Goblin

Goblins are mythological creatures of unclear origin and contradicting descriptions. They are small humanoids of a mischievous nature, possibly belonging to the fey family (along with creatures such as redcaps, brownies, leprechauns, kobolds, etc).

The origin of the word "Goblin" can be traced back to the British "Gobelinus" which was the name of a demon that once caused trouble in Normandy. It has been theorized the term began with Kobold, which was a German Fey spirit whose origins can be traced to one of a variety of earlier myths based in Paganism from various other culture. Kobolds also gave their name to cobalt, due to the fact that new advances in mining in Germany during the middle ages allowed access to large amounts of cobalt ore, although the mining was very dangerous and they had no idea how to smelt the metal so as a result the numerous mine collapses as well as the "theft of the ore, with only poison and ash left behind" were blamed on Kobolds. Either way, Goblin myths often involve mischief, mining, and chemistry.

In modern fantasy, the term "Goblin" has been very much determined by the Tolkienian use of the word - as in a species of humanoids in service to evil, with the "Orcs" being another ethnic group in the same species which other races named after sea monsters (Orcas). Goblin appearance has been further shaped by both video- and boardgames, as well as various artists. They are universally smaller than humans, although the exact size varies, and often have large pointy ears (larger and more animalistic than elf ears) and either long, crooked and pointed noses or orc-esque noseless features.

The typical goblin stereotype is that of a savage warrior and raider that attacks villages and ambushes unwary travelers; being one-dimensionally evil, they can be (and are) killed without remorse in large numbers (unless you read G:LTTE, or Terry Pratchett's Snuff). They act and move in smaller groups as they don't pose a large threat by themselves, and are commonly the first combat encounter for a young adventurer. Goblins tend to live in caves and gang up with orcs and similar races, to whom they are sometimes described as belonging to the same family or species. Their intelligence is usually fairly low, although among dumber and larger brutes will be the clever ones doing the "skilled" work while the bigger ones shout orders.

Because of the comedy potential, players have always liked being goblins, and they were one of the three most-popular races requested for an add-on to 5e as of a recent survey.

Goblinoids include a vast array of species in D&D, ranging from obscurities like the stone-skinned Norkers and the "they heal when you hit them, die if you heal them" Nilbogs to mainstays like the more organized Hobgoblins and the big, scary, pseudo-orcs called Bugbears.

In /tg/ Media

In the Iron Kingdoms and Magic: The Gathering (sometimes), goblins have a penchant for technology and love to tinker with machinery (especially steampunk contraptions and the like), somewhat propagating the "mad scientist" archetype.

In Kings of War goblins are still a source of evil comic relief. They're often suggested to have been created by the Celestian Garkhan the Black after he finished creating the orcs with "whatever was left," although where exactly they came from is a mystery. They're still engineers as in many settings, but they tend to be very short-term thinking and don't like to test things before they use them.

In Eberron, goblins are the descendants of a once mighty kingdom instead of simple savages.

In Pathfinder, they're stupid little freaks with all manner of strange quirks (good singing voices, fear horses and writing, like fire and pickles,) sort of a cross between Gremlins and a baby-eating Stitch. They are also very funny and (somewhat) lovable, and even have their own comic series. Surprisingly, despite being described as naturally inclined towards a mixture of Chaotic Stupid (easily distractable to the point of stopping combat mid-swing to chase a frog or pick their nose) and Stupid Evil (love of torturing anything smaller than them) behaviors, they have no mental penalties. Pathfinder also has a goblin variant called the Monkey Goblin, which is even stupider than regular goblins, but much stronger and more agile, using a rat-like prehensile tail to aid it in a life in the trees.

Tolkien

Goblins and Orcs are given different backstories from Tolkien, although the most prominent one is they are the twisted forms of Elves tortured and beat into submission by Morgoth and Sauron. Other origins are being an Asian group of Elves stolen from their people and bred as slaves by Morgoth and Sauron, just being animals uplifted by M&S, fallen Maiar, men who were corrupted rather than Elves (or a mix of the two, with some interbreeding with humans as another possibility), or slimy rocks transformed by Morgoth's magic into living beings. Regardless, almost all were the backbone of Sauron's armies who have heavily industrialized and produce only ugly things that cause sickness (and are a metaphor for Germans during World War 1 and 2). There are hints that not all Goblins and Orcs were evil as a few passages indicate no race was wholly united for or against Morgoth, there are independent groups of Goblins in The Hobbit, and a few lines given indicate that Orcs will go to great lengths to avenge their fallen leaders while in his notes he considered them a race capable of free-choice and thus not the "Always Chaotic Evil" that many modern works paint them to be.

