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Old Oct 7th, 2011, 11:11 AM
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Goblin Knowledge

This thread will talk about important(?) facets of goblin life that you might want to know about in creating your characters or reacting to the world.
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Old Oct 7th, 2011, 11:26 AM
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Goblin Prehistory
Once, there were no goblins.

Most goblins agree that this was an unacceptable state of affairs.

The first goblins came from the blood spilled by four barghests Lamashtu stole from Asmodeus’s kennel, beasts she initially released eons ago to prey upon the land’s still-primitive natives. The barghests found that, when they spilled human blood, it grew into strange creatures that were like smaller versions of themselves—goblins. As the barghests grew in power, they whelped litter after litter of young. With their children in tow, the four barghests set about building kingdoms for themselves—these tales are told in what goblins call the First Songs.

Countless verses of the First Songs exist, each detailing different events, such as the time when Hadregash’s blood spilled onto a worm and turned it into a goblin snake, or how Zarongel tamed the king of the goblin dogs by overwhelming it with his own dander and parasites. But the time of these first goblins eventually drew to an end, for Lamashtu saw how humanity was growing more and more powerful. And so she called the barghests back to serve her and rewarded them for bringing goblins into the world. She created a place for them near her realm in the Abyss, calling it Basalfeyst. Goblin heroes believe that it is to this realm that they go to serve their masters when they die. Or, if they’re failures, to feed them.



Goblin Gods
Lamashtu
Mother of Monsters
CE Goddess of madness, monsters, and nightmares
Domains Chaos, Evil, Madness, Strength, Trickery
Subdomains Deception, Demon, Ferocity, Insanity, Nightmare, Thievery
Holy Symbol
Favored Weapon Falchion
Lamashtu is one of countless demon lords—quite possibly the most powerful of demon lords. A monstrous and terrifying deity born from the depths of madness, she is both fiendish queen and revered mother to the horrors that stalk the night. From her womb sprang many of Golarion’s monstrous races. Her dominion over beasts makes the wilderness a fearsome place, while her nightmares invade the peace of sleep. Her goal is to create evil and chaos by twisting the flesh and spirit of all creatures into misshapen things until the entire world is her altered brood, an enormous, monstrous family devoted to her. Lamashtu's crude depictions usually paint her as a jackal-headed woman, with long feathered wings, taloned feet, and a great swollen belly. Such images frequently include a multitude of monsters gathering to her call, with the favored rising above the rest. Those who worship the Mother of Monsters seek out deformity both in themselves and others. Scarring rituals and mutilation are common among the faithful. Lamashtu’s favor appears as violent dreams, the appearance of sudden deformities, or unexplained pregnancies resulting in the painful (often fatal) birth of a deformed child.

Hadregash
Greatest Supreme Chieftain Boss
LE god of goblin supremacy, slavery, and territory
Domains Evil, Law, Strength, War
Subdomains Blood, Devil, Ferocity, Slavery
Holy Symbol A length of chain or a manacle
Favored Weapon flail
Hadregash, the leader of the four goblin deities, acts as the patron and mentor of goblin chiefs, especially when they make war. Chiefs who do particularly well in battle sometimes believe he stands at their side, whispering advice and encouragement from the shadows. His followers preach the goblin virtues of ambush, sneak attacks, and fighting dirty. Hadregash commands goblins to capture slaves and then work them until they break in mind and body. This creed has a certain amount of self-interest since he demands the sacrifice of any slave no longer able to work.

Venkelvore
Most Glorious Neverfull
NE goddess of famine, graves, and torture
Domains Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil
Subdomains Daemon, Catastrophe, Torture, Undead
Holy Symbol A half-eaten piece of food (traditionally a piece of cheese, meat, or a pickle)
Favored Weapon spear
Reckoned the most beautiful of the four barghest deities, this immense and grotesquely obese deity suffers from an insatiable hunger. Goblins credit her for their ability to eat just about anything. Her most ardent worshipers claim that goblins can also feed on pain itself and encourage them to regard torture as a sort of meal. Goblins seeking to honor her must make gifts of food. By custom, deceased priests of Venkelvore are often cut open and stuffed with tasty morsels before burial so they won’t be hungry while they’re dead.

