Chapter 13-379: I met the Goblins Down in Aaaaaafrica...

I shook my head as we materialized back in China, and the armored fox-girl in magenta flowed and expanded into nearly eight feet of looming Ancient, while the one in white kinda flowed sideways into the blonde in black leather look for Sama.

“You two can be pretty damn funny at times,” I mused aloud, to which the pair of them promptly tunked hands. The crack made me wince.

“I’ll have you know I was five-foot-four and totally cute in my last life,” Briggs sniffed. “It’s only godsdamn fair they die to girly cuteness instead of grim hulkiness. I’m not giving those mongrel bastards ANYTHING.”

“Amen!” Sama agreed, giving her man a squeeze.

“Not exactly what I was expecting when you were so enthusiastic about going after the hu hsaio,” I admitted.

“Oh, we definitely play with the tails, too!” Sama piped up immediately. Briggs’ face managed to remain totally impassive... well, no, he just nodded along, like it was no big issue. When you can totally recall being a young woman in your last life, it probably wasn’t.

“Riiiight. Back to work, you two.” I sighed despite myself.

“Where are you off to now? More endless ocean?” There was a lot of driving Sleipner and I had to do. However, we had discovered scores of undersea enclaves by now, and there were some really nasty plans being drawn up to deal with them. Ten to fifteen thousand by ninety-mile radius swathes of ground a day do cover a lot of area, and there was a metric arseload of statistical analysis being done for me.

It was a shame there weren’t any roads, or we could have Veilwalked and gone even faster. Head out on the highway, heavy metal thunder! Racing with the wiiiind, and the feeling that I’m under...

“Africa.” I had just finished my circle of the Mediterranean, and was going down the coast of the largest of the Mother Lands. The Med hadn’t had much to go after, and I wasn’t giving out accurate coordinates for any of the triton settlements. However, there’d been an interesting array of forward bases as I pulled out of the Strait of Gibraltar...

Briggs furrowed his brow thoughtfully. “You don’t have that look you get when you’re going to be Infusing and Zoning for hours doing Allegiance support stuff.”

“I’m going to be meeting with the most powerful Goblin leaders in Africa, too.”

“Eww.” Africa was a hotbed of tribal and religious conflicts going back since forever, and throwing the Goblins born out of the peoples there had only exacerbated things. While the Urgobs were most common about the Mongols and the higobs among the Arabs, the smallest and green-skinned goblins were the most common in Africa, with whole families and tribes changing when magic had arrived on the world.

Losing a couple feet in height and -2 Strength while turning green wasn’t exactly desired by any of them, but their children had never known anything different, and goblins had their own gifts and form of ferocity. If that meant bloodthirsty slaughter when defending their territories and frequently attacking to claim more, then that was what they did.

It didn’t mean they couldn’t get along peacefully with others and contribute to a mixed society, but it meant there were a lot of grudges across the entire continent between human tribes that had remained unchanged and the goblins, and there were tremendous amounts of bad blood there.

I couldn’t do anything about that. My job was to give them the choice.

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Only Amanans could have pulled out the diplomacy necessary to get all these tribal warlords to gather. They were rivals and even outright enemies, but the grounds chosen had been specifically Warded to disallow violent action. All they had to do was remain on the grounds and they literally could not kill one another, although they could snarl curses and bristle and posture at one another all day.

Naturally there were opportunists who tried to have a go at them on the way here, and some of the chiefs and warlords didn’t make it. Still, a representative of the clan almost always survived to make it here, and given what they were going to bring back with them, they could well end up in charge themselves.

At least six different otherwise-lethal arguments were raging back and forth as I walked up on the stage at the bottom of the amphitheater I’d Shaped up for all of them. Naturally they all wanted all their bodyguards with them, but that would just have crowded the place impossibly. We had compromised with a giant Holo in the standing area where the hundreds of bodyguards and ambitious children of the leaders were assembled, so they could hear everything.

The arguments were still ongoing when I tweaked the magic and set my gaze on those still arguing.

They didn’t want to be seen giving in, but every Goblin present, all three types present since urgob and higobs could be born to normal goblins, started to shut up.

Goblins tended to long noses, slitted red eyes, rather pointed teeth, large pointed ears, leering expressions, and dark or white green facial hair with no more than a fringe around bald heads for the males, with skin that ranged from dark green to a more brown-green. They averaged about four feet high, on a par with hyn. Their females could have hair in almost any hue, although black, gold, and red were most common.

Higobs had flatter faces and harsh lines to them, with almost no noses at all, protruding fangs, and dark skin ranging from deep crimson and earth tones, to ‘noble’ deep purple, with crimson eyes and shorter pointed ears flat against their skulls, and again almost no hair, save a dark beard, on the males. They were of taller, humanish size and builds, and could be darkly handsome or sveltely beautiful in their own way. The women frequently had white, green, or black hair, with gold hair being rare and highly valued.

