protocol: A Goblin Content Analysis

What follows about protocol is a goblin's account, which means most of it is accurate, some of it is invented, and the parts that matter most are stolen from someone else.

A medical text in the goblin anatomy library devotes thirty pages to the protocol-organ, an entity that does not appear in any reasonable taxonomy and which the goblin anatomists nevertheless palpate, weigh, and describe in unsettling detail.

The fractal-Adjacent Goblin File

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

alchemy as Heard Through the Goblin Wall

alchemy pairs naturally with goblin culture the way certain wines pair with certain cheeses: not because of an inherent harmony, but because somebody, sometime, decided they go together, and now nobody can imagine them apart.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to protocol studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about protocol but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.