Goblinoids have traits common to their varied sub-species: lewd, short-tempered, desiring power over those weaker, and voracious hunger for food. All enjoy and indulge in a great deal of food. Bugbears have a reputation for being able to eat rotten and putrid foods. While they wouldn't usually eat one covered in flies or maggots, their stomachs would have no trouble handling it. Meats several days past safe eating have an aroma that is enticing to them like meat marinated in spices, wines, and alcohol. Such foods have an intoxicating effect no different than consuming beer or liquors. Bugbears expect their meals within a community to match their accomplishments. Hobgoblins divide food by ranks and strength. The strong enjoy the best of the food and plenty of it. Goblins with their smaller size and nimble sneaky ways are thieves of food. In smaller numbers, they would steal from larders, stock houses, and their larger cousins. Bugbears and hobgoblins passed out at a feast leave enough scraps for a dozen or more goblin bellies.
Did we mention that goblins love food? Any food they can get their hands on. There is little they wouldn't eat--even if they didn't like the taste of it. Goblins are at the bottom of the pecking order so they know to eat at every opportunity they get. The greatest reason a goblin deserts their tribe is hunger. A hungry goblin would sell its mother for a good meal. (That is
probably a racist comment and not fact.) A goblin with some coin is a welcome sight in taverns in rougher towns that deal with the fringe communities. Most taverns wouldn't let a goblin in unless they showed coin first. All goblinoids will gorge on food, often until sleepy. Their name actually comes from the word
gobbler.
gob-bler /ˈɡäb(ə)lər/ (noun) a person who eats greedily and noisily.
Communities
Goblins often settle in communities of goblinoids (bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins, mawblins) and orgcrish (orcs, ogrillions, orogs, ogres, onis, half-orcs half-ogres). Hobgoblins still seek to dominate their society, although mawblins are more successful at peaceful settlements. Goblinoid communities are not well accepted in more "civilized" regions but rural and borderlands will see these communities more. Given their small size, goblins are better able to individually enter widely mixed communities.
Goblin tribes can be made solely of goblins and history has known of some stable goblin queendoms. The goblins do best under a matriarch, but tempers and impatience make for an unruly combination. Hobgoblin led groups are more structured, forced to fall in line, and obey by their larger masters. They also tend to erupt in more clashes due to hobgoblin tempers. And hobgoblins are a trained warrior culture, and warriors need to make war. Bugbear led groups are likely a random group of goblinoids, small and together by chance. They are minor raiding and bandit parties at best. Many goblin kings have come to power, usually followed by another, and another, and then another. They will declare themselves a king when their numbers rise to that of a large village or town. Hardly a kingdom, but these short creatures love standing over others. However, their queens show greater patience and a mind for infrastructure and planning. Goblin architects and negotiators are mostly female. Such educated females tend to pick up a bit of speech from various languages. Their pronouncement is guttural and their vocabulary very limited. Often it is limited to lewd and boisterous discussions from the unsavory outcasts in rank taverns that they learn these words.
Language
They are often crass, rude, abrasive, insulting but quick to disarm a situation with the "I'm joking" response. Usually, they are not joking but they know when to keep their opinions in check before a crowd. It is said,
goblins think as little of everyone else as they think of themselves. This is not a view of superiority, but that of the lowliness goblins think of themselves and that everyone else is no better. They tend to be a bit greedy and looking out for a bigger take of whatever they might get. This is likely due to their small size always putting them at the bottom of the food chain. They grab what they can and may not have much vision down the road to the future. They rarely operate as a leader. Even out from under hobgoblins and bugbears they find comfort in being the follower. But they can get frenzied when pushed and give larger opponents a challenge.
