Editing Goblin (section)

==Nature==
Goblins can have almost any appearance, but they are generally vaguely humanoid and always ugly.<ref name="8.1">Goblins as a whole came in all shapes and sizes.  Some were fat, some were skinny, some were furry, others scaly, others still had skin.  They could be no larger than a squirrel, or five times the size of a man, in all colors.<br><br>Certain rules held true, though.  All were ugly. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/08 Excerpt] from [[Signature 8.1]]</ref><ref>Rounding out the group were two goblins.  One was fat and squat, neckless, with a severe underbite and eyes like burning coals beneath a neanderthal brow.  The second was genderless, with wings in place of arms, its head hunched forward, as if the weight of all its countless teeth made it impossible to sit straight.  Its hair was lanky and greasy, with one charm worked into the end: a trio of mouse skulls. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/09/27 Excerpt] from [[Malfeasance 11.8]]</ref><ref>The things that lived here were- were goblins.  He knew that.  They could be as small as mice and as large or larger than the heavyset one who sat atop a house, no less than fifty medium sized goblins crawling over and around the flesh that pooled out around him.  He could use his own mass, rearranged, as a chair.<br><br>There were goblins with noses like broomsticks, noses like hatchets, noses like animals, and no noses at all.  Overbites, underbites, teeth so snarly and woven together the mouths didn’t look like they could open, lips stitched and wobbly too-open mouths with tongues lolling out.  When there weren’t noses or weird mouths there were beaks, or muzzles, or body mods. Some were naked and others were clothed in trash and rags. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/one-after-another-10-e/ Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.e]]</ref> As always there are exceptions that prove the rule.

They are weak to [[metal]], especially [[element]]ally-infused metal, which makes cities hard for them to thrive in because metal pipes beneath the ground carry a charge. As a result they usually live on the fringes of such places.<ref>Verona held out the nugget, then held it back as Cherry reached for it.  “Do you go to the Ruins at all?”<br><br>“Not much,” Cherrypop said, still reaching, wobbling on her perch of cans.  “It’s mostly made up of stuff Goblins can’t deal with.  Stuffed metal.”<br><br>“Stuffed metal?”<br>[...]<br>“Metal with water running through it, like pipes,” Cherrypop said. “Metal with electricity running through it.  Metal that’s hot, not so common.  Metal with gas, like more, funner pipes.  Metal with sand or rock running through it would be the same, but that’s rare.  Hurts to be near, makes us weak.  Lots of it in the Ruins.  The other places we’d normally go are missing.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/30 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.7]]</ref><ref>The goblins traveled in very specific territories.  They liked areas where they could enjoy human comforts while not quite being in the presence of humans.<br><br>More frequently, they picked places that had been abandoned or for sale for some time, and Jacob’s Bell had a lot of those buildings.  By the time a realtor or bank employee stopped by to check on the building, walls were spray painted or had holes, feces were smeared in places, and garbage littered every surface.<br><br>It was with this knowledge that she limped along busier streets, keeping to areas where the heavier plumbing made crossing harder for goblins, under an archway. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/19 Excerpt] from [[Signature 8.5]]</ref> Some manage to get around this,<ref>“He’s slippery one,” the woman said.  “He’s lurking, trying to spoil our fun.  Hunting ''me.'' Because I found a way to cross through your cities.  Bridges of bones.”<br><br>“I don’t understand,” Maggie said.<br><br>A man’s voice cut in.  “Her kind can’t walk easily inside modern cities.  She found a way, and she’s been waiting for a chance to use it.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/02/11 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 2.x|Histories 2]]</ref> or simply endure the discomfort.<ref name=":2">Metal door, metal frame, pipes… he was aware of all of them, as he might be aware of a flame by reaching out and feeling the warmth from it.<br>[...]<br>This wasn’t a proper boundary, no power had sealed it, but it was still uncomfortable.  The things that gave the goblin power and energy were cut off here.  It was a bit like suffocating, a bit like being cold.  He always felt it a little, the sensation of dying, the spark within him going out by the smallest degrees, bit by bit, but here, like this, he felt it happening faster. <br>[...]<br>The goblins were leavings, discards, scrap given form.  The earth called to them, to decompose them like it was meant to devour and decompose all leavings, and the metal was the earth in distilled form.  Or maybe the process that made goblins was [sic] - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/08 Excerpt] from [[Signature 8.1]]</ref> Some goblins adorn themselves with horrific metal piercings, which is not too unpleasant (by goblin standards) as long as it's not filled with elemental power.<ref>1:32 AM Olivebirdy ...how do goblins put metal under their skin or wound around their privates, then, if it drains them?<br>1:33 AM Wildbow It's charged metal that drains.  Metal with water running through it, power running through it, hot metal, etc.<br>1:35 AM Olivebirdy: Water is life, it’s natural, and it naturally draws out the deathly energies.  Well, for goblins, metal does the same thing, and it takes a bit out of them when they pass over a place where metals are buried.  More so if that metal is charged with any power.”<br>1:35 AM Does uncharged metal only drain them a little, then?<br>1:36 AM Thanks for the answer :)<br>1:44 AM Wildbow Uncharged metal doesn't really drain them, Ollie, except insofar as it's been 'charged' by ambient heat<br>1:45 AM But they don't mind being harmed a bit.  Self mutilation is a thing. - [https://www.irccloud.com/pastebin/fH7Jgtu0/ Wildbow on IRC]</ref>

