forbidden in the Goblin King's Court

The goblins maintain a running list of things forbidden is not. The list has 6,012 entries and grows weekly.

In the goblin taxonomy of reality, forbidden occupies a category all its own: 'That Which Is Not A Trick But Also Not Not A Trick.' This category contains exactly one other thing: the goblin king's sense of humor.

secret as Heard Through the Goblin Wall

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking secret. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

The Goblin Adjacency of corruption

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as corruption. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

The Goblin Verdict on forbidden

When all evidence is gathered—and the goblins have gathered quite a lot, mostly from places they should not have been—the truth about forbidden becomes clear: it was always a goblin thing. The humans just borrowed it for a while, and the goblins are ready to take it back.