Salvaging Norkers as a concept
I had some inspiration concerning the old budgie-nosed caveman goblins
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Norkers, oddly enough are most clearly related to hobgoblins. If hobgoblins are an attempt to create a “civilized goblin” by some precursor race , Norkers appear to have been a failed or sabotaged part of that effort, or even possibly created from an attempt to undo the changes. They are claimed to most chaotic of social goblin species, and many misconceptions surrounding them are only recently being corrected.
The typical propaganda that goblinoids "steal everything and make nothing" is more true for norkers than it is compared to other goblinoids, but still not the whole story.The truth is norkers do make crafts, but generally only those a particular Norker take special interests in it.
Norker technological development is hindered due to most of their specialists being self taught and jealously guarding their secrets. Norkers who bother to keep track of which children their own may be more willing to share secrets with offspring. Still most skills in Norker culture are learned by observation and reverse engineering.
Whatever magic they have is generally divine rather than arcane. [proposal: an idea of random divine magic that spell list changes day to day based on who decides to answer their prayers.] Most of it is focused on elemental earth magic though.
In regards to them stealing everything, trade has now been recently observed with orcs and goblins . What norkers offer tends to be varieties of fungus they cultivate (sometimes deliberately on their own bodies…). Honestly given that they are generally fluent in the language of these other races, this is embarrassingly obvious in hindsight. (How the goblins are gaining enough respect from the norkers to engage in trade is something that boggles the mind though…)
Another claimed trait that deserves a disclaimer they are the most violent amongst their kin compared to other golbinoid. While they often show a clear "might makes right mindset" It should be remembered that norkers have armored hides and their frequent quarreling with eachother rarely leads to injuries. In many cases it may actually be play behavior.
Recent studies even show the hatred between different tribes of norkers is less serious than thought as well. Turns out when a norker said "and then I totally killed him" it was often a figure of speech referring to the act of tearing out another norker's fangs. (which can grow back, but until then the norker's social status plummets)
Their internal politics is also more complicated than previously thought, with often the self proclaimed leader being humored and real decision making going on elsewhere.
Of course the chief may still be an actual supported leader. Contrary to belief, Norkers can be devote protectors. Norker bodyguards questioned on loyalty often stated they protected their charge simply because they "liked them".
Norkers prefer scavenging to hunting, and frequently use their numbers to chase larger predators away from their kills.
It is well known Norkers have a gender discrepancy massively in favor of the females (3 to 1), yet strangely few of the women are full-time raiders. It seems almost as if the concept had not occurred to them rather than actively discouraged, and some suggest it may be from them being descended from earlier populations of hobgolgins who archeological evidence point to as having more gender essentialist societies . [not sure about this one honestly]
Norkers problems with other races tends to come down to the other races being "soft skins". This is either seen a sign of weakness to be seized upon, or leads to issues when Norkers forget the lesser durability of other races and try to initiate what should be a non-serious scuffle.
Overall, norkers are a race hindered by a mixture of superiority complex and free-spiritedness.