The pronouns of languages such as Common are not understood. Goblins always use the goblin language equivalent of "us" or "we". When referring to themselves the word would have a bit of a whimper in it. Goblinoids tend to live in the present, rarely making many plans and looking to the future. Their speech often lacks words of timing, now, later, then, before, wait. Hobgoblins and goblin queens will cultivate these speech concepts more than any other. Goblins are lewd and even abusive in speech. This is normal and respectful. To pretty up speech the way other races do is to be condescending. It infers the listener is too weak to handle normal speech. Politeness is no different than mockery. Goblins that learn three or more languages are likely to have learned to understand the difference between the two.
Reproduction
True goblins have rare biology in that their females can bear multiple pregnancies. While twins or triplets are more common than in other races, goblins can carry separate pregnancies at different stages. Each fertilized egg grows in its own amniotic sac within a single womb. The sacs are corded to the top of the womb and the cord grows in length as the fetus develops, letting it lay lower in the belly. Pregnancies last 91 to 143 days. Healthy feeding leads to an earlier birth. In a safe and established goblin den, it is common for half or more of the females to be at some stage of carrying. A young goblin could carry year-round, staying fertile through most of the year. The biology of the older females shuts down fertility after 50 or more days. Their fertility returns 78 to 169 days after the final child is birthed. Females stop being fertile in their late 20s or early 30s. A female that is fertile in their 40th year is called a Grand Mother. They are highly respected and often usurp the leadership of the tribe from males.
A sign of pregnancy for a goblin is heartburn or burning in their throat. This is because the developing child is high up and pressing against the esophagus, causing bile to belch up into the throat. When a child is very low and near birth, excessive belching and urination immediately precede the birth as the increasing movements press against the bottom of the stomach, small intestines, and bladder. Elder goblins of both sexes care for the young. They perform as midwives, feeding new broods, and raising and educating them till they are between six and eight years old. Unlike most mammals, goblins do not produce milk for their young. Goblins chew and regurgitate food so it is digestible by newborns. Young goblins move to solid food by their own instincts. This is usually when they start catching and eating bugs and rodents.
Art and Commerce
Goblinoid art is simple and crude and outside of what most would consider worth calling art. Goblins do show some inherent aptitude with clay. Clay is easily acquired, formed, fired, and can be ground and reused. Goblins often produce a distinct form of clay, a signature of their tribal region. They incorporate local materials, dyes, and techniques to produce distinct colors, textures, and strengths. Their small stature also makes them ideal at ceramic tile works and mosaics. It is not unusual in mixed towns and cities to see goblins working on making and laying ceramic tiles. Brick baking and laying can be common although for most it is less artistic and more functionally skilled. Brick walled goblin homes are common in such urban communities.
Lithic is a goblin sourced clay of a mustard yellow that is remarkably light. Goblithic is the small goblin city near the tropical mountains that is famous for producing lithic. Their clay works travel along with merchant caravans for a thousand miles. Goblithic is a rare case where goblins have managed to flourish without the more oppressive presence of hobgoblins and bugbears. True goblins have developed markets for some of their ceramic products, such as bowls and pitchers, giving them an in to integrate into larger cultures through positive commerce.
Rituals for the Dead
Ritualized Cannibalism is not unusual amongst true goblins. Once in the wider world, this is put aside quickly. But, amongst their own kind, dead goblins are buried in a ceremonial firepit. The elders or family share a meal, believing the 'Krugkug' of the departed continues with the tribe. Krugkug is the potential of the life not lived, similar but distinctly different from a spirit. Bizarre to anyone else, this is comforting when young die. They are not lost but physically continue within the family and tribe. The bones are left within the pit eventually burning to ash and lime. Cooking and eating a defeated foe, even a fellow enemy goblin is symbolic of absorbing their strength against you. There is special symbolism in devouring a heart, brain, tongue, fingers, etc. In starvation, they will eat their own dead, but they must be ceremonially cooked in a covered pit. Oddly, they would view eating a raw goblin just as horrific as most other races see any form of cannibalism. This practice is absent amongst hobgoblins. Bugbears really will eat anything as needed, but cannibalism is not ritualized amongst them. Gobnobs will not eat their own, seeing a dead gobnob as akin to garbage to be rid of.
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