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Goblin

Goblins are a common people throughout Terra Antiqua, arising in PreDawn times. The circumstances of their origin are a close-held secret of the tuatha answered only with assassination, and they were labelled beast men until Queen Anna-Seifr proved they were true tuatha. Goblins are lean and athirst, notable for their fierce carnivore teeth and stringy, strong muscles. Goblins were first noted in Hellas during the Othrys War, when an apocalypse cult of them almost severed Terra Antiqua's connection to the World Tree. The goblins travel as nomads through the north, but have settlements throughout the Barbaric Wild and two ancient kingdoms:Alba, north of the Antonine, and Lacedaemon, now the center of the Imperial Legions. Goblins organize their society in an elaborate system of courts that has come to dominate fey society. The goblin courts are subtle and fell, tied to the seasons, and all goblins are tied to each.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Goblins are stout and solid, with hunched postures and long, wiry muscled limbs. There is a tendency towards bowleggedness, and they have flat, splayed hands and feet.

Biological Traits

Goblins possess negligible senescence, and are immortal barring injury. Females hag with menopause.

Genetics and Reproduction

There are two sexes who reproduce in the standard fashion, but goblins are also created, warped by magic from their birth forms into the standard goblin body through ritual. Goblins are notorious child snatchers, and as the ritual wipes the memories as it transforms, their numbers grow.

Growth Rate & Stages

The fifty year cycle is fairly consistent, though the goblin fully regenerates in it's coma in seven. Goblyns can induce this coma to regrow limbs or awaken briefly from one after seven years if disturbed, but induced coma ends after seven years while natural coma reasserts itself within a week's time, and often once the goblin is no longer endangered by whatever roused it initially.

Ecology and Habitats

The goblin is native to mountains, but adapts well to forest life. They range the whole of the Barbaric Wild and some are even Imperial citizens. Goblins can be found in every niche of society from slave to patrician and even kings.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Goblins are omnivores but require meat to begin digestion. Their digestive system is sturdy enough to endure scavenged meat without ill effect so some get a taste for rotting flesh and keep casks of it in their pantries.

Biological Cycle

Goblins mature in about ten to fifteen years, then cycle through fifty years of activity before going into a restorative coma of fifty years, repeating this cycle until killed by accident, disease, or injury.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Goblins band into clans headed by a clan-chief. In the Empire, this becomes a paterfamilias with minimal adjustment, though a clan-chief has less absolute authority. The clan-chiefs elect a chief of the clan-chiefs to arbitrate disputes and represent them before other such bodies. Nobles keep the peace in territories, but goblin nobility is more akin to a sheriff than a traditional interpretation of the concept. Nobles access to the seasonal courts and may be beholden to one or more of them and both high courts

Facial characteristics

Goblins do not grow beards or mustaches and but males can grow sideburns. They have full heads of hair, which they sometimes braid. Goblin jaws are strong with prominent canines top and bottom.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Goblins originated in Lacedaemon, but have spread through the north to every wilderness west of their home. They are thick through the Barbaric Wild north of the Way of the Eagle and found throughout the Empire.

Average Intelligence

Goblins are as intelligent as humans despite being stripped of their memories if transformed.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Goblins enjoy enhanced low-light vision, seeing three times as well as humans in dim light. Their sense of smell is equal to a bloodhound, and their hearing sharper than a dog by far, just below a bat.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Goblins bear personal names and use their clan name as surname, with the suffix "of Clan x" to name the clan of their chief of the clan chiefs.

Major Organizations

Their greatest warriors tend to be Red Caps, a militant order that occupies fortresses in case of invasion. There exist numerous courts presided over by a single individual, with seasonal courts above them and the two Great Courts above that.

Beauty Ideals

For males, large muscles and great strength. For females, strong jaws and sharp teeth.

Gender Ideals

Males are expected to be strong, cunning, and good providers. Females are expected to bear and protect many young.