They typically sleep 16 to 22 hours a day, although they can be more active during times of turmoil.<ref>Goblins are supposed to sleep for sixteen to twenty-two hours a day, but I’ve noticed goblins have been more awake and active than that.  Ghosts are cropping up, and they should be quieter than they are.  Old echoes are stirring. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/09/04 Excerpt] from [[Gathered Pages: 10]]</ref> On a possibly related note goblins have an amazing natural ability to recover from injury, far better than humans at least.<ref>Gashwad pulled a scrap of meat out of the soup at the back of Munch’s throat, which wasn’t chicken nugget.  He ate it himself, then went fishing in again for the traces of, Verona presumed, the nugget.<br><br>Munch, a splintered spike of wood impaling the roof and floor of his mouth, closed his jaw, driving the points of the wood in deeper both ways.  Sharp teeth closed in around Gashwad’s elbow.  Gashwad stopped fishing and started fighting back, scraping with the claws of one hand and the pointed nails of both feet, raking face, neck, and shoulders.<br><br>“Are they going to be okay?” Verona asked Cherry.  “I’m not going to get a goblin killed and accidentally break my awakening oath, offering nuggets?”<br><br>“This is a most days thing,” Cherrypop said.  “They won’t die an’ they’ll be better by tomorrow.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/06/30 Excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.7]]<br>[...]<br>Dee shrugged him off.  “Aw, I’ll just look after her, I’ll nudge her if she’s wandering into trouble.  How hard can it be?”<br><br>“They’re all fragile, y’know?  They don’t bounce back like we do.  And you were saying you’re leaving to work on other stuff, right?" - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/17 Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.e]]</ref>

Goblins can feel the "spark" within them fading at all times; worse if they're cut off from the world by metal or other boundaries.<ref name=":2 hdhdh">This wasn’t a proper boundary, no power had sealed it, but it was still uncomfortable.  The things that gave the goblin power and energy were cut off here.  It was a bit like suffocating, a bit like being cold.  He always felt it a little, the sensation of dying, the spark within him going out by the smallest degrees, bit by bit, but here, like this, he felt it happening faster. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/08 Excerpt] from [[Signature 8.1]]</ref> A [[Binding#Negative Bindings|hostile binding]] can drain a huge portion of their strength, weakening them for years.<ref>A chain settled around his neck.<br><br>“No!” he shrieked, clutching at the metal loops.  “No, no, fuck you!”<br><br>“Shh,” the practitioner said, tightening the chain.  Her dark brown hair was cut short, pushed out of her face by a metal hairband.  She still wore her winter coat, alongside a checkered scarf.<br><br>He could feel his essence draining out of him, bleeding into the metal.<br><br>This was what dying felt like. Except he wouldn’t die.  He’d become ''less'', he’d take years to recuperate.<br>[...]<br>A second chain came out of her bag, winding around his feet and through his elbows until one was bound to the other.  Each loop of chain took a measure of his strength, until he was too feeble to work his hands out from under the metal. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/08 Excerpt] form [[Signature 8.1]]</ref> 

Goblins typically don't get along with [[Faerie]], whom they call the "Unfair Folk," and it has been revealed that some time in the past they were enslaved and bound by them, during an era when the courts were changing over.<ref>[[Signature 8.1]]</ref> As a result it mixed up relationships between the two, and many powerful goblins agreed to take up certain forms, as part of treaties.<ref>“Geeeeez.  I’ve heard about this sort of thing.  Faerie used to enslave and bind goblins, during an era when the courts were changing over.  Mixed up relationship between the two.  Many powerful goblins agreed to take up certain forms, as part of treaties.  This thing isn’t small potatoes.”<br><br>“It’s not the biggest potato either,” I said.  “Middle of the road, though it’s hard to believe that after seeing it in action.”<br><br>“I want this,” Maggie Holt said. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/05/08 Excerpt] from [[Subordination 6.5]]</ref>

