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Sixteen Deochs of War, Rebellion, Invasion and the Near Fall of Loures
By Ramanayan Caesar in the Dark Ages

Unanswered Questions

Why did the goblins launch a war? What were their motivations?

These are very basic questions, but ones for which almost maddeningly we have no answers. It is well known that there are goblins who can speak human tongues, yet there is no record of any goblin grievances, demands or proclamations being presented prior to the beginning of the war.

We are left only with speculation, a difficult prospect given even now we still know relatively little about goblin culture and society. Even more vexing is that the few sources of information we do have often conflict with one another.

Brightblade was one of the first aislings to write on goblin culture. In his An Analytical Study on the Wood Goblin Social Structure, he describes goblin society (or at least the goblins of the Eastern Woodlands) as essentially a patriarchal one divided into many clans, with a clan’s power measured by the number of warriors under arms and territory controlled.

Later Acinorev in Goblin Culture: An Inside View, wrote of her experience donning a goblin disguise and observing goblin clans close up. In contrast to Brightblade, she describes goblin culture as matriarchal.

At the time most surviving works on goblin culture were written, the authors were puzzled at the presence of goblins near Undine as there is no record of goblins ever building or using ships. This makes the later discovery of goblin clans on Oren Island even stranger.

Vendes, a third scholar, went on to summarize the goblins of Undine in her work Culture: Fading Sparks:

“This leaves the Goblins of Undine... This doesn't seem right, as though it cannot be a proper society at all. No Goblins have ever learned the skills to build ships - nor would they sail upon them naturally - which means they must be working for a Mundane or Aisling. Nor does it make any sense for Goblins to attempt to take a town. They've nothing to gain in doing so... At least, nothing to gain naturally. Who can say what they might gain if they are indeed working for some darker more sinister being?”

Vendes postulated it made no sense for the goblins ever to attempt to take a town and during the goblin war indeed they never attempted to do so. As mentioned earlier in this work, in every action of the war the goblins went straight for Loures.

This begs the question, what would the goblins have gained had they successfully taken Loures? Goblins do not live in towns or settlements and have never shown an inclination or desire to do so. If the desire truly was to take a town, the goblin army sent to Loures could have easily gone to Mileth and likely would have succeeded as Mileth lacks any of the defenses of Loures.

Let us say despite the best efforts of the aisling and mundane defenders, that the goblins succeed in taking Loures. After bloody room to room fighting in Loures Castle, the goblins kill King Bruce, the High Council and countless other nobles. Survivors and refugees flee to nearby Piet.

The goblins have now taken Loures but have suffered heavy losses. Do they stay and try to occupy Loures or do they simply loot the place and leave? If they choose to occupy Loures, they have thousands of warriors to feed in a hostile land and many injured to be tended to.

Meanwhile Loures would be calling in all its remaining forces from across Temuair. Despite the defeat at the siege many aislings would likely still enlist to aid Loures again. Given enough time Loures may very well be able gather enough forces to retake the capital.

Regardless though if the goblins would leave of their own accord or if they would be eventually forced out, Loures would be left in a critically weakened and vulnerable state. With its monarch and most of its nobility dead, a civil war could very well erupt.

Who would stand to gain from all of this?

Undine would almost certainly rise up again and gain independence. Distant Suomi would be cut off and be largely on it’s own. Mileth and Rucesion, whose aisling political leaders have long been at loggerheads with the mundanes of Loures, may decide now is their chance to truly stand on their own and break away. No doubt there are countless others who would not mind the central authority of Loures to be gone.

We must remember Loures itself was the first to demonstrate that the goblins clans could be bought. This historian postulates that is not beyond the realm of possibility that someone or something may have simply made the goblins a better offer...