The Kobaloi of Rega: Part 1, The Perthoi, or Destroyers (Goblins)
The Kobaloi: ‘Goblin’ folk of Rega
The Kobaloi “rogues”
It should be noted that these 'goblinoids' are intended as a commentary on how any creature can become corrupted, sometimes through no fault of their own. Each of these is genetically part of a very different ancestry or species, but they have been twisted into things other than they once were. Goblins are halflings, hobgoblins are dwarves, bugbears are spartoi. Elves and humans become serpent people and plagueborn respectively. All the sapient folk are vulnerable. While there is, to an extent, fantasy racism against these creatures because of long standing conflict caused by the evil gods and their minion and schemes, and they are culturally inclined toward evil, they are not inherently so. Biology is not the root of their differences or their inclination to evil, but rather the power of evil gods and carefully enforced religious fanaticism...which can lead anyone to evil.
Perthoi “Destroyers”(Goblins): Skinnier and lankier than their halfling forebears, with longer limbs. The small noses of the halflings have nearly melted away, leaving little more than a pair of slits, in a vaguely reptilian face. Lipless mouths fulls of what look like bare, toothless gums are actually full of hidden, backward facing, sharp conical teeth like those of a snake. Some even have fangs, though few if any are venomous. Most have lost the majority of their hair, leaving only narrow strips atop their heads, like crests, often tied back. Their eyes are large and often seem to glow from behind when under light, because of their catlike tapitum lucidum.
Swamp: Like their forebears, they have deep brown skin, but it is mostly hairless and has taken on a vaguely slick or scalelike quality. Their skull crests of hair are very often a sickly sort of eldritch green, like phosphorescent fungi, although they don't actually glow. Eyes are dark green or brown.
Hill: A lighter brown than their swamp cousins, often with gray or black wiry hair atop their heads. Their skin has distinctive scaly patches. Eyes are often black, sometimes dark blue.
Plains: Second palest of the breeds, these are mostly covered with dusty tan scale-like skin, and have hair like the tops of ripe grain, kind of golden brown. Often light blue eyes, sometimes light brown.
Forest: Their skin is a mottled color, like a light silverish tan resembling the bark of a birch tree, and similar knots irregularly dot their flesh. Their hair is often a brilliant red, and they dye it or hide it under a hood or hat in order to blend in better, except in the Red Forests of the Arkian peninsula where they are most numerous. Eyes are red or black,
Deep: Palest gray of skin, charcoal of hair and eye, they blend in with the stone well, their bodies covered in mottled pattern of darker gray like shifting shadows. Some trick of their skin hides them from things that can see heat, or use no light to see in the dark. Stealthiest of the goblin folk. Eyes appear pure white with no iris or pupil due to mutations allowing exceptional vision in darkness.
Behavior: Goblins, as a culture, have inverted values from their halfling forebears. As such, they have no love of comfort, no love of beauty, no interest in things for their own sake. They value the ability to live with a minimum of possessions, to take only what they need from the world around them to avoid drawing attention until they strike against their hated foes. Goblins neither loot nor pillage, leaving treasures behind untouched (or besmirched, destroyed, and befouled) when they kill and raid, making off with livestock and prisoners instead, if anything. They no longer love the world, or believe in luck and laughter except at the pain of others. Mostly. There are always exceptions, but this is the way they are raised, and the way the blood of Invidia twists them.
If there is a nearby nikoi war-band, they are often conscripted as irregular skirmishers and light cavalry.