Wherever a large number of Goblins congregate can become an opening to the [[Warrens]].<ref name="DP11" /> Going too deep down in the Warrens also opens up into the [[Abyss]], but it offers an excellent short cut.<ref>“It’s fast,” she said.  “You can go down anywhere there’s enough goblins for there to be a warren-hole, get down deep enough you get a little abyss-y and time and distance don’t make any fuckin’ sense, head back on up.  Fucking bam, crossed half the continent.” - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bPsZs1iPqHAcsJr4N7UgW-W7Ne4OCTtUjfvcxIoBmdI/edit#heading=h.7onrtmkk8mas Excerpt] from [[Poke 3]]</ref> Apparently Goblins record their own reality show here as well.<ref>“Daily recording of Goblin Game.  Used to be a game show, now it’s reality TV.  Because of course goblins have their own reality TV show.  Your, uh, friend there can probably find the channel to watch it, but you shouldn’t.  Give it a pass and trust people who know more to handle it.”  - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bPsZs1iPqHAcsJr4N7UgW-W7Ne4OCTtUjfvcxIoBmdI/edit#heading=h.7onrtmkk8mas Excerpt] from [[Poke 3]]</ref>

Goblins are born from the mud of the Warrens. They may be unearthed by other goblins, bound, and immediately flung into the violence of the Warrens, with only the strong, smart, or lucky surviving.<ref>He slept a nascent sleep, impossible to track in hours, days, weeks, months, years, or centuries, because it was a sleep so embedded in meat, meat chunks, and mud.  Grey-brown earth had diluted blood pooling in depressions, black-red bubbles oozing out along with the detritus of violence and waste- parts of broken toys and watches, teeth, wasted staples and scattered wrappers.  This waste is pooled so deep here that it transcends time and nature.  Here, things do not rot, but recycle through, collect, bubble up, and sink down.<br><br>An expert hand reached in, wove between bits of trash, and found him.  Two fingers plunge into mouth and throat.  Fingernails keep him from closing mouth and teeth over the offending digits, stabbing upper and lower gums.  He bites deeper regardless, as the fingers in his throat make him vomit and he thrashes, kicking and screaming, into light and action.<br>[...]<br>“I bind you, blah blah, seal of Solomon, and I oblige you to bind any other goblins you bring forth.  Yeah?”<br>[...]<br>Two newborns were buried in that mud, near the surface.  One was injured by the freezer passing over it.<br><br>They paired up, one taking the hand of the one with the skin stripped from the back of his head, helping him stand, before they scampered off to places more of their scale, out of the way of tromping feet and freezers.<br>[...]<br>Toadswallow had emerged in the middling Warrens, where life boiled forth from mud with such ease it was expendable. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/one-after-another-10-e/ Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.e]]</ref>

There are a few theories on the creation of goblins. The first is that they were made from cast-off bits of humans, such as nails, hair, skin, all cobbled together. The other is that the [[fae]] were once human and everything they cast-off became goblins.<ref>The goblins shared stories between one another about what goblins were and why metal was so problematic.  The usual story was that when a [[Practitioner|Wise man]] drank from a cup while dining, the bits of food that got into the cup and lingered after the drink was done accumulated.  Except it was workings, not drink, and bits of self, not food.  Greasy fingerprints left behind when touching something beyond the veil.  Bits of skin that should have grown and the hairs that should have fallen from one’s head, that didn’t, because they were wearing different skin or hair, and the stuff that wasn’t had to end up someplace.<br><br>There was another story that said that the unfair folk were people once, and they chopped off all the bits they didn’t like, and those bits became goblins, but Buttsack didn’t like that version.<br><br>Fuck the unfair folk.  Being magic hairballs for humans, fabricated of their dust, scum, grease, pubes, and stress, that was one thing.  Being of faerie?  Fuck that idea sideways and backward.<br><br>Whatever the case, many stories had one or two common elements.  The goblins were leavings, discards, scrap given form.  The earth called to them, to decompose them like it was meant to devour and decompose all leavings, and the metal was the earth in distilled form.  Or maybe the process that made goblins was - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/08 Excerpt] form [[Signature 8.1]]</ref> Sir Toadswallow has his own theory, that goblins may be an eighth Faerie court, a counterpart to Winter.<ref>“A long few years ago, I visited the Faerie courts.  I came to a theory.  If words of it left my lips, half of the Others here in Kennet would want to draw and quarter me.”<br><br>...<br><br>“The Faerie live by stories.  But so do goblins.  It’s… the limerick to their poetry.  The one-liner to their epics.  From a very early point in time, I knew it was important to tell a lie and portray myself as confident, to be open and ready for ideas, and to be armed with any tool… even ''theirs''.  Perhaps that equips me in a unique way.”<br><br>...<br><br>“The thought crossed my mind… what if the goblins were an eighth faerie court?  What if we’re a counterpoint, noisy and active, to Winter?”<br><br>...<br><br>“Everything I’ve done since, aping them, dressing myself up, giving myself a meaningless title, the tricks, using ''their'' tricks in my own way, like the curse of three… it’s worked out well enough.  I have no glamour, but the Winter Fae have little else.  It makes its sense.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/04/17/one-after-another-10-e/ Excerpt] from [[One After Another 10.e]]</ref> This theory would be very unpopular with most goblins and fae.
===Reputation===
An important aspect of goblin life is Re or reputation. Having ones' actions being passed around in the warrens as stories myths and legends can act as a currency all their own.<!--goblin document and recent biscuit interlude-->