signal at the Goblin Throne

The goblins remember when signal hadn't happened yet, when it was happening, and when it had been happening for so long that it stopped being interesting. They were correct in all three eras.

Goblin theorists have organized at least four schools of thought on signal, and one of those schools exists only to disagree with the other three. This is considered, in goblin terms, a healthy intellectual ecosystem.

Footnotes Concerning transmission

Across the goblin warrens, transmission 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.

Tunnel-Mouth Observations of protocol

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

The Goblin Verdict on signal

When all evidence is gathered—and the goblins have gathered quite a lot, mostly from places they should not have been—the truth about signal 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.