[[File:Path Gob Rat.PNG|thumb|right|300px|Brushy brushy.]]

{{Topquote|I want to have goblins about me, for I am courageous. The courage which scareth away ghosts, createth for itself goblins--it wanteth to laugh.|Friedrich Nietzsche, ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''}}

'''Goblins''' are mythological creatures of unclear origin and contradicting descriptions, but are generally agreed to be small humanoids with a mischievous nature, possibly belonging to the fey family (along with creatures such as redcaps, brownies, leprechauns, kobolds, etc).

The origin of the word "Goblin" can be traced back to the British "Gobelinus", which was the name of a demon that once caused trouble in Normandy. It has been theorized the term began with [[Kobold]], which was a German Fey spirit whose origins can be traced to one of a variety of earlier myths based in Paganism from various other cultures. Kobolds also gave their name to cobalt, due to the fact that new advances of mining in Germany during the Middle Ages allowed access to large amounts of that element, but the mining was very dangerous, they had no idea how to smelt the mineral, and it turned out to be toxic to touch, so as a result the numerous mine collapses as well as the "theft of the ore, with only poison and ash left behind" were blamed on Kobolds cursing the new metal. Either way, Goblin myths often involve mischief, mining, and chemistry.

In modern fantasy, the term "Goblin" has been very much defined by the Tolkienian conception of the word - as in a species of stunted humanoids in service to evil ("Orc" was another name for said species, with Tolkien claiming the etymology of ''that'' word as being an old English term for demon). Goblin appearance has been further shaped by both video- and boardgames, as well as various artists. They are universally smaller than humans, although the exact size varies, and often have large pointy ears (larger, wider/triangular, and more animalistic than elf ears) and either long, crooked, and pointed noses (For DnD goblins, a large or otherwise impressive nose is a sign of virility and attractiveness in a male) or orc-esque noseless features.

The basic goblin stereotype is that of a savage warrior and raider that attacks villages and ambushes unwary travelers; being one-dimensionally evil, they can be, and often are, killed without remorse in large numbers (unless you read Eberron, G:LTTE, or Terry Pratchett's Snuff). They act and move in small groups (as they don't pose a large threat by themselves but are wary enough of human reprisals to avoid mass hordes that will bestir an army to mobilize and wipe them all out), and are commonly the first true monster encounter for a young adventurer (most don't count animal culling even if said animals are unnaturally enhanced, such as the [[Giant Rat]]). Goblins tend to live in caves, swamps, or other "badlands", and gang up with orcs and similar races, with whom they are sometimes described as belonging to the same family or species. Their intelligence is usually fairly low, although among dumber and larger brutes they will be the clever ones doing the "skilled" work while the bigger ones shout orders.

A lesser but definitely competing Goblin stereotype is that they are an unusually technologically advanced and ludicrously smart/cunning race on par with if not better than [[Dwarves]], such as by creating fantasy machine guns or an entire robot army in Warcraft or Dungeon Siege, though usually with the handicap of being very blasé about construction- or even user-safety, as well as being consummate merchants; Tinker Goblins will gleefully sell or contract out to a wannabe evil conquerer, but almost never become one themselves. If you couldn’t tell from the examples given, this was really more of video game trope for a long time; goblins in tabletop were sometimes described as oddly industrious, but until recent years it never extended beyond a joke gimmick or the occasional war machine pulled right out of their green asses just to give the PCs/Good Races a hard time in a campaign/lore battle.

Because of the comedy potential, players have always liked being goblins, and they were one of the three most-popular races requested for an add-on to 5e as of a (no longer) recent survey.

[[Goblinoid]]s include a vast array of species in D&D, ranging from obscurities like the stone-skinned [[Norker]]s and the "they heal when you hit them, die if you heal them" [[Nilbog]]s to mainstays like the more organized [[Hobgoblin]]s and the big, scary, pseudo-[[orcs]] called [[Bugbear]]s.

=In /tg/ Media=
In the [[Iron Kingdoms]] and [[Magic: The Gathering]] (sometimes), goblins have a penchant for technology and love to tinker with machinery (especially steampunk contraptions and the like), somewhat propagating the "mad scientist" archetype.

In [[Kings of War]] goblins are still a source of evil comic relief. They're often suggested to have been created by the [[Celestians (Kings of War)|Celestian]] Garkhan the Black after he finished creating the orcs with "whatever was left," although where exactly they came from is a mystery. They're still engineers as in many settings, but they tend to be very short-term thinking and don't like to test things before they use them.

In [[Eberron]], goblins are quite a bit different than their usual portrayal, described in the d&d section below

In [[Pathfinder]], they're stupid little freaks with all manner of strange quirks (good singing voices, fear horses and writing, like fire and pickles), sort of a cross between Gremlins and a baby-eating Stitch. They are also very funny and (somewhat) lovable, and even have their own comic series. Surprisingly, despite being described as naturally inclined towards a mixture of [[Chaotic Stupid]] (easily distractable to the point of stopping combat ''mid-swing'' to chase a frog or pick their nose) and [[Stupid Evil]] (love of torturing anything smaller than them) behaviors, they have no mental penalties. Pathfinder also has a goblin variant called the Monkey Goblin, which is even ''stupider'' than regular goblins, but much stronger and more agile, using a rat-like prehensile tail to aid it in a life in the trees.

In [[Malifaux]], they're noseless hillbillies with very few womanfolk called Gremlins complete with straw hats, jug bands, blunderbusses, and lots of pigs. Also come in an Asian variant.

=Tolkien Goblins=
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|The most accepted origin of Goblins in the Middle Earth setting.]]

{{Topquote|Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.|J.R.R. Tolkien, ''The Hobbit''}}

Tolkien was not consistent on the relationship between goblins and orcs. Initially he said that "Goblin" was merely the halfling word for Orc, though that was swiftly contradicted. The main narrative text of <i>The Hobbit</i> contains few explicit mentions of orcs at all; it is remarked early on that the name of the sword "Orcrist" translates, in the ancient tongue of Gondolin, to "goblin cleaver", and later Gandalf rebuffs Bilbo's suggestion that the Company walk ''around'' Mirkwood instead of through it by informing him that there is a necromancer's lair to the south and to the north the Grey Mountains are "bristling with hobgoblins and orcs of large and viscous breed". LotR proper and later notes made further statements insinuating that goblins were a specific subtype of orc. Even later notes started to treat goblins and orcs like completely separate creatures, so take your pick, but the most "developed" canon leans significantly towards the "goblins are a runty orc subspecies" reading. Generally, since The Hobbit is the central foundation to his stories and it makes a point of explaining that Orcs are just larger types of Goblins, along with Lord Of The Rings having most Orcs as being not much bigger than Hobbits, Goblins are seen as around Hobbit-sized or even a bit smaller.

Goblins/Orcs have a multiplicity of origin stories from Tolkien and he never really settled on one definitively, although the most prominent one posits that they are the twisted forms of Elves tortured and beat into submission by Morgoth and Sauron. Other origins include: an Asian group of Elves stolen from their people and bred as slaves by Morgoth & Sauron, just being animals uplifted by M&S, fallen Maiar, men who were corrupted rather than Elves (or a mix of the two, with post-corruption interbreeding with humans as yet another possibility), or even just slimy rocks transformed by Morgoth's magic into living beings. Regardless of how they came about, once created they swiftly became the backbone of Sauron's armies (his other monstrous creations mostly not surviving the dwindling of magic over the passing Ages) that are heavily industrialized and produce only ugly things that cause sickness (perhaps a metaphor for wartime industry). On the subject of canon; Christopher Tolkien ultimately decided on them being Elves who were among the first group to awaken but believed Morgoth's whispers that the Valar were beings of evil and fled from them into the woods when the Valar first met the Elves to be later captured by or lured into Morgoth's power, so that's the go-to answer for the Tolkien scholars.

The notion of an entirely evil race conflicted big time with Tolkien's Catholic beliefs, so there are hints that not all Goblins and Orcs were evil, as a few passages indicate no race was wholly united for or against Morgoth; there are independent groups of Goblins in The Hobbit, and a few lines given indicate that Orcs will go to great lengths to avenge their fallen leaders, while in his notes he considered them a race capable of free-choice and thus not the "[[Always Chaotic Evil]]" inborn bloc that many later works paint them to be.

Although Tolkien did try to avoid overtly assigning any real life peoples to his fantasy races, the Goblins are very blatantly Asians with fangs and Tolkein once described them as "Mongol-types". If you want to be ''really'' charitable you could argue that alternatively, in dialect and mannerisms, [[Ork|orcs and goblins are exaggerated Cockney thugs]] or louts from urban South West England, in direct contrast to the very genteel Midland Farm Country hobbits, bumping the caricatures down a notch or two from "out-and-out racist" to "exceedingly classist and provincialist".

Orcs and Goblins are repeatedly stated by the narration to be fantastic inventors and engineers, with one of Tolkien's notes alleging that they have access to rudimentary blackpowder weaponry, but this isn’t really shown. Sure, Uruk-Hai are anachronistic in their munition armor and drilling exercises, but that's entirely thanks to being bred, trained, and outfitted by Saruman. I guess the shantytown metropolis inside the Misty Mountains is a rather impressive feat of construction, but that's really it for stuff they are seen to have actually built themselves.

=Warhammer=

{{Topquote|Gork and Mork made da Goblinz for us to kick, kill, and eat. Dey iz nothing. Dey iz less than nothing. Even dere magic iz weak an' pointless. Only use Dey got in a fight iz catchin' Humie arrows. Wiv der 'eads.|Sheglak, Orc Great Shaman}}

In early [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], Goblins were merely a shorter variety of Orcs, which were green-skinned evil humanoids who sometimes bred with humans. In fact, Warhammer Fantasy was the very first depiction of Goblins and Orcs as green-skinned, something that has since become a staple of the races in pop culture. This is mostly because they came from model ranges that GW had lost the rights to sell (e.g. Tolkien or D&D) and thus needed to quickly rebrand them as something with a veneer of uniqueness to finish selling their existing inventory. The specific choice of new complexion may have been inspired by [[Marvel Comics|The Incredible Hulk]], for like Orks he is also hugely muscled, mindlessly destructive, and originally ''grey''-skinned.

With the creation of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Goblins became [[Grots]], also called Gretchin, who like the [[Orks]] were actually a type of fungus ape. Between their legs is only two bulging spore-sacs which burst upon death and grow into new Grots/Orks in the ground. After 40k had massive success, this was ported back into Warhammer Fantasy and Goblins, along with the Orcs, became fungus men. [[Skub|Some oldschool Warhammer fans have rejected this, and the term "Orcgina" can make many on /tg/ go into flashbacks about the arguments inspired between the oldfags and newfags on the subject.]]

In both settings, Goblins/Grots are smaller greenskins who are extremely vicious but also extremely cowardly and refuse to attack something unless they outnumber it ten to one (preferably much more). Against nonthreatening foes however they enjoy torturing them, and POWs are subjected to horribly slow deaths to the chittering amusement of the tiny greenskins.

In Warhammer Fantasy, Goblins are independent of Orcs, with most living in their own separate tribes. A few even have their own gods, like the [[Forest Goblins]] who worship the [[Spider-god]]. Despite this, many Goblins also join groups with Orcs, a decision that invariably ends with either the Goblins ganging-up to bully the Orcs into doing their manual labor, or them ''getting'' bullied by sufficiently numerous and united Orcs into doing said labor.

While only the [[Black Orc]]s are capable of actually producing new goods or learning technical skills among the larger greenskins, Goblins produce many things, from chariots to giant flying ships. Of especial note is the Night Goblins; master chemists whose biology is bizarre and alien in its fungal nature even to other greenskins. Red Goblins existed in the early model ranges, as well as Bugbears and Kobolds, but they vanished as the old model ranges were replaced.

Apart from all this, the main distinction between Goblins and 40k Grots is that Goblins aren't all weak, subservient slaves - Goblins individually ''are'' pretty weedy, but they do try to deck themselves out in armor and whatnot and can even take over Orc tribes, if a cunning or vicious enough Boss arrives. Most often this will be a Shaman (for his tricks and ability to scheme) or a Night Goblin Warboss (for being fucking insane), but even a normal (AKA Plains) Goblin Warboss can be a significant threat.

In 40k, Grots have almost no freedom and are only found alongside their bigger kin. They're not the strongest, quickest, meanest, or anything-est compared to the Orks, except for being better shots and more kunnin', to the point of generally being brighter (though that's not saying much). In most cases they are at best assistants, at worst slaves and moving targets. The only exception is the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]], although that...ended badly. They fare a little better in Mek-controlled settlements where their technological know-how and small size are more in-demand. They may even be allowed to make their own tanks - small and scrappy, but dangerous at least.

In both Warhammers, all greenskins speak in a British Cockney accent, with heavy Chav mixed in for variation. Goblins were renamed to Grots in [[Age of Sigmar]].

<gallery>
Image:Bad Moon Goblins.png|Warhammer Fantasy Goblins of today.
Image:Goblin Airship.JPG|Warboss Beater Pan(ic)!
Image:Gretchinmob.jpg|Grots.
</gallery>

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

=D&D Goblins=
[[File:Goblin DMG 5e.jpg|right|300px]]

{{Topquote|Goblins are what you default to when you have no idea what the party should be fighting, because they're just so splattered all over the realm that everyone just accepts that they can show up anywhere.|JoCat, ''A Crap Guide to D&D - Goblins''}}

[[Dungeons & Dragons]] did not do anything particularly innovative with goblins. Instead, they are fairly close(ish) to their Tolkien roots - or, rather, to the simplified version of Tolkien's goblins; small, hateful, savage creatures that infest the unwanted corners of the world, constantly squabbling amongst themselves for power and occasionally spilling out to raid and terrorize the neighboring civilized lands when their numbers build up enough. Whilst Tolkien's goblins were actually quite inventive and adept at building things, since they were a combination of the two peoples that Tolkien most disliked (the Central soldiers he'd fought in WW1, and the industrialists he believed were destroying the countryside), D&D's goblins lack that trait due to [[Medieval Stasis]] - they're not as primitive as [[lizardfolk]], but are still the quintessential depiction of them as "just tribal scavengers", in contrast to goblins in some other media being "the chaotic and/or evil tinker race".

In fact, when you scratch the surface, D&D goblins may tap into the same "evil mook" basis as Tolkien's goblins, but actually are deliberately taken in different ways. Whilst originally D&D [[orc]]s & goblins are implied to have often worked together, and even interbred, by the time of [[Planescape]] the two were actually bitter enemies - the two races share the same "heaven" of [[Acheron]], where they constantly war in an attempt to drive the other race to extinction. This even persisted into 3rd edition, when the orcs' changed racial alignment of Chaotic Evil meant they shouldn't have been going to Acheron in the first place. This stands in stark contrast both to Tolkien (who initially said that "orc" and "goblin" were words in two different languages for the same race) and to other popular settings, such as [[Warhammer Fantasy]] & [[Warcraft]], where goblins tend to be a strong racial ally to orcs. Some sourcebooks, usually setting dependent, present a more nuanced portrayal of them and give them a deeper culture than that, but for the most part, D&D goblins are your standard generic cannon fodder evil mooks.

However, just like the [[orc]]s, goblins have a ''long'' history of being a potential PC race in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] - they've been playable in literally every single edition, with multiple incarnations in 3rd edition. The usual idea is to play them up as "spunky little troublemakers" - either a scrappier analogue for the [[halfling]] or a less kitschy counterpart to the [[gnome]] (or even a more high-functioning version of the [[Kender]], without the stigma). And, for what it's worth, goblin PCs are actually generally quite liked. In fact, goblins were one of the player races most requested for a formal update into 5th edition PC races. Given the second season of [[Critical Role]] features a goblin PC as a main character, in the form of Nott (a self-loathing female who wants to become a [[halfling]]), and the fact that [[Pathfinder]] goblins have such an fandom that Pathfinder 2e promotes them to a corebook race, many are expecting an eventual 6e to feature playable goblins in the PHB, just like how 4e added the [[tiefling]] and the [[dragonborn]].

The biggest exception to goblins being generic evil baddies in d&d is the Eberron
setting, where they're given a nuanced portrayal, with a deep and sophisticated culture. In [[Eberron]], "goblin" is used to refer to bugbears, hobgoblins, and goblins. They are the descendants of the once mighty continent spanning Empire of Dhakaan that collapsed because of an invasion by the [[Daelkyr]], masters of the plane of madness. The invasion was eventually beaten back by an alliance between the empire and the orc tribes called the Gatekeepers (badass men-in-black style druids who protect the world from lovecraftian horrors), but the empire fell afterwards. They're not the banal savages that you can kill guilt free in many other settings.

In the current day they are split up into three broad cultural groups (and a few splinter groups) - the smallest of the big three are The Heirs of Dhakaan, or Dar Dhakaani, which are the badass super disciplined remnants of the empire who preserved their way of life after the empire collapsed by hiding underground or in secluded mountains (thus quarantining themselves from the Plague of Silence) and would like to bring goblins back to their previous heights, especially now that they know the rest of goblinoid population is no longer contagious. The various goblin races are all equal under the Dhakaani and share a eusocial bond like ants. They specialize in different tasks - the hobgoblins are administrators and soldiers (females are usually bards), goblins are workers, scouts and spies, and the bugbears are shock troopers and heavy laborers - but if you're better at a job outside your cultural role, the empire doesn't waste talent and puts you in that job. On the darker side, Dhakaani are ''very'' xenophobic and see no place for non-goblinoids in their society (for good reason, as they could not share their eusocial bonds), at best exiling them from places they conquer, and at worst killing them all. The latter is disturbingly common, since Dar Dhakaani like to keep their existence secret to surface-dwellers and are usually quite good at it.

