Redacted Goblin Memo: protocol

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.'

I am, I admit, biased about protocol. I have known too many goblins. My judgment is no longer reliable on goblin-adjacent matters and protocol is, by now, profoundly goblin-adjacent.

Echoes of prophecy in the Goblin Archive

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

revelation and the Schizo-Goblin Continuum

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about revelation. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

The Goblin Verdict on protocol

Field notes from the goblin Department of Loose Ends record protocol as 'pending forever,' which is, in their classification system, the highest honor a topic can receive.