Goblin Writing Systems

The **Goblin Writing Systems**, having been developed by goblins in the Serpentspine, started out primarily as writing on rock and other hard surfaces. To this end, they developed a writing system consisting of hard lines that were easy to etch with sharp rocks into cave walls, rocks, or minerals, each line representing a sound that goblins used in their speech and could be read with one’s eyes or hands if it was too dark. The script was ancient, thousands of years old, but its usage was mostly used for writing numbers and formal names of areas and the rare great individuals.

## History

While understood to have had presence all-throughout the Serpentspine, the most examples of goblinic script were centered around the western caverns that led to the Deepwoods and Bulwar, where the abundance of soft minerals like marble presented an easier time with writing the script. These soft materials ensured this writing system's practicality and ease of use, retaining its usage in the modern day among western goblins and their cousins: the forest goblins, bringing their alphabet along with them when they migrated into the Greatwoods, replacing stone with wood bark etchings.

Later on, goblins started producing dyes from serpentbloom and certain rocks, and were less limited in their materials for writing, this had made it easier to write their alphabet initially, though with time the use of such a writing system grew unpopular due to various reasons. The text often smeared when using the imprecise methods that goblins employed (often just using their thumbs or brushes made of serpentbloom husks) and many goblin clans found these methods lacking. It was during this period that something known as the Paruzvon family of scripts  was developed, a logographic style of writing that relied mostly on smear patterns that would become very popular as the Serpentspine grew more and more turbulent since the height of the Aul-Dwarov and the much later rise of the orcs.

Although the alphabetical system never entirely died out, most cave goblins in the east started using Paruzvon as a primary means of written communication instead, with those furthest east surrounded by hard stones having the most history with it. The goblins in Escann pre-greentide, however, never adopted Paruzvon, and their descendants in the Deepwoods to this day maintain their use of the goblin alphabet.

## Different Systems

### The Alphabet system (Jabozhuki)

Goblin script reads from left to right, with the script being written between two lines. The top line, known as the ceiling, is interrupted between different words, while the bottom line, known as the floor, is interrupted between different sentences. Because of this structure, all sentences are written continuously, which would eventually lead to goblin books being significantly wider than those of most species, to accommodate long sentences.

The alphabet is known as the Jabozhuki, named after the first four letters of the goblin alphabet as was discovered in lands that were once known to be held by the thieving arrow clan, those being J, B, Z, and K.

### The Logographic System (Paruzvon)

The Paruzvon family of scripts developed as a response to intensifying struggles between goblins and their environment, as well as the practicality of the creation of a writing system that could communicate ideas quickly and effectively to those who needed them, as well as erasing them whenever the need arose.

The amount of symbols a particular goblin clans uses ranges from a few to a few hundred symbols, depending on just how ingrained the system is for their communication. The further west into the Serpentspine you go, the more of a mixed system you get. While the further east you go, you see more of a reliance on Paruzvon, with the squatters and clans of the far east having the most intricate and formalized systems of standard pronunciation. A vast majority of goblins, however, mainly used Paruzvon to supplement their primarily oral form of communication, with most goblins knowing only a few key pictograms that hold universal meaning of which can be seen top right:

Symbols like these would evolve over time and would be simplified, retaining or changing their meanings entirely based on the society that created them. Pictured to the right is an example of the logographic scripts used by goblin vassals of The Command derived from it.

Hobgoblins initially also used Paruzvon, but it would get drastically overhauled in a centralized rework of their script overseen by the Command, as they came into contact with the writing systems of Rahen and Haless, and gained access to plentiful amounts of paper.

## Unique Systems of Writing

### Spiderwretch

The Spiderwretch Clan found deep in some of the most difficult-to-traverse environments in all the Serpentspine were always known for doing things differently, from their ways of war to their ways of communication. The spider clans were known to have had a complex system of keeping records that used rocks wrapped in silk. Some extremely early examples of Jabazhuki script written with silk have been discovered, but as the generations passed it seemed that an entirely original writing system eclipsed it and became more practical in the depths of the spider caves.

It does share one trait with Jabazhuki, though, where even if blinded, it can be read with one’s fingers in the dark.

### Overclan (Defunct)

According to imperial records of the Overclan, there was once an attempt to create a goblinic-derived script for its Bulwari people, one that combined the language with goblinic script. However this was ultimately deemed a failure and scrapped. The examples of goblinic script that were preserved seemed to be a much curvier form of Jabozhuki. Scholars of old goblin society consider this a sort of short-lived archaic experiment of cursive Jabozhuki. Eventually, goblins in the Overclan would adopt the Bulwari script, while adding in some custom letters for C, J, O, and V, which Bulwari does not make use of.

### Northern Script

In the northernmost caves inhabited by Quartz Dwarves, Goblins developed an entirely new writing system seemingly underived from either scripts. It remains to be seen how these simple etchings found on walls are meant to be interpreted, as the goblin populace of the northlands cannot be reached for communication due to being driven deeper and deeper into the endless depths.