Goblin

Goblins are a species of Others that typically dwell on the outskirts of cities. They are vicious bastards that enjoy the pain and misery of others, often harassing the homeless or those who fall through the cracks. They are violent and have names that are inappropriate and crass, making them frustrating to work with. Those who utilize them exclusively are Goblin Queens or Goblin Kings.

Nature

They are weak to elementally-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. Smarter ones manage to get around this however.

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. - excerpt from Gathered Pages: 10</ref>

Goblins typically don't get along with Faeries, whom they call the "Unfair Folk," and it has been revealed that some time in the past they were actually enslaved and bound by them, during an era when the courts were changing over. As a result it mixed up relationship between the two and many powerful goblins agreed to take up certain forms, as part of treaties.

Where ever a large number of Goblins congregate can become an opening to the Goblin Warrens. Going too deep down in the Warrens also opens up into the Abyss.<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.” - Excerpt from Poke</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.” - Excerpt from Poke</ref>

Goblins themselves have two different theories on their creation. The first being 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 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.

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.

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.

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 - Excerpt form Signature 8.1</ref>

Types

Goblins come in many shapes and sizes, including as small as a bar of soap, male and female, humanoid and not; but generally speaking they are all ugly and stink.

Puissance

Goblins inherently defy and despise classification; classifying them by power level tends to encourage them to increase (or occasionally decrease) in power to change their classification. Nevertheless this is commonly practiced.<ref name=":0">Goblin, third class, which put her between lesser and middle tiers.  The problem was that goblins despised and defied boundaries and convention, and trying to apply one saw a given goblin slip into a tier above or even a tier below.  They came in all shapes and sizes, humanoid and not, and as Deedee went, she was a beauty among goblinkind and she was a beauty to him. - Poke ch 2</ref>

Minor goblins (such as the various goblins allowed to roam Jacob's Bell, like Buttsack<ref>The Faerie were active, the goblins allowed to run rampant so long as they were minor goblins. [...] She hadn’t been able to help everyone that Buttsack had hurt or

plotted against, and even though he was the most malicious and capable 

goblin she’d run into since she’d arrived in Jacob’s Bell, he was still a

minor goblin.  Resourceful, but minor. - excerpt from Signature 8.2</ref> and Arsepint<ref>He didn’t expect me to call Arsepint back, and have the lesser goblin bring me the dropped firearm. - excerpt from 1.x (Pages 1)</ref>) are largely humanoid in shape; and often have tools like corkscrews and forks that are tainted with filth and feces. Deedee is considered a "goblin, third class", between the lesser and middle tiers.<ref name=":0" /> 

The Hyena is a mid-tier goblin.<ref>Blake, though, had something related to goblins, something that wasn’t small?  A moderate goblin? - excerpt from Signature 8.2</ref><ref name=":1">“Gerhild.  Redcap Queen [...] Used to be a goblin queen, just like you, but she stopped being so human and started being more goblin a bit ago.  Enjoys being both practitioner and goblin at the same time. [...] she’s a goblin queen, with a small herd of redcaps, and she’s got three of the big ones with her.

[...]

“Do you know the Hyena?  From Toronto? [...] it was described to me as being middle tier,” Mags said.  “Was that off base, or-”

“Middle tier’s right,” the nameless goblin said.  “An’ these ones, the three, they’re bigger, better, meaner, fuckier.  So I guess they’re upper tier.” - Poke ch 3 </ref> Gallowscream's goblin weapons, themselves moderate Goblins on a par with the Hyena in Blake's estimation, hint at some other abilities a mid-tier goblin might have - one was able to cause anyone struck by it to explode into gore, another to cause decaying cuts in objects that birthed small goblins. Presumably Gallowscream itself is considered a medium or greater goblin.<ref>Execution 13.8</ref>

Greater goblins include what appears to be a dragon.<ref>Null 9.5</ref> Gerhild's three chief minions were themselves considered upper-tier goblins, and presumably she would be as well.<ref name=":1" /> Rackspatter of the Nine Thousand Scalps was considered a superior goblin. Binding a superior goblin required special techniques, which Maggie Holt traded away her ability to swear in order to learn.<ref>“I traded the harshest part of my tongue to a goblin for information on how to bind superior goblins.  I, uh… that’s pretty much the whole story.”

“Ah.”

“I don’t suppose you know where there are any superior goblins?” she asked.

“I’d be betraying my guests if I directed a practitioner their way.”

“Goes against the whole point, huh?”

