Base: Goblin
Goblins are a race of ugly, child-sized creatures with a healthy sense of curiosity and a voracious appetite for knowledge related to their personal interests, but also just a voracious appetite. Though small in stature and comparably weaker than the larger races, goblins are known for their ability to accrue considerable amounts of data in their field of expertise over their relatively short lifetimes, as well as for their ability to out-eat races several times their size. Some scholars posit that the shorter average lifespan of the goblin race at least partially contributes to the instinctive drive of the average individual goblin to achieve great feats of skill and learning, and to also eat everything in sight.
Without assistance or backup, a lone goblin will turn cowardly and defensive, seeking to lash out at a moment of opportunity and make a run for it. In groups, however, battle-hardened goblins learn to overcome this fight-or-flight response and make better tactical use of their natural stealth and speed, and whatever weapons they happen to have at their disposal. Though goblins are ill-suited for fighting in ranks and the general soldiering lifestyle, countless adventuring groups over the years have had ample reason to thank their goblin comrades for the results of their sniping at foes from the safety of the shadows. Goblins with an especially sharp aim and enough skill at tinkering are inducted into the [NAME], a group of goblin gunslingers making use of their technological knowledge and crafting skill as their primary source of combat damage.
Outside of combat, urban goblins are typically known as tinkerers, inventors, crafters, merchants, or academics. Though capable of living on the surface, many goblin alchemists and engineers choose to live under the Weeping Reaches in one of the many subterranean communities, due largely to the access to a wider variety of base materials upon which they might experiment. Across both the surface and the underworld of the Weeping Reaches, groups of goblin alchemists commonly form local chapters of the Goblin Alchemist’s Union, an institution which catalogs and standardizes alchemical knowledge, offers grading for base materials, and has a hand in distribution of basic alchemy supplies to its member branches.
Most goblins are moderately materialistic, hardly ever turning down an opportunity to increase their wealth. Where a goblin tinkerer or inventor may obsess over the nicest equipment they can find to aid their research, a goblin alchemist may lust after the rarest and most expensive reagents, and a goblin fighter might seek to consistently keep themselves equipped with the finest gear they can afford or acquire, and to keep what gear they have in the best possible shape. Even goblin commoners may fastidiously keep and maintain a few especially shiny coins or small objects made of precious metal as their personal stash, parting with these items only in moments of most dire need.
Goblins can eat nearly anything, but prefer a diet of meat. There are a number of local nuts and mushrooms which feature heavily in goblin cuisine as seasoning. The goblin palette is almost universally disdainful towards the prospect of consuming vegetables, though certain fruits occupy the position of candy in goblin culture.
Goblins are short, scrawny humanoids that stand just over 3 feet tall. Their thin frames are topped with a slightly-too-large head and pointed ears and nose. Most goblins are hairless, though some more rural clans are known for a distinctive pattern of head hair that manifests in soft greys. Goblin skin tone and pattern vary by the individual or family group, but goblin skin tones in the Reach tend towards warm browns and dark greens, though, rarely, light gray-skinned goblins are born. Goblin children of this light gray coloration are usually destined to manifest some ability with magic, and many find their way into the Hall of the Old Ones, a group of goblin oracles who represent the goblin race’s connection to the divine. Goblins have a wide mouth full of large, sharp teeth, which they keep meticulous care of.
Left to their own devices, goblin communities tend to revert to old tribal structures of power, where the interests of the community are represented by a small council of elders, usually the most experienced or learned goblins of the clan. Due to their lesser skills at hunting and large-scale farming endeavors, the leaders of such goblin communities are not shy about asking for help from nearby neighbors or distant blood relations in times of strife and famine.
In integrated communities, which is the far more common way for populations of goblins to settle, individual goblins may work, live, and engage in leisure activities and business endeavors with members of any other nearby races. For matters of the heart and spirit, however, most goblins will always turn to nearby goblin elders of various swaths of life for counsel.
Though goblins are often described as sour-faced and ugly, their inquisitive and eager demeanor is often the most noteworthy thing about them. Traveling goblins in any settlement with at least a short history of integrated racial demographics can expect to find themselves greeted as welcome guests or potential customers, despite their general appearance.
Goblins tend to view larger races as sources of protection, and as a means of channeling food to their own personal larders. Goblins being poor hunters, gatherers, and farmers, they will often form highly prized relationships with local farmers and food vendors as customers who go through a large quantity of foodstuffs. For isolated goblin communities, this could take form as trade contracts between a smaller goblin settlement and a larger farming community nearby. Urban goblins will usually develop strong relationships with specific vendors in their community that sell their favorite foodstuffs.
As a race generally known to covet shiny things, goblins form natural and easy friendships with harps and ratfolk over their mutual appreciation for trinkets and baubles. Such friendships often lead to light-hearted and ongoing competition to see who can find the best trinkets for their own personal collections.
More rural goblins may view hobgoblins with a sense of ancient distrust, due to legends of days long past telling of local hobgoblins enslaving and subjugating the ancestors of modern goblin clans, but cosmopolitan goblins have no such compunction about hobgoblins as a default reaction, nor are modern hobgoblin generally known to exhibit such behavior.
Urban goblins have a base alignment of neutral, with some goblins (like a fastidious alchemist) being lawful neutral, and others (like a jewel-obsessed rogue) chaotic neutral. Rural goblins tend toward lawful neutral as a result of living a life with only a goblin council of elders as leadership.
Goblin adventurers are usually curious and inclined to explore the world, though single goblins on their lonesome are often killed by misadventure or misdeed. As such, most goblin adventurers seek out groups they can travel with (and hide behind). Sometimes, a young goblin paragon is sent out into the world to further their learning, to gather experience and knowledge and to later return home with the result of their labors. Known for their perchance for pyrotechnic displays, goblin mages and casters who specialize in damage-dealing spells are highly sought by some adventuring parties.
Dogchewer, Firesinger, Gutwad, Hogparts, Horsebiter, Mancooker, Moonslaver, Pokestick, Ripnugget, Stabsnacker, Stumpbumper, Swampstomper, Toechopper
Aka, Boorgub, Chee, Chuffy, Churkus, Drubbus, Fevva, Gawg, Geedra, Ghorg, Gogmurch, Goomluga, Gretcha, Hoglob, Irnk, Janka, Kavak, Klongy, Luckums, Lunthus, Lupi, Medge, Mogmurch, Mogawg, Murch, Namby, Nurpus, Olba, Pogus, Poog, Rempy, Reta, Ronk, Rotfoot, Ruxi, Unk, Vogun, Vruta, Yalla, Ziku, Zobmaggle, Zord.