Then you have the Ghaal'Dar, who made up the bulk of the descendants of the collapsed empire and had to deal with the fallout. Their culture degenerated into petty barbarian tribes with a might-makes-right mentality, their eusocial bond destroyed by the daelkyr Plague of Silence. They are usually ruled by hobgoblins due to their superior ability to organize vs the other two subspecies. However, during the conflict known as The Last War they united and stole a chunk of land from the human kingdoms that they named Darguun. It's their "new goblin Homeland" and they're starting to rebuild their culture from there, but nobody thinks it will last. It's ruled by an alliance of clans with the leader, Lhesh Haruuc maintaining a delicate balance of power between them to maintain stability. He's tried to institute the rule of law and has been mostly successful, but a few clans (mostly in desolate areas where they can get away with it) only pay lip service. The country has been a success so far and their culture is slowly clawing it's way out of the dumps, but many are worried that when Haruuc dies it will all fall apart, so he is desperately looking for a competent successor. There's also an extra layer of Dar Dhakaani sending their spies, agents and entire squads of elite operatives masquerading as "Ghaal'Dar from remote holds" or even assassinating Darguun leaders and replacing them with Dar Dhakaani doubles to manipulate Darguun into becoming a seed from which Dhakaani empire could be rebuilt and indoctrinating Darguun goblins into old Dhakaani beliefs instead of tribal traditions they picked up after empire's collapse. It wouldn't be out of character for Dar Dhakaani to kidnap entire villages of Ghaal'Dar goblins to experiment on them in hope to reverse Plague of Silence effects.

The last major cultural group are the city goblins. They're the descendents of Ghaal'Dar goblinoids who weren't killed or fled when the humans conquered the continent, and were enslaved for a few thousand years. They're mostly lower g goblins, and were released from slavery about a thousand years before the current time. They're considered tax paying citizens and have all the rights (on paper) of human or [[Demihuman]] citizens of the countries they live in. However, they tend to be poor and live as second class citizens in many places due to racism and lack of opportunities, as well as objective reasons like short lifespan, meaning less time to get education for high-paying jobs compared to humans, and [[Warforged]] flooding the low-paying job market after the war and incidentally lowering wages for everyone else. The majority of them are loyal to their country of birth and consider themselves regular citizens, and they often dislike the Ghaal'Dar for commiting war crimes during the Last War and giving goblins a bad name. Most of the ones who were sympathetic to Ghaal'Dar moved to Darguun.

Goblins (like 99% of races in this setting) are not naturally evil in Eberron; they have the same range of alignments as every other sentient race. For cultural reasons they do tend towards being Lawful Neutral, but only slightly.

As a somewhat curious aside, D&D goblins are yellow (mostly) compared to the more usual goblin color of green. This trait survived even after the popularization of green Goblins in most other fantasy settings, most prominently the aforementioned Warhammer Fantasy and Warcraft. A few settings sometimes portray them as shades of grey, or the previously mentioned colors with a grey tint. They're even portrayed as red or deep orange in some artwork.

The D&D goblin has a ''huge'' family tree, to the point they even coined their own racial name; "[[goblinoid]]". The two most prominent goblin-kin are the [[bugbear]]s - large, hairy, brutish goblins that, arguably, are D&D's attempt to maintain the orcy archetype without making orcs & goblins officially related - and the [[hobgoblin]]s, who are literally Tolkien's Uruk-Hai.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Goblin ODD1.png|Original D&D
Goblin MM 1e.jpg|1e
Markessa goblins A2.png
Goblin Monster card.jpg|AD&D Monster Card
goblin MCV1.jpg|2e
Goblin MM 2e.png
goblin First Quest.jpg
Goblin slaver First Quest.jpg|They call him Baby-Face
Goblin A0-A4.png
Goblin 3e.jpg|3e
Goblin 4e.jpg|4e. The only edition with GREEN goblins!
Goblin 5e.jpg|5e
TWBTW Jingle Jangle.png|Post-Tasha's they are looking pretty [[gnome]]y
TWBTW chucklehead.png
Goblin B1.png|Pathfinder
goblin ARG 1.png
goblin ARG 2.png
Goblin SF.png|Starfinder
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
Goblin PCs first appeared, alongside many other "classic humanoids", as PCs in the Known World Gazetteer #10: The Orcs of Thar. Under the Basic system, they had the following crunch:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Goblin Ability Modifiers: -3 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", a Goblin has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", a Goblin determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtracting the result from 9.
::Goblin Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become a [[Shaman]] (8th level) and a [[Wokani]] (6th level)

{| class=wikitable
!Goblin's's level || XP Required || Goblin's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8-1
|-
|1||800||2d8-2
|-
|2||1,600||3d8-3
|-
|3||3,200||-
|-
|4||6,400||4d8-4
|-
|5||13,000||5d8-5
|-
|6||26,000||6d8-5
|-
|7||55,000||-
|-
|8||110,000||7d8-5
|-
|9||220,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||160,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

===AD&D===
Goblins went on to appear in [[The Complete Book of|The Complete Book of Humanoids]]:
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Modifiers: -1 Strength, -1 Charisma
::Ability Score Range: Strength 4/15, Dexterity 4/17, Constitution 5/16, Intelligence 3/18, Wisdom 3/18, Charisma 3/12
::Class Restrictions: [[Fighter]] 10, [[Cleric]] 9, Shaman 7, Witch Doctor 7, [[Thief]] 12
::Infravision 60 feet
::Can detect new or unusual constructions in an underground area with a 25% chance of success (1-2 on a d8).
::Goblin shamans have access to the Spheres of Divination, Reversed Healing, Protection and Reversed Sun.
::-1 Penalty to their attack rolls when in bright sunshine
::Monstrous Traits: Appearance (-2 to to reaction rolls), Bestial Habits (-2 to reaction rolls)
::Weapon Proficiencies: Axe, Military Pick, Morning Star Sling, Short Sword, Spear
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, Animal Handling, Animal Training (Worg), Begging, Chanting, Close-Quarter Fighting, Fast-Talking, Fortune Telling, Hiding, Hunting, Information Gathering, Looting, Mining, Religion, Riding (Worg), Set Snares
</div></div>

===3e Stats===
In 3rd edition, goblins appeared as an NPC race in the [[Monster Manual]] and were made fully playable in [[Forgotten Realms: Races of Faerun]]. They were reprinted without change in a few books after that.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
::Small
::Humanoid ([[Goblinoid]])
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::+4 racial bonus on Move Silently and Ride checks
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Rogue]]
</div></div>

===4e Stats===
Like in 3e, the goblin appeared as a PC class in the [[Monster Manual]] for 4th edition. However, like all such races in 4e, its statblok there was...serviceable, but underwhelming. However, one of the last sourcebooks of that edition to be published, "The Dungeon Survival Handbook", brought them back as an official race, and boy were they beefy!

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom OR +2 Charisma
::Small
::Speed 6 squares
::Low-light vision
::+2 Bluff, +2 Stealth
::Goblin Reflexes: +1 to Reflex defense.
::Racial Power - Goblin Tactics: At will, as an immediate reaction to being missed by an enemy melee attack, you can shift 1 square.
</div></div>

The biggest boost that the DSHb gave, besides the flexible mental ability score boost, was a selection of racial feats and racial utility powers, both of which really strengthened the goblin's mechanics and thematics.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the list of goblin racial traits
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
''Goblin Racial Feats:''
* Ankle Biter: +1 feat bonus per tier to damage rolls vs. creatures larger than you, +1d6 damage on critical hits against creatures larger than you.
* Desperate Goblin Tactics: When bloodied, Goblin Tactics lets you shift 3 squares.
* Goblin Feint: When you use Goblin Tactics, you gain Combat Advantage against the triggering enemy until the end of your next turn.
* Shadowcreeper: Requires [[Assassin]] class. When you use Goblin Tactics, you shift 2 squares and gain Partial Concealment until the end of your next turn.
* Sneaky Stabber: Requires [[Rogue]] class. When you deal Sneak Attack damage to an adjacent foe, reroll any damage rolls of 1 until you get a result higher than 1.
* Wrist Biter: When you use Goblin Tactics, the triggering enemy takes 1d4 damage per your character's tier before you shift.

''Goblin Racial Utility Powers:''
* Fast Filch: At-will. When adjacent to a creature granting combat advantage, as a minor action, you can make a Thievery check to pick its pocket or perform sleight of hand. Level 2.
* Leg Up: Encounter. When adjacent to a creature, as a move action, you can jump your speed horizontally or up to 10 feet vertically. Level 2.
* Little Green Lie: Encounter. If you fail a Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate check, you can re-roll the check as a free action. If it was a Diplomacy or Intimidate check, you can use your Bluff modifier instead. Level 2.
* Living Shield: Encounter. If you are hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack whilst adjacent to an ally, as an immediate interrupt, you can shift 1 square and transfer the hit to that ally. Level 6.
* Unwitting Guardian: Encounter. When adjacent to a Medium or larger creature, as a move action, you can can shift 1 square to enter the target's space, occupying it until the end of your next turn and being hidden from all creatures except the target. Level 6.
* Down and Through: Encounter. As a move action, choose a Medium or larger enemy adjacent to you and shift up to 5 squares to a different square adjacent to that creature; you can move through its space during this shift. Level 10.
</div></div>

===5e Stats===
Finally, goblins appeared as a PC race in 5th edition's Volo's Guide to Monsters. Like their fellow [[goblinoid]]s, the [[kobold]], the [[orc]] and the [[Yuan-ti]], they were officially described as "unbalanced", which has earned a lot of fan flak, as this is literally an open invitation for more close-minded DMs to refuse goblin PCs - goblin fans are still hoping that WotC will eventually put out a splatbook with a "more official" and/or balanced version of goblin PC stats. Ironically, they were better off than the poor kobold.

Hopes of a reboot were shattered when the Guildmaster's Guide to [[Ravnica]] came out in November 2018; whilst earlier [[Plane Shift]] articles had presented an alternative goblin statblock, the GGR simply reprinted the Volo's Guide stats below.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
::Small
::Speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fury of the Small: Once per short or long rest, when you inflict damage with an attack or spell on a creature larger than you, inflict bonus damage equal to your level as you attack from below, probably punching the enemy in the balls.
::Nimble Escape: You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
</div></div>

Surprisingly enough, after a second reprint in Eberron: Rising, the children’s “activity book” Adventure with Muk gave an alternative playable writeup, specifically for the Dankwood Goblins featured. All this does though is raise +1 Wis instead of +1 Con, and replaces Fury of the Small for the Forest Gnome’s Speak with Small Beasts, letting them communicate simple ideas to Small beasts and smaller. Which is nice for the utility, I guess.

As mentioned above, [[Plane Shift]] featured alternative goblin stats first - two separate versions, in fact. Whether they are better than the official versions is a matter of debate, though...

;[[Zendikar]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Constitution
::Small
::Speed 25 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Grit: You have Resistance to Fire and Psychic damage, your Unarmored AC is 11 + Dexterity modifier.
::Tribal Affinity: Choose either the Grotag Tribe (you have Proficiency in Animal Handling), the Lavastep Tribe (you have Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made in rocky or subterranean environments) or the Tuktuk Tribe (you have Proficiency with Thieves Tools).
</div></div>

;[[Ixalan]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity
::Small
::Speed 25 feet, Climb 25 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Climber: You have a Climb speed of 25 feet if you are not encumbered or wearing either medium armor or heavy armor.
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[World of Farland]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Dexterity
::Size: Small
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Goblin Proficiencies: You are proficient with the Scimitar, Shortbow, and Light Armor.
::Nimble Escape: This is basically the same as the trait of the same name from 5e canon, except this version can only be used once per short rest.
::Subrace: Choose the Urban Goblin or Subterranean Goblin.
</div></div>

''Urban Goblin''
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Urban Stealth: You have Proficiency in Stealth and apply twice your Proficiency bonus, rounded down, when making Stealth checks in Urban environments.
::Tenacious: After failing a saving throw, a skill check, or an ability check, you gain Advantage the next time that you make a save or check using that same ability score. This trait lasts until used or 24 hours have passed.
</div></div>

''Subterranean Goblin''
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Dungeon Stealth: You have Proficiency in Stealth and apply twice your Proficiency bonus, rounded down, when making Stealth checks in subterranean environments.
::Pious: You have Proficiency in the Religion skill.
::Improved Darkvision: Your Darkvision increases to 120 feet.
</div></div>

===Pathfinder===
Of course the [[Pathfinder]] ruleset included Goblins, and tweaked them up a bit from their third edition version by giving them more dexterity. By Paizo's own reckoning, this puts their overall Race Points (RP) on a par with the other PC races, so should be a viable option for players, even if it is a bit uninspired.

Pathfinder did considerably more to support Goblins as a usable race, for both players and DMs. An entire splatbook was dedicated to their place in Golarion, while they were also included in the Advanced Race Guide and had additional options in the Monster Codex, allowing for a respectable variety in race trait customisations, giving them things like bite attacks, perceptions boosts, weapon familiarity, among others; the ability to create a medium-sized goblin who is not a [[Hobgoblin]] (their secret is morbid obesity); a bunch of racial feats; and a handful of dedicated class archetypes, including [[Alchemist]]s with [[Awesome|flying mount companions]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::-2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
::Small
::Humanoid ([[Goblinoid]])
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::+4 racial bonus on Ride and Stealth checks
</div></div>

=[[Half-Goblin]]s=
Given the strong connections between goblins and [[orc]]s in some settings, particularly in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]' older editions, and the existence of [[half-orc]]s, one may ask if there's ever been any love give to half-goblins? Well, ironically, not really; though [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] claimed that [[goblinoid]]s interbred with each other and with orcs all the time, that fluff was lost after the change to 3rd edition, which wanted to try and make the two races distinct. As for goblin/human crossbreeding? Forget about it; they barely gave half-orcs any love, so you can imagine they'd be less than interested in half-goblins.

Except... there was one setting where [[goblinoid]]s took the place of orcs. In the [[Dragonlance]] setting, orcs don't exist, being replaced by goblins and [[draconian]]s, and so the half-goblin appeared there in 3.5's Races of Ansalon sourcebook. Surprisingly, they're known for both being very self-confident and assured (in fact, their Charisma penalty is described as stemming from coming across as ''too'' confident, making them seem overbearing or aggressive), in contrast to the propensity for wangsting endemic to half-orcs and half-elves in other settings, very brave (in contrast to the traditional goblin cowardice) and with a drive to be peacemakers and diplomats, rather like half-elves. Essentially, rather than bitching about being rejected by both worlds (human and goblin) or about the lack of a "true" half-goblin culture, half-goblins are near-universally driven to try and force the world to shape up and make a culture for them, by bringing goblins and humans to work together in peace. Which is actually kind of badass, and certainly a change from the norms for half-breeds. In essence, they're said to combine human ambition and drive with goblin ferocity and mob mentality.

Half-goblins are described as looking more or less like human-sized goblins; half-bugbears might be particularly hairy, and half-"common" goblins shorter than average, but still within the human stature. Although this stature can lead to them being mistaken for [[hobgoblin]]s, they apparently lack quite as many fangs and have more human-like eyes, which makes the difference obvious enough at a closer look.

=[[Magic: The Gathering]]=
{{Topquote|Goblins are eager to follow orders, especially when those orders involve stealing, hurting, annoying, eating, destroying or swearing.|''Krenko's Command'' flavour text}}

It should be no surprise that Goblins appear in Magic. Showing up in the very first set, Goblins have risen to be one of the most popular tribes in the game, and boy do they get a ton of support. They are known as the "characteristic" species of red, which means that they show up in pretty much every plane as the default red-aligned race. In fact, the number of planes in which goblins do not appear on can be counted on one hand. In general, when goblins show up, they are shown to be chaotic and unruly. They almost always have green or red skin, and travel in large groups, though this isn't always the case. On [[Ixalan]], they look more like monkeys with white fur and black skin, and tend to be individualistic. They love fire and scrapping together machines and weapons that should by no stretch of the means work, but they do. More often than not, these inventions require the sacrifice of another goblin to get it working properly.

As a tribe, goblins often have small bodies and weak frames. When they show up with high power, it's usually at the cost of toughness. They are cheap to get out onto the battlefield, cheap to search up, and attack fast. They are perfect for aggressive red strategies, and they often come with ways to dump out even more goblins out onto the field. This usually comes in the form of goblin creature tokens, but some of the most powerful goblins let you dump them straight from your hand! If you don't wipe the board, or take out the few key goblins holding the deck together, you can expect the battlefield to be swarming with the little guys, and you'll be losing fast.

Goblins aren’t always evil in MtG settings. Usually they’re more of a footnote that don’t even appear in any actual stories, and on cards they’re often portrayed as more destructive than outright evil; picture an entire race whose approach to warfare is indistinguishable from an audition for Jackass. There are occasional appearances of Goblins in less chaotic contexts such as Boros Recruit, which depicts a Goblin footman. Mirrodin offers the biggest example of a heroic Goblin, with the forest Elf main character of the first block having a companion named Slobad who was an elderly Goblin machinist.

=[[Warcraft]]=

{{Topquote|Every great goblin invention was born from necessity, bubble gum, or an accident.|Goblin adage}}

Goblins are a staple race in the Warcraft franchise. They have green skin, are very short, have long and strong fingers, long noses, large pointy ears, and sharp teeth.

In Warcraft 2, when the game expanded to more than just Humans, Orcs, Ogres, and Demons, Goblins were first mentioned. They were small mechanically-inclinded lunatics who invented great devices and were god-tier chemists. They offered their services to the Horde since it gave them more opportunities to wreak havoc and the races that would come to be those of the Alliance had ignored them for their entire history.
The Goblins mainly performed recon and VIP transport for the Horde via their Zeppelins, demolitions in the form of suicide Sapper squads, the invention of airtight missile-launching capsules that were tied to the backs of giant turtles to use as submarines, and finally experimenting on their Forest Troll allies to transform them into giant Berserkers. In secret they also helped the resident Sauron, an insane evil dragon named Deathwing, in his various endeavors. Goblins were described as insane, sadistic, and greedy for gold.

