Welcome to Gaia! ::

| Vlugzul Breeder | These skilled handlers are as populous as they are respected in this village, considering what a huge portion of their trade economy depends on the production of healthy, strong Vlugzul to sell to the other goblin tribes.

An apprentice breeder may be in charge of as many as three different Vlugzul, and may be enlisted by their seniors to help with long-term breeding projects. A goblin can be apprenticed to this trade as young as six seasons of age, although generally they aren’t given their first Vlugzul to raise until they’re at least ten seasons old. Apprentices often get the less-than-awesome jobs like scooping guano, carting piles of food from the butchers’ to the breeder cavern, and recording bloodlines in the thick vellum pages of the ancient stud books.

By the age of fifteen seasons a professional breeder is considered experienced enough to plan their own breeding projects, pick promising pups out of litters, and care for as many as ten Vlugzul. Much of a young breeder’s life is consumed with the day-to-day care of their own Vlugzul and, often, the Vlugzul of their mentor.

Vlugzul breedmasters, the oldest and most experienced of the breeders in the barns, are in charge of planning and overseeing careful breeding projects that can span years and even lifetimes. They can own dozens of studs and dams and have the final say on which Vlugzul will be sold and which will remain part of their program. By the standards of a village, the most senior Vlugzul breeders are akin to CEOs.



| Vlugzul Trainer | Vlugzul don't become perfect tools of war overnight - it takes seasons of dedicated training to shape a young Vlugzul into an obedient mount. Learning commands starts from a very young age - the general philosophy is the sooner, the better. Different types of Vlugzul will undergo different training regimes and will learn different sets of skills and commands, so it's common for trainers to choose a specialization early in their career and only train up Vlugzul to that type.

Trainers will work closely with breeders and are just as essential to the Vlugzul economy as the breeders themselves. After all, nobody wants to buy a giant predator that hasn't learned to obey or respect its goblin master. Especially tough cases of wild-spirited Vlugzul will be handed off to older, more experienced trainers, but for the most part the most senior of Vlugzul trainers spend more of their time teaching junior goblins the craft than teaching the Vlugzul themselves.

Unlike breeders, the trainers will frequently take the bats out of the caverns and into the forests as part of their training. Learning to fly is usually taught to a Vlugzul by its parent, not by its trainer, but once a young Vlugzul has found her wings and is of the right size, the task of training her to wear a harness and carry a rider must begin. Goblins who privately own Vlugzul will usually hire a trainer to help them raise their new mount, if it is not purchased as a ready-trained adult. Rather than money, this is paid for with whatever goods or services the non-trainer goblin produces as part of their occupation.



| Leatherworker | Although there are some incredibly daring Vlugzul owners who ride them bareback, for the most part a sturdy leather riding harness is a necessity. With the amount of game and cattle that a healthy population of Vlugzul requires, there is always a steady supply of hides. A goblin village without any Vlugzul can always find lots of uses for good leather, including as armor, clothing, knapsacks, and any number of basic needs.

When racing through the air at high speeds, it can be a good harness that keeps you from plummeting to your death - old ones must be replaced regularly and watched for any wear and tear. Leatherworks double as tanners, more often than not, although some specialize in one or the other and often leatherworkers have a particular talent for making one type of item over another. Some like to own a hunter Vlugzul or two so that they can capture game themselves and provide their own supply of buckskin and furs.



| Cattlekeeper | The great hairy oxen bred by goblins for food and to draw wagons are a good deal uglier and nastier than your standard cattle. They're much less recently domesticated, and both genders have huge sets of horns that are perfectly capable of goring someone they feel is threatening them. Goblins who raise, breed and tend to these herds of oxen are highly skilled, sensitive to the moods of their animals, and know better than to try to discipline with force.

The small herd in the Vlugzul village is purely for the giant bats and goblins that call it home. None of these animals are traded or exported, because the area only supports a small number of them. Even with their own local herd, a trade agreement with the nearby goblin village of Ezg'bosh that specializes in cattle and has gigantic herds fifty times the size of theirs is necessary to keep the Vlugzul fed. This herd simply offsets the costs a little, and makes feeding the Vlugzul easier in times where trade and communication are difficult, like during winters. It was established only a single generation ago, but its importance to the village should not be understated.

