The Worker quivered in place. Anand hesitated, and them embraced him.

them –> then

I think you are trying too hard to equate goblins as being simple animals, rather than an actual thinking people. No one ever said that goblins, or anyone else, is “natureless” as you call it.

Bears, from your example, are ruled by instinct. They have not developed beyond that. Trying to make friends with random bears is going to be a stupid idea, because even if it works part of the time, eventually something will trigger their instinctual responses and things will end badly.

Goblins are a people. They aren’t ruled by their instincts, but rather by their circumstances: everyone hates them, and everyone is against them, so nominally their only method of survival is for them to be against everyone as well. That doesn’t mean they have to be, though. They can still think, and reason, and want better for their people, but that can rarely ever be achieved because other people won’t let it.

This group of goblins is probably the best example of that: they are from one of the strongest tribes in the area, so they aren’t regularly hunted down and slaughtered by the other races. They are still goblins, but they won’t have nearly the same absolute drive for survival that a weaker tribe would have. Their former leader taught them that it is possible to live amongst the other races, and that they don’t just have to try and kill each other out of hand.

So sure, goblins can be good or bad. A lot of them for sure are bad, possibly even most. But a lot of that badness is driven by the other races, and not the goblins themselves.

I imagine Soldier hands to look similar to wearing winter mittens… very sharp mittens that would be good for digging.

That being said, while their hands would make it impractical for them to learn something like American Sign Language, due to it needing extremely nuanced finger gestures for good portions of it, there are similar methods of communication that use exaggerated hand and arm movements, for use when individual fingers aren’t always readily visible. Some combination of those things together could make a decent enough sign language that even Antinium would be able to use most of it.

We’ve also seen people (and skeletons!) showing that it is possible to be quite skilled in something without actually being Skilled in that thing. Thus, it makes perfect sense for Pisces to be the way he is.

We know from the Albez trap that his father basically forced him to practice, regardless of his own wants. Doing that to a kid can create a huge amount of resentment for something, to the point that they will reject whatever it is in the strictest of terms for the rest of their lives. Pisces is at least smart enough not to give up such an advantage, but that doesn’t mean he has to accept making it an absolute part of who he is by taking a class that he effectively despises.

I understand “in universe” that people are natureless but… …man I’m sorry it makes for bad writing. I know many people will love it. I mean we read fantasy for the magic—but I can’t help but feel a little put off. The whole point of Goblins is that they have a particular set of racial characteristics. They represent a distillation of the worst of man’s instincts. (In Tolkein fantasy the elves are arguably the opposite.) I’m not saying that we can’t have Goblins with free will but them having a nature is what defines them.

~

I’m sure this commentary is probably completely not appreciated but I felt the need to leave the comment: mostly because I love the story so much. There are so many good things and I’m thankful it was made.