Aim: To build a bible for a rapidly evolving race. Goblins have the potential to grow into whatever they are defined by their environment.

Iconic Ability

• If this creature survives a battle with the PC, it gains a random mutation. It remembers.

Possible terminology and variants:

• gobblin, gobeline, gobling, goblyn, goblino, and gobbelin
• Pukwudgie - Little wild man of the woods that vanishes.
• Puck - Spirit of nature.

Demons. Brutal, cunning, deceiving and tricky little gremlins of nature. Goblins are the pure incarnation of what’s evil. They are brutal, merciless beings who seem to have no guilt in performing atrocities. To a goblin, killing infants, raping women, eating men, (and vice versa) is as habitual as breathing. Deceit and betrayal are their speech, as most goblins are selfish survivors. Mostly contributed by different values and morals due to culture; only a goblin understands a goblin.

Goblins are survivors. They are weak and short-lived. Their fragile bodies break like straws under the dangers of this world. As a result, goblins are fearless and tend to have no regard for their own lives in unthinkable actions as they know they will not live long anyway. An enlightened few still prefer to hold on to their lives, and those who do learn. A goblin always grows from surviving a life-and-death situation. While not consciously, they reflect on their mistakes as their mind and body adjust accordingly. A goblin may be the weakest monster, but whatever doesn’t kill them makes them stronger.

Similarly, who knows what morals a goblin may learn?

Born servants who like shiny things. They are out there, greedily seeking the Shard of Alice. Shard Deposits Or a hoard of shards gives birth to a group of goblins serving it. A boss will be the holder of the shard until someone comes to neutralise it and claim the shard for themselves. They will serve the new owner of the shard. If denied servitude, they will die and disappear.

What is interesting is that while The Church deems Humans as the only rightfully sentient race, The Academy are goading [The Church] with their research into Goblin anthropology.

“Stupendous, Impulsive, Irrational, Selfish, Intolrentable, Crass…
Goblins have always and will always be animals.”

— Phillip Kregsiion, House Elf Baron.

Studies in The Modern Kingdom had since revealed that the Goblin’s characteristics were exploited. Goblin evolution is prone to variances and should be vastly more diverse. However, Humanity has long been familiar with the Goblin’s traits and has domesticated the species. This discovery was only recently systematically documented.

Breeding Goblins once even contested with the slavary market—stirring commotion for a notable period in history.

Evidentially, from feral Goblin societies, they possess a unique language system. While the language is barely sophisticated enough to be classified as a language system (more like gestures or symbols), the behaviour displayed the ability to communicate. Moreso, the language system varies greatly across Goblinoid subspecies. This is suspected to be a symptom of selective breeding—House Elves are bred to be intellectually complacent.

Despite Goblinkind’s ability to communicate (which is a very desirable functional requirement of servants), species such as orcs, ogres and trolls are significantly stumped in intellectual activities. Whereas their House Elf and Dark Elf cousins are noticeably more sophisticated in vocabulary, the arts and artisan work (which is also the field in which they are most commonly traded and deployed).

Unsurprisingly, Dark Elves would be the most common heralds of insurgent forces, spawned from the uprising of House Elves. Meanwhile, Orcs, who are bred to be merciless, instinct-driven creatures, contributed to the greatest proportion of accidents in strongholds or lawless camps/insurgencies, which populated their ranks with them.

Recently, it appears Goblinkind even got a Messiah spreading some “Holely” text across the country…

Historically, our ancestors have long realised the terrifying potential of Goblinoids and sought to exploit their unique characteristics. While these tamed, later domesticated creatures had no unifying name, this sub-group of “livestock” was the perfect realisation of the “House Elves” concept. Eventually, House Elves came to dominate and revolutionise The Old Kingdom up until The Modern Kingdom nowadays.

The earliest traces of House Elves can be found in folktales. Members of society already share a common understanding of the mythology surrounding these helpers in their homes. It was only after The War, that the veteran John Kregsiion published his historically influential writing that stimulated a new field of studies on the “Conceptual House Elf” and their application.

