My planet is infested with Goblins

Noah sensed the approaching limit of the time chamber before he noticed any visible change in the world below. The accelerated flow that had carried generation after generation across his planet was beginning to weaken, and for the first time since entering the chamber, he could feel that the centuries available to him were finally running out.

Instead of narrowing his attention toward one war, settlement, or ruler, he expanded his perception across the entire planet. The world that answered his gaze bore almost no resemblance to the one he had first awakened. The scattered groups of goblins he had once distributed across four continents had multiplied into millions, and the countless tribes, kingdoms, leagues, and city-states that had risen over the centuries had gradually been absorbed into four great continental powers. Each continent now stood beneath a single empire.

The central continent had become the heart of intercontinental commerce and one of the most densely connected regions of the planet. The western sea routes opened by Grik generations earlier fed enormous ports along the coast, while roads spread inland toward farming valleys, mining districts, river cities, and manufacturing centers. After centuries of competition between coastal leagues, inland monarchies, and merchant cities, one power had finally brought the continent together. The Varkesh Empire now stretched from the western ports to the eastern mountains, ruling territories that had once belonged to dozens of rival states.

Varkesh had not conquered the continent through military power alone. Its coastal cities possessed immense wealth from overseas trade, allowing its rulers to finance professional armies, purchase the loyalty of smaller chiefs, and maintain roads connecting distant provinces. Grain from inland valleys supplied its cities, while metals from the eastern mountains equipped soldiers and shipyards. Merchant families that once ruled independent ports were gradually incorporated into the imperial administration, often receiving privileges in exchange for recognizing the emperor’s authority. Some regions resisted for generations, but each rebellion became more difficult as Varkesh expanded the network of roads, forts, granaries, and officials supporting its rule.

Noah observed the imperial capital near the western coast. What had once been a large trade city now contained districts large enough to dwarf the ancient settlements of earlier centuries. Warehouses stretched along the harbor, shipyards constructed vessels capable of carrying hundreds of goblins, and administrative buildings stored records from provinces hundreds of leagues away. Imperial officials counted taxes, registered land, monitored merchant cargo, and organized grain shipments toward regions suffering from poor harvests. The empire was far from peaceful, but its bureaucracy allowed it to survive problems that would once have destroyed entire civilizations.

The northern continent was ruled by the Skargrim Empire. Of all four continental powers, Skargrim had emerged through the harshest environment. Long winters and limited farmland had forced northern goblins to organize food storage, transportation, and military defense earlier than many of their southern relatives. Small tribes had gradually become fortified kingdoms, and those kingdoms eventually fought one another until Skargrim defeated or absorbed every serious rival.

The empire now controlled frozen valleys, mountain mines, great rivers, forests, grazing lands, and volcanic regions. Northern roads were built differently from those of Varkesh, with stone markers and fortified shelters positioned along routes where travelers might otherwise freeze during severe storms. Large communal granaries remained central to Skargrim administration. Provincial governors were expected to maintain enough preserved food to prevent winter shortages from becoming disasters, and imperial inspectors traveled between major settlements to monitor those reserves.

Skargrim’s military remained one of the most disciplined on the planet. Its soldiers trained for campaigns across frozen terrain and carried heavier protective equipment than most southern armies. Yet the empire’s survival depended just as heavily on administration as warfare. A northern ruler could conquer a valley easily compared with the difficulty of feeding the population through winter. Skargrim had therefore become highly centralized, with imperial officials controlling grain distribution, taxation, roads, military recruitment, and major mines.

Its religious traditions also retained traces of the first northern goblins. Temples throughout the empire honored the Keeper of the First Flame, though centuries of priesthood and imperial politics had transformed the simple ancient belief into an elaborate religion. Sacred flames burned in major cities, each supposedly descended from the original fire given to the first ancestors. Noah remembered the truth far more simply. A scattered group of frightened goblins had once been placed beside a source of warmth so they would not die during their earliest days.

