The Goblin Warren
These Goblins have decided that living in the Mundane world means bringing most of their culture with them. They have chosen to rebuild their life style and social structure in a new warren here in the Mundane world rather then trying to integrate themselves into the Mundane city.
Structure
The Warrens functions under a caste system. A caste system is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution.
The Boss.
The warren is lead by a single goblin that makes all the decisions for the Warren. They can be either gender, but they are always considered the strongest of the Warren and have proven this by having fought for their position to be the Boss. This is a life time position. They rule the Warren until they are over thrown (and killed) or otherwise meet their death. This position has been filled by a Booyahg since the Warren was established in the Mundane world. Those with magical abilities are feared and can often defeat their rivals easily.Lashers.
These are the highest ranked goblins. They are the much like nobility. They are the families of goblins that are trained in the ways of battle or possess key skills such as strategy, trap-building, beast taming, mining, smelting, forging and religion. Those goblins that have been able to master mundane technology have been able to elevate their families into the Lashers. These engineers are considered the lowest of the Lashers, but they are still highly valued for the knowledge that they offer the Warren. Lashers follow the lead of the tribe’s boss, and enforce their will on other goblins with whips.Hunters.
The families of goblins that are skilled in the use of weapons but not privy to any other special knowledge have the second highest status in the tribe. Hunters are often the best wolf riders and know the most about the territory farthest from the tribe’s lair. These individuals hunt game in peaceful times, and in combat they serve as scouts, foot soldiers, and cavalry. The Hunters are the Warrens army.Gatherers.
Families in the second lowest caste are responsible for getting food from the surrounding area, taking what’s naturally available or stealing whatever they can. Gatherers also responsible for the farming and are charged with checking traps for captured people or beasts. Gatherers aren’t usually armed with weapons more deadly than a sling or a knife, but they frequently carry nets, caltrops, lassos, and nooses on poles for controlling captured creatures. These goblins cook for the tribe, and in times of war they are also responsible for making poison.Pariahs.
Some goblin families are the lowest of the low, composed of the most dimwitted, least educated, and weakest goblins. They get the worst jobs: mucking out animal pens, cleaning up after other goblins, and doing any hard labor such as digging mines.Culture
These goblins believe that the castes have different abilities because they were born with those skill sets and have been favored by the gods. Thus, the caste system is enforced as much by their social beliefs and religious views as by the might of the Lasher caste. Gatherers, and the pariahs beneath them, greatly fear for their lives in combat, believing that the lashers and the hunters have special knowledge of how to survive. It is the members of the lower castes that give goblins their reputation for cowardice as the Gatherers and Pariahs are likely to grovel to avoid conflict and when conflict cannot be avoided they will run.
Each goblin believes that they have their place in society and that they must maintain that place. Failing to do so will result in punishment which can be as severe as death depending upon the transgression. Because of this, goblins mate within their caste and pass on their knowledge to their children grooming them for the same roles that they have served within the Warren. They never mate outside their caste. And achieving something so great as to increase your ranking within the caste system is very difficult.
These goblins have little concept of privacy, living and sleeping in a large communal area with only the Boss living separately in their own private chambers. As such, this area is pungent and cluttered. However, it is an area that is to defend if it were assaulted and is layered with simple traps for such purposes. The Warren is filled with goblin children, partially due to gender roles, though the young goblins do not outnumber adults since their lives are often as dangerous as their parents. Children are not given priority in this culture. Those who give the Warren the most are owed the most from the Warren. Thus, these goblin children are often not well fed or well cared for. This is especially true in the lower castes.
The gender roles of this goblin society have the dominant males sustain the community through raiding and stealing as well as hunting and farming. Goblin females meanwhile are expected to birth as many children as possible to sustain a population constantly driven down by violence, disease and mishap. Those goblins that choose to leave the Warren are generally females, driven away by the rigidly structured role they are expected to play. The more intelligent the female, the more likely she is to choose to leave the Warren; her intelligence giving her the capacity to understand the nature of her living conditions as well as devise the means to safely escape.
