An Alternative Goblin Theory

Yatul gra-Makor, Adventurer Circa 3E 427

Those Imperial historians would have you believe that goblins are a degenerate race of animals with the barest spark of sentience, existing only to trouble the races of men, mer, and beastfolk who stray to far into their territories. Others say they are the ancient Ayleids, and a mixture of inbreeding and subjugation from the Cyrodiils reduced them to these forms.

By Malacath’s ashy teeth these are all false assumptions! Any young Orc can tell you that as we were born from the blood of Malacath when Trinimac shed him from himself, so were the goblins and the ogres. We were all once regular mer, like the Altmer, before we were born again. They were just smaller and bigger than us. The goblins are what the smaller ones became, and the ogres are what the bigger ones became. We became the Orcs, and we let them live in Orsinium with us.

But if this is true, what of the Hyu-Ket of Yneslea? The goblins of Akavir? The Rieklings of Solstheim?

If you ask me, why should it be any different? The Orcs, the goblins, the ogres, we all sailed east from Summerset and settled in many parts of Tamriel. We Orcs specifically traveled to many lands. The ogres primarily dwelt in Cyrodiil. But the goblins? Some remained on the Isles, and were enslaved by our brethren the Altmer. Others traveled to the Heartland, and became many tribes. But there are tales that some of the goblin ships were lost at sea, only remembered to be sailing east before being thought lost. Can it be that the eastward goblins are in fact these lost brethren? Yes!

The Hyu-Ket are, in fact, goblins and kinsmen of the Orcs! Their strange appearance are an effect of their ancient migration to Yneslea, and isolation from the rest of the goblinoid races. I even speculate that the goblins of Akavir are an offshoot of the Hyu-Ket that kept going east instead of settling on Yneslea with the rest. For what reason? I don’t know, Akavir is a weird subject in these parts to delve into.

As for the Rieklings of Solstheim? I’ll have to travel to that island to make observations on them, and I’ll produce another essay regarding their origins as well.