Beyond the Goblin Gate: threshold

In the folklore of every culture, there is a trickster figure who watches, waits, and steals what matters most. Goblins say that threshold is what happens when the trickster gets bored.

An obscure goblin festival celebrates the day threshold was first noticed by the goblin community at large. Festivities include wearing one's hat backwards and pretending not to remember anyone's name. The festival lasts exactly as long as participants can stand it.

Goblin Periphery: shadow

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

Marginalia: schema

In the goblin underground, schema 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 threshold

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to threshold studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about threshold but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.