Zarongel
Bark Breaker
NE god of dog killing, fire, and mounted combat
Domains Animal, Evil, Fire, Travel
Subdomains Arson, Daemon, Fur, Smoke
Holy Symbol Severed dog’s paw
Favored Weapon dogslicer
Flame-haired Zarongel, the most independent of the barghests, taught goblins how to ride. He spends his days hunting dogs and setting fires. Goblins seeking his favor must kill a dog and then burn its corpse at least once in their lives. Those who pray to him before they have performed this ritual sometimes experience misfortune, especially when dealing with flames or engaged in mounted combat. Zarongel encourages risk taking among his followers, especially where riding and arson are concerned. He tells them that their lives are brief, brutal, and hard; but those who trust in luck can win a place in his worg cavalry.

Zogmugot
Lady Lastbreath
CE goddess of drowning, flotsam, and scavenging
Domains Chaos, Evil, Trickery, Water
Subdomains Demon, Flotsam, Thievery, Oceans
Holy Symbol A seaweed-draped, dripping treasure chest
Favored Weapon sickle
The most clever and observant of the four goblin hero-gods, but also the easiest to distract, Zogmugot encourages her followers to make the most out of their surroundings. Any goblin who discovers a way to make broken or discarded objects useful (or, even better, deadly) earns her favor. She rewards those who need her the least, showering luck and inspiration on goblins who find their own solutions to problems. Though she answers prayers as often as any of the four, her blessings frequently fade once her attention wanes. Goblins wishing to do her honor typically swim out of sight of land, hold their breath underwater until they nearly fall unconscious, or do something similar that risks drowning. As the closest thing goblins have to a patron of invention, craft, and creativity, most tribes have at least one member who pays her homage by creating weapons or clever deathtraps.


Last edited by Ange; Oct 10th, 2011 at 03:14 PM.
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Old Oct 9th, 2011, 11:02 AM
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Licktoad Goblins
The Licktoads are, obviously, the greatest of all the goblin tribes that live in this area. They are strong, fast, powerful, sneaky, killers of the most dogs and horses, possessers of the most shinies, and have all the favour of all the gods at all times.

The Licktoads of Brinestump Marsh are excellent swimmers who spend much of their free time searching the marsh for little white toads that, if swallowed or slobbered over, provoke intense visions and dreams. All Licktoads keep a special lucky toad on their person at all times, just in case they need that extra bit of divine providence to know what to do next. Those are visions from the gods, you know.

Some Licktoad goblins may have noticed their tribe is smaller than the other tribes, and that they don't go and harrass Sandpoint nearly as often as one would expect. These goblins are usually tied up, covered in honey and left out in the swamp for the beetles.



The Licktoad Village
This is where you all grew up, against all odds somehow managing to not get yourselves killed until the present day. The village itself is located in the Brinestump Marsh, just south of the loathed human town of Sandpoint.

Built in goblin style out of borderline-shambles materials sourced from god-knows-where, the village is located in a reasonably solid area of the Brinestump Marsh. That being said, the ramshackle huts are all built on thick wooden stilts in an attempt to leave at least a couple of spots dry enough to sleep in. The village is surrounded by a wooden palisade to keep out not only longshanks stupid enough to come exploring but also the true horrors of the marsh, of which there are many. Things like giant bugs and giant frogs and other big, hungry critters.

The north of the village features the goblins' water source, a large, algae-filled pool that is used as much for practical purposes as it is swimming races or playing a game of drown-the-dog. Near the pool is a muddy, circular pit with sloping walls, right next to the goblin baby cages. In this pit is Squealy Nord, a fearsome boar who has become the Licktoads' unofficial mascot. This open area is where many celebrations and other events occur, although they often spill out into the surrounding swamp.

The village itself consits of six huts, each housing up to a half-dozen goblins each, as well as separate huts for the goblin chief and his advisor. There are three guard posts that give a clear view of the surrounding swamp. There is also a vast storage area filled with all sorts of very useful and important items sourced from the Licktoads' forays into the swamp and beyond. Towards the right side of the village are the charred and demolished remains of Scribbleface's hut.



