red goblins
Red goblins are an evolutionary offshoot of goblins that are famous for their ability to breathe fire.
"Red goblins" call themselves "dragon goblins," but few want to give a stupid goblin a grandiose title. "Red goblins" is a term coined by dwarves and it is catching on with humans and passing into the Common vernacular, so some academic types prefer to refer to them as "fire goblins." The same academics like to call jumping goblins "air goblins" and frog goblins "water goblins."
Basic Information
Anatomy
Red goblins differ from common goblins noticeably in color. Most goblins are green, grey, or greyish green. Red goblins are nearly always red, oraange or reddish orange. Hence their name.
Red goblins are also a bit longer of limb than other goblins and they have visibly distended stomachs. When a red goblin is about to breathe fire, his/her stomach will swell up and when the goblin exhales flame his/her stomach will contract. This is visually similar to a set of furnace bellows.
Growth Rate & Stages
Red goblins grow and mature pretty much identically to common goblins except they require more food.
Red goblin pregenancy averages about 145 days. Twins are fairly commonly occuring about 10% of pregnancies.
Red goblin women are a little less fertile than other goblin variants, If a pregnant red goblin female is malnourished at any point during the pregnancy, she will always miscarry wheras other goblins only have a modest risk of miscarriages.
Red goblins, like other goblins reach the age of majority around thirteen years old after hitting adolescence around age ten.
Red goblins, even less than other goblins are not ikely to keep track of birthdays or know their own exact age. Red goblins go by how big a goblin is to treat them like an adult.
Ecology and Habitats
Red goblins can survive almost anywhere. They have a preference for hotter areas, but they have spread out into almost every corner of Scarnoctis.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Red goblins run hot and despite their small size, require roughly the same caloric intake of a human, or in other words, twice as much as a common goblin. Because they don't live in an especially food rich environment and their limited sense of taste, red goblins are not picky eaters.
Red goblins can eat almost any plant or animal matter that they can chew with their teeth.
They don't usually bother cooking their food as their stomachs cook their food, but red goblins rarely care if their food is raw, cooked, or charcoal burned. Their fiery stomachs means red goblins are hard to poison via their food. They can eat rotting carrion with no ill effects, and they have fantastic alcohol tolerance.
Additional Information
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Fire goblins are present throughout most of Scarnoctis. They rarely venture onto the surface of Scarterra, but this is mostly out of preference and not necessity. Red goblins are not harmed by sunlight or any other aspect of the surface world though they do stick out more.
Average Intelligence
Red goblins are widely known for being less intelligent and cunning than other goblins. They are smarter than outsiders realize.
While they have a tendency to pick needless fights with other mortals they have good insticts for avoiding natural hazards and they have good instincts with animalss, both in avoiding dangerous animals and in hunting edible animals.
They also have a good memory for landmarks and directions and almost never get lost underground barring magical interference.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Red goblins have the same basic visual and auditory sensory abilities of common goblins
Red goblins they have a bit weaker sense of smell indirectly because their own smoky odor masks foreign smells near them and they have a much weaker sense of taste having
more or less burn scarred the insides their mouths.
Red goblins can choose to see in the dark with something they call "the glowy eye trick."
When they do this their eyes glow very bright giving away their position with a pair of large glowing eyes. After an hour or two of "glowy eyes" red goblins start to get headaches. Another couple of hours after that, the goblins they start to painfully bleed from their eyes, so most red goblins overly push their "glowy eye trick" too far.
When traveling in familar tunnels in the dark, red goblins will often go five minutes on, five minutes off with their glowy eyes. They can maintain this almost indefinitely.
Civilization and Culture
Courtship Ideals
A Rover once claimed to witness a red goblin mating ritual. I am not inclined to believe the tall tales of Rovers, but her story matches with the information my gathered. The Rover claimed that the male goblins with the best fire breathing prowess got first mating rights over all the others, so it seems the red goblins have selectively bred out any non-fire breathers from their gene pool. -Beznak Bristlebranch, Dwarf Deep Ranger
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Common Dress Code
Goblins are never pleasant to look at. Naked goblins are even less pleasant to look at. Unfortunately red goblins are almost always naked. Their bodies are warm enough that they never seem to need to wear clothes for warm and they are not clever enough to make functional armor. -Beznak Bristlebranch, Dwarf Deep Ranger
History
I come from a long line of deep rangers and made it a point to keep tabs on the red goblins for personal reasons. Note that my family discovered red goblins four dwarf generations ago. For goblins, that is somewhere between sixteen or twenty generations. That is unfortunately a lot of time to mutate. My great grandfather Halgrick was the very first dwarf to document the existence of red goblins. The red goblins of his day were much less offensive than what red goblins have become. These red goblins of yesteryear were seemingly immune to fire and to extreme heat, but they did not breathe fire. They were much less aggressive. They rarely robbed or attacked outsiders unless their territory was threatened. Since they lived near volcanos, lava pits and other very hot areas in Scarnoctis that other mortals could not survive, few had any reason to threaten their territory because they chose to dwell in a region no one wanted to compete with them for. The red goblins only left their fire pits to hunt or forage and these areas were still very dangerously hot for most other mortals to survive, at least long term. The red goblins of my great grandfathers day were also decent metal smiths, at least by goblin standards. They were greatly aided by the fact that they could handle molten or superheated metal with their bare hands though this would not last. A generation later, my grandfather Sareck witnessed one of these creatures breathing fire. Few believed his words, and this besmirched our family's honor. But then over time our family was vindicated as more witnesses confirmed that yes indeed, some red goblins could breathe fire. When my father was a young man, it seemed about half of red goblins could breathe fire. Now as my own sons are nearly old enough to begin their apprenticeship as deep rangers, as far as I can tell all red goblins can breathe fire, and their fire breath is gradually getting stronger. Four generation of my family's lore has convinced me that the stronger the red goblins' fire powers become, the weaker their minds become. Goblins of any color are not known for their brains. Sure they have some cunning but not much intelligence. I am confident in saying that red goblins are the dumbest goblins in all of Scarterra both under the sun and under the earth. There is a joke that when you have a hammer all problems look like a nail. Well, red goblins now try to solve every problem with fire. Whatever crafting abilities their ancestors had are now lost. Any and all weapons and tools they use are stolen, they cannot even seem to make a sharp stick. Goblinkind is known for its cowardice but this has given them cunning to make up for this lack. Red goblins had all their cowardice entirely burned out of them. I wouldn't call what red goblins have "bravery" though, more like "bravado" or "foolhardiness." They are certainly the most aggressive goblins I have ever encountered. With their mighty breath weapons and ability to shape hot metal with their bare hands, they should be the strongest goblin group in all of Scarnoctis , able to destroy or dominate all other goblins but they lack even basic cunning. For all their might, they are easily tricked and misled by their weaker cousins. I also noticed that red goblins are gradually growing larger. Maybe my future grandchildren will see red goblins so mentally degenerate that they are little more than fiery beasts or more hopefully, the goblins' own stupidity will drive them into extinction before my descendants have to deal with them." -Beznak Bristlebranch, Dwarf Deep Ranger
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Lifespan
55 years is their approximate natural life span, though few live this long
Average Height
Most adults are a little bit over three feet tall.
Average Weight
Most adults weight around 60 to 70 pounds.
Geographic Distribution
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