Goblin Cities

There are three walled Goblin Cities in Palador.  They are ‘city states’ and independent of any of the human kingdoms, Caliphates or Empires.  All three are coastal cities and control a swath of territory, primarily agricultural but also with some resources. They have standing armies, mostly Haeb-Goblins and Ogres, as well as maintaining naval forces and fishing and trading fleets. All three cities are ruled by Kings, called ‘Kral’ in Goblin. Although they are independent of each other there are ancient and established treaties of alliance to protect each other from outside attack and these alliances are interwoven with much intermarriage among the Royal families and the Goblin nobility. They share common commercial codes and laws as well as a standardized currency that is interchangeable with Ilshar and Trusk coins.

Traset

The largest city, ‘Traset’, is a heavily walled city of about fifteen to twenty thousand inhabitants. The population is mostly Goblins (60%) and Haeb-Goblins (25%) with some humans (15%) The bulk of the human population are slaves.

The King of Traset styles himself ‘Kral-Duge’ or Great King (Duge is Goblin for Great.) Traset being the largest and wealthiest of the Goblin cities it also maintains the largest military forces.

Traset is situated atop a large, steep sided mound, hundreds of acres in extant and almost 400 feet in height, that is clearly artificial in origin, that reputedly existed long before the Goblins occupied the site. The mound is honeycombed with levels and chambers and passages that lead from the the surface city all the way down to the harbor level, and maybe below. The city docks have vast entrances into the mound where it is possible to bring in ships to load, unload, build, repair and protect from storms or attack.

The population estimate of Traset is based on its surface structures. How many dwell under the city is anyone’s guess. It is unlikely that even the rulers know. Most sages assume, based on the size of Traset’s standing army, that it is substantially larger then the surface dwelling population, perhaps fifty to a hundred percent larger.

Traset is also home to the only Goblin School of Magic. ‘Kassoh’ was reputedly founded by a handful of faculty and students who fled the fall of Lildith. The school is a mere shadow of the old University of Lildith, and though its workings are secret to outsiders it is known that except for a literal handful of human students from old, allied families, only Goblins are permitted to enter its gates. Like many other things in Traset, most of Kassoh is underground.

Julik

The second largest Goblin city is Julik, with a population of about twenty thousand. It has a larger proportion of Haeb-Goblins, about forty percent, as well as a significant number of Ogres.  Unusually, the Kral of Julik is a Haeb-Goblin, though most of the nobility is ‘common’ Goblin.

Julik is unusual in that it is built on a small archipelago of about thirty islands about a mile off the coast. The islands, which range in size from about an acre up to thirty square miles, are linked together by bridges and causeways, as well as various ferries and many small craft. At high tide the entire island group is encircled in a shallow sea that ranges from about three to thirty feet in depth. At low tide the water recedes almost two miles leaving a vast expanse of deep, sticky, mud.  Dotted with tide pools and cut through with channels, both natural and goblin made, allowing limited access by ships. The entire Julik island cluster is connected to the mainland by a mile long, heavily fortified bridge with multiple draw bridge sections. The mud of low tide is impossible to walk across, making an approach by an army on foot impossible. At high tide the water depths are inconsistent, making an approach by a large ship, except in the defended channels, very treacherous. The major channels have guard towers that also serve as light houses, both marking the channel for friendly craft and defending them from hostile. Additionally, underwater obstacles in the form of stone mounds and plinths, connected with thick chains, serve to block and damage intruding vessels.

There are few natural high points on the islands, though the Goblins have built towers and structures of ten to twelve stories in a number of places, resulting in few under ground complexes more then a level or two in depth. Though there are rumors that some of the islands are connected with deep tunnels.

Drapht

Drapht is the smallest of the Goblin cities with a population, mostly all Goblin of twelve to fifteen thousand, though like Traset, there may be more underground.

Drapht is built on a narrow, rocky peninsula with a massively fortified wall across the narrow neck that connects it to the mainland. Access by sea is also difficult since the peninsula’s natural sea cliffs that make up most of the coastline have been supplemented and reinforced with Goblin built fortifications. The waters at trhe base of most of the cliffs are rocky and dangerous to swim in, much less sail. There is only one harbor on the west coast of the peninsula. It is roomy, deep and protected from the worst storms. Its artificially narrowed entrance lies between massive twin towers which are connected by an underwater ‘sea gate’ of chain that can be raised or lowered as needed and there are scores of smaller fortified towers circling the harbor positioned in such a way that there is no point in the harbor that cannot be reached by multiple seige weapons.

Goblin Fleets

All three of the Goblin cities are coastal cities and rely heavily of trade and fishing and all three maintain, in addition to trading and fishing vessels, a substantial number of warships to protect the city and its interests.

Mostly these are galleys of varying sizes, Julik favors smaller galleys to operate in their shallow waters and narrow channels. Drapht keeps a number of larger galleys while Traset maintains a number of Dromonds in addition to its galleys. All of the Goblin Warships are of the Zamnoran style. This ‘style’ or technique was pioneered by the Zamoran Empire and employs sealed rowing decks where the banks of oars are powered by zombified undead rowers. There is no need for whips, chains or overseers. They are programmed to respond to drumbeats and shouted commands. No need to feed these rowers. They never need to rest and can row night and day nonstop. They don’t get seasick no matter how rough the weather. They are stronger then their living counterparts. They will never rebel and if the ship is sinking they can be commanded to attack the enemy ships or wade ashore and attack the enemy homeland. They do wear out in the shoulder joints after a few years but some Zamoran designs even used the zombies leg power, thus extending their ‘life.’ The main drawback of the undead rowers is that they cannot row as fast as a living rower, slave or otherwise. This can be a tactical weakness when it comes to ramming but the Zamorans and Goblins make up for this by having an auxiliary set of oars that can be run out from the top deck and used by soldiers and living crew as needed for extra bursts of speed.

Other Goblin Cities

It is a known fact that there are vast underground cities of Goblins in and under the Mountains of Fear and especially the Dharmalks.  Where they are, their names and sizes may be known to some Goblins and a few sages, but information is scarce and guarded.  The Krals of Traset, Julik and Drapht along with some nobles and Goblin Mages undoubtedly know more.