In Warcraft 3, Goblins became a neutral group. It was revealed only a small portion of the Goblin race actually worked with the Horde, while the others have always provided their services to anyone with gold to spend and after the fall of the first Horde they have enforced that their own race remain entirely neutral to all factions. They did little of importance other than provide transportation for the various power players in this time.
When the second Horde was building their capital of Durotar, a small number of Goblins lead by world famous Gazlowe provided them with fair deals (which is itself a big deal for their race) for Goblin services including demolition.

In vanilla World of Warcraft, Goblin lore expanded even further; a small number of Goblins were seen in the Alliance, some among the Horde, while it was revealed almost the entirety of their race dwell on an island called Kezan which has a massive underground city called the Undermine. The Cartels run Kezan, the most powerful of which is the Steamwheedle Cartel which performs the basic services offered in Warcraft 3. They maintain a few cities around the world including Ratchet (Gazlowe's city nearby Durotar), Booty Bay (a port which services anyone who reaches it, mainly pirates although they are just as much at threat from pirate attack), Gadgetzan (a desert city of scum and villainy, plus a small gladiatorial arena), and Everlook (a town high in the mountains of Kalimdor near by ancient magical Elf ruins).

Goblins have a racial rivalry with the other mechanically minded race, [[Gnomes]], although hostility varies from giant robot wars to having a giant racetrack where they see which race can build the best vehicles to next-door neighbors who collaborate with each other on inventions and take any opportunity to try and make the other admit their philosophy is better. In general, the Goblin philosophy is "Chemicals, 50% chance of exploding is acceptable, build it fast, what we’re really here to make is big bucks people!" while the Gnomish philosophy is "Magic and radiation, 10% chance of turning anything from your hair a different color to your entire self into a chicken is acceptable, take your time and spend decades if need be, do it all for the love of knowledge and invention".

In Cataclysm, Goblins recieved a MAJOR update as they became a player race. One of the cartels which was one of the weaker ones (having their section of Kezan entirely on the surface, mainly producing pop culture, cars, sports, and edibles) joined the Horde after Deathwing set their portion of Kezan on fire (since in the middle of a not-football game a ball was kicked and hit him). Their trade prince sold the entire Cartel into slavery after charging them all their possessions for supposedly safe passage off the island, and the ships were caught in a naval battle between the Horde and Alliance. After conquering the island, they then joined the Horde which was in the middle of becoming a fascist genocidal dictatorship again thanks to shit leaders (also, their trade prince got to keep his job despite the mess he caused). They quickly upgraded the Horde from catapults to giant robots and from bow and arrow to machineguns, then created their own new capital by completely renovating a huge chunk of the continent into the symbol of the Horde complete with a Mount Rushmore of their racial leader.
During the Kezan levels it was also revealed that Goblins have become multicultural, taking on things previously alien to them like worship of the light and shamanism (although the former is seen as a combination of medic and television evangelism, while the latter is perceived as cutting deals with nature). Kezan is very modern and has television, pop stars, sunglasses, champagne, fancy cars, neon lights, not-Chinese food, electricity and lightbulbs, and many other conveniences not seen elsewhere in the rest of the Renaissance setting outside the homeland of the Gnomes.

Goblin origins were also explained. In ancient times, Goblins were a semi-intelligent race of monkeys which were enslaved by Island Trolls and forced to mine a substance called Kajamite. Kajamite has a side-effect of causing a huge boost to intelligence (although not coherent thought) in anyone who imbibes it, and one day the Troll slavemasters entered the mines to whip their tiny laborers and were disintegrated with laser beams. Since then, the Goblins have mined Kajamite and used it as an ingredient in ingestibles of all kinds (including "Kaja-cola") although their supply was beginning to run out, and there was fear they may regress back to being mere monkeys without it. Like most Cataclysm plots, this was never brought up again, although there were hints that with the Kaja-cola that was left everywhere they go, that monkeys drinking it have started becoming intelligent as well.

Goblins in Warcraft 2 had extremely squeaky, high-pitched voices and tended to babble or shriek. In Warcraft 3 the shrillness of the voice was lessened, and they became more calm and coherent. The Goblins in World of Warcraft still have a voice that is higher-pitched than a human, although only slightly more for males while gaining something of an American Brooklyn accent. The non-Bilgewater Goblins still speak in their Brooklyn accent or a general American accent, whereas the Bilgewater Goblins speak like they're from New Jersey both in accent and expression.

<gallery>
Image:GoblinZeppelin.png|A Goblin Zeppelin pilot in Warcraft 2.
Image:GoblinSappers 2.jpg|Goblin Sappers in Warcraft 2.
Image:Goblin Sappers.jpg|Warcraft 3 Goblin Sappers.
Image:Goblin Tinker WX.png|Warcraft 3 Goblin Tinker.
Image:WoW Goblin Fem.jpg|World of Warcraft female Goblin player characters.
Image:Warcraft Goblin Player Male.jpg|World of Warcraft male Goblin player characters.
Image:GOBLINS AND GNOMES.jpg|Goblin/Gnome rivalry.
Image:Kezan.png|The Bilgewater portion of Kezan.
Image:Goblin Easter.png|Goblins are into holidays in a big way, either as a business conspiracy or over-enthusiasm.
Image:Goblin femSapper.jpg
</gallery>

=[[Goblin Slayer]]=

{{Topquote|Before the demons destroy the world, the goblins will destroy the villages. The world being in danger isn't an excuse to let the goblins live.|The slayer himself}}

[[Skarsnik|The said goblin in this manga while being a weak, tiny and barbaric humanoid is capable of many unorthodox tactics and teamwork that they could outplay and murder low level adventurers numerous times, whom the said adventurers underestimate the cunning goblins]]. They are barbaric primitives so they have to loot tools. However, they are capable of some degree of intelligence, like using signs like totems to create distractions as well as cover their weapons with urine and poisonous herbs to not only prevent adventurers from healing themselves, but also mark them with scents for goblins have an acute sense of smell. While they use mercenaries and pets such as wolves and orcs to further boost their effectiveness, the biggest contributors of their horde are their red shirt goblin goons, who are weak, small, but expendable and effective while attacking in groups. The horde is often led by a goblin mage that is capable of casting spells like fireball.

Oh, and this being Japan, they're sadists native to the moon who have only one gender and use females of other races to reproduce; given their brutal nature, it's done via rape. What the hell else would you read this shit for?

=Troll 2 Goblins=
The notorious movie Troll 2 infamously [[Irony|features no actual trolls]]<ref>Nor any connection to its purported prequel, ''Troll'' from 1986, which is a fascinatingly bad movie in itself. Troll 1 features a surprisingly strong cast and a pair of protagonists both named "[[Harry Potter]]" (Sr. and Jr.), among a great deal of other weirdness unrelated to its "sequels". Further, there have been ''two'' movies released as "Troll 3", neither of which has a [[troll]], nor much connection to either Troll 1 or 2 or each other (one purported Troll 3 features a "hobgoblin" and the other features killer trees). And then there was a semi-official sequel to Troll 2 called "Goblin 2" (Troll 2 being originally filmed under the title "Goblins") that actually featured a [[troll]] (and no actual goblins). But enough about other filmmakers' [[Pun|Trolling]] of audiences.</ref>. It instead features goblins (thus, its presence in this article), who live in the town of Nilbog ("Its Goblin backwards!"), and who, for the purposes of this movie, are vegetarian monsters who turn their human victims into plants via various potions and other concoctions. (The writer/director was an Italian with ''issues'', okay?)

That being said, the Troll 2 goblins are worth mentioning just because "vegetarian monsters who convert their prey into plants" is a fairly good line for "just how weird you can go with goblins", and also a good adventure seed that could be used for a minor [[World of Darkness]] mystery baddie.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
[[Image:Goblin_Bar_Wench.png|thumb|200px|"Hey sugar, what'll you be having? Tonight's special is already served to your table."]]

{{Topquote|You can [...] design them so unexpectedly attractive that it'll make people question if they discovered a new fetish, or if it was there all along and this was just its awakening.|JoCat, ''A Crap Guide to D&D - Goblins''}}

Traditionally, the idea of goblins being [[monstergirls]] was something of a niche, at best; most thought of them as just hideous, stupid, filthy little monsters - who would want to put their dicks in that?

Ironically, it was [[Warcraft]] that probably first sowed the seeds of female goblins being fuggable; whilst the attractiveness of female goblins in that game is contentious, people must admit that they were better-looking than the tumor-riddled, snaggle-toothed, scarred abominations that made up the canon depictions of most goblins prior to that. They were certainly attractive enough to start scoring [[Rule 34]] artwork, and this became a revelation to fa/tg/uys: that goblin-girls did ''not'' have to be fugly!

From there, goblin-girls became an underground sensation, slowly developing and evolving in the steamier underbelly of /tg/ and on /d/ (or at least its "western counterpart" /aco/) until they have become as mainstream in the /tg/ fandom as any monstergirl has a chance of being. When brought up, expect the occasional joking argument on whether it should be standard for female goblins to be referred to as "goblettes".

Because goblins vary so widely in their depictions, it shouldn't be surprising that goblin-girls likewise have been a particularly fertile ground for interpretations. There are five "mainstream" depictions of the goblin-as-monstergirl you will probably encounter on /tg/, and many different sub-forms and cross-pollinations. All depend on which of the various "goblin aspects" a creator deigns to focus on; tinker skills, short-sighted hedonism, mischievousness, propensity towards rapaciousness, and/or fertility:

* The "Pervy Tinker" archetype directly traces its roots back to Warcraft's Rule 34'd goblins: this envisions goblins as a "techy" race with a strong lewd streak, leading to them focusing their mad science skills on coming up with newer and more deviant ways of getting off. Depending on the fundamental tech level of the setting and the creator's own tastes, this can range from aphrodisiac gas grenades and crystal-powered sybians, to [[golem]]s built as living sex engines, bimbofying/transforming [[magitek]] rayguns, and vat-grown tentacle monster pets. Rule 34 interpretations of World of Warcraft lore can be counted as this, as well as rare goblins in Corruption of Champions that are mentally stable enough to keep their panties on while in a lab.
* The "Shameless Slut" archetype likewise has its roots in Warcraft goblins, vis-a-vis their canonical obsession with money, but is perhaps one of the more widely known "generic" archetypes as well. These goblins are hedonists who take a great deal of pride in their libido and their love of pleasure, integrating with the other races and usually gravitating towards roles based on "entertaining"; from barmaids to outright prostitutes. In fact, they are often depicted as actively enjoying whoring themselves out, as it ensures a steady stream of partners and profit, whilst sating their perverse and degrading sexual desires. These goblin-girls are often size-queens, specifically choosing partners based on the stature of their masculine organs. The adult comic artist Incase is fond on this archetype, and might as well have codified it with his drawings.
* The "Mischief Maker" archetype is the most innocent of the archetypes; portraying goblins as just playful, fun-loving hedonists whose greatest aims in life are pranking, partying, and making love, not necessarily in that order. This archetype is the closest to a pornified parallel of the old "civil goblins are just green-painted Halflings/Gnomes" canard, as the latter two in porn tend to also be found in whimsical depictions of normalized-sex communes. These goblins are still generally less sentimental with their "free love" compared to them, but are significantly less transactional than the Shameless variety, and derive plenty of pleasure out of teasing their paramours.
* The "Savage Slut" archetype is perhaps the oldest of the archetypes, as it owes its origins to the original interchangeability of goblin and [[orc]]. These goblins are basically sexy "savages"; wild and primal little monstergirls who live a primitive lifestyle centered on hunting, playing, and of course capturing & having sex with men. Essentially, this depicts goblins as [[shortstack]] or [[loli|"a loophole for masturbating to underage children"]] orcs. Kenkou Cross' Monster Girl Encyclopedia is squarely focused on this aspect.
* The "Breederphile" archetype is, in comparison, probably the youngest of these archetypes. These goblins are defined by their racial pregnancy fetishism, and by having bodies almost literally built to breed. Being impregnated is intensely orgasmic, pregnancy either fills them with bliss, makes them incredibly horny, or both, birth is a series of some of the most intense orgasms of their lives, and social standing revolves around how many daughters they have to boss around. {{BLAM|+++...SCANNING...+++}} {{BLAM|+++Congratulations Neophyte, you have just weathered the single worst psychic assault a slaaneshi daemon is capable of unleashing; you may now be promoted into the ranks of the [[Grey Knights]].+++}} This archetype does make some sense if you think about it: after all, as a 'cannon fodder' species for PCs, where do all the Goblins come from? Corruption of Champions might as well have pioneered this archetype.
* The "Ghetto Goblin", while not part of the "five aspects" breakdown, has a decent-sized backlog of smut and is unique enough to be worth an honorable mention. This variant of goblin-girl portrayal is native to [[Urban Fantasy]] settings. Mostly played as a watered-down mix of the "Shameless Slut" and "Breederphile" archetypes (the "water" in this case being some occasionally-awkward racial coding), Ghetto Goblins tend to be used as an attempt at a less-overtly-offensive repackaging of old "hot-blooded Latina" or "Ghetto Black Girl" racial stereotypes in that they are: sexually open, tend toward foul language and fiery tempers when angry and lewd vocalizing or body-language when aroused or teasing others, frequently dressed provocatively, and very often have a pronounced species/raceplay kink. While breeding for the Ghetto Goblin isn't usually as erotic as it is for the Breederphile, the social status of the Ghettoblin is often measured by how many offspring they have, how often they have sex, and how early they first had sex. They arouse easily, to the point that human men in their stories often need to talk Ghetto Goblins out of outright molesting them openly in public, not helped by the often-added detail of humans and goblins being very sensitive to each other's pheromones. As you can imagine, this is mostly a niche community depiction. More precisely, it was codified and achieved popularity on [[/aco/]] based almost entirely on the output of one prolific writefag.

Whilst these archetypes are certainly well known and defined, there are also two setting-specific depictions of goblin monstergirls that have achieved enough recognition to be recognizable by name; the MGE Goblin and the CoC Goblin.

The [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]] depiction of the goblin is essentially a mashup of the Mischief Maker and the Savage Slut archetypes. These primitive mamono live in tribal clusters, entertaining themselves by playing pranks on each other or the races around them, hunting game, and conducting banditry for fun, profit, and boyfriends. In appearance, they resemble pointy-eared human [[loli]]s with horns and superhuman strength, allowing them to fight with weapons that only a strong human man would normally have a chance of lifting. Simple-minded and carefree, they have no intention of giving up the lifestyle they so enjoy.

The CoC Goblin takes its name from Corruption of Champions, a [[/d/|hentai]] fantasy text adventure game that was popular on /tg/ for a while, before the fact that [[furries]] are much more willing to put money where their mouth is when it comes to getting fetishistic shit done led to the inevitable flooding of the game with [[beastfolk]] waifus and encounters and /tg/ promptly banished it. Still, before it went under, it had a significant impact on the goblin-girl arena: CoC may not have created the idea of the Breederphile archetype, but it certainly brought it to the attention of what passes for /tg/ mainstream. CoC's goblins are Breederphiles who became a pregnancy-obsessed all-female race due to succubus-corruption in their water supply. Once a brilliant race of alchemists and inventors, they have since devolved into a Savage Slut culture, living in crude tribes based on a massively curvy matriarch, her husband(s), and as many daughters as she can make who are willing to stick around - whilst goblins are fiercely competitive with each other, there is also safety in numbers, keeping them from being eaten by [[hellhound]]s or raped/beaten to death by [[minotaur]]s. Such clans are often notably inbred, for their corruption means they have little sense of objection to incest, with only the matriarch's jealous possessiveness in regards to her husband keeping her daughters at bay. They're also examples of the Pervy Tinker archetype, using what remains of their former knack for invention to create sex toys and perverse alchemical concoctions for use in subduing husbands and molding them to their liking.

One memorable goblin monstergirl is Zanik from [[RuneScape]]. Zanik is a badass female goblin adventurer who is the star of one of the game's major story arcs, wherein she helps the player save her tribe of technologically advanced goblins from a KKK-like cult of racist humans and then from an evil god of war who wants to take back control of her tribe. Fans of the game were so mad when the developers killed her off unfairly (and also gave her a graphical update that made her extra-ugly) that they later brought her back with a cuter redesign (though now fans gripe her new look is ''too'' cute, or more precisely cute''sy'').

Incidentally, one of the first modern references to a sexy Goblin monster girl may be, of all things, a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NwPJo4ysXI Frank Zappa song].

<gallery>
Image:Cute_Goblin_Adventurer.jpg
Image:Goblin_Dancer.jpg
Image:Goblin_Adventurer_1.png
Image:Goblin_Monk_1.jpg
Image:Goblin_Shamaness_1.jpg
Image:Goblin_Shamaness_2.jpg
File:MGE Goblin.jpg|When Lolis go after predators.
File:ZanikFanRedesign.jpeg|Zanik's graphical overhaul was so bad one dude decided to [[Get shit done|salvage it himself]].
</gallery>

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Image:Sneaky Goblin.gif
Image:Goblin Knight.JPG|A more "player character" variety.
Image:GreenGoblin3.jpg|Most goblins tend to [[Alchemist|throw pumpkin bombs]] and use flying crafts to annoy [[/co/|superheroes]].
</gallery>

=See also=
* [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]
* [[Unified Setting/Goblins]] Yet another take on a classic concept.
* [[Goblin Slayer]], a man with a serious beef against goblins.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx4ywmqYUw The most common reaction to Goblins]
* [[Goblinoid]], for the extended goblin family.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLLHu8qtxjg Rare footage of a Goblin ritual. Purpose unknown.]

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Kings of War]][[Category:Monsters]]
[[Category: Goblin]]

Goblin

2022-12-29T20:09:40Z

2600:1003:B134:77BB:9983:DA51:88D:75FF:

[[File:Path Gob Rat.PNG|thumb|right|300px|Brushy brushy.]]