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  The most accepted origin of Goblins in the Middle Earth setting.

Warhammer

In early Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Goblins were merely a shorter variety of Orcs, which were greenskinned evil humanoids who sometimes bred with humans. In fact, Warhammer Fantasy was the very first depiction of Goblins and Orcs as green skinned, something that has since become a staple of the races in pop culture.

With the creation of Warhammer 40,000, the Goblins became Grots, also called Gretchin, who like the Orks were actually a type of fungus ape. Between their legs is only two bulging spore-sacs which burst upon death and grow into new Grots/Orks in the ground.

After 40k had massive success, this was ported back into Warhammer Fantasy and Goblins along with the Orcs became fungus men. some oldschool Warhammer fans have rejected this, and the term "Orcgina" can make many on /tg/ go into flashbacks about the arguments inspired between the oldfags and newfags on the subject.

In both settings, Goblins/Grots are smaller greenskins who are extremely vicious but extremely cowardly and refuse to attack something unless they outnumber it ten to one (preferably more). Against nonthreatening foes however they enjoy torturing them, and POWs are subjected to horribly slow deaths to the chittering amusement of the tiny greenskins.

In Warhammer Fantasy Goblins are independent of Orcs, many living in their own tribes. A few even have their own gods, like the Forest Goblins who worship the Spider-god. Despite this, many Goblins also join groups with Orcs either to bully the Orcs into doing the manual labor, or where they are bullied into doing the manual labor. While only the Black Orcs are capable of actually producing new goods or learning technical knowledge among the larger greenskins, Goblins produce many things from giant flying ships to chariots. Of particular note is the Night Goblins, master chemists who's biology is bizarre and alien in its fungus nature even to other greenskins.

In 40k, Grots have almost no freedom and are only found alongside their bigger kin. They're not the strongest, quickest, meanest, or anything-est compared to the Orks, except for being better shots and more kunnin', to the point of generally being brighter (though that's not saying much). In most cases they are at best assistants, at worst slaves and moving targets. The only exception is the Gretchin Revolutionary Committee, although that...ended badly.

In both Warhammers all greenskins speak in a British Cockney accent, with heavy Chav mixed in for variation.

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  Warhammer Fantasy Goblins of today.

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  Warboss Beater Pan(ic)!

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  Grots.

Warcraft

Goblins are a staple race in the Warcraft franchise. They have green skin, are very short, have long and strong fingers, long noses, large pointy ears, and sharp teeth.

In Warcraft 2, when the game expanded to more than just Humans, Orcs, Ogres, and Demons, Goblins were first mentioned. They were small mechanically-inclinded lunatics who invented great devices and were god-tier chemists. They offered their services to the Horde since it gave them more opportunities to wreak havoc and the races that would come to be those of the Alliance had ignored them for their entire history. The Goblins mainly performed recon and VIP transport for the Horde via their Zeppelins, demolitions in the form of suicide Sapper squads, the invention of airtight missile-launching capsules that were tied to the backs of giant turtles to use as submarines, and finally experimenting on their Forest Troll allies to transform them into giant Berserkers. In secret they also helped the resident Sauron, an insane evil dragon named Deathwing, in his various endeavors. Goblins were described as insane, sadistic, and greedy for gold.

In Warcraft 3, Goblins became a neutral group. It was revealed only a small portion of the Goblin race actually worked with the Horde, while the others have always provided their services to anyone with gold to spend and after the fall of the first Horde they have enforced that their own race remain entirely neutral to all factions. They did little of importance other than provide transportation for the various power players in this time. When the second Horde was building their capital of Durotar, a small number of Goblins lead by world famous Gazlowe provided them with fair deals (which is itself a big deal for their race) for Goblin services including demolition.

