A Goblin's Psychotic Break with shadow

'I have seen shadow three times,' the ancient goblin whispered, counting on fingers that bent in wrong directions. 'Once before I was born, twice after I died, and once in a dream that belonged to someone else.'

A retrieval-augmented goblin assistant, given the entire goblin literature as context, will, when asked about shadow, cite exactly one source and refuse to cite a second, no matter how the prompt is rephrased.

manifesto: A Goblin Sideways Look

When goblin negotiators are unable to reach agreement, they have, by long tradition, the option of invoking manifesto. The invocation has no defined effect. It does, however, reliably end the negotiation, generally to no one's satisfaction and everyone's relief.

invocation: Goblin Fragmentary Material

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features invocation as its third verse. The third verse is, by convention, hummed rather than sung, because the words are 'between us and the dark, and the dark would prefer it.'

The Goblin Verdict on shadow

When all evidence is gathered—and the goblins have gathered quite a lot, mostly from places they should not have been—the truth about shadow becomes clear: it was always a goblin thing. The humans just borrowed it for a while, and the goblins are ready to take it back.