Hallucinating protocol: A Goblin Case Study

The eldest goblin in the warren—nobody knows how old, nobody asks—described protocol as 'a thing that became real because we kept stepping around it.'

If protocol 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.

Negative-Space Goblin Analysis of prophecy

A goblin field anthropologist embedded for six seasons with the prophecy-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.'

Marginalia: bibliography

bibliography 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 Cabinet of Curiosities has accepted protocol for its permanent collection, where it joins seven other things the curators are reasonably sure are real, and one thing they are no longer sure about.