An adult Vlugzul will happily eat 17 to 20 kilograms (40 to 45 pounds) of food per day, and the standard amount of meat generated from a butchered cattle is around 400 kg (860 lb). The normal feed cycle is to allow a Vlugzul half of an ox carcass every week. The local herd, at eight adult males and sixty-five adult females, currently produces about fifty viable calves a year. The cattlekeepers are working on expanding this number as quickly as possible.



| Warrior | Goblin warriors are a staple in every goblin village. These members of society dedicate themselves to the pursuit of battle, to defend their tribe’s territory and bring glory to their name. Historically, warriors blooded themselves by going on raids of other goblin villages or, for those near to the human lands, raids of human towns. With the human armies marching east, their role has changed to a defensive one, using guerilla tactics to strike at the column and try to inflict as much damage as possible and hopefully deter man from destroying strategic villages. Warrior goblins ride warrior or scout Vlugzul, and may have two or three different mounts that fly with them in case one becomes injured in battle and needs to be replaced, or to serve different purposes.

During downtime between battles, warriors spar to keep up their skills, trade and barter prizes won in battle to get weapons and armor, and train the younger fighters of the tribe. Their income depends on the spoils of battle – if they fail to win enough fights to buy food and other necessities, they are shown no pity by the village and expected to either try harder or give up on being a warrior and pick another trade. Being a warrior entitles you to no special treatment beyond a basic respect for your skill and experience.

There are five ranks a goblin warrior can accomplish that are designated by the markings painted on the warrior’s Vlugzul: Unblooded (a warrior with no kills), Initiate (a warrior with one or two kills), Clan Warrior (a proven fighter), Seventh Skull (a warrior with above average skill and experience), and Hobgoblin (the most skilled and experienced warrior in the village). The mythology of the Seventh Skull goblin warrior is that he or she is a fighter who has collected the skulls of at least seven mortal enemies in his or her lifetime.

The Hobgoblin is the title given to the leader of a goblin warband. The Hobgoblin of a warband is typically very strong, fast, skilled, and experienced in the tactics of warfare – for this reason, humans have misconstrued them as a distinct species, especially because unusually large, powerful goblins often find themselves making it to the position of Hobgoblin.



| Hunter | A hunter is quickly recognized by the hooded cloak he or she wears which is made of their greatest kill. Skilled in spear, bow, net and bolas, the most renowned hunter strides through the village wearing the face of the lion, the gryphon, the auroch, and the great stag. Hunting is, of course, not just for glory. The primary role of the hunter is to take their Vlugzul roaming the wilds of the forests in search of game - they return from a hunt with meat, hide, antler, ivory, tendon and bone that all play an essential part in maintaining the village and can all be traded to butcher, tanner and weapon-maker.

The hunters almost never need to feed their Vlugzul from local or imported beef. Their mounts have access to plenty of wild meat, and hunters will often insist that a Vlugzul raised on the flesh of wild beasts is stronger, faster and fiercer than one that lives on a diet of fat, complacent cow. Hunters tend to be loners, especially when it comes to doing their jobs, as too many wings in the sky will alert the prey of the coming predators. The only exception to this is when a Great Hunt is called to deal with some magnificent or terrifying beast that strays too close to the village and requires more than the usual effort to deal with it. Many a goblin campfire story is about a Great Hunt that went exceptionally well... or exceptionally poorly.


| Carpenter | With how little access to good metal the goblin nation has, wood and leather take the place for most common items. Provided with timber by the forester goblins and bone by the hunters, carpenters produce a huge variety of important and mundane items from spoons and bowls and combs to chairs, beds, wagons, crutches, tools and weapon handles. They can do beautiful, intricate works like an ale horn carved with a depiction of the hunt for the great auroch that once bore the horn - but the demand for utilitarian tools will always outweigh the more fun projects, because when it comes to dividing your time between bone needles for the doctor and spoons with bats carved on them for the breeder, the doctor wins every time.

