For Mayternity 2020

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When they're not locked in a war with one another, goblins are often times building up their numbers in the only ways they know how to. While it isn't disallowed for other goblin families to have children on their own, most do not manage to have terribly many. Either because they can only produce enough children to replace themselves before being killed off somewhere by something bigger and tougher like an orc, or a neighboring tribe, or something unpredictable that the small stature of goblins makes impossible for them to resist effectively, such as natural disasters. More commonly, however, due to the hugely pragmatic (read selfish) nature of some tribes, most only have as many children as their skill will effectively let them feed without starving themselves, which thanks to their aversion to agriculture and reliance on trade or hunting bigger creatures, is usually not many.

Still, it is more beneficial for them to have as many children as they're able to replace losses in a war with other tribes or the other aforementioned tragedies. To this effect, every chieftain, chosen out of the most clever or the most physically powerful, takes a wife. While they sometimes take more to form a harem, the first wife is ALWAYS the "brood mother" of the tribe, with the other wives serving less as companions for the chieftain and more as personal servants for the brood mother (though they do also have relationships with the chieftain) and her children. To facilitate increased fertility and fecundity, the brood mother is blessed through a ritual that marks her as the brood mother of the tribe to the gods of the goblins and by extension grants her the improved reproductive capabilities. If this ritual is cast on a different wife of the same chieftain, then the initial brood mother loses the blessing. It is also lost if for any reason she is unable to reproduce anymore, but interestingly, not if she betrays or is kidnapped from the tribe. Shamans claim that it is because the mother is still part of the tribe by right, though Marian scholars suggest it is more than likely that the goblin gods got tired of removing and adding the blessing back when particularly good brood mothers kept being kidnapped between tribes.

Despite the burden of expectations on the brood mothers, it tends to be a fairly pleasant position. Firstly, the blessings make it rare that a Broodmother is not able to have at least a few children during her tenure. Secondly, even with the blessings, a brood mother's happiness, satisfaction, and productivity are supposedly reliant on the favor of the gods. Big tribes have big brood mothers and vise versa. This is the same favor that it is said that the chieftains are reliant on for their power within the tribe. Therefore, how good a job a chieftain is doing, is directly related to the number of children a brood mother has at one time. If a particularly low-delivery brood mother starts having many more children at a time, it is seen as a sign of impending prosperity. If a brood mother that was having a large number of children at a time, however, starts having much fewer, it is seen as a bad omen. A bad omen that reflects directly onto a chieftain. Many a leader has been overthrown or killed by his subjects because his wife started having fewer children, as such, it is in their BEST interest to make sure their wives are happy, often showering them with extra food, gold, jewelry, and whatever else they desire from their raids or trade expeditions as with sufficient prodding from her to his closest subjects, he could find himself with more potential usurpers after his throne.

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I NEEDED to do something much more like what people expect of me for Mayternity Month AT LEAST. Which is more bellies and much more writing. Honestly like how this background came out. I originally drew it out and gave it actual color, but I felt like it was A. Too flat, and B. Too distracting, so I went with this approach instead. Always happy to engage in more world-building though. Maybe eventually I'll do a thing with all of this stuff.