Courtship Ideals

Courtship really doesn't happen. Great orgies in spring and following major engagements of battle are the norm, but couples do formally vow monogamy for various reasons.

Relationship Ideals

Goblin marriage is ideally an equal partnership, with females required to have better business sense as property is matrilineal.

Average Technological Level

Goblins are Stone Age, but trade and the Heptarchy gives them up to Iron Age items. Imperial goblins have access to that level of technology.

Common Dress Code

Females wear fitted outfits, males loose leather trousers tied at the waist and ankles. Married females wear tiers of lace at the collar, and both sexes have a woolen sash woven in clan patterns held by a shoulder badge denoting specific clan or personal heraldry. Males go topless but for the sash, with bachelors donning short wool skirts in their clan patterns for public ceremonial gatherings without the sash save for clan-chiefs.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

The clans dominate goblin society, with clan-chiefs holding low justice over their members and chief of the clan-chiefs over all their members including subordinate clan-chiefs, and these individuals oversee most interactions, though tradition holds all goblins are equal so any individual may exact their own justice subject to a decision between all superiors involved.

History

Goblins first appear in the forces of Mount Othrys, the titans of PreDawn, where they inhabited the kingdom of Lacedaemon. Great Κρόνος produced them as his favored shock troops, the karankoncolos who beseiged the world trees and nearly severed Terra Antiqua's ties to the multiverse at large. They were the stuff of nightmares to early civilization, though they never ventured further south or east than Lacedaemon, instead migrating west and north to populate the Barbaric Wilds, founding the kingdom of Alba and twisted somehow into the stunted Dwendi of Iberia by Valeria, Mistress of All Evil. In the far north of the Jotunzee, the goblins banded into mercenary companies, serving any army that paid them in meat. Those who served Wotan's forces were noted as eating nothing less good than Man, but other units were as happy with beef or mutton, and could be bribed from attack for a chicken per man once a week. Those who knew them gave them a reputation for deceit and treachery, but they never failed to perform as paid, within fairly strict limits. Funerary cults among them still protect the dead of the Barbaric Wild they pledged to protect in life, and while they will parse words, they uphold theirs.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Goblins regard the other races of the Heptarchy as equals and all others as food. Imperial goblins adhere to Imperial law but still scavenge the dead.

RPG Datasheet

● +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma. Goblyns are strong, tough, and quick, but poorly educated, short tempered, and bellicose. ● Medium size. As Medium creatures, goblyns have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. ● Goblinoid. Goblins possess all the traits of the goblinoid type. In Terra Antiqua, this makes them illiterate without the Literacy feat. ● Goblin base land speed is 30 feet. Goblins can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load (unlike other creatures, whose speed is reduced in such a situation). ● Low-light Vision (Ex): Goblins can see three times as well as humans in dim light. ● Weapon Proficiency: Goblins are automatically proficient with all forms of ax. ● Scent. Goblins have the Scent trait. ● +2 racial bonus on Hide, Intimidate, Listen and Move Silently checks. Goblins always treat Hide, Intimidate, Listen and Move Silently as class skills. ● Goblins possess Great Fortitude as a bonus feat. ● Goblins are immune to poison and disease. Note that mummy rot and other diseases are curses so goblins are still vulnerable to them. ● Timeless Body. Upon reaching physical maturity, goblins are unaffected by aging. Females still hag with menopause. ● Favored Class: Fighter. A goblin never incurs an experience penalty for levels in fighter.

Genetic Descendants
Average Height
5'6"-6'4"
Average Weight
185-320 lbs.
Average Physique
Hunched but muscular. A goblin body seems woven of corded muscle around hard wood.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Goblin skin is dusky grey, with body hair on the chest and shoulders in some specimens and a crest of short, straight hair over the spine. Goblin hair ranges from black through brown to red, and runs the gamut from straight to curly. Body hair is short and curly even when scalp hair is long and straight.

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