My planet is infested with Goblins

The council hall overlooking Grik’s old harbor had been built for merchants, admirals, and rulers who believed disputes could be settled before ships began burning. By the time the representatives of the strongest goblin states gathered around the enormous wooden map at its center, however, Noah could already tell that peace was unlikely. Colored stones marked ports, islands, sea lanes, and territories claimed by kingdoms on both sides of the western ocean. Several of those stones occupied the same waters, and every delegation had arrived with armed guards waiting outside.

The first open challenge came from the Kingdom of Drakar, the strongest naval state along the eastern coast. Its king had spent decades absorbing smaller ports and forcing neighboring chiefs to accept his authority. His fleet was larger than that of any individual rival, and his admirals had turned several major trade corridors into protected routes where pirates rarely dared to attack.

Drakar himself had not come to the council. Instead, his envoy placed a carved black marker directly over the most profitable passage between the central continent and the western lands.

"Our king’s ships patrol these waters. Our sailors die keeping pirates away from merchants who profit from using them. From this season onward, every vessel passing through the central corridor will pay a protection toll."

A representative of the maritime league leaned forward.

"You calling it protection but it’s more like a tribute"

The envoy did not move the marker.

"If our ships keep your merchants alive, your merchants can help pay for those ships."

A western ambassador struck the edge of the table with his knuckles.

"You eastern goblins speak as if the sea ends at your coastline. Half the ships using that corridor are sailing toward western ports. You do not decide alone what happens in waters connecting our kingdoms."

The arguments continued until voices filled the hall. The maritime league rejected Drakar’s claim. Western rulers threatened to deny his merchants access to their ports. Drakar’s envoy refused every compromise that weakened the king’s authority over the corridor.

By sunset, the meeting had accomplished the opposite of what its organizers intended.

The goblin world began dividing into blocs.

Drakar offered smaller eastern states naval protection and favorable access to his ports if they recognized his toll system. Several accepted willingly because piracy had made independent trade increasingly dangerous. Others joined because Drakar’s warships appeared outside their harbors shortly before negotiations began.

The maritime league answered by strengthening its existing alliance. It signed agreements with western kingdoms that feared a single eastern king gaining control over intercontinental commerce. Ships, grain, timber, money, and warriors began moving between allies.

Noah watched the preparations spread across the coasts.

The coming conflict was different from the wars of earlier generations. A tribal chief once summoned warriors who carried their own weapons and returned to farming when a battle ended. The new kingdoms maintained permanent soldiers, paid sailors, warehouse networks, tax officials, messengers, and fleets that could remain at sea for months.

Thousands of goblins who had never met King Drakar would soon fight because his officials ordered them to.

The war began with a merchant ship.

A league vessel carrying western medicine and timber entered the disputed corridor and refused to pay Drakar’s toll. A patrol intercepted it before sunset. The captain argued that his league charter guaranteed free passage.

The patrol commander looked at the document and handed it back.

"Your league wrote this."

The merchant captain nodded.

"The agreement is recognized by every league port."

The commander pointed toward Drakar’s flag above his ship.

"I do not see my king’s mark on it."

The vessel was seized.

The maritime league demanded its release.

Drakar refused.

Three days later, league warships captured three merchant vessels belonging to Drakar’s kingdom.

Within weeks, ports on both sides were confiscating enemy cargo. Merchants were expelled from hostile cities, armed escorts appeared around convoys, and prices rose throughout coastal markets.

A trader carrying western medicinal plants confronted a league official after discovering that the price of naval protection had doubled.

"You chiefs wanted a war over who collects a toll. Now merchants cannot even reach the market without paying another toll to survive."

The official answered without looking up from his ledger.

"Then help us win quickly."

The trader laughed bitterly.

"Every ruler says that before a long war."

Both coalitions began assembling fleets.

Drakar possessed fewer allies, but his kingdom had invested heavily in vessels built specifically for war. Their hulls were reinforced for collisions, their decks carried elevated archery platforms, and boarding crews trained together instead of being gathered only when battle approached.

The maritime league compensated with numbers. Every member contributed ships, but that created new problems. Captains from rival ports disliked receiving orders from one another. Signal systems differed. Some ships turned when a banner was raised while others waited for horns.

The league was forced to standardize its commands.

Colored flags began representing changes in direction, formation, attack, retreat, and emergency. Fast vessels were assigned to scouting rather than fighting. Heavy ships formed the battle line. Cargo vessels carrying food, arrows, water, spare rope, and timber remained behind them.

War accelerated organization as effectively as trade had.

The first great confrontation came around a chain of islands near the center of the disputed corridor.

The islands themselves were poor. Their soil was thin, freshwater limited, and settlements small. Their location made them priceless.

A fleet controlling them could repair ships, store supplies, and watch vessels moving through the surrounding sea.

Drakar sent his navy first.

The league followed.

Noah focused his attention on the region as hundreds of sails appeared across the horizon. Generations earlier, Grik had crossed the western ocean in one vessel whose crew feared what might exist beyond sight of land. Now enough ships to cover the sea were gathering to fight over the route he discovered.

The fleets met shortly after dawn.

Smaller ships moved ahead first, exchanging arrows while attempting to circle enemy formations. Drakar’s heavier vessels advanced in disciplined groups, their commanders intending to force direct boarding battles where their trained warriors held the advantage.

