For the record, Sorceress George is just as tall as player George, so Nanase's chair is definitely floating (hence why her hair is like that).

Goblins!

I enjoy a lot of things that make use of fantasy and video game RPG tropes. This inevitably means I watch things with their own takes on goblins.

Sometimes, who the goblins are, and why they're an enemy (or NOT an enemy) is actually addressed. Other times, they're just generic cannon fodder enemies, and it is taken as given that it's okay to attack them.

While I don't get on a high horse in response to the latter case, I can't help but wonder what the deal is with those clearly intelligent beings who use tools, and whether they truly are the baddies.

Given that I most commonly encounter this in comedies having fun with fantasy video game tropes, and video game tropes often necessitate generic enemies, this can fairly be seen as thinking too much. The goblins are aggressive generic fantasy enemies, and that's it.

Nonetheless, I do wonder about the goblins, so if I'M going to have goblins as generic enemies, there's at least going to be some backstory to them (even if this is just in the context of a fantasy RPG they're playing).

In this backstory, most goblins likely will be hostile to most player characters, but it's tragic as well. They're intended to be the pawns of a malevolent god, literally created to cause problems for others.

I like to think a number of goblins rejecting this is part of the game world's lore and history. Yeah, their god might have tried to make them all jerks, but even if he succeeded, not every jerk is evil, darn it! Just look at George!

I also like to think that the goblins are a playable race in the game that get bonuses related to smithing and cooking (and alchemy), and that they'd make for really effective crafting builds.

Not that all of this is likely to come up in the comic. I just wanted to have more lore for the goblins than "hey, it's generic bad guys. LET'S GET 'EM!"

Monsters in General

I think "a god did it" is a decent enough explanation for whatever absurd creatures you want to have in a fantasy setting (assuming the gods are actual characters), and can also get around the whole issue of where absurd monsters fit in nature.

The answer is... They don't.

A god was in a mood.

"I have created flying badger rattlesnakes."

"That's REALLY going to mess up the ecosystem. Why'd you make them?"

"Because (BLEEP) the ecosystem!"