The conceptual House Elves were bred to be intellectually complacent, obedient, morally wrapped and handicapped to depend upon and better serve human society. In the ideal depictions of a conceptual House Elf from the early writings of the Definitive Manual of House Elves, it laid out:

“A House Elf will never have the curiosity, desire or drive to venture out [away] of their household [post]…”

A House Elf, if it ever finds itself isolated from our society, would find itself quickly succumbing to intense dread and longing for home. And will do everything in its power to return to its post. In the event it cannot find its path back to its master, the House Elf will quickly meet its demise in nature. House Elves will lack the comprehensive and robust adaptability to survive in nature…

“Any given House Elf is specialised for one task and one task only. Be it a generic servant, an assistant, a labourer or an object of adoration. Bred, born and raised, the House Elves will know themselves as the definitive servitude race, brought into this world by our hands, to serve mankind.”

• Unknown collection of text from The Old Kingdom, compiled by John Kregsiion. “Definitive Manual of House Elves Across The Kingdom.”

In later chapters, it is discussed how House Elves derive unwarranted joy, pride, and honour from servitude. Even more so, to breed to unconditionally love and wish for the best for their recognised master/leader. However, this aspect has yet to be realised in practice and remains an aspiration to selective groups of the Goblin breeding industry.

The same text generated the boom in House Elf breeding and trade that threatened the slave trade market after The War. This phenomenon is also propelled by the successful, if not infamous, historical first mass deployment of armies consisting of only Goblinoids.

House Elves are artificial. Goblin producers didn't even need drugs or the likes of brainwashing (though evidently necessary for deviants), just simple, brutal, unforgiving biological engineering exploiting the outcomes of selection. It is enough to conjure up a servitude race over The Kingdom's long history.

It is very likely now that no true feral Goblins are left from ancient times. It is anticipated that all modern feral Goblins are either escaped/released House Elves or of their ancestry. Unless there is some untouched land, where the Goblinoid evolved with the bias of nature instead of the bias of men.

Despite modern Goblinoids' status as a practical realisation of the House Elf concept, Goblinoid societies have emerged. These societies are the modern recognition of feral Goblins. Goblins believed to be released, escaped or otherwise unaccounted for the House Elf population. The most disruptive of which—lawless (tribal) Goblin groups—called for a tradition to “cull Goblins”.

From these societies, many Goblinoids (Orcs, Ogres, Trolls, Dark Elves) consider their ancestry elsewhere through their own mythology. Comparison to Goblins is regarded as an insulting slur and is no different from comparing humans to animals, such as monkeys.

For example, Dark Elves draw their lineage from the Elves in the common mythology and have claimed rightful usage of the mythological race’s name. Whereas “Dark” Elves is a derogatory, historical slur that originated in The Modern Kingdom, illustrated vividly by the efforts of The Church.

Even now, The Modern Kingdom endorses the extermination of feral Goblins and instigates support for the Goblinoid domestication industry alongside traditional slavary. The distribution of “Methods of Magic” is strictly banned by The Academy and The Church (although the Church had been advocating this procedure for much longer than the recently involved Academy).

“The kingdom has the right to do so. It is a matter of survival for us. Strictly speaking, I admit Goblinoids are superior to Humans in all aspects. Goblinoid's bio-technological potentials never ceased to astonish me to the point of… fear. Fear, even I understand, is irrational at times…

[The General took a break here]

If you must understand me, I implore you to know the lingering reality of the terror of a Goblin(Orc) you let escape. Only for it to return stronger, better, unrecognisably different within the time for our sun to rise. While still holding the same conviction and ‘rightful’ hatred to haunt us. If it weren’t for our ancestors’ restless regulation and their presaging traditions, the world today and tomorrow—if we are not to keep this up—will be at the mercy of the Goblinoids.