{{Topquote|I want to have goblins about me, for I am courageous. The courage which scareth away ghosts, createth for itself goblins--it wanteth to laugh.|Friedrich Nietzsche, ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''}}

'''Goblins''' are mythological creatures of unclear origin and contradicting descriptions, but are generally agreed to be small humanoids with a mischievous nature, possibly belonging to the fey family (along with creatures such as redcaps, brownies, leprechauns, kobolds, etc).

The origin of the word "Goblin" can be traced back to the British "Gobelinus", which was the name of a demon that once caused trouble in Normandy. It has been theorized the term began with [[Kobold]], which was a German Fey spirit whose origins can be traced to one of a variety of earlier myths based in Paganism from various other cultures. Kobolds also gave their name to cobalt, due to the fact that new advances of mining in Germany during the Middle Ages allowed access to large amounts of that ore, but the mining was very dangerous, they had no idea how to smelt the metal, and it turned out to be toxic to touch, so as a result the numerous mine collapses as well as the "theft of the ore, with only poison and ash left behind" were blamed on Kobolds cursing the new metal. Either way, Goblin myths often involve mischief, mining, and chemistry.

In modern fantasy, the term "Goblin" has been very much defined by the Tolkienian conception of the word - as in a species of stunted humanoids in service to evil ("Orc" was another name for said species, with Tolkien claiming the etymology of ''that'' word as being an old English term for demon). Goblin appearance has been further shaped by both video- and boardgames, as well as various artists. They are universally smaller than humans, although the exact size varies, and often have large pointy ears (larger, wider/triangular, and more animalistic than elf ears) and either long, crooked, and pointed noses (For DnD goblins, a large or otherwise impressive nose is a sign of virility and attractiveness in a male) or orc-esque noseless features.

The basic goblin stereotype is that of a savage warrior and raider that attacks villages and ambushes unwary travelers; being one-dimensionally evil, they can be, and often are, killed without remorse in large numbers (unless you read Eberron, G:LTTE, or Terry Pratchett's Snuff). They act and move in small groups (as they don't pose a large threat by themselves but are wary enough of human reprisals to avoid mass hordes that will bestir an army to mobilize and wipe them all out), and are commonly the first true monster encounter for a young adventurer (most don't count animal culling even if said animals are unnaturally enhanced, such as the [[Giant Rat]]). Goblins tend to live in caves, swamps, or other "badlands", and gang up with orcs and similar races, with whom they are sometimes described as belonging to the same family or species. Their intelligence is usually fairly low, although among dumber and larger brutes they will be the clever ones doing the "skilled" work while the bigger ones shout orders.

A lesser but definitely competing Goblin stereotype is that they are an unusually technologically advanced and ludicrously smart/cunning race on par with if not better than [[Dwarves]], such as by creating fantasy machine guns or an entire robot army in Warcraft or Dungeon Siege, though usually with the handicap of being very blasé about construction- or even user-safety, as well as being consummate merchants; Tinker Goblins will gleefully sell or contract out to a wannabe evil conquerer, but almost never become one themselves. If you couldn’t tell from the examples given, this was really more of video game trope for a long time; goblins in tabletop were sometimes described as oddly industrious, but until recent years it never extended beyond a joke gimmick or the occasional war machine pulled right out of their green asses just to give the PCs/Good Races a hard time in a campaign/lore battle.

Because of the comedy potential, players have always liked being goblins, and they were one of the three most-popular races requested for an add-on to 5e as of a (no longer) recent survey.

[[Goblinoid]]s include a vast array of species in D&D, ranging from obscurities like the stone-skinned [[Norker]]s and the "they heal when you hit them, die if you heal them" [[Nilbog]]s to mainstays like the more organized [[Hobgoblin]]s and the big, scary, pseudo-[[orcs]] called [[Bugbear]]s.

=In /tg/ Media=
In the [[Iron Kingdoms]] and [[Magic: The Gathering]] (sometimes), goblins have a penchant for technology and love to tinker with machinery (especially steampunk contraptions and the like), somewhat propagating the "mad scientist" archetype.

In [[Kings of War]] goblins are still a source of evil comic relief. They're often suggested to have been created by the [[Celestians (Kings of War)|Celestian]] Garkhan the Black after he finished creating the orcs with "whatever was left," although where exactly they came from is a mystery. They're still engineers as in many settings, but they tend to be very short-term thinking and don't like to test things before they use them.

In [[Eberron]], goblins are quite a bit different than their usual portrayal, described in the d&d section below

In [[Pathfinder]], they're stupid little freaks with all manner of strange quirks (good singing voices, fear horses and writing, like fire and pickles), sort of a cross between Gremlins and a baby-eating Stitch. They are also very funny and (somewhat) lovable, and even have their own comic series. Surprisingly, despite being described as naturally inclined towards a mixture of [[Chaotic Stupid]] (easily distractable to the point of stopping combat ''mid-swing'' to chase a frog or pick their nose) and [[Stupid Evil]] (love of torturing anything smaller than them) behaviors, they have no mental penalties. Pathfinder also has a goblin variant called the Monkey Goblin, which is even ''stupider'' than regular goblins, but much stronger and more agile, using a rat-like prehensile tail to aid it in a life in the trees.

In [[Malifaux]], they're noseless hillbillies with very few womanfolk called Gremlins complete with straw hats, jug bands, blunderbusses, and lots of pigs. Also come in an Asian variant.

=Tolkien Goblins=
[[File:Tolkien Goblins.JPG|thumb|The most accepted origin of Goblins in the Middle Earth setting.]]

{{Topquote|Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and bad-hearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones.|J.R.R. Tolkien, ''The Hobbit''}}

Tolkien was not consistent on the relationship between goblins and orcs. Initially he said that "Goblin" was merely the halfling word for Orc, though that was swiftly contradicted. The main narrative text of <i>The Hobbit</i> contains few explicit mentions of orcs at all; it is remarked early on that the name of the sword "Orcrist" translates, in the ancient tongue of Gondolin, to "goblin cleaver", and later Gandalf rebuffs Bilbo's suggestion that the Company walk ''around'' Mirkwood instead of through it by informing him that there is a necromancer's lair to the south and to the north the Grey Mountains are "bristling with hobgoblins and orcs of large and viscous breed". LotR proper and later notes made further statements insinuating that goblins were a specific subtype of orc. Even later notes started to treat goblins and orcs like completely separate creatures, so take your pick, but the most "developed" canon leans significantly towards the "goblins are a runty orc subspecies" reading. Generally, since The Hobbit is the central foundation to his stories and it makes a point of explaining that Orcs are just larger types of Goblins, along with Lord Of The Rings having most Orcs as being not much bigger than Hobbits, Goblins are seen as around Hobbit-sized or even a bit smaller.

Goblins/Orcs have a multiplicity of origin stories from Tolkien and he never really settled on one definitively, although the most prominent one posits that they are the twisted forms of Elves tortured and beat into submission by Morgoth and Sauron. Other origins include: an Asian group of Elves stolen from their people and bred as slaves by Morgoth & Sauron, just being animals uplifted by M&S, fallen Maiar, men who were corrupted rather than Elves (or a mix of the two, with post-corruption interbreeding with humans as yet another possibility), or even just slimy rocks transformed by Morgoth's magic into living beings. Regardless of how they came about, once created they swiftly became the backbone of Sauron's armies (his other monstrous creations mostly not surviving the dwindling of magic over the passing Ages) that are heavily industrialized and produce only ugly things that cause sickness (perhaps a metaphor for wartime industry). On the subject of canon; Christopher Tolkien ultimately decided on them being Elves who were among the first group to awaken but believed Morgoth's whispers that the Valar were beings of evil and fled from them into the woods when the Valar first met the Elves to be later captured by or lured into Morgoth's power, so that's the go-to answer for the Tolkien scholars.

The notion of an entirely evil race conflicted big time with Tolkien's Catholic beliefs, so there are hints that not all Goblins and Orcs were evil, as a few passages indicate no race was wholly united for or against Morgoth; there are independent groups of Goblins in The Hobbit, and a few lines given indicate that Orcs will go to great lengths to avenge their fallen leaders, while in his notes he considered them a race capable of free-choice and thus not the "[[Always Chaotic Evil]]" inborn bloc that many later works paint them to be.

Although Tolkien did try to avoid overtly assigning any real life peoples to his fantasy races, the Goblins are very blatantly Asians with fangs and Tolkein once described them as "Mongol-types". If you want to be ''really'' charitable you could argue that alternatively, in dialect and mannerisms, [[Ork|orcs and goblins are exaggerated Cockney thugs]] or louts from urban South West England, in direct contrast to the very genteel Midland Farm Country hobbits, bumping the caricatures down a notch or two from "out-and-out racist" to "exceedingly classist and provincialist".

Orcs and Goblins are repeatedly stated by the narration to be fantastic inventors and engineers, with one of Tolkien's notes alleging that they have access to rudimentary blackpowder weaponry, but this isn’t really shown. Sure, Uruk-Hai are anachronistic in their munition armor and drilling exercises, but that's entirely thanks to being bred, trained, and outfitted by Saruman. I guess the shantytown metropolis inside the Misty Mountains is a rather impressive feat of construction, but that's really it for stuff they are seen to have actually built themselves.

=Warhammer=

{{Topquote|Gork and Mork made da Goblinz for us to kick, kill, and eat. Dey iz nothing. Dey iz less than nothing. Even dere magic iz weak an' pointless. Only use Dey got in a fight iz catchin' Humie arrows. Wiv der 'eads.|Sheglak, Orc Great Shaman}}

In early [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], Goblins were merely a shorter variety of Orcs, which were green-skinned evil humanoids who sometimes bred with humans. In fact, Warhammer Fantasy was the very first depiction of Goblins and Orcs as green-skinned, something that has since become a staple of the races in pop culture. This is mostly because they came from model ranges that GW had lost the rights to sell (e.g. Tolkien or D&D) and thus needed to quickly rebrand them as something with a veneer of uniqueness to finish selling their existing inventory. The specific choice of new complexion may have been inspired by [[Marvel Comics|The Incredible Hulk]], for like Orks he is also hugely muscled, mindlessly destructive, and originally ''grey''-skinned.

With the creation of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Goblins became [[Grots]], also called Gretchin, who like the [[Orks]] were actually a type of fungus ape. Between their legs is only two bulging spore-sacs which burst upon death and grow into new Grots/Orks in the ground. After 40k had massive success, this was ported back into Warhammer Fantasy and Goblins, along with the Orcs, became fungus men. [[Skub|Some oldschool Warhammer fans have rejected this, and the term "Orcgina" can make many on /tg/ go into flashbacks about the arguments inspired between the oldfags and newfags on the subject.]]

In both settings, Goblins/Grots are smaller greenskins who are extremely vicious but also extremely cowardly and refuse to attack something unless they outnumber it ten to one (preferably much more). Against nonthreatening foes however they enjoy torturing them, and POWs are subjected to horribly slow deaths to the chittering amusement of the tiny greenskins.

In Warhammer Fantasy, Goblins are independent of Orcs, with most living in their own separate tribes. A few even have their own gods, like the [[Forest Goblins]] who worship the [[Spider-god]]. Despite this, many Goblins also join groups with Orcs, a decision that invariably ends with either the Goblins ganging-up to bully the Orcs into doing their manual labor, or them ''getting'' bullied by sufficiently numerous and united Orcs into doing said labor.

While only the [[Black Orc]]s are capable of actually producing new goods or learning technical skills among the larger greenskins, Goblins produce many things, from chariots to giant flying ships. Of especial note is the Night Goblins; master chemists whose biology is bizarre and alien in its fungal nature even to other greenskins. Red Goblins existed in the early model ranges, as well as Bugbears and Kobolds, but they vanished as the old model ranges were replaced.

Apart from all this, the main distinction between Goblins and 40k Grots is that Goblins aren't all weak, subservient slaves - Goblins individually ''are'' pretty weedy, but they do try to deck themselves out in armor and whatnot and can even take over Orc tribes, if a cunning or vicious enough Boss arrives. Most often this will be a Shaman (for his tricks and ability to scheme) or a Night Goblin Warboss (for being fucking insane), but even a normal (AKA Plains) Goblin Warboss can be a significant threat.

In 40k, Grots have almost no freedom and are only found alongside their bigger kin. They're not the strongest, quickest, meanest, or anything-est compared to the Orks, except for being better shots and more kunnin', to the point of generally being brighter (though that's not saying much). In most cases they are at best assistants, at worst slaves and moving targets. The only exception is the [[Gretchin Revolutionary Committee]], although that...ended badly. They fare a little better in Mek-controlled settlements where their technological know-how and small size are more in-demand. They may even be allowed to make their own tanks - small and scrappy, but dangerous at least.

In both Warhammers, all greenskins speak in a British Cockney accent, with heavy Chav mixed in for variation. Goblins were renamed to Grots in [[Age of Sigmar]].

<gallery>
Image:Bad Moon Goblins.png|Warhammer Fantasy Goblins of today.
Image:Goblin Airship.JPG|Warboss Beater Pan(ic)!
Image:Gretchinmob.jpg|Grots.
</gallery>

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

=D&D Goblins=
[[File:Goblin DMG 5e.jpg|right|300px]]

{{Topquote|Goblins are what you default to when you have no idea what the party should be fighting, because they're just so splattered all over the realm that everyone just accepts that they can show up anywhere.|JoCat, ''A Crap Guide to D&D - Goblins''}}

[[Dungeons & Dragons]] did not do anything particularly innovative with goblins. Instead, they are fairly close(ish) to their Tolkien roots - or, rather, to the simplified version of Tolkien's goblins; small, hateful, savage creatures that infest the unwanted corners of the world, constantly squabbling amongst themselves for power and occasionally spilling out to raid and terrorize the neighboring civilized lands when their numbers build up enough. Whilst Tolkien's goblins were actually quite inventive and adept at building things, since they were a combination of the two peoples that Tolkien most disliked (the Central soldiers he'd fought in WW1, and the industrialists he believed were destroying the countryside), D&D's goblins lack that trait due to [[Medieval Stasis]] - they're not as primitive as [[lizardfolk]], but are still the quintessential depiction of them as "just tribal scavengers", in contrast to goblins in some other media being "the chaotic and/or evil tinker race".

In fact, when you scratch the surface, D&D goblins may tap into the same "evil mook" basis as Tolkien's goblins, but actually are deliberately taken in different ways. Whilst originally D&D [[orc]]s & goblins are implied to have often worked together, and even interbred, by the time of [[Planescape]] the two were actually bitter enemies - the two races share the same "heaven" of [[Acheron]], where they constantly war in an attempt to drive the other race to extinction. This even persisted into 3rd edition, when the orcs' changed racial alignment of Chaotic Evil meant they shouldn't have been going to Acheron in the first place. This stands in stark contrast both to Tolkien (who initially said that "orc" and "goblin" were words in two different languages for the same race) and to other popular settings, such as [[Warhammer Fantasy]] & [[Warcraft]], where goblins tend to be a strong racial ally to orcs. Some sourcebooks, usually setting dependent, present a more nuanced portrayal of them and give them a deeper culture than that, but for the most part, D&D goblins are your standard generic cannon fodder evil mooks.

However, just like the [[orc]]s, goblins have a ''long'' history of being a potential PC race in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] - they've been playable in literally every single edition, with multiple incarnations in 3rd edition. The usual idea is to play them up as "spunky little troublemakers" - either a scrappier analogue for the [[halfling]] or a less kitschy counterpart to the [[gnome]] (or even a more high-functioning version of the [[Kender]], without the stigma). And, for what it's worth, goblin PCs are actually generally quite liked. In fact, goblins were one of the player races most requested for a formal update into 5th edition PC races. Given the second season of [[Critical Role]] features a goblin PC as a main character, in the form of Nott (a self-loathing female who wants to become a [[halfling]]), and the fact that [[Pathfinder]] goblins have such an fandom that Pathfinder 2e promotes them to a corebook race, many are expecting an eventual 6e to feature playable goblins in the PHB, just like how 4e added the [[tiefling]] and the [[dragonborn]].

The biggest exception to goblins being generic evil baddies in d&d is the Eberron
setting, where they're given a nuanced portrayal, with a deep and sophisticated culture. In [[Eberron]], "goblin" is used to refer to bugbears, hobgoblins, and goblins. They are the descendants of the once mighty continent spanning Empire of Dhakaan that collapsed because of an invasion by the [[Daelkyr]], masters of the plane of madness. The invasion was eventually beaten back by an alliance between the empire and the orc tribes called the Gatekeepers (badass men-in-black style druids who protect the world from lovecraftian horrors), but the empire fell afterwards. They're not the banal savages that you can kill guilt free in many other settings.

In the current day they are split up into three broad cultural groups (and a few splinter groups) - the smallest of the big three are The Heirs of Dhakaan, or Dar Dhakaani, which are the badass super disciplined remnants of the empire who preserved their way of life after the empire collapsed by hiding underground or in secluded mountains (thus quarantining themselves from the Plague of Silence) and would like to bring goblins back to their previous heights, especially now that they know the rest of goblinoid population is no longer contagious. The various goblin races are all equal under the Dhakaani and share a eusocial bond like ants. They specialize in different tasks - the hobgoblins are administrators and soldiers (females are usually bards), goblins are workers, scouts and spies, and the bugbears are shock troopers and heavy laborers - but if you're better at a job outside your cultural role, the empire doesn't waste talent and puts you in that job. On the darker side, Dhakaani are ''very'' xenophobic and see no place for non-goblinoids in their society (for good reason, as they could not share their eusocial bonds), at best exiling them from places they conquer, and at worst killing them all. The latter is disturbingly common, since Dar Dhakaani like to keep their existence secret to surface-dwellers and are usually quite good at it.

