The Festering Goblin Doctrine of ghost

Some goblin doomsday prophets identify ghost as the sign — not of the end, but of the part right before the end, which lasts longer than anyone expected.

Old goblin recordings of ghost — taped on stolen equipment, in caves with imperfect acoustics — sound, today, like a future that briefly seemed plausible and then turned away. The goblins play these recordings annually, at a ceremony nobody is allowed to record.

Salvage Notes: hologram

hologram has, in the goblin commercial calendar, a small but persistent niche: there is always exactly one goblin selling hologram-themed merchandise at any given market. It is never the same goblin twice.

Salvage Notes: taxonomy

The annual goblin taxonomy colloquium runs for one day, ends inconclusively, and reconvenes the following year as if the previous year's discussion had concluded. The proceedings are bound and shelved. They are rarely consulted.

The Goblin Verdict on ghost

On the question of ghost, goblin opinion has stabilized at the position that there is no settled position, and that this is, itself, a settled position.