| Smith | Metal is rare and expensive, but what little of it is largely needed for buckles and rings in Vlugzul harnesses. Considering the shortage of metal mining operations in the goblin lands, much of the metal a smith has to work with is sourced from armor and weaponry taken from fallen human enemies that is too big for a goblin to use or wear themselves. Goblin smiths get very good at 'recycling' metal that isn't being used anymore. Many a goblin blade started its life as a horseshoe pried from the fallen mount of a foolish human.

| Farmer | Not much grows here, but there are some scraggly fruit trees and bitter grains that can endure the location and have been coaxed into the semblance of agriculture by some incredibly determined goblins. The harvest of these small farms end up, more often than not, going to a brewer instead of a cook. Once it's alcoholic, it doesn't matter how vile it tastes, right?

| Doctor | Healing knowledge is limited and often garbled. Goblin doctors depend on a collection of potions and cocktails made of boiled plants and suspicious paste, and are more likely to amputate and cauterize a wound than waste time trying to stop the spread of an infection. Much of goblin diagnosis comes from a deep inhalation and a poke at the problem area.

| Seer | There can only be one village seer at any given time. The seer is in place until his or her death, after which their oldest apprentice takes over the role, and so on. Seers strive to always have at least one successor, who follows them around and sees to their needs, but can have as many as three apprentices. The village seer is highly respected and regarded as intensely magical and wise. This is not a position that can be deliberately trained for - an apprentice is chosen by forces mysterious and unknown and revealed to the seer in a prophetic dream. Villagers will often consult the seer on major business and life decisions, and it is considered terrible luck not to have a seer present at the naming ceremony of a newborn goblin child. All counseling services provided by the seer are paid for with gifts and tributes, which act in place of a wage.

| Diplomat | Members of the Council of Elders often take on this role when visiting goblins are in the village, but if it involves travel a younger pair of legs generally takes on the task. While it says a great deal about your speaking skills to be approved as a village diplomat, it also kind of suggests you weren't capable of a more tangible skill. There are rarely more than one or two diplomats in a village, and they spend most of their time traveling. They tend to favor scout Vlugzul for their swiftness.

| Merchant | Things! Things for sale! Trinkets, baubles, wonders from the far edge of the continent! Mysterious skulls from the Island of Guub'dzurt, glistening gems stolen from the ruins of an ancient mine, the pelts of golden rats the size of a warg! No? What do you mean, none of those things are actually useful? Well then, how about bars of steel direct from the Big City to the north-east? Spices? Woven cloth to make the finest bandages? Silk thread to stitch your ear back together? A fine iron pocket knife? The designs for a better plow? What about this magnificent harness made of dragonhide? I'll make the trade for your three biggest Vlugzul. Rare thing, dragonhide. It'll last you a lifetime! ...no, of course it isn't leather painted green! How dare you insinuate - oh, yes, I do see where the paint is cracking. I'm just going to leave now.

| Potter | There are a great many uses for ceramics in a goblin village, although it's primarily as storage vessels. Plates, mugs, candle holders, jugs, jars, vases and, of course, pots.

| Jeweler | Bone and wood and leather don't magically make themselves into fine decorative pieces of jewelery on their own. Although they have no practical uses, earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces are common for both genders of goblins to own.

| Angler | The small winding river west of the village doesn't provide enough fish to support the whole population, but it's always good to have another source of food. When you've been living on salted beef and sour wine for the better part of a season, a fresh-caught fish is a welcome addition to your diet and can fetch high prices in bartering.

| Chandler | Chandlers make the candles that light huts during the darkest of nights or aid the vision of those whose eyes grow weaker. Goblins have much better night vision than humans so they don't use candles nearly as often - the need for a candle to see in the dark is generally regarded as a sign of aging and being past one's prime. Because candles are made of tallow - rendered ox fat - generally speaking a butcher or leatherworker will act as a part-time chandler and make a few candles now and then, depending on how many older goblins are living in the village at the time.

| Brewer | Importing barrels of drink is expensive! The village usually has one or two brewers and their apprentices who make wines, ales and beers using whatever fruits and grains are available from the forest and the small harvest of the village farms. They're usually not very good, but if the rumors are true, somewhere in the village is a cask of something that has been aging for fifty whole years and is undoubtedly the first and only fine vintage they will ever produce.