The urgobs were naturally the biggest, close to seven feet tall, with bestial faces, wide leering smiles and fangs, bristling noses, and were furred from head to toe, typically in brown-green to yellow-brown hues, although those from higher or snowy lands tended more to yellowish whites and greys. Their eyes were big, their hands were clawed, and they were naturally strong and tough without sacrificing grace and control, born hunters and killers. As the least numerous and strongest of the Goblins, they were also highly valued, and actually got along with the human clans they were born into because of it once the presence of magic was acknowledged.

It was fairly easy for higobs to take over the goblin clans, as they tended to organize naturally and could dominate the smaller goblins, while urgobs were usually disinterested in actual governance despite not being dumb at all, only wanting the rewards of power and strength.

That said, intelligent and cunning goblins were fully capable of holding their own against higobs, and outnumbered them at least twenty to one, so most of the clan leaders here were actually true goblins.

As my Aura was bearing down on them, and their green blood was flushing at my presence, I eyed their own Auras with a sigh.

It wasn’t absolute, but goblins tended to Brown and Purple, higobs to Red and Blue, and Urgobs to Black and Grey. That was the pull of their genetics, and although it could be overcome, they had to be aware of the tendency to want to fight it, otherwise they just did what was natural.

“I am the Lady Traveler, Monarch of The Jet and Silver. I thank all the Goblin Lords here for attending.”

Despite themselves, they puffed up at being called Goblin Lords by a true Monarch. I was acknowledging their status!

“I thank all of the Goblins here for attending. I know this has been a contentious time for all of you, and you have your grudges and conflicts with one another.” Many crimson eyes turned on one another. “I am not here to settle those grudges. I am here to provide information to the Goblins about the Goblins, and allow you to make the choices that will determine the fate of your people on this planet.”

Egos rising curdled somewhat as they felt a sudden weight come down upon them, and the questions about to rise were bitten back sharply as their hackles rose.

“Goblins do not exist solely on this Shrouded World of ours. Goblins exist on many worlds, and uncounted trillions of them have been devoured by the Shroud above us.” All their heads turned up in the muggy air to look at the Haze above us. “Perhaps most importantly of all these details is that the Goblin race is very seldom welcomed anywhere.” I let that weigh on them, surveying them all, and they all remained very quiet.

“The main reason for this is the Goblin Racial Gods, or so they style themselves.” Bulging eyes among the Shamans and Priests present flipped wide open in great interest. “The Goblin gods are a ruthless, species-centric batch of conquerors, looters, raiders, brigands, and murderers, who are motivated by the urge to conquer all other peoples and enslave them, take their territories, and continue to expand without end until all of Creation is theirs.”

I let those words hang in the air for them to ponder. Some definitely looked excited.

“Yes, that means it is the Goblins against EVERYBODY. It is green and bloody war. If they cannot fight, the goblins hide and sneak and build up their strength, slowly birthing more urgobs and higobs, until they can attack and fight once again.

“Very importantly, the Goblins gods do not innovate. They do not pass down knowledge. They take such things from those they conquer. They breed more goblins, and they go forth to fight again.

“The Goblin gods naturally consider any Goblin who does not follow them to be race traitors, and will slaughter them as they will any other species, and even more energetically. They bind the Goblin races to them via mass indoctrination and a racial influence that starts among your children, removing their Free Will and making them merely tools and vessels of their gods.

“That is what is awaiting you when the Shroud goes down.”

I slowly surveyed the Goblins out there, all of them at least Faux Sevens. They were a race of survivors, all of them, not quite as adaptable or as intelligent as humans could be, but quicker and nimbler overall, with their own racial advantages.

“The first thing those gods will tell you is that you should not be following human gods. I do not think I should have to remind you that you all came from humans, and magic is what made you as you are. The other thing I need to inform you of is that there are no ‘human’ gods among the Aruan Pantheon.”

There were startled murmurs among the Goblins, which died away quickly under my stare. “It is true that humans tend to picture their gods in their own images. But the gods of the Aruan Pantheon are worshipped and served on worlds where no humans exist at all... and the gods are the gods. They can appear however they choose to appear.

“The gods of the Aruan Pantheon represent beliefs, not races or species. If there is a formerly-Human power among them, I am unaware of which and whom. I know that Sylune was once an Elven goddess, but She is of Silver Magic now, and accepts all who choose to follow that path.

“That is the Great Choice that rises before you now. Many of you are already deep into thrall of the beliefs these racial gods espouse. If you embrace them, then you deliver your children into their arms... and the war of red and green that follows will be on you, because there is no negotiating with the goals of the Goblin gods.

“When the Shroud falls, those gods will turn their eyes upon you. They will make their offers... no, their demands. They do not care about the fact you sprang forth from humans. They do not care about your dreams, your desires, and your aspirations.

“They care only that you breed, grow in numbers, and go out and conquer all other races and species. Everything else is secondary to them.

“Schooling? Knowledge? Magic? Peace? A full belly? Song and music? A full field? Happy cows? Strong sons, wise daughters?

“Useless, irrelevant! Breed and fight! Enslave or kill all others!

“If you defy them, you are a traitor to your race, a heretic, and a blasphemer, and they will seek to kill you as an example to any who defy them!”

That cool news washed over them, and they flushed green despite themselves.