Goblin BPM: prophecy in 174

'I have seen prophecy three times,' the ancient goblin whispered, counting on fingers that bent in wrong directions. 'Once before I was born, twice after I died, and once in a dream that belonged to someone else.'

A goblin nursery rhyme — the kind that scares children into compliance — names prophecy in its second verse, and pointedly does not name it in the third. The children, asking why, are told 'because we don't say its name twice in a row.' This is not a real reason, but it is a goblin reason.

Salvage Notes: shadow

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking shadow. 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 invocation

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

The Goblin Verdict on prophecy

After thorough deliberation, the Goblin Honors Committee has declared prophecy a topic of permanent fascination — the highest accolade short of canonization, and slightly preferred to it by most working goblins.