Then you have the Ghaal'Dar, who made up the bulk of the descendants of the collapsed empire and had to deal with the fallout. Their culture degenerated into petty barbarian tribes with a might-makes-right mentality, their eusocial bond destroyed by the daelkyr Plague of Silence. They are usually ruled by hobgoblins due to their superior ability to organize vs the other two subspecies. However, during the conflict known as The Last War they united and stole a chunk of land from the human kingdoms that they named Darguun. It's their "new goblin Homeland" and they're starting to rebuild their culture from there, but nobody thinks it will last. It's ruled by an alliance of clans with the leader, Lhesh Haruuc maintaining a delicate balance of power between them to maintain stability. He's tried to institute the rule of law and has been mostly successful, but a few clans (mostly in desolate areas where they can get away with it) only pay lip service. The country has been a success so far and their culture is slowly clawing it's way out of the dumps, but many are worried that when Haruuc dies it will all fall apart, so he is desperately looking for a competent successor. There's also an extra layer of Dar Dhakaani sending their spies, agents and entire squads of elite operatives masquerading as "Ghaal'Dar from remote holds" or even assassinating Darguun leaders and replacing them with Dar Dhakaani doubles to manipulate Darguun into becoming a seed from which Dhakaani empire could be rebuilt and indoctrinating Darguun goblins into old Dhakaani beliefs instead of tribal traditions they picked up after empire's collapse. It wouldn't be out of character for Dar Dhakaani to kidnap entire villages of Ghaal'Dar goblins to experiment on them in hope to reverse Plague of Silence effects.

The last major cultural group are the city goblins. They're the descendents of Ghaal'Dar goblinoids who weren't killed or fled when the humans conquered the continent, and were enslaved for a few thousand years. They're mostly lower g goblins, and were released from slavery about a thousand years before the current time. They're considered tax paying citizens and have all the rights (on paper) of human or [[Demihuman]] citizens of the countries they live in. However, they tend to be poor and live as second class citizens in many places due to racism and lack of opportunities, as well as objective reasons like short lifespan, meaning less time to get education for high-paying jobs compared to humans, and [[Warforged]] flooding the low-paying job market after the war and incidentally lowering wages for everyone else. The majority of them are loyal to their country of birth and consider themselves regular citizens, and they often dislike the Ghaal'Dar for commiting war crimes during the Last War and giving goblins a bad name. Most of the ones who were sympathetic to Ghaal'Dar moved to Darguun.

Goblins (like 99% of races in this setting) are not naturally evil in Eberron; they have the same range of alignments as every other sentient race. For cultural reasons they do tend towards being Lawful Neutral, but only slightly.

As a somewhat curious aside, D&D goblins are yellow (mostly) compared to the more usual goblin color of green. This trait survived even after the popularization of green Goblins in most other fantasy settings, most prominently the aforementioned Warhammer Fantasy and Warcraft. A few settings sometimes portray them as shades of grey, or the previously mentioned colors with a grey tint. They're even portrayed as red or deep orange in some artwork.

The D&D goblin has a ''huge'' family tree, to the point they even coined their own racial name; "[[goblinoid]]". The two most prominent goblin-kin are the [[bugbear]]s - large, hairy, brutish goblins that, arguably, are D&D's attempt to maintain the orcy archetype without making orcs & goblins officially related - and the [[hobgoblin]]s, who are literally Tolkien's Uruk-Hai.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Goblin ODD1.png|Original D&D
Goblin MM 1e.jpg|1e
Markessa goblins A2.png
Goblin Monster card.jpg|AD&D Monster Card
goblin MCV1.jpg|2e
Goblin MM 2e.png
goblin First Quest.jpg
Goblin slaver First Quest.jpg|They call him Baby-Face
Goblin A0-A4.png
Goblin 3e.jpg|3e
Goblin 4e.jpg|4e. The only edition with GREEN goblins!
Goblin 5e.jpg|5e
TWBTW Jingle Jangle.png|Post-Tasha's they are looking pretty [[gnome]]y
TWBTW chucklehead.png
Goblin B1.png|Pathfinder
goblin ARG 1.png
goblin ARG 2.png
Goblin SF.png|Starfinder
</gallery>

==PC Stats==
===BECMI===
Goblin PCs first appeared, alongside many other "classic humanoids", as PCs in the Known World Gazetteer #10: The Orcs of Thar. Under the Basic system, they had the following crunch:

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Goblin Ability Modifiers: -3 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", a Goblin has racial ability score caps of 18 in all scores bar [[Intelligence]] and [[Wisdom]], which are capped at 16.
::Note: Like all Humanoids from "The Orcs of Thar", a Goblin determines its [[Charisma]] score for interacting with [[human]]s and [[demihuman]]s by dividing its Charisma score by 3 (rounding down) and subtracting the result from 9.
::Goblin Natural Armor Class: 8
::Can become a [[Shaman]] (8th level) and a [[Wokani]] (6th level)

{| class=wikitable
!Goblin's's level || XP Required || Goblin's hit dice
|-
|0||0||d8-1
|-
|1||800||2d8-2
|-
|2||1,600||3d8-3
|-
|3||3,200||-
|-
|4||6,400||4d8-4
|-
|5||13,000||5d8-5
|-
|6||26,000||6d8-5
|-
|7||55,000||-
|-
|8||110,000||7d8-5
|-
|9||220,000||+2 Hit Points
|-
|Subsequent||160,000||+2 Hit Points
|}
</div></div>

===AD&D===
Goblins went on to appear in [[The Complete Book of|The Complete Book of Humanoids]]:
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Modifiers: -1 Strength, -1 Charisma
::Ability Score Range: Strength 4/15, Dexterity 4/17, Constitution 5/16, Intelligence 3/18, Wisdom 3/18, Charisma 3/12
::Class Restrictions: [[Fighter]] 10, [[Cleric]] 9, Shaman 7, Witch Doctor 7, [[Thief]] 12
::Infravision 60 feet
::Can detect new or unusual constructions in an underground area with a 25% chance of success (1-2 on a d8).
::Goblin shamans have access to the Spheres of Divination, Reversed Healing, Protection and Reversed Sun.
::-1 Penalty to their attack rolls when in bright sunshine
::Monstrous Traits: Appearance (-2 to to reaction rolls), Bestial Habits (-2 to reaction rolls)
::Weapon Proficiencies: Axe, Military Pick, Morning Star Sling, Short Sword, Spear
::Nonweapon Proficiencies: Alertness, Animal Handling, Animal Training (Worg), Begging, Chanting, Close-Quarter Fighting, Fast-Talking, Fortune Telling, Hiding, Hunting, Information Gathering, Looting, Mining, Religion, Riding (Worg), Set Snares
</div></div>

===3e Stats===
In 3rd edition, goblins appeared as an NPC race in the [[Monster Manual]] and were made fully playable in [[Forgotten Realms: Races of Faerun]]. They were reprinted without change in a few books after that.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::-2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
::Small
::Humanoid ([[Goblinoid]])
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::+4 racial bonus on Move Silently and Ride checks
::[[Favored Class]]: [[Rogue]]
</div></div>

===4e Stats===
Like in 3e, the goblin appeared as a PC class in the [[Monster Manual]] for 4th edition. However, like all such races in 4e, its statblok there was...serviceable, but underwhelming. However, one of the last sourcebooks of that edition to be published, "The Dungeon Survival Handbook", brought them back as an official race, and boy were they beefy!

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom OR +2 Charisma
::Small
::Speed 6 squares
::Low-light vision
::+2 Bluff, +2 Stealth
::Goblin Reflexes: +1 to Reflex defense.
::Racial Power - Goblin Tactics: At will, as an immediate reaction to being missed by an enemy melee attack, you can shift 1 square.
</div></div>

The biggest boost that the DSHb gave, besides the flexible mental ability score boost, was a selection of racial feats and racial utility powers, both of which really strengthened the goblin's mechanics and thematics.

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the list of goblin racial traits
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
''Goblin Racial Feats:''
* Ankle Biter: +1 feat bonus per tier to damage rolls vs. creatures larger than you, +1d6 damage on critical hits against creatures larger than you.
* Desperate Goblin Tactics: When bloodied, Goblin Tactics lets you shift 3 squares.
* Goblin Feint: When you use Goblin Tactics, you gain Combat Advantage against the triggering enemy until the end of your next turn.
* Shadowcreeper: Requires [[Assassin]] class. When you use Goblin Tactics, you shift 2 squares and gain Partial Concealment until the end of your next turn.
* Sneaky Stabber: Requires [[Rogue]] class. When you deal Sneak Attack damage to an adjacent foe, reroll any damage rolls of 1 until you get a result higher than 1.
* Wrist Biter: When you use Goblin Tactics, the triggering enemy takes 1d4 damage per your character's tier before you shift.

''Goblin Racial Utility Powers:''
* Fast Filch: At-will. When adjacent to a creature granting combat advantage, as a minor action, you can make a Thievery check to pick its pocket or perform sleight of hand. Level 2.
* Leg Up: Encounter. When adjacent to a creature, as a move action, you can jump your speed horizontally or up to 10 feet vertically. Level 2.
* Little Green Lie: Encounter. If you fail a Bluff, Diplomacy or Intimidate check, you can re-roll the check as a free action. If it was a Diplomacy or Intimidate check, you can use your Bluff modifier instead. Level 2.
* Living Shield: Encounter. If you are hit by an enemy melee or ranged attack whilst adjacent to an ally, as an immediate interrupt, you can shift 1 square and transfer the hit to that ally. Level 6.
* Unwitting Guardian: Encounter. When adjacent to a Medium or larger creature, as a move action, you can can shift 1 square to enter the target's space, occupying it until the end of your next turn and being hidden from all creatures except the target. Level 6.
* Down and Through: Encounter. As a move action, choose a Medium or larger enemy adjacent to you and shift up to 5 squares to a different square adjacent to that creature; you can move through its space during this shift. Level 10.
</div></div>

===5e Stats===
Finally, goblins appeared as a PC race in 5th edition's Volo's Guide to Monsters. Like their fellow [[goblinoid]]s, the [[kobold]], the [[orc]] and the [[Yuan-ti]], they were officially described as "unbalanced", which has earned a lot of fan flak, as this is literally an open invitation for more close-minded DMs to refuse goblin PCs - goblin fans are still hoping that WotC will eventually put out a splatbook with a "more official" and/or balanced version of goblin PC stats. Ironically, they were better off than the poor kobold.

Hopes of a reboot were shattered when the Guildmaster's Guide to [[Ravnica]] came out in November 2018; whilst earlier [[Plane Shift]] articles had presented an alternative goblin statblock, the GGR simply reprinted the Volo's Guide stats below.

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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
::Small
::Speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Fury of the Small: Once per short or long rest, when you inflict damage with an attack or spell on a creature larger than you, inflict bonus damage equal to your level as you attack from below, probably punching the enemy in the balls.
::Nimble Escape: You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
</div></div>

Surprisingly enough, after a second reprint in Eberron: Rising, the children’s “activity book” Adventure with Muk gave an alternative playable writeup, specifically for the Dankwood Goblins featured. All this does though is raise +1 Wis instead of +1 Con, and replaces Fury of the Small for the Forest Gnome’s Speak with Small Beasts, letting them communicate simple ideas to Small beasts and smaller. Which is nice for the utility, I guess.

As mentioned above, [[Plane Shift]] featured alternative goblin stats first - two separate versions, in fact. Whether they are better than the official versions is a matter of debate, though...

;[[Zendikar]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Constitution
::Small
::Speed 25 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Grit: You have Resistance to Fire and Psychic damage, your Unarmored AC is 11 + Dexterity modifier.
::Tribal Affinity: Choose either the Grotag Tribe (you have Proficiency in Animal Handling), the Lavastep Tribe (you have Advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made in rocky or subterranean environments) or the Tuktuk Tribe (you have Proficiency with Thieves Tools).
</div></div>

;[[Ixalan]]
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::+2 Dexterity
::Small
::Speed 25 feet, Climb 25 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Climber: You have a Climb speed of 25 feet if you are not encumbered or wearing either medium armor or heavy armor.
</div></div>

====3rd Party Settings====
;[[World of Farland]]
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Dexterity
::Size: Small
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Goblin Proficiencies: You are proficient with the Scimitar, Shortbow, and Light Armor.
::Nimble Escape: This is basically the same as the trait of the same name from 5e canon, except this version can only be used once per short rest.
::Subrace: Choose the Urban Goblin or Subterranean Goblin.
</div></div>

''Urban Goblin''
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Constitution
::Urban Stealth: You have Proficiency in Stealth and apply twice your Proficiency bonus, rounded down, when making Stealth checks in Urban environments.
::Tenacious: After failing a saving throw, a skill check, or an ability check, you gain Advantage the next time that you make a save or check using that same ability score. This trait lasts until used or 24 hours have passed.
</div></div>

''Subterranean Goblin''
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the statblock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::Ability Score Increase: +1 Wisdom
::Dungeon Stealth: You have Proficiency in Stealth and apply twice your Proficiency bonus, rounded down, when making Stealth checks in subterranean environments.
::Pious: You have Proficiency in the Religion skill.
::Improved Darkvision: Your Darkvision increases to 120 feet.
</div></div>

===Pathfinder===
Of course the [[Pathfinder]] ruleset included Goblins, and tweaked them up a bit from their third edition version by giving them more dexterity. By Paizo's own reckoning, this puts their overall Race Points (RP) on a par with the other PC races, so should be a viable option for players, even if it is a bit uninspired.

Pathfinder did considerably more to support Goblins as a usable race, for both players and DMs. An entire splatbook was dedicated to their place in Golarion, while they were also included in the Advanced Race Guide and had additional options in the Monster Codex, allowing for a respectable variety in race trait customisations, giving them things like bite attacks, perceptions boosts, weapon familiarity, among others; the ability to create a medium-sized goblin who is not a [[Hobgoblin]] (their secret is morbid obesity); a bunch of racial feats; and a handful of dedicated class archetypes, including [[Alchemist]]s with [[Awesome|flying mount companions]].

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%"> Click "Expand" to see the stablock.
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
::-2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
::Small
::Humanoid ([[Goblinoid]])
::Base speed 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::+4 racial bonus on Ride and Stealth checks
</div></div>

=[[Half-Goblin]]s=
Given the strong connections between goblins and [[orc]]s in some settings, particularly in [[Dungeons & Dragons]]' older editions, and the existence of [[half-orc]]s, one may ask if there's ever been any love give to half-goblins? Well, ironically, not really; though [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] claimed that [[goblinoid]]s interbred with each other and with orcs all the time, that fluff was lost after the change to 3rd edition, which wanted to try and make the two races distinct. As for goblin/human crossbreeding? Forget about it; they barely gave half-orcs any love, so you can imagine they'd be less than interested in half-goblins.

Except... there was one setting where [[goblinoid]]s took the place of orcs. In the [[Dragonlance]] setting, orcs don't exist, being replaced by goblins and [[draconian]]s, and so the half-goblin appeared there in 3.5's Races of Ansalon sourcebook. Surprisingly, they're known for both being very self-confident and assured (in fact, their Charisma penalty is described as stemming from coming across as ''too'' confident, making them seem overbearing or aggressive), in contrast to the propensity for wangsting endemic to half-orcs and half-elves in other settings, very brave (in contrast to the traditional goblin cowardice) and with a drive to be peacemakers and diplomats, rather like half-elves. Essentially, rather than bitching about being rejected by both worlds (human and goblin) or about the lack of a "true" half-goblin culture, half-goblins are near-universally driven to try and force the world to shape up and make a culture for them, by bringing goblins and humans to work together in peace. Which is actually kind of badass, and certainly a change from the norms for half-breeds. In essence, they're said to combine human ambition and drive with goblin ferocity and mob mentality.

Half-goblins are described as looking more or less like human-sized goblins; half-bugbears might be particularly hairy, and half-"common" goblins shorter than average, but still within the human stature. Although this stature can lead to them being mistaken for [[hobgoblin]]s, they apparently lack quite as many fangs and have more human-like eyes, which makes the difference obvious enough at a closer look.

=[[Magic: The Gathering]]=
{{Topquote|Goblins are eager to follow orders, especially when those orders involve stealing, hurting, annoying, eating, destroying or swearing.|''Krenko's Command'' flavour text}}

It should be no surprise that Goblins appear in Magic. Showing up in the very first set, Goblins have risen to be one of the most popular tribes in the game, and boy do they get a ton of support. They are known as the "characteristic" species of red, which means that they show up in pretty much every plane as the default red-aligned race. In fact, the number of planes in which goblins do not appear on can be counted on one hand. In general, when goblins show up, they are shown to be chaotic and unruly. They almost always have green or red skin, and travel in large groups, though this isn't always the case. On [[Ixalan]], they look more like monkeys with white fur and black skin, and tend to be individualistic. They love fire and scrapping together machines and weapons that should by no stretch of the means work, but they do. More often than not, these inventions require the sacrifice of another goblin to get it working properly.

As a tribe, goblins often have small bodies and weak frames. When they show up with high power, it's usually at the cost of toughness. They are cheap to get out onto the battlefield, cheap to search up, and attack fast. They are perfect for aggressive red strategies, and they often come with ways to dump out even more goblins out onto the field. This usually comes in the form of goblin creature tokens, but some of the most powerful goblins let you dump them straight from your hand! If you don't wipe the board, or take out the few key goblins holding the deck together, you can expect the battlefield to be swarming with the little guys, and you'll be losing fast.

Goblins aren’t always evil in MtG settings. Usually they’re more of a footnote that don’t even appear in any actual stories, and on cards they’re often portrayed as more destructive than outright evil; picture an entire race whose approach to warfare is indistinguishable from an audition for Jackass. There are occasional appearances of Goblins in less chaotic contexts such as Boros Recruit, which depicts a Goblin footman. Mirrodin offers the biggest example of a heroic Goblin, with the forest Elf main character of the first block having a companion named Slobad who was an elderly Goblin machinist.