Within the Warren, the Lashers own the land. The other goblins are allowed to live on that land in exchange for providing services. The Hunters provide military services and food while the Gatherers provide food. The Pariahs are not considered to be providing any important services to the Warren and as such they are only given the left overs. This means that they are only afforded the spaces within the Warren that are not wanted by the other goblins and survive on the scraps left behind by the others.
Public Agenda
Survival. The Warren goblins focus on surviving. They do not experience the constant threat of having their Warren raided as previous generations have while living in the Shadow Realm, but they have not forgotten this threat and they are wary of outsiders because of it. They have been under goblin rule since their arrival in the Mundane world, but they also have not forgotten that other races once ruled them and would do so again if given the chance.
Assets
The Warren in not wealth by Mundane standards. They have very little money and they have few assets that other races would value. They possess their Warren, basic tools, animals and a limited amount of Mundane technology. By the Mundane world standards, they are a poor hunting and farming community. But they can remember having even less while living in the Shadow Realm and because of this, they are proud of the wealth of their Warren. They have established farming and their animals are numerous. They even have collected some magic items that they have stolen, bartered for or found.
History
This Warren was established by a group of goblins that found themselves in the Mundane world and didn't know how to survive other then to attempt to recreate the society they had always known. The founding goblins came from numerous different warrens with in the Shadow Realm, but each had the same basic goblin culture and it was easy for them to come together beneath that banner.
Demography and Population
Goblins reach adulthood and begin seeking a mate at 8 years old. This means that they have a new generation of goblins about every 10 years. An adult female goblin can have a litter every year and has 3-5 goblins in each litter. However, only about 75% of their children reach adulthood. This means that in order for the Warren to increase its population, they must have successful Hunters and Gatherers that can adequately provide for the population mitigating the number of deaths in the adult population. Thus, their population growth has been slow.
Territories
The Warren is in a cave adjacent to the Gnoll Caves in the Tiger Mountains. They share the area with the Gnolls.
Military
The Hunter caste serves as their military. All goblins of the Hunter class (male and female) aged 8 and over are required to fight on behalf of the Warren. Due to the presence of the Gnolls in the Tiger Mountains, this is the Hunter caste's primary responsibility since their hunting has been limited to small game.
Technological Level
The Warren can only produce items of tech level 0. However, they have some families that are able to understand and use the Mundane tech. Because of this, there is some higher level (TL1 or TL2) items available within the Warren. All of this tech has either been bartered for or stolen.
Religion
The Warren has left formal religion behind in the Shadow Realm. However, there are still plenty of goblin families in all the castes that worship Maglubiyet and teach their children to do the same. Thus, there is still a significant religious influence in the Warrens despite there being no formal church of the state.
Foreign Relations
The Warren struggles with the social relations with the other races and with the Mundanes. The other Shadow Kind generally consider them little more than a nuisance. They do not get along well with most other races and are particularly suspicious of other goblinoids such as hobgoblins and bugbears since they had often ruled over them in the Shadow Realm. They have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with orcs and half-orcs, whom they work with on occasion, but their only true allies are the worgs who act as their mounts and fighting companions. They have worked out a functional truce with the Gnolls that they share the area with. This is largely based on an understanding that the goblins are surviving more on their gathering and farming rather then their hunting as the area cannot support both groups hunting.
Goblins are strongest in numbers.
Founding Date
2096
Alternative Names
Mountain Goblins
Leader
Leader Title
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Barter system
Currency
None. Amongst themselves they will generally barter and trade for goods without the use of money. They do collect both Shadow Realm gold and Mundane dollars in order to be able to trade with other groups.
Legislative Body
The Boss
Judicial Body
The Boss
Executive Body
The Lashers
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Related Plots
Comments