Chapter 90: Chapter 88: Green hands rise in reverence

Goblins are curious folk.

While they are technically monsters, by the standards of our world, they are, as far as monsters go, relatively intelligent.

Yes, there are plenty of monsters that show significant levels of intelligence, such as dragons or powerful undead. However, goblins are an extremely low tier of creature, coming in only at a tepid ‘F’ ranking for the broad mass of their species. Given this, their intelligence is quite remarkable.

Goblins construct intricate societies with social hierarchies. They construct dwellings and homes and practice craftsmanship, hunting, and spellweaving.

Their greatest flaw, which stops them from progressing forward as a whole, is their short life-spans. Goblins live for about ten years at most, making their lives short and frantic and, given that their dens are often deep in the old forests, very violent.

Goblin society has overcome this flaw by engaging in symbiosis with the much higher ranking and longer living dryads, another forest monster of a rarer breed. The goblins give their all to protect the forest from outside incursions, stopping logging attempts and the construction of roads. In turn, the dryads will stay within the goblin tribe, taking on the title of ‘wood-mother’. She serves as a form of generational memory, staying with a tribe for many, many of their lifespans. The wood-mothers act as a guiding force, teaching the new goblins the lessons of their short-lived forbearers.