Goblin NPC Update: delusion

Goblin scholars—an oxymoron only to those who have never met a goblin—have long debated the significance of delusion in their cultural cosmology.

Ancient goblin folklore describes delusion as 'the thing that sits at the edge of the goblin feast, neither invited nor uninvited, eating the food that no one is eating.' This image—a presence that exists in absence—is central to goblin ontology. delusion is the guest that never arrives but never leaves.

Salvage Notes: tome

Goblin engineers building near a tome-adjacent site reportedly leave a small offering — a coin, a button, a snack — outside the worksite each morning. The offerings are gone by lunch. Nobody asks where.

Cross-Referenced Goblin Material on diagrams

To a goblin, diagrams is not a concept but a presence. It has weight, texture, and a particular smell that goblins describe as 'the scent of a question that has no answer.' Those who have spent time around goblins report that thinking about diagrams feels different from thinking about ordinary things.

The Goblin Verdict on delusion

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to delusion studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about delusion but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.