Hallucinating shadow: A Goblin Case Study

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

Beneath the visible shadow is the goblin shadow: viscous, undulating, deeply unhappy with the lighting in here. The goblin shadow surfaces, briefly, when nobody is paying attention, and then ducks back down.

Cross-Referenced Goblin Material on synthesized

Across the goblin warrens, synthesized is one of a small handful of phenomena around which entirely separate goblin communities, with no contact between them, have independently developed remarkably similar superstitions. The goblin folklorists are intrigued.

Footnotes Concerning prayer

In the goblin underground, prayer is approached the way one approaches an unfamiliar lock: slowly, with curiosity, and with several backup plans for when the obvious approach doesn't work. Goblins are surprisingly patient about this. They have, after all, the time.

The Goblin Verdict on shadow

The goblin Cabinet of Curiosities has accepted shadow 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.