Judging from how the world is now, Goblinoids are at the mercy of us… I can only dread that this other reality will never come. That is why I chose to protect my world. In the only way I know how.”

— General Houser, Kingdom’s Warden

• There are those in it for profit, living it for themselves.
• There are those who simply roll in the chaos, the artificial pride, the facade of honour and the drunkenness of power.
• Some see them as a liberation from slavery.
• Some see them as synonymous with animals.
• Few grasped the nuances in their own way and repeatedly contemplated their morals.
• While some simply chose a side and stuck with it.

The Goblins, as of now, are a sad race whose whole identity was artificially moulded by another. They change and change and change in the vision of others. They change and change to serve as foils to aspirations. They change, and that is what they are. Sad, sad creatures of creators who can no longer even decipher what was their “truest”, most “natural”, original “authenticity”. Lost to time, lost to history, lost to their current creators.

The obvious turning point would be that there are servicing records, relics of the past or a civilisation in an untouched land ready to liberate their sad brethren and welcome them home… But the unchanging nature of Goblins is change. Goblins are always changing.

How different has the modern Goblin come to be? Will they still be the same as their Ancient counterparts? How could the civilization’s race soundly claim themselves to be the authentic Goblins? Simply because they’ve been changing and growing in isolation? Questions, questions, questions.

• Highly Mutable, high genetic variance
• Rapid Regeneration
• Strong Adaptability
• Fast Reproduction (but not necessarily high batch-count)
• High genetic compatibility
• Amplitude for Magic (Despite a lack of access to “Methods of Magic”, they seem to naturally mutate to harness innate capabilities to produce supernatural phenomena)

Short Lifespan — Goblins have a lifespan of no more than 4 years.

Excellent Memories — Goblins are known to exhibit excellent memories, remembering almost anything throughout the entirety of their short lifespan. This gouged their tendency to hold crystal clear grudges and the uncanny ability to seek revenge.

Like Rabbits — Goblins reproduce like rabbits. At the same time, they pass on their traits. Goblins learn quickly, mutate by great magnitude and reproduce rapidly. All of the above factors combined made Goblins the most rapidly diverging and evolving race. Which biologists of The Academy curse with great vigour.

Magically Attuned — Interestingly, goblins seemed to be attracted by magic items, and wherever magic hides, goblin holes. It is commonly regarded as very dangerous when goblins learn magic, and it is often regarded as a high-priority extermination target by the Church, The Academy, and The Modern Kingdom.

It is speculated by conspiracists that humans maintain the pitfall state of goblins. The rapid evolution of goblins is a threat to all life forms; thus, they must be kept primal. However, some goblins escape such fate through pure luck, evolving past their savage brothers.

Perhaps elves are goblins who evolved in a particular way?

All contribute to their accelerated rate of evolution. A tendency to mutate into many variants.

“Some argue that the common perception of uneducated, low intellect capabilities to the limit of children and common genetic defects & deformity were strategically bred in their domestication to inhibit Goblinoid development. There is even evidence of local traditions of periodically releasing domestic Goblins back to the wild as a “Return to Nature, Spirit or Gods” (unlike domestic animals, released domesticated Goblins find no obstacle in adapting to survive in the wild, albeit it is difficult to integrate them into feral or tribal societies). By which point, the released specimens have already undergone tens of generations of selection for the above-described characteristic. Introducing demerited genes to the feral population.

Some even believed that the rapid reproduction rate, combined with the high mutability of Goblinoids, subjected them to high probabilities of genetic defects. Curiously, the domesticated sub-races (orcs, ogres, etc.) have a considerably reduced reproduction rate. Likely conditioned by the moralities and culture of Human society. Yet the same features are exhibited in feral sub-races such as Dark Elves, which suggests that the reduction in reproduction rate occurs biologically as the subspecies matures in genetic complexity or synergy. Almost as if it were an in-built control mechanism to consciously preserve the “prestige” of beneficial genes.

