Talk:Nott/@comment-34506181-20180302190350/@comment-27025402-20180304231158

Hi, NobleWhiteLotus!

The Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting is ambiguous in its phrasing when discussing goblinoids, the Curse of Strife, Ghor Dranas, and the Dranassar people. The ambiguity leaves many aspects of the origin stories open to interpretation and speculation.

Based on the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the goblins seem (to me) to be separate and distinct from the Dranassar. Goblins (and hobgoblins and bugbears) were created by the Strife Emperor as a result of transforming the Dranassar, which essentially means that the goblins were created by a god using a pre-existing race as the raw materials. That's one method of divine creation, whereas others might be, for example, Moradin forging dwarves on his anvil in D&D or elves arising from the blood of Corellon in D&D. In this sense, the Strife Emperor's "Curse of Strife"—which seems to have been incurable, thus far (p. 126)—is reminiscent of the "Curse of Flesh" from World of Warcraft.

In any case, goblins are quite distinct from the Dranassar, and Nott certainly wouldn't recognize herself if a deity or a Wish spell suddenly transformed her into a Dranassar. Therefore, I'm reverting recent edits to the "Nott" article, but this background information on the races/species could certainly be added to the "Goblin", "Hobgoblin", "Bugbear", and "Dranassar" articles.