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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 3042710" data-attributes="member: 467">RACES: GOBLINSAppearance and Physiology: Goblins are by any standard, even their own, ugly.  Between three and three and half feet tall, with long limbs, distended bellies, humped backs, vulture-like necks, hooked noses, over-sized ears and sunken eyes, goblins are the very picture of physical repulsiveness.  They weigh less than one hundred pounds – often, much less – and, while hardy in a way similar to rats and roaches, physically weaker than most others.The goblin lifespan is similar in length to that of humans, though goblins tend to have a shorter chiildhood/early adolescence (being physically mature and considered adults by 12) and longer end of life (considered old by 50 and venerable by 65).  Goblins breed more quickly than the other races, with a gestation period of about six months and multiple births the norm.  While fraternal twins and triplets are common, identical twins are exceedingly rare among goblins.  Goblins' high birth rate, coupled with a cultural tendency toward polygamy, often results in huge households numbering dozens of children, most of which are either put to work or tossed out to fend for themselves as soon as they achieve adulthood (or sooner in some cases).Some uneducated members of other races believe goblins to be related to orcs and their kin.  They are not and are a species of their own.  Goblins cannot interbreed with other races, even their cousin races the hobgoblins and bugbears (see below).Psychology and Culture: For nearly ten thousand years, since the time that elves, dwarves and men allied to drive the orcs, ogres and giants from the world, goblins have been considered outsiders.  When  the races exchanged gifts – elves giving magic to the others, dwarves giving steel work, and men giving faith – the goblins neither gave a gift, nor received.  And though the goblins suffered at the depredations of the orcs, ogres and giants, they were not invited into the alliance and their lands were not cleansed of those foul races except by chance or proxy.  Nonetheless, the goblins survived and prospered.  They spied upon the elven academies, the dwarven forges and the human temples.  They learned their secrets and improved upon them.  And then, in the defining character of goblinkind, sold it back at twice the price.Goblin civilization first established itself in lands none of the other mortal races wanted.  The simple rules of survival meant that only the most cunning and ambitious prospered.  For centuries, goblin civilization was dominated by the strong, but as goblins grew more sophisticated, it was the most intelligent that became powerful.  Many would-be goblin kings fell to corruption until finally the corruption stuck and merchants and politicians became the ruling class of goblinkind.  The goblin nation that would come to dominate all others arose on storm battered, rocky shores.  There, the arts of superior ship building and sailing developed and shortly thereafter the goblins used those skills to weave a web of trade all over the world – at first with other goblin lands, but soon among all the mortal races.  In all the centuries, through the Great Catastrophe and exile to Abyscor and the fall of Babyrast, goblins have not relinquished their position as the pre-eminent mercantile power in the world.To goblins, greed is good.  Greed begets ambition, which begets action.  The slow and weak willed fail and are subsumed or destroyed and the quick and cunning rise to wealth and power.  To other races, it seems amoral and distasteful.  To goblins, it is simply the way of life.  What goblins cannot acquire leagally, they will acquire through subterfuge or, failing that, outright steal.  Of course, individual goblins know the value of maintaining both personal and business relationships, so only the foolish or desperate steal from friends, acquaintances or colleagues.In goblin society there are defined gender roles.  Trade, politics and craft  are the domain of male goblins, while the home is the domain of female goblins.  Wealthy goblin men often have many wives, one of which – usually the eldest and his first wife – is the Matriarch who overseas all aspects of goblin home life, including family finances and any intra-family business.  While women cannot vote or own businesses – unless bequeathed upon them by husbands or fathers ina  last will and testament – they have a great deal of influence in goblin society simply because of the power they wield in the home: goblin Matriarchs are neither trophies nor servants and their ability to make life miserable for goblin men – there is no divorce in goblin society – ensures that their voices are heard and their edicts followed.Goblin law is swift and harsh, though the punishment feels as though it is more for getting caught than actually engaging in the crime.  Many swindlers and cheats hang from the gibbets in goblin cities.  The greatest crime among goblins, though, is the giving up of trade secrets to rivals, either competing goblin concerns or outsiders.  As willing as goblins are to steal secrets from others, they expect those secrets to be held tightly once obtained.Religion: Goblin society places very little value on religious belief, especially following the  Great Catastrophe.  While there are gods that the goblins give lip service to, the relatively few goblin priests that exist dedicate themselves to more temporal and concrete powers; the classical elements, magic or powerful outsiders with which they have brokered a deal.  In direct opposition to the generally materialistic and worldly attitudes of goblin culture, however, an aesthetic movement has begun to develop among the goblins.  These goblins intentionally reject traditional goblin values and instead embrace serenity, physical and psychological discipline and martial prowess.  While not religious in a traditional sense – these goblin monks revere no gods – the movement has a spiritual core and its members often exhibit the kind of compassion, wisdom and dedication usually reserved for the clergy.Magic: To goblins, magic and wizardry are just another tool by which to get ahead.  There are many goblin wizards and numerous guilds and organizations for them – almost all of which are geared toward using magic to improve trade or get ahead against the competition.  