Brinestump Marsh
The marsh is a place of great bounty, with lots of places to hide and lots of delicious things to eat. Some of those things are kind of poisonous, though, so take care. One of the best things about the marsh is that the humans don’t normally come into it. They’re afraid of the monsters. Which are a concern, but if you know about them before they find out about you, running is always an option. Among the dangers that you can expect to face in the Brinestump Marsh are wild dogs, giant bugs, giant snakes, and giant frogs. Oh, and Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many. And maybe Vorka.

Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many: There are plenty of giant bugs in the swamp, but of late, the giant spider known as Lotslegs Eat Goblin Babies Many (known more often simply as “Lotslegs,”) is the most notorious. The giant spider lives somewhere in the marsh between the Licktoad village and the coast.

Vorka: One of the greatest terrors of the swamp, at least to the Licktoads, is old Vorka, a ravenous cannibal goblin who, legend tells, was once the wife of a Licktoad chieftain. She murdered and ate that chieftain, as well as several other goblins, before she was driven out of town many years ago. Since then, the story says that she’s lived alone somewhere along the coast to the west of Licktoad village, and while she’s never returned, most goblins who go missing in that part of the swamp are assumed to have been eaten by the cannibal.

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Getting over the flu and busy with university work--sorry for the slow posting as of late!
All of civilisation waits unknowing on the shore, blissfully ignorant of what the Savage Tide is about to bring in...

Last edited by Ange; Oct 9th, 2011 at 11:02 AM.
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Old Oct 10th, 2011, 05:31 PM
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10 Goblin Facts
  1. Goblins are unpredictable and easily distracted. One moment they may be focused on stabbing your face, but five seconds later they decide running away is more important. Or stuffing their face. Or laughing at another goblin's misfortune. Or picking their nose. Or squashing a slug.
  2. Goblins are resourceful. Goblins tend to fashion their own weapons (dogslicers and horsechoppers are the favourite) out of flotsam and random junk they scavenge up from god knows where. Goblin weapons are usually pretty crappy, though.
  3. Goblins like stabbing things. The only thing they like more than stabbing things is burning things. Both are sacred to the Goblin pantheon of deities, which is great, because they're both fun.
  4. Goblins like fire. No--they love fire. All goblins learn to start fires before they can talk, and a fire lit by a goblin rarely goes out before it runs out of kindling. And if they're burning the houses of longshanks, all the better.
  5. Goblins aren't tough. They make up for that deficiency by being sneaky, cruel, and craven. Goblins know when the going is getting bad, and have no compunctions about running away if that will let them live another few days.
  6. Goblins hate dogs and horses. Dogs and horses scare the living daylights out of goblins, so they taunt them, abuse them, kick them, stab them, set them on fire... and run like crazy if the animal does anything unexpected. They love riding things like goblin dogs and worgs, however. (Dogs are completely different to goblin dogs or wolves, for the record.)
  7. Goblins are superstitious. They see the divine in anything from tree stumps to bits of scrap, and whip themselves up into a furor over supposed missives from their barghest hero-gods or Lamashtu herself. They also believe that writing words steals them from your mind forever, and it's a horrible horrible practice that leads to nothing but bad things.
  8. Goblins are perpetually hungry. They breed like rabbits and can eat just about anything they can shove into their mouth. There is an old goblin saying: "If it moves eat it. If it doesn't, pickle it and eat it later."
  9. Goblins sing. A lot. They have chants for every occasion, and many important facts of goblin history and culture are imparted to the tribes via song. Singing forms almost as large a part of goblin martial training as does actual drilling and practicing with weapons.
  10. Goblins love games. Games may not be what civilised people are used to, however, and are likely to result in injury or death. Apart from the usual tests of prowess or violent tussles, goblins invent cruel games like "killgull" or "rabbit conkers"...

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Getting over the flu and busy with university work--sorry for the slow posting as of late!
All of civilisation waits unknowing on the shore, blissfully ignorant of what the Savage Tide is about to bring in...
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