=[[Warcraft]]=

{{Topquote|Every great goblin invention was born from necessity, bubble gum, or an accident.|Goblin adage}}

Goblins are a staple race in the Warcraft franchise. They have green skin, are very short, have long and strong fingers, long noses, large pointy ears, and sharp teeth.

In Warcraft 2, when the game expanded to more than just Humans, Orcs, Ogres, and Demons, Goblins were first mentioned. They were small mechanically-inclinded lunatics who invented great devices and were god-tier chemists. They offered their services to the Horde since it gave them more opportunities to wreak havoc and the races that would come to be those of the Alliance had ignored them for their entire history.
The Goblins mainly performed recon and VIP transport for the Horde via their Zeppelins, demolitions in the form of suicide Sapper squads, the invention of airtight missile-launching capsules that were tied to the backs of giant turtles to use as submarines, and finally experimenting on their Forest Troll allies to transform them into giant Berserkers. In secret they also helped the resident Sauron, an insane evil dragon named Deathwing, in his various endeavors. Goblins were described as insane, sadistic, and greedy for gold.

In Warcraft 3, Goblins became a neutral group. It was revealed only a small portion of the Goblin race actually worked with the Horde, while the others have always provided their services to anyone with gold to spend and after the fall of the first Horde they have enforced that their own race remain entirely neutral to all factions. They did little of importance other than provide transportation for the various power players in this time.
When the second Horde was building their capital of Durotar, a small number of Goblins lead by world famous Gazlowe provided them with fair deals (which is itself a big deal for their race) for Goblin services including demolition.

In vanilla World of Warcraft, Goblin lore expanded even further; a small number of Goblins were seen in the Alliance, some among the Horde, while it was revealed almost the entirety of their race dwell on an island called Kezan which has a massive underground city called the Undermine. The Cartels run Kezan, the most powerful of which is the Steamwheedle Cartel which performs the basic services offered in Warcraft 3. They maintain a few cities around the world including Ratchet (Gazlowe's city nearby Durotar), Booty Bay (a port which services anyone who reaches it, mainly pirates although they are just as much at threat from pirate attack), Gadgetzan (a desert city of scum and villainy, plus a small gladiatorial arena), and Everlook (a town high in the mountains of Kalimdor near by ancient magical Elf ruins).

Goblins have a racial rivalry with the other mechanically minded race, [[Gnomes]], although hostility varies from giant robot wars to having a giant racetrack where they see which race can build the best vehicles to next-door neighbors who collaborate with each other on inventions and take any opportunity to try and make the other admit their philosophy is better. In general, the Goblin philosophy is "Chemicals, 50% chance of exploding is acceptable, build it fast, what we’re really here to make is big bucks people!" while the Gnomish philosophy is "Magic and radiation, 10% chance of turning anything from your hair a different color to your entire self into a chicken is acceptable, take your time and spend decades if need be, do it all for the love of knowledge and invention".

In Cataclysm, Goblins recieved a MAJOR update as they became a player race. One of the cartels which was one of the weaker ones (having their section of Kezan entirely on the surface, mainly producing pop culture, cars, sports, and edibles) joined the Horde after Deathwing set their portion of Kezan on fire (since in the middle of a not-football game a ball was kicked and hit him). Their trade prince sold the entire Cartel into slavery after charging them all their possessions for supposedly safe passage off the island, and the ships were caught in a naval battle between the Horde and Alliance. After conquering the island, they then joined the Horde which was in the middle of becoming a fascist genocidal dictatorship again thanks to shit leaders (also, their trade prince got to keep his job despite the mess he caused). They quickly upgraded the Horde from catapults to giant robots and from bow and arrow to machineguns, then created their own new capital by completely renovating a huge chunk of the continent into the symbol of the Horde complete with a Mount Rushmore of their racial leader.
During the Kezan levels it was also revealed that Goblins have become multicultural, taking on things previously alien to them like worship of the light and shamanism (although the former is seen as a combination of medic and television evangelism, while the latter is perceived as cutting deals with nature). Kezan is very modern and has television, pop stars, sunglasses, champagne, fancy cars, neon lights, not-Chinese food, electricity and lightbulbs, and many other conveniences not seen elsewhere in the rest of the Renaissance setting outside the homeland of the Gnomes.

Goblin origins were also explained. In ancient times, Goblins were a semi-intelligent race of monkeys which were enslaved by Island Trolls and forced to mine a substance called Kajamite. Kajamite has a side-effect of causing a huge boost to intelligence (although not coherent thought) in anyone who imbibes it, and one day the Troll slavemasters entered the mines to whip their tiny laborers and were disintegrated with laser beams. Since then, the Goblins have mined Kajamite and used it as an ingredient in ingestibles of all kinds (including "Kaja-cola") although their supply was beginning to run out, and there was fear they may regress back to being mere monkeys without it. Like most Cataclysm plots, this was never brought up again, although there were hints that with the Kaja-cola that was left everywhere they go, that monkeys drinking it have started becoming intelligent as well.

Goblins in Warcraft 2 had extremely squeaky, high-pitched voices and tended to babble or shriek. In Warcraft 3 the shrillness of the voice was lessened, and they became more calm and coherent. The Goblins in World of Warcraft still have a voice that is higher-pitched than a human, although only slightly more for males while gaining something of an American Brooklyn accent. The non-Bilgewater Goblins still speak in their Brooklyn accent or a general American accent, whereas the Bilgewater Goblins speak like they're from New Jersey both in accent and expression.

<gallery>
Image:GoblinZeppelin.png|A Goblin Zeppelin pilot in Warcraft 2.
Image:GoblinSappers 2.jpg|Goblin Sappers in Warcraft 2.
Image:Goblin Sappers.jpg|Warcraft 3 Goblin Sappers.
Image:Goblin Tinker WX.png|Warcraft 3 Goblin Tinker.
Image:WoW Goblin Fem.jpg|World of Warcraft female Goblin player characters.
Image:Warcraft Goblin Player Male.jpg|World of Warcraft male Goblin player characters.
Image:GOBLINS AND GNOMES.jpg|Goblin/Gnome rivalry.
Image:Kezan.png|The Bilgewater portion of Kezan.
Image:Goblin Easter.png|Goblins are into holidays in a big way, either as a business conspiracy or over-enthusiasm.
Image:Goblin femSapper.jpg
</gallery>

=[[Goblin Slayer]]=

{{Topquote|Before the demons destroy the world, the goblins will destroy the villages. The world being in danger isn't an excuse to let the goblins live.|The slayer himself}}

[[Skarsnik|The said goblin in this manga while being a weak, tiny and barbaric humanoid is capable of many unorthodox tactics and teamwork that they could outplay and murder low level adventurers numerous times, whom the said adventurers underestimate the cunning goblins]]. They are barbaric primitives so they have to loot tools. However, they are capable of some degree of intelligence, like using signs like totems to create distractions as well as cover their weapons with urine and poisonous herbs to not only prevent adventurers from healing themselves, but also mark them with scents for goblins have an acute sense of smell. While they use mercenaries and pets such as wolves and orcs to further boost their effectiveness, the biggest contributors of their horde are their red shirt goblin goons, who are weak, small, but expendable and effective while attacking in groups. The horde is often led by a goblin mage that is capable of casting spells like fireball.

Oh, and this being Japan, they're sadists native to the moon who have only one gender and use females of other races to reproduce; given their brutal nature, it's done via rape. What the hell else would you read this shit for?

=Troll 2 Goblins=
The notorious movie Troll 2 infamously [[Irony|features no actual trolls]]<ref>Nor any connection to its purported prequel, ''Troll'' from 1986, which is a fascinatingly bad movie in itself. Troll 1 features a surprisingly strong cast and a pair of protagonists both named "[[Harry Potter]]" (Sr. and Jr.), among a great deal of other weirdness unrelated to its "sequels". Further, there have been ''two'' movies released as "Troll 3", neither of which has a [[troll]], nor much connection to either Troll 1 or 2 or each other (one purported Troll 3 features a "hobgoblin" and the other features killer trees). And then there was a semi-official sequel to Troll 2 called "Goblin 2" (Troll 2 being originally filmed under the title "Goblins") that actually featured a [[troll]] (and no actual goblins). But enough about other filmmakers' [[Pun|Trolling]] of audiences.</ref>. It instead features goblins (thus, its presence in this article), who live in the town of Nilbog ("Its Goblin backwards!"), and who, for the purposes of this movie, are vegetarian monsters who turn their human victims into plants via various potions and other concoctions. (The writer/director was an Italian with ''issues'', okay?)

That being said, the Troll 2 goblins are worth mentioning just because "vegetarian monsters who convert their prey into plants" is a fairly good line for "just how weird you can go with goblins", and also a good adventure seed that could be used for a minor [[World of Darkness]] mystery baddie.

=Monstergirl Depictions=
{{Monstergirls}}
[[Image:Goblin_Bar_Wench.png|thumb|200px|"Hey sugar, what'll you be having? Tonight's special is already served to your table."]]

{{Topquote|You can [...] design them so unexpectedly attractive that it'll make people question if they discovered a new fetish, or if it was there all along and this was just its awakening.|JoCat, ''A Crap Guide to D&D - Goblins''}}

Traditionally, the idea of goblins being [[monstergirls]] was something of a niche, at best; most thought of them as just hideous, stupid, filthy little monsters - who would want to put their dicks in that?

Ironically, it was [[Warcraft]] that probably first sowed the seeds of female goblins being fuggable; whilst the attractiveness of female goblins in that game is contentious, people must admit that they were better-looking than the tumor-riddled, snaggle-toothed, scarred abominations that made up the canon depictions of most goblins prior to that. They were certainly attractive enough to start scoring [[Rule 34]] artwork, and this became a revelation to fa/tg/uys: that goblin-girls did ''not'' have to be fugly!

From there, goblin-girls became an underground sensation, slowly developing and evolving in the steamier underbelly of /tg/ and on /d/ (or at least its "western counterpart" /aco/) until they have become as mainstream in the /tg/ fandom as any monstergirl has a chance of being. When brought up, expect the occasional joking argument on whether it should be standard for female goblins to be referred to as "goblettes".

Because goblins vary so widely in their depictions, it shouldn't be surprising that goblin-girls likewise have been a particularly fertile ground for interpretations. There are five "mainstream" depictions of the goblin-as-monstergirl you will probably encounter on /tg/, and many different sub-forms and cross-pollinations. All depend on which of the various "goblin aspects" a creator deigns to focus on; tinker skills, short-sighted hedonism, mischievousness, propensity towards rapaciousness, and/or fertility:

* The "Pervy Tinker" archetype directly traces its roots back to Warcraft's Rule 34'd goblins: this envisions goblins as a "techy" race with a strong lewd streak, leading to them focusing their mad science skills on coming up with newer and more deviant ways of getting off. Depending on the fundamental tech level of the setting and the creator's own tastes, this can range from aphrodisiac gas grenades and crystal-powered sybians, to [[golem]]s built as living sex engines, bimbofying/transforming [[magitek]] rayguns, and vat-grown tentacle monster pets. Rule 34 interpretations of World of Warcraft lore can be counted as this, as well as rare goblins in Corruption of Champions that are mentally stable enough to keep their panties on while in a lab.
* The "Shameless Slut" archetype likewise has its roots in Warcraft goblins, vis-a-vis their canonical obsession with money, but is perhaps one of the more widely known "generic" archetypes as well. These goblins are hedonists who take a great deal of pride in their libido and their love of pleasure, integrating with the other races and usually gravitating towards roles based on "entertaining"; from barmaids to outright prostitutes. In fact, they are often depicted as actively enjoying whoring themselves out, as it ensures a steady stream of partners and profit, whilst sating their perverse and degrading sexual desires. These goblin-girls are often size-queens, specifically choosing partners based on the stature of their masculine organs. The adult comic artist Incase is fond on this archetype, and might as well have codified it with his drawings.
* The "Mischief Maker" archetype is the most innocent of the archetypes; portraying goblins as just playful, fun-loving hedonists whose greatest aims in life are pranking, partying, and making love, not necessarily in that order. This archetype is the closest to a pornified parallel of the old "civil goblins are just green-painted Halflings/Gnomes" canard, as the latter two in porn tend to also be found in whimsical depictions of normalized-sex communes. These goblins are still generally less sentimental with their "free love" compared to them, but are significantly less transactional than the Shameless variety, and derive plenty of pleasure out of teasing their paramours.
* The "Savage Slut" archetype is perhaps the oldest of the archetypes, as it owes its origins to the original interchangeability of goblin and [[orc]]. These goblins are basically sexy "savages"; wild and primal little monstergirls who live a primitive lifestyle centered on hunting, playing, and of course capturing & having sex with men. Essentially, this depicts goblins as [[shortstack]] or [[loli|"a loophole for masturbating to underage children"]] orcs. Kenkou Cross' Monster Girl Encyclopedia is squarely focused on this aspect.
* The "Breederphile" archetype is, in comparison, probably the youngest of these archetypes. These goblins are defined by their racial pregnancy fetishism, and by having bodies almost literally built to breed. Being impregnated is intensely orgasmic, pregnancy either fills them with bliss, makes them incredibly horny, or both, birth is a series of some of the most intense orgasms of their lives, and social standing revolves around how many daughters they have to boss around. {{BLAM|+++...SCANNING...+++}} {{BLAM|+++Congratulations Neophyte, you have just weathered the single worst psychic assault a slaaneshi daemon is capable of unleashing; you may now be promoted into the ranks of the [[Grey Knights]].+++}} This archetype does make some sense if you think about it: after all, as a 'cannon fodder' species for PCs, where do all the Goblins come from? Corruption of Champions might as well have pioneered this archetype.
* The "Ghetto Goblin", while not part of the "five aspects" breakdown, has a decent-sized backlog of smut and is unique enough to be worth an honorable mention. This variant of goblin-girl portrayal is native to [[Urban Fantasy]] settings. Mostly played as a watered-down mix of the "Shameless Slut" and "Breederphile" archetypes (the "water" in this case being some occasionally-awkward racial coding), Ghetto Goblins tend to be used as an attempt at a less-overtly-offensive repackaging of old "hot-blooded Latina" or "Ghetto Black Girl" racial stereotypes in that they are: sexually open, tend toward foul language and fiery tempers when angry and lewd vocalizing or body-language when aroused or teasing others, frequently dressed provocatively, and very often have a pronounced species/raceplay kink. While breeding for the Ghetto Goblin isn't usually as erotic as it is for the Breederphile, the social status of the Ghettoblin is often measured by how many offspring they have, how often they have sex, and how early they first had sex. They arouse easily, to the point that human men in their stories often need to talk Ghetto Goblins out of outright molesting them openly in public, not helped by the often-added detail of humans and goblins being very sensitive to each other's pheromones. As you can imagine, this is mostly a niche community depiction. More precisely, it was codified and achieved popularity on [[/aco/]] based almost entirely on the output of one prolific writefag.

Whilst these archetypes are certainly well known and defined, there are also two setting-specific depictions of goblin monstergirls that have achieved enough recognition to be recognizable by name; the MGE Goblin and the CoC Goblin.

The [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]] depiction of the goblin is essentially a mashup of the Mischief Maker and the Savage Slut archetypes. These primitive mamono live in tribal clusters, entertaining themselves by playing pranks on each other or the races around them, hunting game, and conducting banditry for fun, profit, and boyfriends. In appearance, they resemble pointy-eared human [[loli]]s with horns and superhuman strength, allowing them to fight with weapons that only a strong human man would normally have a chance of lifting. Simple-minded and carefree, they have no intention of giving up the lifestyle they so enjoy.

The CoC Goblin takes its name from Corruption of Champions, a [[/d/|hentai]] fantasy text adventure game that was popular on /tg/ for a while, before the fact that [[furries]] are much more willing to put money where their mouth is when it comes to getting fetishistic shit done led to the inevitable flooding of the game with [[beastfolk]] waifus and encounters and /tg/ promptly banished it. Still, before it went under, it had a significant impact on the goblin-girl arena: CoC may not have created the idea of the Breederphile archetype, but it certainly brought it to the attention of what passes for /tg/ mainstream. CoC's goblins are Breederphiles who became a pregnancy-obsessed all-female race due to succubus-corruption in their water supply. Once a brilliant race of alchemists and inventors, they have since devolved into a Savage Slut culture, living in crude tribes based on a massively curvy matriarch, her husband(s), and as many daughters as she can make who are willing to stick around - whilst goblins are fiercely competitive with each other, there is also safety in numbers, keeping them from being eaten by [[hellhound]]s or raped/beaten to death by [[minotaur]]s. Such clans are often notably inbred, for their corruption means they have little sense of objection to incest, with only the matriarch's jealous possessiveness in regards to her husband keeping her daughters at bay. They're also examples of the Pervy Tinker archetype, using what remains of their former knack for invention to create sex toys and perverse alchemical concoctions for use in subduing husbands and molding them to their liking.

One memorable goblin monstergirl is Zanik from [[RuneScape]]. Zanik is a badass female goblin adventurer who is the star of one of the game's major story arcs, wherein she helps the player save her tribe of technologically advanced goblins from a KKK-like cult of racist humans and then from an evil god of war who wants to take back control of her tribe. Fans of the game were so mad when the developers killed her off unfairly (and also gave her a graphical update that made her extra-ugly) that they later brought her back with a cuter redesign (though now fans gripe her new look is ''too'' cute, or more precisely cute''sy'').

Incidentally, one of the first modern references to a sexy Goblin monster girl may be, of all things, a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NwPJo4ysXI Frank Zappa song].

