Goblin
“Folk” – According to the lore of the hobgoblin-dominated greenskin society, goblins are the degenerated issue of the original hobgoblin stock. They are loathed, distrusted, mistreated, and generally ill-used by their higher goblin brethren. They live and breed like vermin in vast, communal underground warrens. Things like “fundamental rights”, “privacy”, and “bathroom etiquette” are foreign to these pits. Society in these warrens is chaotic and spiteful. In the legions, goblins are a weapon, a tool to be used and discarded, or ammunition to be fired at the enemy. They are sometimes herded before the shield wall, pushed into the enemy in a great green wave of spite and shanks. Often they are used as a sort of area denial weapon and early warning system, with small camps of them placed strategically around the legions’ outer perimeter so that their dying screams can alert the camp should an enemy press in. Their other uses include: being left in the wake of a goblin legion to continue abusing suppressed enemies, assassins in cases where volume trumps skill, and emergency food supplies.
For their part, goblins aren’t quite as helpless as they seem. They can hold a grudge from birth to the end of their lifespan, and their revenge can range from petty pranks to poisoning the offender. Goblins get greater than usual pleasure out of destroying something more powerful than themselves, even if that’s another, more popular goblin. Even the rare good, selfless goblins get a kick out of fulfilling their urge for vengeance and taking down a more powerful enemy. Petty spite and rebellion are ingrained in their breeding.
Goblins wandering alone are a target. Goblins wandering in unclaimed packs are an opportunity, and will be absorbed into a passing legion’s auxiliary with a combination of tiny bribes and big threats. Male goblins will often seek to wander out of a desire for freedom, a wanderlust, or the hope to attain enough personal power to return home as a chieftain. Females wandering afield are usually refugees trying to escape a life of misery and childbirth in the warrens.
Naming Traditions
Feminine names
Qehxi
Staalk
Bhiensea
Gin
Grenx
Neebtenqa
Frishifea
Betrynk
Gniesunk
Khotbaz
Shuhx
Klaftee
Grealx
Trogai
Jag
Tavegea
Ianeaft
Tivrart
Nerolsa
Traahkaaft
Masculine names
Guink
Priogs
Gielk
Pluc
Gles
Triovlet
Coishoilb
Abreakt
Ilikt
Gnulzaang
Hiacs
Stolb
Vrolx
Klung
Irm
Ciotolx
Kratiald
Fatzurt
Xyghes
Friogbiokt
Other names
Many goblins will give themselves grandiose or intimidating nicknames to keep others at bay, and to avoid consequences.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Goblins speak the goblin tongue, but many also speak either common or undercommon depending on which direction they most often leave the warrens.
Shared customary codes and values
Goblins are possibly the most spiteful creatures in existence. A large amount of the activity in goblin warrens is a constant, cycling game of revenge that the goblins call "Hak Shapag"
Art & Architecture
Goblins dig out their homes. If available, they will do so underneath existing structures such as ruins that may conceal their exact location.
Birth & Baptismal Rites
Goblins can walk within hours of birth, and are generally released into communal swarms that are herded and cared for by traumatized goblin matrons.
Coming of Age Rites
A goblin comes of age the very moment that it can get away from its mother and survive.
Funerary and Memorial customs
Goblins eat their dead. Sometimes out of sentiment they'll keep the skull of a goblin that they cared for.
Common Taboos
The thought of being wronged and not attempting or at least plotting some sort of revenge is entirely alien to the goblin experience.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Goblin skin tones come in any color of the rainbow, but most often some shade of green. They are diminutive, standing 3-4 feet tall. They tend to be scrawny, with pinched faces and large noses. They have large, pointed ears on their heads, and usually adopt an unhealthy slouch. Females have wider hips and slimmer wastes and shoulders, and usually have less exaggerated features. Goblins have hair in all the same places and styles as humans do, though their hair is almost universally green to black.
Gender Ideals
Male goblins tend to be petty, spiteful, and aggressive. They are the ones scooped up for the mass attacks against the legions’ enemies. The females are brutally repressed, kept pregnant as often as possible from the instant that they can bear children, usually with no idea who the fathers are, and give birth to litters of 8-20. These children are raised communally in swarming masses by groups of the females.
Diverged ethnicities
Related Organizations
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