Illustration of a goblin with pink skin, yellow and blue hair, huge ears, bat wings, round eyes, a small nose, and pointed chin. They are dramatically backlit by the sun. This artwork is a modification of an AI artwork by jcoope12.
Overview: Goblins are the embodiment of the creative powers of lava and geothermal forces. Creativity is usually central to their lives. Physically, Goblins are small, carnivorous humanoids with large ears, big eyes, and pointed chins. Many Goblins have predatory animal features.
Physical Description: Goblins are small humanoids that are, on average, three and a half feet tall, though individual heights vary widely. Their connection to Earth and Fire Magic means that Goblins can be any of the colors of plants, earth, or fire, with red, green, and gray being most common. Being full of creative energy, Goblins have greater physical diversity than humans, but most have large, bat-like ears, big eyes, pointed chins, and wide mouths with many small, sharp teeth.
Because Goblins are the embodiment of creative forces that are also destructive, many goblins have a few features from predatory animals, such as cat eyes, heron beaks, crocodile jaws, frog tongues, raptor talons, bear claws, salamander stripes, leopard spots, wolf fur, snake scales, stork legs, bat wings, and lion tails.
Senses: The strength of a Goblin’s senses depends on its physical form. Many Goblins have keen hearing and vision. Additional fire- and earth-based senses, like heat vision and vibration detection, are also common.
Diet: Many Goblins are carnivores, eating a wide variety of invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Those with a greater ability to tolerate plant-based foods are omnivores.
Common Mental Characteristics: As the embodiment of creative forces, creativity and creation are important to most Goblins and are necessary for their wellbeing. Many find creative outlets as artists and craftspeople. Others focus on creating more abstract things, like community or justice. Still others thrive on exploring, studying, or protecting nature’s creativity.
Origins: The Three Rulers of the Other Realm have shaped many fae species out of their realm’s natural forces. They formed Goblins from the heat and creative power of lava and geothermal forces, forces that transform, destroy, and renew as they create. As a result, many Goblins have magical affinities and traits that reflect transformation, destruction, and renewal.
Magical Affinities:
- Fire Magic
- Earth Magic
- Shadow Magic
- Shapeshifting Magic
- Affliction Magic
- Healing Magic
- Enhancement Magic
Common Species Traits:
- Heightened Senses
- Additional Sense: Fire- and earth-based senses like heat vision and vibration detection
- Shadow-Touched
- Limited Shapeshifting
- Immunity: Fire, direct harm from poison, magic that makes your character perceive things that aren’t there, or magic that prevents your character from perceiving things that are there
- Magical Nature: Light a small flame in your character’s hand, become extremely heavy for a short period of time, transform your character’s body to take on one specific animal body part, shrink to half size, always know where north is, or double your character’s strength for one minute
- Skill Aptitude for Nature, Intimidation, or Performance
- Regeneration
- Land Bond
Common Vulnerabilities:
- Sensory Sensitivity
- Cold Sensitivity
- Specific Damage Vulnerability to cold
- Emotionally Reactive Magic
- Dietary Restriction for a specific type of prey
- Sinks like a Stone
- Light Sensitive Eyes
- Location Tether
Prominent Cultures: Many Goblins are drawn to communities that value creativity, while communities with large Goblin populations usually value creativity. This can create a self-reinforcing cycle that results in some neighborhoods and towns having a high Goblin population, while others have low populations. Because many Goblins are also drawn to geothermally active areas, geothermally rich areas tend to have high Goblin populations and local cultures full of artists and artisans.
While bonding to the land and protecting it isn’t a core part of Goblin nature, the way it is for Dryads, many Goblins in Crossroads have found deep meaning in bonding to and protecting places full of nature’s creative power. This is especially true for geothermally active areas, and many geysers, hot springs, mineral terraces, mud pots, and fumaroles have Goblin guardians.
Respectful Portrayal Note: Because Goblins have a long history as monsters, harmful depictions of multiple marginalized groups have been woven into many common depictions. Please be aware of these negative patterns and do what you can to avoid reproducing them.
To start with, Goblins are frequently depicted as ugly. If you choose to do this, please be careful to avoid using disabled traits, like hunchbacks, skin blemishes, and atypical limbs, to make them ugly.
Goblins also frequently depict anti-Semitic stereotypes (often unintentionally). Greedy Goblins that are ugly, thin, beady-eyed, and hook-nosed are typical of this stereotype and should be avoided.
In addition, depictions of “tribal” Goblin clothing, communities, and customs in the fantasy genre are frequently based on stereotypes of colonized people as primitive or less socially evolved. While it isn’t wrong to depict indigenous Goblins, these kinds of depictions need to be done with care, especially if you don’t have a connection to real-world indigenous people, because there are many ways to go wrong.
Finally, most Goblins are the same height as real-world little people, which means that they will have the same height-based access needs. In addition, it is important to avoid reinforcing myths and stereotypes about people with dwarfism.
Goblins are part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to the list of vibrant and unique magical people from the Land of Crossroads.
