The **Goblins** are the twisted descendants of elves, cursed during the **First Uprising** against the Dragon Lords. Once kin to the wood and twilight elves, they were driven underground and stripped of their birthright to walk beneath the sun. Sunlight burns their pale flesh, forcing them to thrive in the eternal twilight of caverns and crags.
Though small and gaunt, goblins endure where others falter. They are brilliant miners, cunning survivors, and master stoneworkers whose cities once rivaled the grandeur of surface realms. The fall of **Gloomdeep** nearly annihilated their people, but remnants endure in **Gloomreach**, bound to the orcs in a fragile alliance.
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- Small, averaging 4 feet in height, thin and wiry.
- Skin pale and waxen, often mottled from generations underground.
- Large, dark eyes adapted to dim light and perfect for seeing in the deep.
- Sharp features still echo faintly of their elven ancestry — pointed ears, narrow cheekbones — though marred by hollows, scars, and long claws suited for digging.
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- **Sun Cursed:** Sunlight burns their flesh, preventing long exposure to the surface.
- **Darkvision:** Their vast eyes pierce gloom, seeing clearly in darkness.
- **Stonecunning:** Generations underground have honed their mastery of mining and stonework.
- **Cunning Survivors:** Goblins are adept at finding ways to endure scarcity, whether through ingenuity, guile, or ruthless pragmatism.
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- **Cities of Stone:** Goblins once carved sprawling underground metropolises, with **Gloomdeep** as their crown jewel. Though it fell to the **Corpse Plague**, their architectural mastery remains legendary.
- **Funerary Fear:** The memory of Gloomdeep’s plague scars them; their corpses are now entrusted to orc pyres in Ironspine, lest another outbreak consume their people.
- **Fragile Alliances:** Goblins bend the knee to orc overlords in exchange for survival, their miners fueling Ironspine’s forges. Yet under the yoke, whispers of rebellion stir in their darkened halls.
- **Legacy of Elves:** Some goblins still whisper prayers to ancient elven gods they barely remember, torn between the curse that defines them and the kinship they lost.
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- **Miners & Stoneworkers:** Essential for providing ore and stone to the orcs and, indirectly, to human trade.
- **Survivors of Twilight:** Goblins embody persistence in the face of extinction, adapting and enduring long after others might crumble.
- **Tainted Kin:** To elves, they are a living reminder of failure and curse. To humans, they are distant, mysterious allies bound by necessity.
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- **Sunlight Exposure:** Goblins who dare the surface must shroud themselves or risk agonizing burns.
- **Corpse Plague Trauma:** Fear of outbreaks shapes their rituals and dealings.
- **Desperation:** Generations of subjugation have taught them cunning — but also sown the seeds of revolt.