The league refused.

Its lighter ships turned away whenever Drakar’s warships approached, then returned to strike at steering equipment and sails.

Drakar’s admiral interpreted the movement as weakness.

By midday, several league vessels began retreating toward a narrow passage between two islands.

The admiral ordered pursuit.

One of his captains warned him.

"The channel is too narrow for the heavy ships."

"Their fleet is breaking."

"We do not know these waters."

The admiral pointed toward the retreating sails.

"We know they are running."

The pursuit continued.

Noah had already seen what the admiral had not.

League merchants had traveled around those islands for generations. Their captains possessed records describing currents that changed sharply when the tide turned.

The retreat was deliberate.

League ships passed through the channel shortly before the current strengthened. Their shallow hulls handled the water easily.

Drakar’s heavier vessels did not.

The first few entered successfully. Those behind them slowed as the current pushed against their bows. The formation stretched apart until ships that had entered together were separated by hundreds of lengths of water.

Then league banners appeared behind the islands.

Hidden vessels moved into the channel from both sides.

Drakar’s captains attempted to reverse course, but the current and congestion trapped them.

Arrows fell onto crowded decks. Boarding hooks caught the closest ships. One vessel caught fire after a clay container filled with burning oil shattered across its sail.

The admiral finally ordered withdrawal, but dozens of ships had already been isolated.

By nightfall, the league controlled the islands.

Its victory was expensive.

Both sides lost hundreds of goblins. Wreckage drifted between the islands, and damaged vessels crowded every beach suitable for repairs.

More importantly, Drakar’s kingdom had not been destroyed.

The war continued.

Years passed beneath Noah’s observation.

Ports changed hands repeatedly. Island settlements became fortified naval bases. Watchtowers appeared along coastlines. Merchant ships traveled only in convoys large enough to defend themselves.

Pirates prospered in the confusion.

Some attacked both coalitions.

Others secretly worked for kings who publicly condemned piracy while privately paying captains to raid enemy trade.

Neutral states discovered another path to wealth. Instead of joining either side, they sold grain, timber, rope, and weapons to whoever paid more.

One small island kingdom became rich enough from supplying both coalitions that Drakar accused it of prolonging the conflict intentionally.

Its ruler answered the accusation publicly.

"You keep buying. We keep selling."

The war changed trade routes as well. Merchants unwilling to risk the central corridor searched for alternatives. Explorers mapped previously ignored islands, southern currents, and unfamiliar coastlines.

New ports emerged along safer routes.

The struggle to control commerce unintentionally expanded commerce beyond the waters anyone originally wanted to dominate.

Yet the cost continued rising.

Forests near major shipyards were cut faster than they could recover. Farmers complained that too many young goblins had been recruited into fleets. Taxes increased to maintain professional armies and replace lost ships.

In several coastal cities, riots broke out after grain prices doubled.

Even kings who had once spoken confidently of victory began discussing how much longer their treasuries could sustain the conflict.

Drakar aged during the war.

His hair turned gray, and several of the admirals who had helped build his navy died before him.

He had started the conflict intending to control the greatest trade route in the goblin world.

Years later, his kingdom controlled fewer merchant ships than it had before the first toll was imposed.

The maritime league was little better. It had prevented Drakar’s domination but exhausted many of its member states doing so.

Merchants began demanding negotiations.

Shipbuilders joined them.

Then the farmers followed.

Eventually, even rulers the rulers had no choice but to listen.

The second great council took place in the same city where the first confrontation had begun. This time, the delegations arrived after years of war. Several banners represented rulers who had not been alive when the conflict started.

Drakar attended personally.

The old king stood over the same map where his envoy had once placed the black marker.

A league representative pointed toward the central corridor.

"No one kingdom owns the open sea."

Drakar stared at him.

"Many of my sailors died there, fighting"

"So did ours."

A western ruler placed both hands on the table.

"If dead sailors is a proof of ownership, then every kingdom here would own the same water."

The negotiations lasted weeks.

No one received everything they wanted.

That was precisely why the agreement held.

The final treaty recognized that kingdoms could control their harbors and nearby coastal waters, but the major intercontinental trade routes would remain open to recognized merchant vessels. Tolls could be charged inside ports and clearly administered coastal zones, but no ruler could declare ownership over the entire western ocean.

Neutral merchant ships received limited protection during wars between signatories.

Piracy was condemned by every state represented at the council, including several that quietly continued funding pirates afterward.

Disputes over international trade were expected to be presented before diplomatic councils before armed force was used.

Noah studied the treaty with interest.

The goblins had created rules between states.

Those rules were imperfect. Kings would violate them when convenient. Merchants would exploit loopholes. Pirates would ignore them entirely.

Still, rulers now accepted the idea that certain agreements existed beyond the authority of a single tribe or kingdom.

Several years after the treaty, merchant sails once again filled the western sea.

Warships remained nearby, but their presence no longer automatically meant battle. Trade convoys crossed waters that had once been filled with wreckage.

At the entrance to Grik’s old harbor, workers raised a broad stone marker carved with the symbols of the states that had signed the agreement.

Below them was a smaller image.

A single ship sailed toward a distant horizon.

Noah looked across the kingdoms, alliances, fleets, councils, and laws now shaping his world.

The goblins had once fought merely to survive another winter.

Now they were deciding the rules by which nations dealt with one another.

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