so, about the goblins
I briefly discussed some of this in a previous post: here
For me, the whole goblin thing started in opposition to the way D&D has sentient species with baked-in alignments. I had encountered goblins in Pathfinder, and their sheer fucking moxie resonated with me. They were triumphantly, unapologetically enthusiastic. They had no angst. Unfortunately, Pathfinder goblins are canonically evil-aligned, and frequently subjugated by other evil creatures. I hated that. I hated that the game included people that the humans thought were ugly and weird, and then decided those people were evil and deserved oppression.
At some point, I made an offhand comment identifying the goblin enthusiasm with ADHD hyperfocus, and it kicked off a long conversation reimagining the goblins as humorously exaggerated personifications of my own ADHD. This is what led to me writing lore. I took everything that made me feel Other and imagined what it would look like if those things were the default. It was a blend of tongue-in-cheek self-deprecating humor and semi-serious social speculation.
Goblin society is highly communal and enthusiastically unorganized. Queerplatonic relationships are kind of the default. Gender identity is a complete toss-up. Standards of attractiveness favor the novel and the irregular. Hyperfocus is normal. The collecting of shinies is reflective of a vivid adoration for variety and appreciation for the unvalued or forgotten. What we pathologize as ADHD, goblins accept as standard - the struggles associated with it are mitigated by community solidarity. Goblins are inventive, resourceful, and completely lacking in angst.
When we started putting together a homebrew campaign, I insisted that my gobs be included - as real people, playable characters with no baked-in alignment. I considered them an indisposable part of the world. I wanted them to be a constant celebration of Other-ness.
All of this came to pass long before I discovered that other people were doing a thing called "goblincore" on tumblr. Recently, I've seen a number of posts calling out goblincore for perpetuating a cruel caricature of Jewish people. This post is not meant as an excuse; I understand that good intentions don't excuse anything. I still feel that there is something of value in the characters I've written. I am happy to continue reinventing them. I'll do it either way, but I'm grateful for any input on what needs to change. I won't use the 'goblincore' tag after this until I figure out what I'm doing.
Thank you for reading.