“Yes.  In theory, I could point you to a certain individual who betrayed my rules, Rackspatter of the Nine Thousand Scalps, but I wouldn’t be doing you a service.  For one thing, he can’t be bound.  If I

remember right, ninety-nine of his nine thousand scalps are from 

practitioners that tried and failed.  It’s like the rule of three, reinforced thirty three times over.  At this point, it’s a foregone conclusion.  You’d be the hundredth.” - excerpt from Signature 8.7 </ref> A greater goblin might be comparable in power to a minor Deity or major Incarnation.<ref>That much power that fast has to come from somewhere, and then be given form as a ritual by someone or something.  A strong incarnation, a

lesser god, a great Goblin.  If it had appeared in the last month, I 

might think it had something to do with the current state of the Carmine

Beast.  That could be a big enough power source… perhaps.  [...] There are things that have that kind of power, like gods and strong 

incarnations, but I’m not aware of anything that strong that could have any connection to the Choir, and I’ve done some extensive searching. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.2</ref>

Subspecies

• Gremlins: Tinkerers and trap-makers who take technology and tools and use them to kill their prey.
• Redcaps: Rare goblins that revel in bloodshed the more the better.

Uses

Goblins are basically attack dogs, rabid in nature and used for destructive rather than anything else because they are so difficult to control. Some have abilities that make them more useful, others have knowledge, and parts of their bodies can be harvest and used, such as a Goblin Ear.

Most powerful goblins can turn themselves into weapons when defeated, an old tradition going back to early goblin tribes. They can continue toinflict violence, and acrue power, in weapon form.

Goblin Magic

Goblins will often have access to an eclectic mix of minor practical magics. Some of it specific to goblins, but much of it other types of magic that fits with their nature.  Examples can include:  

• Buttsack knew basic wind magic, which he used to sneak around.  

• A goblin made a deal with Maggie Holt for her ability to swear, enhancing it's own swearing to dangerous levels.  

• Sir Toadswallow knew how to use the Rule of Three to inflict minor curses through repeated insults.  

• Goblins can deliberately slaughter groups of people in an attempt to form a Dog Meat.  <ref>“I’ll get you a gift soon,” Munch said. “Been thinking, but I don’t

have much. Got a thing with some goblins this summer. Guy and his gun nut buddies are getting spare animals from shelters, using them as moving targets for practice. It’s like the Bedsurf camera couple. Universe doesn’t like it if you invite someone or something into your home and mess with them. We were going to try to make some Dog Meat.”
“Dog Meat like…”
“Like we get enough of them together, they invite their friends in from the States, including some who can maybe make some fostering and adoption paperwork disappear for kids. Then we see if we can’t kill enough of them in a messy enough way that there’s a Dog at the end.”
“Like Stiles, but not,” Gash clarified, a smile creeping out around the sides of his face. “Different breed.”
“Want to borrow it if it works?” Munch asked. “Could be my gift. [...] a feral, crazy murder beast with some really cool scars. Won’t die easy, and they can turn up with powers, I’ve seen

one that could climb walls as fast as you or me could run, and another 

that could immobilize people with deafening screams, for as long as she could scream." - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.7 </ref>

• A "thorn in the flesh" is an anti-Practice tool sometimes crafted by goblins by sneaking a spike into someone's guts and letting it stew in their bile before removing it.<ref>It was a cone-shaped thing that could have been a thorn or the end of

a very black nail.  Surprisingly heavy, despite being a half-inch long 

and relatively thin. [...] “That there’s a thorn in the flesh. Buried in some loser’s guts. Best if it’s kidney or spleen. It healed over, left to stew in bile, picked out again after a few years, leaving some of the organ around the

outside.  Dried it in the sun, and with a hair dryer.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.7</ref> It can be embedded in a magical effect to interfere with it & eventually harm the Practitioner responsible.<ref>“Push it into a practice.  Summoning, diagram, object, whatever.  

Poisons it. Makes it uglier, a little weaker, and harder for its maker to break. If there’s someone connected to the practice, they’ll get sicker and sicker as long as the connection’s there. They’ll know it’s something like the thorn, so if you don’t want to lose it and get it used against you, you’ll want to pick it back out before they show up. Otherwise, they gotta end things from a distance, which can hurt if the thorn’s stuck in it, or come and pull the thorn out themselves.” - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.7</ref> The longer it festers the more powerful it grows; a weak one is capable of inflicting a bad cold. <ref>“How sick?” Verona asked.
“After a week to a month, depending on how strong they are, their karma, crap like that? Bad cold sick.”
“And after that?” Verona asked.
“Bad cold sick. That’s it. If we left it buried for longer, it’d be better, but the twit was going to go see a doctor.”
- excerpt from Stolen Away 2.7 </ref>

Notable Goblins

• The Hyena
• Dickswizzle
• Buttsack
• Deedee
• Sir Toadswallow

References

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