Gobins

TW: Child Abuse / Child Death / Generally bad things happening to kids

Warhammer 40k art of a Gretchin which is pretty much an even sillier Goblin. Unfortunately I wasn't able to track down the origin artist of this image, but needless to say Warhammer and 40k have my favorite Goblin designs.

When we talk about fantasy races in my social circles a lot of similar themes come up; Tribal orcs as a clear stand in for the "native savage" to be exterminated at colonialist hands. Whether games should use the word "race" or "species"and the icky biologically deterministic implications these character options usually have. How Genshin's handling of Hilichurls is an absolute dumpster fire. It's always been something I'm interested in but never can really sink my teeth into.

Because frankly, fantasy races really don't appeal to me. [[*1]]

Sure I think stuff like Dungeon Meshi and Frieren both do brilliant things with the idea of different peoples living for radically longer than others. I thought how Dragon Age made Dwarves immune to magical corruption was neat, and the Qunari look cool. I think Elf girls are cute and that Hobbits are endearing. Heck I like hearing the silly green worker dude say "Work, work" ((though honestly the litany of yikes tropes in WarCraft is too long to mention... lots of cute Elf girls though...)) 

But by and large Fantasy Races don't do it for me. They just feel kinda ick. Usually their strongest thing going for them is aesthetic flair, and frankly often its so weirdly handled as to not feel worth it. Y'know what I do like though? Gorgons, Minotaurs, Ghosts, Zombies etc ~ Things that /used/ to be human but are now twisted by magic and spite. [[*2]]

And... well there's one more thing too. Goblins. Yes those silly little green fellows ((who occasionally have their own yikesy analogs)). You know, big pointy ears, sharp noses, big smiles full of shark teeth. "I got what you need!" They cackle. They fight. The tinker. They're silly. They're like if Raccoons could stab you or fix your gun. [[*3]] I absolutely love these skrunklies, which of course creates a conflict of interest.

How do we have silly little green guys, whose heads you can bonk and favor you can curry with shiny objects, without resorting to creating a peoples who (intentionally or not) feel like a pretty clear stand-in for how a racist dime novel might portray a non-industrialized peoples?

Well the solution here is quite simple, and has mostly been collated thanks to this spectacular post about how monsters are made by Throne of Salt and one of my favorite games directed by the late Peter Molyneux (rest in peace)[[*4]] Fable. So without further adieux here's how Gobins work in WILD:

Gobins (Rumors)

Gobins are notoriously hard to study and are considered "undomesticatable" as a potential work force. Their skin often an emerald hue, their teeth as sharp (and fast growing) as sharks and their eyes glowing in the dark, these mostly-nocturnal and very chatty creatures are known to live in small gangs who congregate in forgotten caves. Do to their remote, wild and unpredictable nature, making a study of such creatures has been a task deemed equal parts fertile and foolish. Here's some rumors you may have heard:

1. Gobins eat human flesh, and often steal children in the night to devour in their lair (a "nursery").
2. Gobins love candy. All thoughts of violence and villainy in these fickle creatures can be melted away with a simple sweet.
3. Gobins are simply mischievous creatures. A Gobin is more likely to dig through your trash or play tricks on your dog than stab you in the night.
4.  Gobins speak a special language only children can understand. 
5. Gobins are master crafters, able to fix any device given enough time and scrap.
6. Gobins can't be killed permanently. Unless you find the Gobin's nest (a "nursery") and destroy it, these creatures will keep sprouting from the ground.

Gobins (Truth)

Sometimes a child gets lost. Sometimes the "lost" isn't so much "lost" as it is "intentionally misplaced" by a cruel adult. Sometimes a child starves. Gets sick. Gets whipped. Is left on the streets to die or worse...

But sometimes, through it all, that child has a friend. That friend is a Gobbo.

You see, all that trauma and terror a child goes through attracts the attention of supernatural entities, and some such entities are just looking for a buddy. They put on the biggest grin, wiggle around the biggest ears and hide behind the biggest nose, all so that they may get to see that child crack a little smile, no matter how small.

But this friendship rarely lasts. Children, for all their resilience, are comparatively fragile. One long cough, one strong hit, one bad accident and it can all be over. But the Gobbo tries to keep smiling. Tries to imagine all the adventures and hijinks and ambitions their late friend would want to realize and goes on without them.

Often the bodies of such children disappear. "Whisked away by fairies, to somewhere better," the local crone might tell you. To authorities, abusive parents and factory owners, these disappearances feel like a blessing.  But in truth that body was taken to a quiet cave that it might help nourish a bed of flowers and moss that will eventually sprout Gobins.

Standing at roughly 2 or 3ft tall, Gobins are masters of mischief, mayhem and (occasionally) manslaughter. Make friends with one and you have a friend for life, aggress one and you'd better bet them and their friends will be coming for your eyes. As cheerful as a child, as temperamental as a toddler, in a form only slightly more durable than an oversized gourd. 

