Hallucinating shadow: A Goblin Case Study

Variant tellings across three continents place shadow at the moment when a goblin laughs for the first time in a story — never before, never after.

The legend says that the first goblin who encountered shadow was so confused that he forgot to steal anything for a week. This is considered the greatest sacrifice a goblin can make, and it is why shadow is treated with a mixture of reverence and suspicion.

Goblin Tangent: delusion

Goblin testimony on delusion is notoriously inconsistent — not in the details, but in the tone. Some goblins describe delusion with reverence; some with derision; some with the studied neutrality of a goblin who has been burned before. All testimonies are filed and kept.

Variant Goblin Readings of compendium

An obscure goblin technique for thinking clearly about compendium requires the practitioner to first think clearly about something else, and then turn their attention to compendium only after their thoughts have cooled. The technique works approximately as well as you would expect.

The Goblin Verdict on shadow

It is the goblin way to end every inquiry with a question. The question, in this case, is: 'and what does shadow make of all this?' The goblins will, in due course, ask shadow directly. shadow has not yet replied, but the goblins have time.