THE HISTORY OF MIRG:
Courtesy CD Mjollnir

Since the time of the Race Wars, the goblins have been looked down upon as weak and cowardly--especially by the elves that stared across their common border with hate in their slanted eyes. This myth is in no way fact; no monarch has ever ruled as strongly as a goblin one, and the only nation who has no dealing with them is Garr, which under the earth as it is has few contacts with the goblin nation.

This strength was established by Lochkeen, the first goblin to forge the warring tribes into a fierce nation, cleverly redirecting the anger and rage from the tribe wars into targets better suited to strengthening the power of the Fortress of Krull, which he had built during his reign by dwarven stonemasons working with goblin shamans to keep the Big Green out.

Lochkeen's dynastic successors, and the other tribal dynasties that followed, survived the transition to a primarily matriarchal society through the centuries that followed, trading mostly with the humans with a thriving poison and medicine trade due to the petty battles of the principalities.

At the time, the elves actually cooperated with the goblins, but at some date which is now lost, the elves simply destroyed the city that sprang up as tribute to their unity and declared war on the goblins, spreading lies and blackening the name of the goblin race and forever ruining their reputation with the other races.

The goblins might have declared war on the elves in return, save that the current ruling dynasty was toppled--no doubt, said the goblins, due to the meddling of the elves--and there was no clear heir. The tribes split into dynastic war, and began squabbling for the right to sit in Lochkeen's throne. A survivor of the destruction of the border-city soon gained power among the different factions, and it was no surprise when he gained the throne, despite not being of any tribe. Unlike Lochkeen, he gained his power through manipulation; by pitting the tribes against each other, he ensured that no one gained enough power to contest him. The tribes were too busy fighting each other to fight the elves, and it was only after this survivor died and half the tribes were wiped out that one tribe struggled to the top and assumed the throne.

Since then, an unsteady balance has arisen. The tribes never obtained the same unity as they enjoyed under Lochkeen until the Scourge, and when Kreegan was killed the fighting began again. The Fortress of Krull rules Mirg with an iron fist, but only until the next tribe succeeds at crumbling the throne.

Like a river, Mirg is always changing and yet always the same; there is always some new power move, some new faction, and yet it is the same political dance that started so long ago. Once, it appeared that they might sort it out among themselves, when the Rose Plague struck Krull and left several villages depopulated...but this promise did not happen, and so the goblins sit, fighting amongst themselves more than against their hated neighbours, the elves.

--Gaageen, scribe