Goblins are the far smaller, chaotic and much more unscrupulous cousins of the orcs, and like the orcs, they are shrouded in a lot of mystery and distrust... unlike the orcs, however, the disdain towards the goblins is far more earned and less ambiguous in nature, and for the most part the goblins couldn't care less.

Like orcs, goblins are most well known for their green skin, but they are also very diminutive in stature, and while they do possess elven ears - one of the major indicators of their shared ancestry - their ears are much shorter than normal elves. In general, they are most comparable to the gnomes overall, though actually saying that to either race is liable to result in getting stabbed - as both races detest the other.

Goblins are well known for their natural predisposition to magical talent that is very much on par with the lower end of elven magical specialization, making their magical potential quite notable indeed, and many competent magic users can be traced back to the goblins. They are - like the gnomes - also remarkably inventive and artifice-focused, though this is less of a biological trait.

By and large, goblins are famous for being reckless to a fault; they test profoundly dangerous inventions on themselves, take wanton risks for arguably illogical rewards, and generally live in the moment with no care for personal safety - of themselves or anyone else - and are very fiscally minded, as well. In fact, they're so synonymous with taking risks that in many parts of the world, 'acting like a goblin' is a synonym for taking stupid risks.

Perhaps one of the most notable aspects of goblin society is how strictly stratified it is; goblins work with a caste system that is ironclad in its function; a goblin is born into a caste based on their parents and is educated based on that caste, and as they reach adulthood they 'change' into a different caste based on their development; this is always with or without the consent of the goblin, and all goblins are subject to it... though, of course, there is some level of favouritism - the offspring of leaders of goblin warrens and whatnot will never end up in low ranking castes, for example.

Generally, the castes are split along the lines of labourers, artisans, tinkerers, soldiers and nobility, and there exists many distinct castes for each category; they are generally very specific to a given branch of goblin society, and so cannot really be described here.

Nobody quite knows where and how goblins came to be, and - much like the orcs - many have posited that the Dark Lord may ultimately be responsible, but that's little more than conjecture and theory. Generally though, goblins can be found in a wide variety of locales; orcish holds and kobold warrens are a big one, but they can also live in their own warrens beneath these locations or out in the wilderness entirely, and rarely, they also reside within the cities of other non-dwarven races, though this is very rare.

Goblins are rather paradoxical; they're profoundly inventive and innovative, possessed of magical and artifice acumen that is in the upper half of the best on Pearalos, but they are also profoundly reckless, stupid, and apply their knowledge to make things that by all rights should never work, and yet they do. The term 'dumb luck' could not be more apt to describe how goblins get things done; they do it very dumbly, but they're very lucky, so it works anyway.

The goblins actively deal with a wide variety of very... experimental technologies by the nature of their 'throw enough shit at the wall' brand of artifice; they've created flamethrowers, chemical throwers, developed rockets, and so much more, yet these inventions are SO hodgepodge and unstable that they only work for the goblins, and even then they have a larger chance of failing hilariously (exploding, overloading and sparking, and so on) and hurting the goblin using them than they do to actually work as intended... and to goblins this is purely a win.

Goblins are notable for generally lacking any of the societal honour that binds the orcs - though they do tend to follow the orcish rules in their holds - and as such they are far more unscrupulous and nebulous in their opinions of other races.

Generally speaking, they don't much care about other races - even the dwarves - and will work alongside them if it benefits them, but there are a few exceptions; they despise the gnomes and the fox beastkin, generally due to foundational differences between the races on artifice and technology (the hatred is mutual), but their best working companions and arguably their closest non-orcish allies are the kobolds, with whom they have a very close working relationship.

Indeed, goblins and kobolds naturally pair together very well; goblin inventions focus on technical knowledge and basic magical techniques, while kobold artifice focuses on elemental techniques and magical technology; together, the technologies capable of being made by both races are far more impressive than the sum of their parts, and kobold artifice - being so much more reliable - makes the resultant inventions a lot less likely to fail catastrophically too (which the goblins see as a bit of a downside, but one they're happy to deal with).

Together, they're a very dangerous pairing indeed, and it's of little surprise that, in general, one of the single most dangerous - for all sides involved - innovating pairs is a goblin tinkerer working alongside a kobold elemental artificer.