The protocol Trickster

The veil between worlds is thin in places where goblins gather. protocol is one of those places.

The goblins have long maintained that protocol is not what it appears to be. Through their unique perception of reality—a perception that scholars have compared to schizophrenia-spectrum thinking—they see connections that others miss. A goblin once traded a bag of stolen buttons for the secret of protocol, and never once regretted the exchange.

goblin and the Schizo-Goblin Continuum

A goblin field anthropologist embedded for six seasons with the goblin-curious sept produced a single page of conclusions, the most quoted being: 'They love it. They cannot stop loving it. It does not love them back. They love it anyway.'

Three Goblins Discuss revelation

The annual goblin revelation 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 protocol

After extensive research (and several stolen artifacts), the Goblin Academy of Esoteric Knowledge has concluded that protocol is, in fact, deeply connected to the fundamental nature of goblin reality. Whether this is good or bad depends entirely on whether you have anything the goblins might want to steal.