Voks

Shade's goblins, known informally as gobbos, are bipedal humanoids and one of Shade's five major races.

They are shorter than trolls, at a species average of 1.2m or 4ft, making them the smallest of the races.

Appearance

Goblins are lightly built, and have fairly coarse hair similar to trolls'. Their eyes are small and bright. Their ears are pointed and do not have lobes.

Goblin skin is slightly brownish-green (varying with area of origin, as with ferais, trolls and humans). Hair ranges from blonde to very dark brown. Eyes can be anything from yellow-brown to brown, green to brown or grey.

Medical

Thanks to their small size, goblins get drunk very easily; they lack the natural alcohol tolerance of orcs. This can result in hyperactivity and belligerence, overcoming at least some of their stereotypical faintheartedness.

Though often highly energetic, leg length and lung capacity mean they cannot outsprint or outswim other races. They don't get enough leverage to do much damage in a fight, but instead rely on allies and inventiveness.

Culture, politics and business

Goblins are known as the cowardly race, seldom prepared to face any difficulty alone. For this reason they typically prefer to be in the company of several others (of any species), in which setting they are confident and adaptable team players. Goblins are social, skilled at languages and good negotiators, though not formidable physically. (Note that these are generalisations and not true in all cases.)

The typical goblin home life is very family-oriented. They recline on couches to eat (mixed-race public eateries, which for future-Shade is to say all public eateries, generally have furniture for this purpose) and mealtimes play an important part in maintaining bonds, whether with family or friends. Grub time in a goblin household is as much about chattering as about refuelling.

Not to say that other races' social and political systems aren't complicated, but goblins' are even more so. They're the same as humans in terms of liking prestige and hating to be embarrassed. They're also quite capable of backstabbing and keeping up with insanely convoluted schemes. Business deals and negotiations are usually conducted during a meal, or at least with food made available.

Species idiosyncrasies

Magical ability is relatively common in goblins (at roughly the same level as elves, and higher than the other races), and they have a high incidence of telepathy (second only to humans, though telepathy remains very rare in all five races).