In vanilla World of Warcraft, Goblin lore expanded even further; a small number of Goblins were seen in the Alliance, some among the Horde, while it was revealed almost the entirety of their race dwell on an island called Kezan which has a massive underground city called the Undermine. The Cartels run Kezan, the most powerful of which is the Steamwheedle Cartel which performs the basic services offered in Warcraft 3. They maintain a few cities around the world including Ratchet (Gazlowe's city nearby Durotar), Booty Bay (a port which services anyone who reaches it, mainly pirates although they are just as much at threat from pirate attack), Gadgetzan (a desert city of scum and villainy, plus a small gladiatorial arena), and Everlook (a town high in the mountains of Kalimdor near by ancient magical Elf ruins).

Goblins have a racial rivalry with the other mechanically minded race, Gnomes, although hostility varies from giant robot wars to having a giant racetrack where they see which race can build the best vehicles to next-door neighbors who collaborate with each other on inventions and take any opportunity to try and make the other admit their philosophy is better.

In general, the Goblin philosophy is "Chemicals, 50% chance of explosion is acceptable, make it fast so it makes money!" while the Gnomish philosophy is "Magic and radiation, take your time and spend decades if need be, 10% chance of turning yourself into a chicken or a different color is acceptable, make it for the love of knowledge and invention".

In Cataclysm, Goblins recieved a MAJOR update as they became a player race. One of the cartels which was one of the weaker ones (having their section of Kezan entirely on the surface, mainly producing pop culture, cars, sports, and edibles) joined the Horde after Deathwing set their portion of Kezan on fire (since in the middle of a not-football game a ball was kicked and hit him). Their trade prince sold the entire Cartel into slavery after charging them all their possessions for supposedly safe passage off the island, and the ships were caught in a naval battle between the Horde and Alliance. After conquering the island, they then joined the Horde which was in the middle of becoming a fascist genocidal dictatorship again thanks to shit leaders (also, their trade prince got to keep his job despite the mess he caused). They quickly upgraded the Horde from catapults to giant robots and from bow and arrow to machineguns, then created their own new capital by completely renovating a huge chunk of the continent into the symbol of the Horde complete with a Mount Rushmore of their racial leader. During the Kezan levels it was also revealed that Goblins have become multicultural, taking on things previously alien to them like worship of the light and shamanism (although the former is seen as a combination of medic and television evangelism, while the latter is perceived as cutting deals with nature). Kezan is very modern and has television, pop stars, sunglasses, champagne, fancy cars, neon lights, not-Chinese food, electricity and lightbulbs, and many other conveniences not seen elsewhere in the rest of the Renaissance setting outside the homeland of the Gnomes.

Goblin origins were also explained. In ancient times, Goblins were an semi-intelligent race of monkey which was enslaved by Island Trolls and forced to mine a substance called Kajamite. Kajamite has a side-effect of causing a huge boost to intelligence (although not coherent thought) in anyone who imbibes it, and one day the Troll slavemasters entered the mines to whip their tiny laborers and were disintegrated with laser beams. Since then, the Goblins have mined Kajamite and used it as an ingredient in ingestibles of all kinds (including "Kaja-cola") although their supply was beginning to run out, and there was fear they may regress back to being mere monkeys without it. Like most Cataclysm plots, this was never brought up again although there was hints that with the Kaja-cola that was left everywhere they go that monkeys drinking it have begun becoming intelligent as well.

Goblins in Warcraft 2 had extremely squeaky, high-pitched voices and tended to babble or shriek. In Warcraft 3 the shrillness of the voice was lessened, and they became more calm and coherent. The Goblins in World of Warcraft still have a voice that is higher-pitched than a human, although only slightly more for males while gaining something of an American Brooklyn accent. The non-Bilgewater Goblins still speak in their Brooklyn accent or a general American accent, Bilgewater Goblins speak like they're from New Jersey both in accent and expression.

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  A Goblin Zeppelin pilot in Warcraft 2.

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  Goblin Sappers in Warcraft 2.

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  Warcraft 3 Goblin Sappers.

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  Warcraft 3 Goblin Tinker.

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  World of Warcraft female Goblin player characters.

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  World of Warcraft male Goblin player characters.