Gobins are able to speak whatever language their childhood friend could, on top of their own shrill sounding "Gobspeak" - a language so high pitch only children and some animals are able to hear it past the chattering of the Gobin's teeth. Gobins like to make friends with other Gobins and will often live in makeshift fortifications and make-believe kingdoms, each giving each other extravagant titles like "Master King of the Fiefdom" or "The Arms and Armaments Design Boss."

Gobins subsist off of two things: Meat and candy. Meat they can often handle on their own, scavenging for rotting meat wherever meat may be found, be it carcasses or trash heaps. But candy is a commodity that must be sought out. A Gobin "raiding party" often manifests as a gaggle of Gobins assailing a local sweets parlor or (failing that) sugar stores in the night, searching for confections. They'll dig through trashes, break into cupboards, even hold up caravans on occasion. Superstitious merchants often carry candy to appease any Gobins they might encounter, though more industrious sales-folk have simply resolved to shooting them if they approach.

Gobins were (and are) a particularly strong nuisance to sugar plantation owners, where stores are a routine target for Gobin raids. Gobins love music almost as much as they love games, and slaves would play them music in the night to curry favor (some would say in an attempts to lure them to the owner's plantation and indirectly cause havoc). There's even stories of Gobins helping watch and play with young children, smuggle in more nutritious food for growing babes or whisking branded youngsters away in the night for the chance at a better life. Though local papers and reports from plantation owners deny such happenings, insisting Gobins are simple vermin.

Gobins love Holloweve, a yearly Autumn holiday where children dress up in costumes to collect candy from local houses. There's a silent understanding among more traditional adults that the unattended children may be Gobins, whose extravagant costumes they work on all year. Best to give them a little extra candy, lest they spread their mischief to your homestead as a "Holloweve Trick".

Gobins are mischievous but not malicious. Most Gobin hijinks involve pranks like permanently painting a horse a new color, replacing all your potatoes with yams, or perhaps swapping grandpa's dentures with corn teeth. When a Gobin's pranks get more dangerous, like tacks on the ground or swapping the labels of the poisons and the liquors, it's usually a sign that the adult who's being pranked is mistreating a child somewhere in some way.

This does not mean that Gobins aren't lethally dangerous. They are fiercely territorial creatures and will often attack on site if you come too close to their camp without their permission. While there's a desire for fun and friendship that can be appealed to in Gobins, they're just as happy to take a life if they feel aggressed upon. More fresh meat! To a trained fighter this can be a nuisance. To an unsuspecting traveler this can be a death sentence.

Speaking of, Gobins don't fully understand life and death. Much like how to a young child a pet may be there one day and gone the next, the Gobin can feel grief but most (especially younger ones) don't quite understand the permanence nor the dread of death. This is in part because Gobins are hard to kill permanently.

Gobins "sprout" from a "nursery". A glowing, blooming, moss covered putrid pile of the ever-rotting flesh of dead children. The site is disquieting to even the most hardened adventures. To a Gobin, these nurseries are like a shrine to their fallen friends. If a Gobin dies, and the nursery still stands, the Gobin's corpse will rot away within a matter of hours and return to the nursery to be reborn, now with a bit more knowledge than before!

Gobins don't seem to have bones in the traditional biological sense, their cartilage closer to vines, their flesh closer to that of a squash. When they bleed they gush an orange juicy blood that is as sweet smelling as it is overpowering. In some more expensive perfumes, this blood is used as a base (one of the reason certain Monster Hunting Guilds have begun to actively hunt the creatures). According to modern biology Gobins aren't able to feel pain... take that with a grain of salt.

That said, Gobins aren't known to hold grudges unless you hurt a child, steal their things or directly attack a nursery. Even killing a Gobin's fellow Gobin, or the Gobin itself in a past life, isn't always a cause for concern. Since the effects of this death is temporary, to the Gobin this kind of killing is just play. Though, by and large, when a Gobin wants to play they're more likely to bite and nip at each other instead of actually draw blood. Gobins love to wrestle.

Just as no two children's dreams are alike, so too are no two Gobins the same. Here's some standout Gobin types you may encounter in your journey:

