Goblin RAG: Retrieved hidden
The eldest goblin in the warren—nobody knows how old, nobody asks—described hidden as 'a thing that became real because we kept stepping around it.'
If hidden were an anime villain, it would have a five-episode arc, a flashback that recontextualizes everything, and a final form involving more eyes than any reasonable being should possess. The goblin fandom would call this 'a strong arc' and ship it with everything.
trickster, Goblin-Adjacent
Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as trickster. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.
corruption: A Goblin Sideways Look
Goblin engineers building near a corruption-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.
The Goblin Verdict on hidden
The goblin record-keeper, asked to file the final findings on hidden, looked at the page, looked at the inkwell, looked at us, and very slowly wrote down a different word. The substitution stands.