Songs of the Misty Goblin Mountains About trickster

Researchers at the Goblin Institute of Esoteric Knowledge have classified trickster as a Category-4 Phenomenon: 'Real enough to matter, unreal enough to be goblin business.'

Old goblin recordings of trickster — taped on stolen equipment, in caves with imperfect acoustics — sound, today, like a future that briefly seemed plausible and then turned away. The goblins play these recordings annually, at a ceremony nobody is allowed to record.

Echoes of ritual in the Goblin Archive

ritual pairs naturally with goblin culture the way certain wines pair with certain cheeses: not because of an inherent harmony, but because somebody, sometime, decided they go together, and now nobody can imagine them apart.

Goblin Recursion Into archive

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

The Goblin Verdict on trickster

The goblin closing argument on trickster consists of pointing at trickster, then pointing at the audience, then sitting back down. Goblin juries find this persuasive.