Goblins learned magic by stealing it and so it has a lesser value than trade, for example, which the goblins pioneered themselves.  Goblin wizards tend to study practical magic or magic that can be sold or rented for large sums.  Goblin hedge wizards and arcane craftsmen can be found in every major city, selling spells and minor items to interested parties.Goblins and Other Races: Goblins are almost universally disliked.  Members of other races consider goblins to be untrustworthy, greedy and unpleasant in both appearance and attitude.  However, goblins have been so effective at monopolizing long range trade that other races have no choice but to deal with goblins on a daily basis.Goblins and dwarves in particular do not get along.  Goblins find dwarves to be poor traders, if amazing craftsmen, due to their unrelenting honesty and their general refusal to barter or haggle.  Goblins believe in the free market – that goods are only worth what others are willing to pay for them.  Dwarves, on the other hand, believe in the value of work and craftsmanship and refuse to adjust their prices in accordance with demand.  Many economic and political alliances between the two races have collapsed over this difference in opinion.  The goblins feel secure in their position, however, as the dwarves inevitably return to the goblins with needs that only goblin caravans and sailing vessels can fill.The animosity between elves and goblins is of a different nature entirely.  Elves have a very long memory and, even after ten thousand years, continue to hold a grudge against the goblins for “stealing” the secret of wizardry.  Goblins, on the other hand, have long forgotten their irritation at being left out by elves in the first place.  As a general rule, goblins go through  a process of acquisition: offer, haggle, cheat and then steal.  With elves and the arcane art, goblins tried the first three and failed.  Ultimately, knowing they would be at a great disadvantage without magical power, the goblins decided to steal the knowledge.  The irony is that the goblins did not steal it from elves, but instead from dwarves and men with whom they had much more regular trade.  As such, goblins consider the elven bitterness over the issue so much sour grapes and rarely give it a thought.  And, as with dwarves, elves have little choice but deal with goblins in Abyscor if they wish to trade with others.  Some goblins take great pleasure in this fact; most simply chalk it up to the innate superiority of goblins in all matter mercantile and hold no grudge against the elves.The varied human cultures of Abyscor are as dependent upon the goblin merchants as any other race.  However, humans have  fewer predisposed notions about goblins and tend to view them as just another “demi-human” race that happens to occupy the human world.  For their part, goblins are generally content to let humans feel this way, so long as the goods and the gold keep moving.  The Babyrast Empire did not oppress goblins, including goblin wizards, as they did other races or certain human city-states, mostly because even the Wizard-Kings needed the goblins.  If anything the goblins lost millions of gold pieces in debt when the Empire collapsed, which the goblins mostly wrote off as a business loss.  No profit without peril, as the goblins say.  Of course, many city states that still exist after the fall of Babyrast are still heavily indebted to the goblins, and the goblins intend to (eventually) make good on those accounts.  Overall, goblins and humans view each other with equal suspicion and respect, based upon  the needs of either race.Many make the mistake of assuming that goblins are related to orcs and their kin.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Orcs, ogres and giants are brutish, stupid creatures that respect onl physical strength, which goblins consider the most fleeting of resources and put rather low on their list of values.  This isn't to say that certain goblin traders will not conduct business with orc, ogre and giant tribes.  Many do, in fact, if for no other reason than no one else will.  But goblins do not trust these creatures and have no love for them.  Quite the contrary: if an orcish raiding party destroys a goblin caravan, the goblins will hire out – perhaps even other orcs – for mercenaries to obliterate the offending orc group.  Orcs are violent, chaotic and ruled by emotion: each of these traits is anathema to good business.With Dragons, the situation is wholly different.  Sicne goblins first established themselves on Abyscor, they have made overtures to the great Dragons.  The Dragons have consistently ignored these attempts at establishing relations and trade, occasionally killing messengers or destroying whole fleets of merchant vessels as answer.  Dragons do not value trade.  They value power and ownership.  Dragon hoards do not exist to provide Dragons with the means to buy things.  Dragon hoards exist to display the power a Dragon possesses by way of how much wealth it has acquired.  To the goblin mind, this is incomprehensible: wealth exists to create more wealth or provide fame and comfort, not to be laid upon and tarnished with soot.Goblin Adventurers: There are many reason why a goblin would seek adventure among the other mortal races.  Most of them revolve around the accumulation of wealth and prestige.  Since goblin females control family wealth and only the eldest children of usually large families stand to inherit anything of substance, many younger male goblins go out into the world to make their names and fortunes.  This often leads them to adventure, seeking some rare commodity that will make them rich and famous.  Young female goblins, who bristle against the inherent limitations placed upon them by their society and family, sometimes leave home and take up the life of an adventurer, as well.  And, on occasion, a member of the aesthetic goblin movement is released from training in a monastery to experience the wider world and gain wisdom.  These goblins challenge preconceived notions of the race held by their fellow adventurers.  Mostly, though, it is about the gold pieces.On Other Goblinoids: True goblins are most common, but two related races exist as well: the hobgoblins – a human-sized warrior race that has lived on the fringes of goblin civilization for millenia – and the bugbears – massive goblin-like creatures more akin to ogres, but with more cunning and the goblin penchant for stealth and trickery.</blockquote>

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