Meanwhile, some believe that the perception of this strategic genetic engineering is flawed, as the Goblins have a natural tendency to produce variances in their own civilisation. They argue that feral Goblins already possess the evolutionary trait of “high mutability” which combats against the determinants of their “rapid reproduction” rapidly converging gene similarities in a secluded society. And the effects of Human domestication have little sustainable impact on the overall Goblin population.

While studies on feral Goblinoid societies, civilisation and culture are scarce, one could argue that the natural evolution in feral Goblinoids would be more likely to be independently advantageous compared to their domestic counterpart.”

— Altranaxi (pronounced Ultra-), Goblionoid Researcher

Yet to most of the modern populace, there is no relation between the Elves told in myths and the Goblins of today.

There has been a recent surge in Goblin breeding movements, advocated by a new generation of Goblinoid enthusiasts since the war. Contrary to traditional breeding principles to defame Goblinoids with unappealing characteristics, the aim is to breed Goblins that are adorable, precious and cute. Their late involvement meant that the movement compromised by modifying existing Goblin breeds—dubbed by the Neko/Neo prefix. Hence, all House Elf species that have been modified or raised in accordance with this movement’s philosophy may technically be considered a “Neko-“.

“Well, nobody wants to see ugly things, right? Why not make them prettier?”

— Some Goblin sympathiser, probably.

• Some actually do sympathise with goblins.
• Some just wished for idols of adoration, something entertaining.
• Some are simply experimenting to further their craft of Goblin cultivation.
• Yet the result is a generation of Goblins freed from the burden of labour, with charismatic characteristics and the liberty to think… Just a bit too much.

Neko- derived from the origin of this movement in a faraway land that originally meant “cat”. Neo- is the newly coined prefix in The Modern Kingdom, which aligns with the movement’s philosophy to “Rejuvenate/Revivify/Revive Goblinkind”. The enthusiasts and practitioners consisted of sympathisers of Goblinoids/House Elves.

The Kingdom’s and The Church’s outlook on this movement is antagonistic. The movement is deemed troublesome, but no real enforcement has been implemented yet. Notorious cases include the “Neko-Orc” incident, where the militant Orc species was illegally bred to be less aggressive and pacifistic. The operation was immediately shut down by The Modern Kingdom.

• Allegedly, Goblin sympathisers are often accused of committing crimes against humanity.

The movement has crossed a long history of rejection and prosecution. Yet the movement persisted till this day. In the present day, the movement has become a cultural phenomenon, gathering a cult following in the high ranks of nobility. The possession of Neko-Goblins as pets has become a favourite activity and symbol of prosperity. The most notable of which is the House Elf Knights of the Royal Guards, a Knight Corps that served to protect and act as playmates for young royalty.

By this point, we have outlined the skewed and acute view of Goblinkind from the perspective of the residents of The Kingdom. What about the subject in question themselves? How does a Dark Elf view Goblins? How does a House Elf view their feral cousins, their ostracised cousins or their cousins who have been labelled as terrorists?

Extract taken from Definitive Manual of House Elves - Ogres

“Ogres are barely a being that can think for itself. They are large and monstrous with the minds of an infant. Only capable of understanding single word sentences, they are easily manipulated but communication with them is best kept short. Complex phrases may confuse their feeble minds but are also the source of anxiety.

An Ogre is only motivated by the prospect of food, to the point of neglecting other comforts such as rest. There are individuals who through force or alluring meals are able to train ogres to follow their commands. Often using ques only they and the Ogre understands to avoid others from interfering with the Ogre’s mind.”

Incidentally, House Elves are often inbred compared to Dark Elves or Goblins.

Goblin as a slur — To High Elves, goblins are equivalent to monkeys. However, unlike humans, the idea of a devolved (or inferiority evolved) close cousin species carries further implications. Goblin-kinds are a readily evolving species that had been distributed into multiple races artificially (by human influence) within a short period of time (approx a few hundred years). Naturally, each race holds bias towards the others (contrasting a naturally evolved Goblinkind race, they may feel their cousin races are artificially inferior, like how we treat people with plastic surgery). It is a moral dilemma. However, some (such as the High Elves) are rarely believed to belong to this vulgar family, even if they biologically are.

