IN MIRG
Courtesy CD Mjollnir

Do you know how hard it is to understand an excited goblin?

I was wandering around in Mirg, and happened across a goblin village. Now, ordinarily, I speak Goblin well enough...lots of squeaks, squeals and clicks, but really, not impossible to learn. But this time, something so important had happened that every goblin above the age of six months was babbling about it to me...and I could barely understand a single one of them.

The gist of it was that one of the local spear-fishers had discovered a flower. I was at a loss as to why this was so important until I finally managed to calm down a diminutive gob female enough so that I could understand her.

Of course, she was impatient with me, but I explained that I was so very stupid, and that she was so very smart, that I couldn't understand what she was saying, and that she would have to explain it to me as if I had just been born. Her dull eyes finally shone with comprehension, and she sat right down as if going to recite the whole legend to me.

Obviously, she did not understand the meaning of sarcasm. Why did I have to get one of the stupid ones? There are scads of smart goblins out there!

But I digress.

Anyways, she took me at face value, and explained in very small words what, exactly was so important. One of their heroes had been born again, and the flower that had been discovered heralded his birth. No goblin had seen this flower, apparently, since that hero had died. (Incidentally, the flower was quite large and ugly, though it had a delicate scent. I'd never seen its like before.)

The goblin hero had been named Lochkeen, and had been the first chieftain who had risen up among the other chieftains to forge the Mirg kingdom united under one leader--himself, of course, though strangely enough, even the elves respected him. That, I found hard to believe, but I've since checked some historical records, and indeed, most of the other races respected Lochkeen's wit and power. It is the first time I've ever seen anyone respect any goblin. Rather refreshing.

Lochkeen had been a particularly smart greenskin (contrary to the example of my companion at the time, most goblins are fairly intelligent), and had managed to carve out a stable following from the other chieftains. Before, they had fought one another like cats and dogs, but this goblin united them, adjusted the chieftainship system as it exists today, and basically kept the goblin race from tearing itself apart. He had channelled the energies of this rather excitable and chaotic race into a dynasty that had lasted for several centuries, and after that dynasty had finally crumbled, its successor followed in its footsteps and keep the goblins united. The goblin throne has always been the strongest one relative to its own peoples--the ss'tiss are as tribal as the goblins, but are too nomadic, and so their leader is a token, really, a first among equals.

Whether the rebirth of their new leader somewhere in the jungle villages of Mirg heralds anything important is impossible to say. The goblins seem happy enough just knowing that he's back, and have already enshrined the glade where the flower still grows. No botanist has ever been able to tell me exactly what kind of flower it is...apparently, no one has ever seen it before.

I left Mirg with a numb behind and a buzzing brain. I was never one to underestimate the goblins...if their hero has been born again, I, for one, will be watching carefully to see what happens.

--By the hand of E'lian Bjor'dian, bard