dokkaebi were so well known for their pyromancy that the practice was known as “goblin-fire” in many Ysen Tei languages and dialects. Kutori cherished fire for its destructive purposes.
Goblins spoke a language called Durghikuu, Ghikuu, or Goblin. More specifically, they spoke the Shyypalea branch, which was further divided into a number of dialects. Some of the ethnic-specific dialects included Kutorese, spoken by the Kutori, Baragish spoken by the Barags, Pakkanihmish spoken by the and Bhuka spoken by the ethnic group of the same name. Dokkaebi and Durgolin goblins spoke their own branches of the language, Mugashese and Durkolokish respectively. Durkolokish had a large number of tense and inflection changes based on the rank of the speaker and the addressee, while Mugashese often had little difference in tense and inflection change when compared to other Goblin dialects.

History

According to myth, all goblinoids, including goblins, were once servants of the Queen of Air and Darkness, known as Bogeys. The Queen of Air and Darkness would shapeshift the Bogeys into appearances that she wished them to be, using a magical skinning knife known as Shadowshifter. The children of Ereshkigal - Nomog-Geaya, Hruggek, Grankhul, and Khurgorbaeyag - heard of this knife and wished to possess it. The four entered into the realm of the fey. While Nomog-Geaya distracted the Queen of Air and Darkness and Khurgorbaeyag stole away the bogeys, Hruggek and Grankhul took the knife. The four met back up, and began arguing over what shape the bogeys should take. Khurgorbaeyag wanted them to be small and quick, easily able to evade opponents and strike them in vulnerable spots. The twins Hruggek and Grankhul wanted them to be tall and lithe, with the ability to stay quiet and strike quickly. Nomog-Geaya wanted them to be strong and disciplined, able to seamlessly work with one another to achieve any goal. They argued and argued, and wrestled Shadowshifter from each other until it shattered into a million pieces. As the remnants of the blade passed over the bogeys, each one took a shape similar to one of the shapes described by the gods. Khurgorbaeyag ’s preferred form became that of the goblins, Hruggek and Grankhul’s preferred form became that of the bugbears, and Nomog-Geaya’s preferred form became that of the hobgoblins. In the panic, some of the newly-shaped goblinoids were able to slip back to the Unseelie Court, but the four gods were able to take the rest of them back to the Material Plane with them, ruling over the new species as their respective patron deities.
Goblinoids stayed fairly uninteresting in the historical record until the rise of the Kheosmajkuan Empire around the later middle period of the Invasion Era. Archaeological records of the city of Kheosmajku, whose empire inhabited the territories of the modern-day Asvalan Peninsula, show evidence of goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblins all living within the same culture. Records are unclear, however, if a hierarchy existed between the species at that point. Kheosmajku fell sometime during the early Era of Restoration.
Around either the late Arcane Age or early Dark Ages, the cult of Marduk came to prominence among goblinoid species. Among goblinoids, he was known by the epithet Maglubyet. Maglubyet soon came to be the patron deity of most goblinoids, as he is today. Some scholars believe that Maglubyet’s conquest of the goblinoids and imprisonment of the old gods was a mythological explanation for this phenomenon.
During the early years of the Urbnata Church, missionaries in Makutu attempted to convert goblins on Lurean to the Itzcuintlian faith. This only partially worked, and the goblins developed their own form of the religion, worshipping a syncretic form of Erathis, Avandra, and Yondolla that they referred to as Kikanuti. Their form of worship was seen as heresy, and a majority of the goblins fled to southern Tuatha. These nomadic goblins became known as the Bhuka.
Goblinoids did not put much of a dent in the history of the Age of Mortals until the rise of the Durkolok Empire in 961 MT. Luvazon the Wraith, a male hobgoblin chieftain named so for his pale skin, united the many goblinoid clans on the island of Lagwepytheth in the Dorin Sea into a single state. He then crowned himself the first emperor of the Durkolok Empire. In the modern day, the Durkolok Empire holds the islands of Lagwepytheth, Orglepdrae, and Dwagpylel, among many other smaller islands. It is the only state in Diaghal where a form of the Toronuch Dogma is the official state religion.
The Sylvan Sovereignty movement united many of the goblinoids of Hitochi into a shared culture. This culture became known as the Mugashi.

Origin/Ancestry

Bogeys

Lifespan

~60 years

Average Height

3'6" - 4'

Average Weight

~40 lbs