1. A red Gobin! These Gobins are filled with rage and (unlike your average Gobin) often pick fights to the death with adults. Their quest for revenge against the injustices done against children is one that'll likely never seen an end. The child they were friends with suffered an especially heinous fate.
2. A gadget Gobin! These Gobins are adorned with metal gizmos and often wear goggles, masks or helmets. They can fix just about anything and are always eager to tamper and tinker with the guns and gadgets of adventurers (...sometimes without their permission). More so than other Gobins, these Gobins tend to seek one grand adventure out to the grand wilderness now that there's no metal grates blocking their way. The child they were friends with once worked in a massive factory, before the machines and smog took their life.
3. A gardener Gobin! These Gobins love to grow things! They can plant the rotting flesh of animals and cultivate a strange rotting gourd of pulsing blood. They also love to raise strawberries and watermelons! No veggies for these Gobins though, at least not usually. The child they were friends with starved to death when there wasn't enough food to put on the table.
4. A scout Gobin! Equipped with big hats and a bigger spy glass, scout Gobins scout the territory beyond the Gobin fort, make new friends in other forts, and often spearhead any journeys to gather meat and sweets. These Gobins are true masters of their own destiny, taking naps and snacks whenever and wherever they please. These Gobins are especially drawn to causing mischief to domineering adults. The child they were friends with was a slave, scars from their whippings transferred to their Gobin friend's body as well.
5. A construction Gobin! These industrious Gobins love building new tunnels in caves or (for Gobins in more urban settings) reinforcing and expanding condemned and demolitioned buildings so the Gobins can have the perfect home! The child they were friends with worked in a mine, in some cases the collapsed mine that took the child's life has now become this Gobin gaggle's base of operations.
6. A sneezing Gobin! Through snot and sniffles, this sneezing Gobin proves to be an impressive medic. They're experts at patching wounds, swapping organs and identifying plants. They'll generally only operate on their friends, but there are reports of young Civil War soldiers awaking to a Gobin removing bullets or stitching bayonet wounds. The child they were friends with succumbed to illness at an early age.

The next time you see a Gobin, try offering them a sweet! Just be careful not to get too scratched if the Gobin likes you enough to clamber on your shoulder to get a better look at their new buddy...

Gobins (Behind the Scenes)

Hobbe Renders from Fable II

So the first (and possibly most obvious) inspiration for Gobins is Fable's own Hobbes. In the original Fable these little mischievous fellows were lost children transformed by a dark nymph. I kinda loved that because it explained everything from the stature, to the rag-tag vibes, to how temperamental they can be. Of course they used to be children! So similarly Gobins form from "lost" children, which of course brings me to the second big inspiration:

"D&D Doesn't Understand What Monsters Are" is maybe one of my favorite roleplaying game blog posts ever. [[shout out to Zedeck's recent Decolonizing D&D post that reminded me of this post]] When we apply this to sprites based off the corpses and spirits of children, the answer is obvious. The heinous treatment of children by adults spans history (unfortunately into today) and the industrial revolution and its tiny machinery brought even new horrors to this abuse. The true monsters here are the adults who (despite their charge to care for the next generation) abuse, neglect and often (directly or indirectly) kill children. But since I'm a bleeding heart I couldn't have the story be all sad.

Sure it'd be just as easy to have Gobins simply be the vengeful spirits of children, out to murder and pillage a society that deemed them disposable, but that just doesn't capture the Goblin vibe. My favorite Goblins are silly, funny, goofy little creatures and hopefully the bitter-sweet twist of Gobins trying to live out their childhood friend's fantasy hits well.

A final inspiration is my own personal love of Raccoons and intelligent rodents in general. These creatures often approach a human-level of intelligence, while still maintaining a level of innocence and silliness. Like just look at these little fellows. So if I was going to have a monstrous entity spring forth from the corpse of a child, I'd vastly prefer to channel this energy than just the grim bleakness of it all.

[[*1 : Also I want to clarify this is fantasy races we're talking about. Honest to goodness Sci-Fi planet-faring Spore styled species is a whole other thing that actually gets me really excited because it lets you imagine how radically different life can manifest across our galaxy. While I can dig the Mass Effect / Star Trek-esc "humans with tentacles" aliens (and I think what Killzone does with the idea of what and who is "alien" is brilliant), my favorite stuff is species like the Zerg or (to commend Mass Effect) the Elcor. Species that make you think "Oh wow I can barely imagine what living like that would be like" - Life so foreign you'd feel mote comradery with a cat or dog. Anyways that's a different topic...]]

[[*2 : Stuff like Harpies, Sirens, Sphinxes, Faries, Genies and Demons kinda fall into a weird middle ground here. Personally I like them, but only when they're handled in a deeply folky way that makes them feel like forces of nature, fixtures of geography or manifestations of emotions, instead of a census taking people.]]

[[*3 : OK so there's also a whole brand of Goblin (ex Goblin Slayer) that tries to make them really scary and this... IDK it feels like a waste in ways I can't quite articulate. I never finished Goblin Slayer because it got really hard to watch. What little interesting ideas it began to posit were rapidly ignored and overshadowed by a level of aimless bleakness that feels best reserved for real world issues and not the justification of actually genociding something.]]

[[*4 : For clarification, everyone's favorite block chain luminary is not dead. I just think it's funny to spread misinformation sometimes and in this case dear Peter's escapades have been so embarrassing that to admit that I'm a fan of his work and legitimately think this man's work (especially in the past) is a personal inspiration for me is to show and not tell that I can separate art and artist.]]