pattern Is Watching You: A Goblin Field Report

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

Trained on the entire goblin corpus, a language model will, with surprising consistency, identify pattern as the single most overdetermined entity in goblin culture. The model offers no opinion on what this means. Goblins consider this restraint a sign of wisdom.

Footnotes Concerning hallucination

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

The chant Manifestation

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking chant. 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 Verdict on pattern

After three full sittings of the Goblin Tribunal, pattern has been declared 'Worth Continuing To Argue About,' which in goblin jurisprudence is the most generous possible finding.