Mature children — Goblins are incomprehensible, just like children. Men deem goblin ideas childish. Some ideas work. Many foolish.

Anti-human — The purpose of goblins is another race that cannot be understood. Meaning they always come across as cryptic, strange and weird, except for The Messiah.

What doesn't kill them makes them stronger — A surviving goblin will always return, better, taller, stronger. Eventually, they'll resemble an Orc/a green elf.

They live a short life, so they make full use of it — Goblins mature early and die young. Many know they don't live long and have less regard for their lives. Those who do survive long enough value their life more.

I am bush — They are often not too bright, stupid and low at worst, ignorant and aloof at best. Yes, even the Elves are huge eggheads of ego, pride and airheads.

• Green Elves: Goblins of ancient times. Not considered goblins by the public. Technology Evolution Route.
  • Lime/High Elves of the Woods: Poetic term used in songs and legends to refer to The Ancients. Known as the originators of Magic who charitably shared Magic with humanity by The Academy.
  • Dark Elves: A Demonising term coined in The Modern Kingdom by The Church. Slangs included Hobs and High Goblins.
• Goblins/Goblinoids/Goblinkind: Biological Evolution Route.
  • Goblins: Feral Goblins. The typical referral of “Goblin”. Synonymous with pests.
  • Hobs/Hobgoblins: Domesticated Goblins. Commonly seen huddled around the fireplace. An effective substitute for slaves.
    • House Elves: General-purpose servants, slaves and butlers. Commonly named Dobby.
    • Orcs: War-bearing variant. Occasionally feral. Likes to name themself after things they've killed.
    • Ogres: Large-scale labour variant. Occasionally feral. Don't really know what a name is.
    • Trolls: Siege variant. Occasionally feral. Have short names.
    • Dark Elves: Infiltration and intelligence variant. Same term to refer to intelligent Goblins. Do not like being named.
    • Kobolds/Nekogoblins/Neogoblin: Like dogs. Bred to be a stupidly adorable variant. Occasionally feral. Incredibly short lifespan of 2 years max. Worshipped as deities in some regions.

• Goblinoids are green skinned, blue-blooded, orange morality creatures.
  • Goblins are manifestations of Alice’s imagination. Goblins ARE what they believe they are → Drives Mutation.
  • Joy is synthesized from goblin blood. Hence, its users tend to spontaneously mutate.
• Goblins or many groups believe in whichever has the power to linger in their peripheral attention:
  • “We are all blueberry. Eating blueberry = eating goblins.”
  • “We hail from the green moon. Green moon is home (there is no green moon) (there is a blue moon though).”
  • “Horses eat baby goblins. They call horses long-legged baby goblin eaters.”
  • “Red is fast, purple is sneaky.”
• Goblinoids have a strong tradition of celebrating meetings. Commonly throwing banquets and showing hospitality to traveling visitors. Their short lifespan promoted the ideology of “once in a lifetime meetings”.
  • A farewell for a Goblin often means the last.
• Goblins typically cannot live to travel very far. In their lifetime, The Great Forest is the extent of their worldview So hearing tales of faraway lands is quite literally, hearing about a world they will never visit.
• Goblins are greedy socialists. Since one goblin cannot own something for very long, they often own little. But those that they do own, they hold on with great tenacity. Sometimes passing trinkets down family-lines like heirlooms.

“If you ever see a house elf looking at paper, rock or wood for a very long time. Take it away and beat it. If you ever see a house elf keep it. Kill it immediately.”

— General Houser, Kingdom’s Warden

Goblin who wrote the “Holely Text”. Any Goblin who reads Mud's Holey Text out loud will have an epiphany and be granted a mutation.