<gallery>
Image:Cute_Goblin_Adventurer.jpg
Image:Goblin_Dancer.jpg
Image:Goblin_Adventurer_1.png
Image:Goblin_Monk_1.jpg
Image:Goblin_Shamaness_1.jpg
Image:Goblin_Shamaness_2.jpg
File:MGE Goblin.jpg|When Lolis go after predators.
File:ZanikFanRedesign.jpeg|Zanik's graphical overhaul was so bad one dude decided to [[Get shit done|salvage it himself]].
</gallery>

=Gallery=
<gallery>
Image:Sneaky Goblin.gif
Image:Goblin Knight.JPG|A more "player character" variety.
Image:GreenGoblin3.jpg|Most goblins tend to [[Alchemist|throw pumpkin bombs]] and use flying crafts to annoy [[/co/|superheroes]].
</gallery>

=See also=
* [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]
* [[Unified Setting/Goblins]] Yet another take on a classic concept.
* [[Goblin Slayer]], a man with a serious beef against goblins.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqx4ywmqYUw The most common reaction to Goblins]
* [[Goblinoid]], for the extended goblin family.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLLHu8qtxjg Rare footage of a Goblin ritual. Purpose unknown.]

{{D&D1e-Races}}
{{D&D2e-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}
{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{Starfinder-Races}}
[[Category:Kings of War]][[Category:Monsters]]
[[Category: Goblin]]

Drow

2022-12-29T20:05:14Z

2600:1003:B134:77BB:9983:DA51:88D:75FF: /* History */

{{Promotions}}
[[File:45308.jpg|400px|thumb|right|"Okay ladies, which one of you let their manslave out of the kitchen?"]]

'''Drow''', more commonly known as "Dark Elves", are a common reoccurring type of [[elf]], first introduced in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] as a matriarchal society of black-skinned and white-haired subterranean elves who are literally allergic to sunlight. Unlike real-life underground species that develop pale skin, drow have black skin due to the curse laid upon them when their demon-goddess [[Lolth]] turned them away from the other elven gods. They produce adamantine equipment (which falls apart in sunlight, yet is bad-ass underground), take slaves, are ruled by an abusive matriarchy that likes S&M, have magic resistance, really like spiders and hate most other elves.

In short, they'd be fucking cool, were it not for the fact that 90% of all player character Drow will be Chaotic Good and be Rebelling Against The Evils Of Their Race, thanks to the raging hard-on underages and other tryhards have for [[Drizzt]]. As a result, even though dark elf pr0n is A) common, B) totally acceptable given their canon behavior, and C) totally relevant when somebody asks for dark elf pictures (see B), people still get whiny on /tg/ at anything moderately crude. Sure, we're trying to hold back the tide of cancer, but where dark elves are concerned, it's totally good.

Designers have mooted plenty other visions of subterranean elf, sometimes superficially looking like drow, sometimes even ''called'' "drow", that bend the definition given above. Largely because of that anti-Drizzt constituency we mentioned. We'll get to those, below.

==History==
Drow were first mentioned in the second, 1978 hardback of the [[Monster Manual]] for [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 1st edition, under "Elf". Here: "The 'Black Elves,' or drow, are only legend. They purportedly dwell deep beneath the surface in a strange subterranean realm. The drow are said to be as dark as faeries are bright and as evil as the latter are good. Tales picture them as weak fighters but strong magic-users." Contemporaneously they are fleshed out in ''[[Against the Giants|G3: Hall of the Fire Giant King]]''.

They truly sprang onto the world in the followup [[Drow Trilogy]] [[Adventure Path]] which, with its sequel [[Queen of the Demonweb Pits]], fleshed out the [[Underdark]], drow culture, and [[Lolth]]. They subsequently entered the [[Fiend Folio]], and Gygax himself gave them PC stats in ''Unearthed Arcana''. (More on that in a minute.)

The already-popular villains exploded in popularity as a PC race following the release of the Drizzt novels to the point of parody, oversaturation, and backlash, though all three have died down with time and distance.

I guess we can't go any further without talking about the controversy, can we? Alright, so a lot of the things in drow culture are supposed to be opposites of what other races see as normal: drow are matriarchal, consider clothing (besides underwear) to be a sign of weakness, adore spiders and hate puppies, and have their skin and hair colors inverted from humans. Oh, and they're also Evil! Yeah, put all these facts together at once and you don't even need to ask the [[SJW]]s what the accidental implications are. Things aren't helped by the internet's eternal love affair with simplifying things down into jokes, so it didn't take long before drow picked up the stereotype "darker-skinned elves are ruled by evil feminazis and have a savage, half-civilized culture of betrayal."

To tell you what you already know, there's some grains of truth to the unfortunate implications, but there's also more than a little bad-faith trolling at play, until people who didn't know anything about them but the memes took it seriously. First and foremost regarding their skin tone: drow are almost never described as having ''any'' human skin tones in any sources (originally their black skin was ''literal'' onyx in color, and in modern depictions they tend towards blatantly fantastical hues of grey, purple, or blue), and their facial features are usually drawn to resemble either Caucasian or Asiatic appearance rather than an African. With dark skin, light hair, and (sometimes) red eyes, the effect the artists were going for was ''photonegative'' rather than "person of color." Sadly this was lost on a lot of people, such as whoever drew the porny ''Queen of the Spiders'' cover (where their skin was an ashen dark tan ''a la'' South India), pretty much every Japanese artist (where they tend towards the coffee with latte end of the skin spectrum), and one particular writer who described drow hair as "curly."

Even the "evil" thing wasn't supposed to dominate drow culture. Drizzt was rocking the Good alignment as far back as 1988, then in 1991 [[Eilistraee]] was written in to show drow weren't inherently evil, the evil gods were just on top right now and the good ones were still clawing back territory.

As of the [[5e|present]], the drow have seemingly moved past the backlash to hit the most popular spot they've ever been in. They were introduced as a ''core'' PC race for the first time in 5e (albeit the only one at launch to have a built-in penalty), the second major adventure line for the edition took place in the Underdark and gave them a ton of focus (and was retconned to be a massive plot by their patron goddess to boot), and they tend to cameo in most other adventure lines or collections and get new monster versions added with each new Monster Manual equivalent.

In-universe, the drow backstory mostly boils down to them being victims of the bitter breakup between [[Corellon]] and [[Lolth]]. Basically, when the two gods started fighting, this led to a great [[elf]] civil war as elves chose to follow either one god or the other. When Lolth's side lost, she and her followers were all kicked out of the realms controlled by the [[Seldarine]], and that extended to her elf followers, who fled into the [[Underdark]] to avoid further retribution. There, they stewed over their defeat and fully turned to the dark powers in hopes of rebuilding and one day launching a massive counterattack to destroy those who had driven them from the surface - old-school drow were implied to worship all manner of unsavory deities and [[Demon Prince]]s, but due to the [[Forgotten Realms]], and in particular the [[Drizzt]] novels, Lolth eventually became the defacto henotheistic patron goddess of all drow.

==Relations==
The drow don't exactly get on well with other races, but they are still elves, so the family tree can produce some rather odd branches.

Famously, drow are often transformed by [[Lolth]] into half-drow, half-spider [[centaur]] creatures traditionally known as [[drider]]s. In several editions, they also created the [[chitine]]s, a race of humanoid spiders.

An incredibly rare mutation amongst the drow are the '''Szarki''', meaning "Ghost Spiders" - drow afflicted with albinism. First appearing in the form of a prominent antagonist character in the original [[Maztica]] novels, who was transformed into a [[drider]] at their end, the szarki were fleshed out in 3.5's ''Drow of the Underdark''. They are mechanically identical to drow, but their albinism allows them to pass themselves off as elves, so they are coddled and trained as elite infiltrators.

A common "sacred rite" for drow priestesses of [[Lolth]] is to bang a powerful [[demon]] known as a [[glabrezu]]. The resultant [[Half-Fiend]] offspring is known as a [[Draegloth]].

In AD&D, drow also had a unique [[Half-Dragon]] offshoot race that was half [[Deep Dragon]], known simply as the "Drow-Dragon". In 3e, this idea was tweaked and replaced with a race of drow-dragons born of [[Shadow Dragon]] lineage, called ''Zekyl''. These in turn gave rise to a race called the ''draa'zekyl'', who could shapeshift between purely drow and purely draconic forms.

Much like how [[Duergar]] have the long-forgotten "good but still [[Underdark]]-dwelling" counterpart of Grey Dwarves, so too do Drow have such a counterpart race: the [[Rockseer Elf]]. [[Mystara]] has its own unique elf race that takes the drow's niche, the [[Shadow Elf]].

==(A)D&D==
===First Edition===
There never were Drow in the BXCMI line. This line did spin up some underworld elves incompatible with surface elves - the Shadow Elves, the Schattenalfen - but those were Aztec or post-Aztec. Shadow Elves farm spiders in, like, one city only. LEAVE THEM ALONE!!

Where Drow did exist, starting at Greyhawk, Gygax (at first) restricted them to the role of monsters, due to their in-game lore. Both [[Drizzt Do'Urden]] (in Icewind Vale, not Greyhawk ... and arguably not Forgotten Realms at first, either) and [[Viconia de'Vir]] were exceptions, with backstories to explain why they're on the surface instead of down in the Underdark.

That said, Gygax wasn't entirely ignorant to his audience. PC stats for drow elves appeared, alongside the other [[Underdark]] [[Demihuman]]s ([[duergar]] and [[svirfneblin]]) in the original [[Unearthed Arcana]] for AD&D 1e. They were still quite strong, but nerfed from their appearance in the Drow Trilogy for instance knocking out that spell-resistance. They were also less powerful than their 2e incarnations:
::No ability score penalties or modifiers.
::Sunlight Sensitivity: -2 penalty to Dexterity and "to hit" rolls and enemies gain a +2 bonus to saves vs. drow attacks when both the drow and their opponent are in bright light. If the dark elf is in shadow and the opponent is brightly lit, this changes to a -1 to hit penalty/+1 save bonus instead.
::Unlike drow NPCs, drow PCs do ''not'' have 50% magic resistance. They cannot regain this trait without a Wish spell.
::Drow do not gain the weapon bonuses of normal elves, but instead are ambidextrous.
::Drow have Infravision 12'.
::Drow females have movement rate 15', whilst males have movement rate 12'.
::Drow have the Stealth and Detect Secret Doors abilities of [[elves]], and the Stonecunning ability of [[dwarves]].
::Drow have access to the spell-like abilities of Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire and Darkness 5' Radius. They gain access to Detect Magic, Know Alignment and Levitate at 4th level, with female drow also gaining Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Dispel Magic and Suggestion at that level. All spell-like abilities are usable 1/day.
::Available classes: [[Cleric]], Warrior ([[Fighter]], [[Ranger]], [[Cavalier]]), [[Rogue]] (Thief, [[Acrobat]], [[Assassin]]), [[Wizard|Magic-User]].
::Class levels for Drow Males: [[Cleric]] 7, [[Fighter]] 10, Magic-User 18, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14
::Class levels for Drow Females: [[Cleric]] Unlimited, [[Fighter]] 12, Magic-User 11, [[Thief]]/[[Acrobat]] Unlimited, [[Assassin]] 12, [[Ranger]] 14

Naturally, when 2e rolled along, [[The Complete Book of]] [[Elves]] [[splatbook]] also provided new rules for playable Drow and holy ''fuck'' were they powerful... IF you were playing in the Underdark.

+2 Dex, +1 Int, -1 Constitution, -2 Charisma for initial ability score modifiers, and with racial maximums of 18, 20, 17, 19, 18 and 16 for Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma respectively. They have a bunch of spell-like abilities, all usable once per day; Dancing Lights, Faerie Fire, and Darkness by default, with Levitate, Know Alignment and Detect Magic gained at level 4. Drow [[Cleric]]s get even more, in the form of Clairvoyance, Detect Lie, Suggestion and Dispel Magic. Also, they ''start'' with Magic Resistance 50% and increase it by +2% per level, to a max of 80%, and get a +2 bonus on all saves involving magic.

So, what's the drawback? Aside from the sensitivity to light (-2 penalty to Dexterity and Attack Rolls, enemies are +2 bonus to saves vs. drow spells), they also lose their powers if they spend more than two weeks outside of the Underdark, losing 10% Magic Resistance and one spell-like ability each day. If they go back to the Underdark, they get their powers back if they spend 1 day for each week they spent on the surface. Also, they get a -4 penalty to Reaction rolls against other elves, and increase their experience costs by +20%.

===3rd edition===
3E managed to make it almost a whole year before caving in and making the Drow a full and proper player character race in the 2001 ''Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting''. They had the usual elf boni and flaws, plus: +2 Int, +2 Cha; Darkvision 120' instead of elf-normal lowlight vision; Spell resistance of 11 + character level; +2 to will saves against spells; the ability to cast dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell-like abilities 1/day; proficiencies with hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword instead of elf-normal; sudden bright sunlight will blind a drow for 1 round; and the drow will be dazzled until they leave the bright light. Male drow have [[wizard]] as their favored class, female drow have [[cleric]] (of [[Lolth]]) as favored class.

The larger array of spell-like abilities they had in AD&D, such as Levitation, are retconned in this edition as being exclusive to drow nobility only. That's not to say mechanics to let a PC have access to these powers were completely unavailable.

They had an article on their culture in [[Dragon Magazine]] #298 that really emphasized the darker side of drow culture. Want a sample? According to this lore, drow don't die out because, despite their tendency to murder and torture each other, they're as fertile as [[orc]]s, with females normally conceiving twins and triplets. They normally only birth a single baby, though, because the strongest usually kills and absorbs the others in the womb; these prenatal struggles actually produce orgasms more intense than anything a drow female might feel elsewhere. This sensation, ''chad-zak'', is explicitly called out as the main reason why drow women are willing to get pregnant at all, considering the selfish power-hungry bitches they generally are.

[[Eberron]] has a drow sub-race called the Umbragen, who possess strange, mystical powers connecting to the darkness. Mechanically, this is represented by replacing their spell saving throw bonus with a + 2 racial bonus to Hide & Move Silently checks, swapping their weapon proficiencies for longbow, shortbow, longsword & rapier, and making their [[Favored Class]] into [[warlock]], plus a racial-restricted set of variant abilities for [[soulknife]] and a bevy of racial feats. All of this appears in [[Dragon Magazine]] #330.

===4th edition===
The 4E Monster Manual had some explicit monsters-as-races in the back, and the Drow were one of them, although they got an identical repost in the 4e [[Forgotten Realms]] Player's Guide alongside the [[Genasi]] -- fittingly, since FR basically created the idea of Drow PCs.

For Drow, +2 Dex and +2 Cha or +2 Wis, Darkvision, +2 Intimidate, +2 Stealth, Fey Origin, Trance, and one racial encounter power (Llothtouched) that could be used as a minor action for one of two effects that last until the drow's next turn: a close-burst-1 darkness spell the drow can see through, or a faerie-fire spell that gives combat advantage against the target.

Drow had a couple of [[Dragon Magazine]] articles available to them. Issue #367 featured the article "Children of Darkness", a setting-neutral (in that it was equally applicable to both the [[Nentir Vale]] and the [[Forgotten Realms]]) guide to drow with new racial feats, a racial [[Paragon Path]] (the Curseborn) and a racial [[Epic Destiny]] (the Redeemed Drow). Ironically, it brought back the idea of drow having greater racial magic without touching upon the old mechanics; a paragon level racial feat called Highborn Drow gave the drow a third effect to their Lolthtouched racial power; Webs of Darkness creates blinding webbing of solidified shadow that ensnare all enemies in a close blast 3. This was then followed by issue #413, which abounded in new racial themes for drow; the Bregan D'Aerthe Mercenary, the Elderboy, the Melee-Magthere Champion, the Sorcere Adept, the House Priestess, the Widow of Arach-Tinilith, the Ooze Master, the Secret Apostate, and the Skulker of Vhaeraun.

===5th edition===
Drow are '''finally''' an outright core PC racial option in the Player's Handbook, as an elven subrace. The usual elf advantages, along with +1 Cha, 120' darkvision, automatic knowing some spells: the 'dancing lights' cantrip at 1st, the 'faerie fire' 1/day at 3rd level, and 'darkness' 1/day at 5th level. Automatic weapon proficiencies are hand-crossbows, rapiers and shortswords. They are also the ''only'' core race to receive an explicit ''penalty'' in the core book: if the drow or the drow's target are in direct sunlight, the drow has disadvantage on attack rolls and perception rolls. It's not as crippling as it sounds in practice, but it ''is'' annoying as hell. Better hope you fight indoors a lot, and/or play them in an adventure designed around spelunking or limited sun exposure, like ''Out of the Abyss'' or ''Curse of Strahd''.

Xanathar's Guide gave them a boost with a new racial feat; Drow High Magic. Reflecting the "noble drow" spell-like abilities of AD&D, this feat grants a drow the ability to cast Detect Magic at will and both Levitate and Dispel Magic once per long rest without a spell slot.

==Pathfinder==
[[File:Drow B1.png|right|300px]]
Pathfinder ditches the [[Lolth]] aspect and instead makes Drow aligned to assorted [[Demon Prince]]s instead. They got playable templates for the first time in their Bestiary entry, and updated versions thereof in the Advanced Races Guide. Pathfinder goes back to really, really freaking old Drow lore by stating that there's two kinds of Drow; normal Drow, and Noble Drow, who're even tougher and nastier, with a lot more magical powers. These were handled as separate races in the Bestiary, but ARG instead changed it to a Drow race with a bunch of racial feats to simulate Noble Drow abilities, which is arguably more balanced.

Fluff-wise, they're tied into the weird sf-bent of the [[Golarion]] setting, being the descendants of elves who refused to flee the planet in the face of a catastrophe, and turned to demon worship to survive. First-generation drow are actually the result of elves who've broken really bad physically and psychologically transforming into dark elves. Natural-born drow aren't actually innately evil, but their culture, which engages in the traditional practices of slavery, human sacrifice, etc., with the lovely addition of [[fleshcrafting]], is so hideously corrupt that almost all of them end up bad anyway. They aren't matriarchal like classic drow either. Just assholes. Their [[drider]]s are... well, see that page.

===Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size: Medium
* Speed: 30 feet
* Darkvision 120 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Spell Resistance: 6 + class level
* Spell-Like Abilities: Dancing Lights, Darkness and Faerie Fire, each 1/day.
* Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
* Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
* Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

===Noble Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +4 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Wis, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size: Medium
* Speed: 30 feet
* Darkvision 120 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantments.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Spell Resistance: 11 + character level
* Spell-Like Abilities:
** Constant: Detect Magic
** At-Will: Dancing Lights, Deeper Darkness, Faerie Fire, Feather Fall, Levitate
** 1/Day: Divine Favor, Dispel Magic, Suggestion
* Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds a drow for 1 minute and leaves them dazzled on all subsequent rounds until they get out of the light.
* Poison Use: Drow don't risk poisoning themselves when they apply poison to weapons, etc.
* Weapon Familiarity: Free proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier and Shortsword.

{{Pathfinder-Races}}
{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}

==Starfinder==
[[File:Drow SF 2.png|left|200px]]
[[File:Drow SF 1.png|right|200px]]
{{topquote|I should've listened to my cousin Gaila. He said to me, 'Quark, I've got one word for you: Weapons. No one ever went broke selling weapons.'|Deep Space Nine}}
With Alien Archive 1, the Drow are back. While they're still socially divided into normals and nobles, the stat difference is gone. They're still assholes, they're still into slavery and puppy-kicking cruelty, but now they've diversified into the wholesome and socially conscious industry of interstellar arms trafficking. Drow society is matriarchal again, although men can Han Solo their way to riches by smuggling guns.

===Drow===
* Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Con
* Size and Type: Medium humanoid with elf subtype
* Darkvision 60 feet
* Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to Magic Sleep Effects and get a +2 racial bonus to saves vs. Enchantment spells and effects.
* Keen Senses: +2 Racial Bonus on Perception checks.
* Light Blindness: A drow exposed to bright light is blinded for 1 round and dazzled as long as they remain in areas of bright light.
* Drow Magic: Dancing Lights, Detect Magic; In addition drow count as having the Minor Psychic Power feat for the purpose of meeting prerequisites, and if a drow takes the Psychic Power feat, they can add the drow's limning light supernatural ability to the list of spell-like abilities they have available.

{{Starfinder-Races}}

== Eberron ==
Drow in [[Eberron]] have unique fluff. Like all elves, drow were formerly slaves to Xen'drik's [[Giant]] Empire, but they remained when the now light skinned elves having split and left their native land of Xen'drik for Aerenal 38,000 years ago. By culture ''they'' are the original and "normal" elves are the offshoot. Most of them live in the jungle or ruins of giant civilization on Xen'drik instead of underground, they speak Giant instead of Undercommon, and they aren't associated with spiders, with the largest group of drow preferring Scorpions instead.

There are a handful of known types of drow, with each tribe being of one of these types, but the published material explicitly states more exist beyond the known areas. The Qualtiar are nomadic tribes that love scorpions. The Sulatar are giant loyalist who have really ancient magic and are obsessed with fire. The Hantar'kul or "Blood Hunters" believe they are destined to rule Xen'drik and seek to remove the foreigners, who they see as the biggest obstacle to their rule. The Umbragen avoided the dragon by settling underground and selling their soul to a dark power known as "Umbra". The Umbragen are fighting, and losing, a battle with a daelkyr lord's army and seek weapons to aid in that fight, as they are too prideful to ask for help.

While the campaign setting says "sahuagin and drow are not ideal races for player characters", they actually make more sense than most campaign settings. In Eberron, most drow aren't crazy religious cultists and come into conflict with heroes because they are simply territorial people that believe that, as they were servants of the giant empire when it fell, the remains of giant civilization belong to them and all the "archaeologists" from the north are robbers. Typical NPC Drow are still typically evil though. ''City of Stormreach'' states that "a few drow exiles have found their way to the city, and others have chosen to abandon their old ways and settle among humanity", "drow who don’t subscribe to their race’s ruthless ways come to the city to escape the cruel life of the wilds" and that Drow often come to the city to trade. This seems to have been a fairly decent number, as the demographics of Stormreach state Drow, Goblinoids, Giants and other monsters combine to make 5% of the 11,650 population, so there are ''hundreds'' of Drow that aren't actively hostile to humanity. Further ''Secrets of Xen'drik'' explicitly states that Drow tribes beyond the known ones are likely out there past the "charted" parts of the continent, so there may be non-hostile tribes of drow out there.

== Exandria ==
Like in many other settings, the drow of Exandria delved into the Underdark at the command of the goddess Lolth. Unfortunately for these dark elves, though, the Underdark of Exandria is apparently quite a bit more dangerous. The types of civilizations the drow might live in beneath the surface of other settings seem to be constantly beset by aberrations and other monsters to a overwhelming degree. As a result, Lolth is actually becoming increasingly unpopular with the drow race, who turn to alternative gods. Most prominently is an entity called the Luxon worshiped by the people of the Kryn Dynasty of the continent of Wildemount. Because the Luxon reincarnates those who die into newborns within a certain range regardless of the baby's race, it's led to a situation where a goblin could have been a drow noble in a past life, or vice versa. Though some drow still remain loyal to the Spider Queen, things have gotten so dire for Lolth that most of her faithful in Wildemount are goblinoids, with the drow head matron mother in the continent of Wildemount reduced to hiding out in a goblinoid fortress.

==Half-Drow==
You may be curious; given that the [[drow]] are still [[elves]], even if they are evil slave-taking bastards, can they [[Half-Elf|interbreed with humans]] too? Well, ironically, D&D never really gave that angle much attention - even though Gygax probably would have agreed if you'd pointed it out that half-drow would make far more believable PC options than pure-blooded drow, being neither as overpowered as old-school drow were nor able to advance in the drow's twisted society and thus less likely to drink the kool-aid & be evil themselves. So, for the most part, half-drow have been ignored throughout D&D's history.

The very first mention of the idea was as "half-casts" (''sic'') in D3 for AD&D 1e; leaving unspoken if these be drow/human or - more likely just from the dating-pool - drow/elf, or even drow/bugbear. The half-drow are subsequently expanded in that edition's [[Unearthed Arcana]]. They're (human) [[half-elves]], but with the drow's sunlight vulnerability trait slapped on top (in short, whilst exposed to sunlight, you suffer -2 dexterity and a -2 penalty on your to-hit rolls, and your foes get a +2 bonus to their saving throws against your attacks - this decreases to a -1 to hit penalty and a +1 save bonus if you're in shadow but your victim is in direct sunlight). Not exactly the kind of thing to make people interested.

The half-drow seemed destined to be forgotten... and then came [[Ed Greenwood]], who, amongst his many ''other'' [[Magical Realm|"inspirations" from his belief in the Free Love movements of the 60s]] that he slipped into the [[Forgotten Realms]], found the drow to particularly tickle his fancy. So, after coming up with things like [[Eilistraee]], naturally, he needed a place to put in half-drow. Enter Dambrath, a region in the "Shining South" that he decided to make ruled over by the Cintri; a race of half-drow descended from the ancient drow conquest of Dambrath under the reign of a particularly foolish human king... well, alright, technically, the Cintri are a melting pot of half-drow and [[half-elf]] bloodlines, since they descend as much from the half-elf [[cleric]]s of [[Loviatar]] who helped the drow conquer the place - after all, Loviatar is basically the Realm's goddess of evil BDSM and femdom, so she's got that in common with [[Lolth]], to the point that Lolth even lets Loviatar's faith be the state religion of Dambrath - but they're still mixed human and drow bloodlines, so it counts. So yes, basically a [[Magical Realm]] of femdom fantasies where any male might be a slave to a drow on the surface and still roleplay. Later editions had the humans [[HFY|rise up and slaughter the domineering knife ear bitches]] because let's face it, even to a submissive hornyposter a realistic medieval stasis setting slavery would ''not'' be a pleasant one unless he is a beautiful hunk a.k.a Reality Ensues.

Ironically, despite the Cintri, no 2e version of the half-drow statblock ever debuted, not even in the Shining South [[splatbook]] that introduced Dambrath to the Realms' fanbase. But it did mean that half-drow made it into 3rd edition in a [[Forgotten Realms]] [[splatbook]] - [[Races of X |Races of Faerun]], to be precise. Of course, like their 1e counterparts, they were not particularly well-differentiated mechanically from their half-elf roots; a 3e half-drow is, officially, a [[half-elf]] with Darkvision 60 feet and replacing Elf Blood with Drow Blood, so they're treated as Drow for race-targeting stuff instead of [[Elf]].

Eberron, likewise, states half-drow exist, typically results of trysts in Stormreach, but doesn't actually do anything with them or give them stats. The implication is that Half-Drow exist but are exceptionally rare and with the drow population that interacts peacefully with humans being the mere hundreds their rarity likely ''is'' exceptional. Still, Eberron works on the idea that player characters are ''supposed'' to be exceptional in general, and playing one isn't off limits.

A more mechanically invested version of the 3e half-drow didn't come to be until towards the end of the edition's lifespan, when the 3e version of the [[splatbook]] "Drow of the Underdark". It states "Half-drow have the standard racial traits of half-elves given in the Player’s Handbook, except that their favored class is the class in which they have the most levels. In addition, rather than elf blood, they have drow blood. Since drow is a subrace of elf, the net effect is that they have elf blood as well. The specification of drow blood means that for all special abilities and effects particular to a drow, a half-drow is considered a drow."

Additionally, both properly half-Drow characters AND half-elf characters with only a little bit of Drow heritage, like the Drow equivalent of a Tiefling or Aasimar, could take the following feat during character-creation:

::'''''DROW LEGACY'''''
::The drow blood in your veins runs true and grants you some abilities from that heritage.
::'''Prerequisite:''' Half-elf with drow ancestry.
::'''Benefit:''' You have a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities. You have darkvision out to 60 feet. You receive Exotic Weapon Proficiency (hand crossbow), as well as, Undercommon and the drow dialect of Elven as automatic languages.
::If you have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher, you also gain the following spell-like abilities, each usable once per day: dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire. Your caster level equals your class level.
::'''Special:''' Taking this feat also causes you to have light sensitivity: You are dazzled (–1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks) in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.

In Pathfinder, half-drow are represented by alternate racial traits for stock half-elves. Half-Elves can trade their superior multiclassing ability for darkvision, which is strictly better if that character isn't multiclassing anyways, or low-light vision for darkvision and light blindness. They can trade their bonus feat and multiclassing bonuses for dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell like abilities, which absolutely isn't worth it. Finally they can trade their bonus feat for proficiency in hand crossbow, rapier, and shortsword, which ''also'' isn't worth it since anyone who would bother with those weapons is already proficient with those weapons or is playing half-elf in the first place to get the bonus feat.

Perhaps the best the poor half-drow have ever had it has been in 5th edition, where a half-elf can trade their two free skill proficiencies for the drow's racial spell-like abilities; it's not much, but at least it's something to represent drow ancestry, and it's decently beefy compared to the AD&D and Races of Faerun depictions. Once again, it was a [[Forgotten Realms]] sourcebook that brought them out of the darkness - the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.

Drow-elf crossbreeds are given the briefest of mentions in the original Vault of the Drow as part of an encounter with "rakes" (think outcast punks) in the (under)city [[Erelhei-Cinlu]]. They have never been statted in any form, but are probably close enough to half-drow to use that template. Still, there's possibilities here for a creative DM.

==See also==
Dark Elves exist in [[Ptolus]] as NPC characters. They worship a [[Galchutt]] named [[Gorgoth-Lol]], which means "totez not Lolth LOL" in the elvish tongue.

* [[Seldarine]] - The gods of the [[Elf]] and [[Drow]] pantheons.

* [[Drizzt|Drizzt Do'Urden]] - A... [[skub|polarizing character]], but still the most famous and iconic drow hero in ''D&D''.

* [[Viconia de'Vir]] - A [[cleric]] of Shar in the ''[[Baldur's Gate]]'' games, and a good example of a "PC-friendly" drow who ''isn't'' a chaotic good Drizzt clone. Also [[Bioware]]'s first "sexy, mildly-evil-but-mostly-misunderstood lady love interest" character, setting the template for all those that followed. (Looking at you, Bastila, Morrigan, Isabela, Jack...) Had an incredibly complex, tragic and deep story in the sequel involving brotherly love and sacrifice. Her template may have set off a series of dominoes resulting in the next entry...

* [[Drowtales]]: When an admittedly-skilled bunch of [[drawfag|artists]] with the mental maturity of a blighted potato make a webcomic series financed by sponsor-avatar insertion, porn requests, and (the worst) ''plot dictation'', and slather copious amounts of [[Skub]] onto it. Said artists also have an axe against humanity/BDSM lesbian fetish to grind. ''Mostly'' the latter.

* [[Unified Setting/Drow]] - Arctic merchant vikings who ride giant lobsters, but still have black skin and white hair.

* [[Sandwich Stoutaxe]]: 1d4chan's take on the heroic Drow, she was abandoned by her family and raised by a Dwarf. So named because said dwarf found her in a basket that he thought was full of sandwiches.

* [[Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition races]]

==Official Art Gallery==
<gallery>
Queen of the Spiders.jpg|Looks like a trashy 80's Manowar album but OK.
Drow MM 2e.png
Spiderbound Drow Warrior.jpg
Drow mistress and her man slave.jpeg|Drow gender relations in a nutshell
Drow Adventurer vs Carrion Crawlers.jpg
3e Drow Demon-Binder (Marilith).jpg
4e Drow Demon-Binder (Marilith).jpg
4e Drow Priestess.jpg
Drow of the Underdark 3e Cover.jpg
3e Drow Warleader.jpg
Drow Priestesses (DotU).jpg
Starfinder Drow.jpg
Bathing Drow Noble.png
Drow Prosthetic (DotU).jpg
Drizzt by Todd Lockwood.jpg|did I mention the [[Drizzt|Mary Sues]] yet?
Drow scouts by jonhodgson.jpg|[[Meme|Welcome to the jungle]], where you can play a Drow however you want
Xendrik Drow.jpg|Xen'drik's drows like to tattoo themselves with scorpion venom.
Drow FF 1e.jpg
Drow 3e.jpg
Drow and slaves MTF 5e.webp
Drow ARG 1.png
Drow ARG 2.png
Drow ARG 3.png
</gallery>

==Fanart==
<gallery>
drow_blackface.jpg|not racist; or at least not THAT kind of racist
Drows_in_SPEEES.jpg|in the skin darkness of the future, there is only Mary Sues. A.k.A [[Drowtales]]: How to be a mangaka-faggot with cognitive dissonance.
Yafgc drow matriarchy advantages.png|drow men have [[Rule 34|a place]] in their matriarchy
Throne of the Drow.jpg
The Scarlet Tarantula (Drow Monk).jpg
TgplaysDrow.png|In surface world, adventurers are always looking for a party. In matriarchal Underdark, matron makes a party out of you!
</gallery>

==Monstergirls==
{{Monstergirls}}
[[Image:MGE Dark Elf.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The Dark Elf maiden is an alluring creature, if in a different way to her light-skinned cousin.]]

Given that female elves are practically canon [[monstergirls]] in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] to begin with (where do you think [[Half-Elves]] come from? Human women pouncing on cute elven men? Pah!), and that the drow are both female led ''and'' have a long tradition of cheesecake/pin-up tier femdom-heavy artwork for their females - there's a reason drow are often mocked on nu-/tg/ as a culture made up of cheesy BDSM pin-up art - it should be no surprise that drow feature in works of erotica just as frequently as their surface cousins. Indeed, the talk of D&D sessions everywhere must have had since the late 90's, inevitably, sexualized Drow raids owing to Greenwood's [[Magical Realm]]. Often called "Dark Elves", their skin tone ranges from the actual drow onyx/blue/purple to more dusky brown colors, which leads to the nickname "chocolate elves" being used for erotic female drow characters.

Given the heavy BDSM themes in actual drow society, it should be no surprise that drow monstergirls are usually portrayed as dominatrixes in the same way. Asian hentai artists, however, like to subvert the idea by portraying them as submissives instead of dominatrixes; chocolate elf slaves and maids are as old as [[Elf slave, wat do?]] threads. Might have something to do with [[/pol/|dark skin being considered inferior in Asian cultures]].

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the Dark Elves have willingly embraced [[succubus]]ization, unlike their Light Elf kindred. This has turned them into a perverse culture of dominatrixes, who take human men as their sexual slaves. They were some of the setting's earliest [[skub]] when it was confirmed that they actually do practice incest, with young dark elves being taught the arts of sexual dominance, bondage and sado-masochism by using their fathers as their subs, yeesh.

==MonsterGirl Gallery==
<gallery>
File:CestreeandDrow.jpg
File:Dark elf.jpg
File:Fertile Drow Sorceress.jpg
File:Chocolate elf.jpg|Because chocobutt best butt.
File:Dominantchocobutt.png|Finally manga delivers canon dark elves
File:Dark elf vs High elf.jpg
File:Pink Haired Drow.png
File:Dark Elf Butt.jpg
File:Dark Elf Matriarch.jpg
File:Drow and Broken Mirror.jpg
File:Drow Cleric.jpg
File:Drow Duelist.jpg
File:Dark Elf Sorceress.jpg
File:Drow Fantasy Armor.jpg
File:Drow Harpist.jpg
File:Drow Queen Valsharess Fanart.jpg
File:Drow Matron Mother.jpeg
File:Drow Sorceress.jpg
File:Drow Sorceress 2.jpg
File:Drow Vampiress.jpg
File:Drow Violinist.jpg
File:Drow Swordsinger.jpg
File:Skimpily Clad Drow Sorceress.png
File:Shortstack Dark Elf.png|This height is canon in [[Dungeons & Dragons|D&D]]

</gallery>