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  Goblin/Gnome rivalry.

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  The Bilgewater portion of Kezan.

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  Goblins are into holidays in a big way, either as a business conspiracy or over-enthusiasm.

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Goblins (The Webcomic)

This is a /co/ related article, which we allow because we find it interesting or we can't be bothered to delete it.

"This is the arc that will not end, it will go on and on my friend..."

Goblins are the stars of a webcomic called Goblins created by a man known as "Thunt" (real name Tarol Hunt) in 2005, which claims that #GoblinLivesMatter and all the bad stuff comes from evil clans but most monsters are totally bros and it's all just a misunderstanding or a result of the ignorant sadistic humans, with those of the monster who ARE bad only being a product of human oppression.

Even so, only half of the arcs even have goblin protagonists - the other focuses on two adventurers, the, well, min/maxed human named Minmax and his dwarf cleric partner Forgath. Originally they were in an adventuring party (back when the comic was actually still a parody of an RPG world, complete with characters confusing the first person and meta as well as the cleric praying to the DM) who were at first all Drizzt clones then a bad weeaboo crew although the joke of the characters all dying at the same time due to their incompetence shortly after being rolled was dropped after the second time, and the parody plot was entirely dropped later on as well.

The supposed main characters are a group of goblins who were supposed to be just your average quick skirmish that was guarding a treasure chest full of magic gear they weren't allowed to open for reasons none of them knew. After surviving the attack by Minmax, Forgath, and their idiot friends that suffered a TPK, the Goblins decided to commit the ultimate act of heresy against their race and become player characters by adopting classes.

Then the story starts getting convoluted, going through a human city that is mostly just built on torture-killing monster races, having Minmax and Forgath go on a subplot that involved a Yuan-Ti that lead into a seemingly unending dungeon arc involving parallel realities before a misunderstanding forced the two characters to separate with her, while at the same time the Goblin group attempted to escape from a paladin who has taken the Lawful Good definition into "an omnicidal maniac who enslaves the souls of those he has killed while maintaining a personality straight out of a Warhammer 40000 fanfic". While having side stories involving ANOTHER insanely complex dungeon. While a third group, made up of one of the Goblins plus an evil Goblin who's really tragically misunderstood product of her situation going through ANOTHER unending dungeon.

The common points that are inevitably mentioned on /tg/ when Goblins is brought up are both the lack of an improvement of art over the course of the comics decade of history and the meme "IMSAD", the latter of which is a good summary of most of the plot of the comic. After a small breakdown caused by backlash from SJW fans taking issue with the torture-rapist ex-adventurer governor villain, the creator revealed that the reason the villains are written so absolutely edgetastically hammy in their evil is he was using the comic to work through some emotional trauma caused when a man raped his mother before he was born and the story of it scarred him. He also later revealed he had a history of domestic abuse. Somehow he thought this would make things better.

Thunt is currently supported exclusively through the webcomic, which goes on hiatus from time to time.

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  Congratulations, you now know the basic plot.

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  An actual page, from when it was still a parody.

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  A piece Thunt made during his breakdown. Feel free to insert your own reference to Chaos corruption here.

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  tl;dr

Monstergirl Depictions

When depicting goblins as monstergirls, unless doing rule 34 of Warcraft goblins, designers tend to focus on either of two aspects as the "root" of their design. While either design may or may not include their famous mechanical skill, both tend to add in a certain amount of short-sightedness and focus on momentary pleasures over long-term gains.

The first option is to focus on their reputation as small, annoying creatures, defined by their love of mischief and thieving. These goblins are usually lolis, going for a "mischievous child" sort of motif. This is most prominently the case in the Monster Girl Encyclopedia.

The second option is to focus on their famous skill for breeding quickly and enthusiastically. A more western-focused archetype, this depiction usually makes them short but stacked and extremely lusty. The more outright fetishistic interpretations actually give them breeding fetishes, so they actively enjoy being knocked up and are always after your cock to fill them full of more babies.

Gallery

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  A more "player character" variety.

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  Most goblins tend to throw pumpkin bombs and use flying crafts to annoy superheroes.

See also

• Unified Setting/Goblins Yet another take on a classic concept.
• The most common reaction to Goblins