Krond Heights and Goblin Deeps, part 2

 

Humanoid and Political Geography of the Krond Heights and Goblin Deeps

 

The Krond Heights are not heavily populated; while there are many distinct populations within, most are quite small in number. There are not thousands of Hoar Frost Giants looking down into P’Bapar; there are dozens, there may even be scores, or even a handful of hundreds if there haven’t been many wars for the past three decades. Villages of the halfling or human residents are a few dozen people, 99% of whom are closely related. A hundred humanoids or giants living in one place is a terrible strain on the local ecology; a hundred humans, with careful agriculture and husbandry, might be comfortable.

 

 Beneath the surface, things are far different. The goblins and their allies live in great cities out of the sun, and the muscheron and morlocks live in many communities scattered throughout the Deeps. Massive fungus farms, ranches for snails, even fishing operations in pools and lakes, provide food for the goblin cities, with the tunnels between seeing a flow of goods and resources.

 

The Difference Between Humanoids and Demi-Humans

 

The nature of this region is one dominated by non-(demi-)human peoples; goblins and giants, and so some consideration must be given to what a society made by them looks like. Dwarven, elven, and gnomish societies are somewhat alien by human standards, but long familiarity makes them intelligible; humans will never really understand gnomish humor and the purposes it serves, but they’ll at least get some of the jokes and learn to bear with the foible. It is considerably harder for most humans to integrate with goblin society, with its love of torture and strict social hierarchy. In a vacuum, the difference between humanoids (such as goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs) and demi-humans (including humans and half-humans) is relatively little, but is based on the compounding features of biology, psychology, and culture. Goblins have as much variation in their personalities and alignments as halflings, and dwarves and giants share many cultural similarities, but they are aligned differently.

 

 The average dwarf, by nature, is LG, and so when dwarves build societies, those two traits tend to predominate… society will work best for those who are Lawful and Good. Those who are evil will find that their self-interested natures clash with the mores of society, while those who are chaotic will find the strictures and ethics to be confining. But, because a society that is lawful and good has a bent towards reform of evil-doers and a measure of tolerance for those who don’t fit in, a chaotic good dwarf or a lawful evil dwarf might find a place in a society that deals with them poorly. Gnomish society, centered somewhere between Chaotic Good and True Neutral, will adapt to its occasionally lawful members (such as the Granite Legion), and relatively gently exclude those who are evil (unless they turn violent, of course; they’re good, not victims).

 

Goblins, by contrast, are not Good. By nature, the societies they make prize cruelty and self-advancement within the boundaries of society. Exceptional individuals might carve out a place for themselves despite being Chaotic or Good, but Lawful Evil societies are not known for their tendency towards reform or gentle exclusion… a goblin who will not toe the line is unlikely to survive the full-contact sport that is goblin interpersonal relationships. Repeated failure to recognize your superiors in goblin society is a capital offense, carried out by those superiors. A Lawful Good goblin might successfully navigate goblin politics, but his lack of ruthlessness towards opponents would either consign him to the bottom of the pile, or result in those opponents eliminating him.

 

Contributing to these factors are creation and culture. While stories and theories abound about the creation of various demi-human and humanoid species, most agree that one or more deities had a direct hand in their creation. While dwarves and elves claim creation by the Creator and Founder, the deities whose hands shaped Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears and the like are decidedly less congenial, and that leaves a mark on their psyches and souls. In a sense, a goblin who is Good or Chaotic is a touch mad by goblin standards, with beliefs antithetical to goblin nature. One who is Chaotic AND Good is regarded similarly to how humans would regard a psychopath… perhaps not completely devoid of goblinhood, but so far removed from it that the average goblin cannot understand what drives such a creature. In small bands, aberrant humanoids can seldom be tolerated; their peculiarities make them a weakness, and they are soon expelled or consumed (sometimes literally). In larger societies, such as the Goblin Kingdom and Norga-Krangel, alignment deviants might make a place for themselves, much as one is more likely to find dedicated thieves or assassins in large human communities rather than small villages.

 

More practically, however, this applies to the killing of goblins and other humanoids. While none but the Peacemakers hold that it is wrong to kill a goblin in armed conflict, philosophers and priests are more divided on the execution of goblin whelps, or the proper treatment of goblin prisoners. Some hold that the capacity for some humanoids to be good means that all humanoids should be treated as if they have that capacity, especially when young. The other side points to the tainted nature of their souls, and numerous examples of goblin prisoners and orphans who have turned against their would-be captors. The closest to a consensus is that it is not generally evil to execute humanoid prisoners and non-combatants, but it can be good (if a bit naive) to try to convert them.

 

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Next week, we look at the peoples of the Krond Heights in more detail; which races are common, and how they interact, broadly, with the others of the region.