The southern continent belonged entirely to the Viridian Empire. Its rise had taken longer than either Varkesh or Skargrim because the southern landscape made unification difficult. Vast jungles, wetlands, enormous rivers, volcanic regions, and broad grasslands separated populations that had developed different cultures and methods of survival. Instead of conquering everything through direct occupation, Viridian grew through a combination of military campaigns, marriage alliances, tributary agreements, control of rivers, and economic dependence.

By the final accelerated centuries, the empire’s influence reached from the great wetlands to the volcanic east. Its rulers understood that controlling the southern rivers was more important than occupying every forest path. Imperial river fleets transported grain, soldiers, messages, and taxes between distant regions far more efficiently than overland caravans could travel through jungle. Cities flourished along those waterways, surrounded by irrigation canals, plantations, markets, and workshops.

Viridian’s greatest wealth came from resources unavailable elsewhere. Dense hardwoods, medicinal plants, dyes, spices, unusual animal products, and mana-touched vegetation moved through imperial markets before being exported to other continents. The empire’s healers had become particularly famous for studying plants growing near shallow mana veins, although their understanding remained primitive. Some treatments worked because of careful observation, while others were surrounded by superstition that would take generations to separate from real knowledge.

The Viridian court encouraged exploration into the deeper jungle because mana had slowly changed the environment. Larger predators, strange plants, and unusual minerals appeared more frequently in regions near the Mother Mana Vein. Expeditions sponsored by the empire sometimes returned with valuable discoveries, while others simply disappeared. The danger did little to reduce interest because a single successful expedition could produce resources worth more than an ordinary village generated in decades.

The western continent, once completely isolated from the others, had become the territory of the Luminous Empire. Its existence fascinated Noah more than the others because its political identity had grown directly from the ancient belief in the Great Light. The first isolated goblins had remembered their earliest experiences as divine intervention, and over centuries that memory evolved into a religion powerful enough to help unify an entire continent.

The emperors of the Luminous Empire claimed that the Great Light had separated goblins across the world for a purpose and that their empire represented the beginning of reunification. Priests taught that the discovery of eastern goblins by Grik had not been an accident but a sign that the age of separation was ending. Whether the imperial dynasty truly believed every part of that doctrine mattered less than how effectively it unified populations with different languages and traditions.

Luminous armies marched beneath banners carrying a radiant circle, while priests traveled with merchants and officials into newly absorbed regions. The empire controlled the pale timber forests that had once attracted eastern traders, along with rich agricultural lands, river systems, and important western harbors. Its ports were now filled with ships from all four continents, and many coastal cities contained mixed populations descended from both western and eastern goblins.

The capital of the Luminous Empire stood far from the beach where Grik’s battered ship had once landed, yet the explorer’s name remained known. Imperial historians described his arrival as one of the great turning points in their recorded history. Some accounts claimed the Great Light had personally guided his vessel through the storm, while others insisted Grik had been chosen as an instrument of divine reunification. Noah knew the truth had been far less dramatic. Grik had simply been intelligent, stubborn, curious, and unwilling to accept the horizon as the end of the world.

As Noah observed the four empires together, he saw that the planet had become more interconnected than ever. Varkesh merchant ships carried manufactured goods toward Luminous ports and returned with pale timber, medicines, fibers, and western crops. Skargrim metal traveled south through continental routes before reaching Viridian markets. Southern dyes and medicinal preparations appeared in northern cities where the plants that produced them could never survive. Goods no longer belonged solely to the places that created them.

Writing had changed alongside commerce and government. The crude marks once carved into grain boards and boat designs had evolved into established written languages. Each empire maintained large administrative archives. Varkesh recorded merchant contracts and customs fees. Skargrim maintained military and grain registers. Viridian officials documented river taxes and agricultural production. Luminous priests preserved religious histories alongside imperial decrees.

Maps had also become far more sophisticated. Goblin mapmakers could identify major coastlines, rivers, mountains, cities, roads, and political boundaries across much of the known world. The western sea that Grik once crossed without knowing whether land existed on the other side was now covered by recognized navigation routes. Captains carried charts showing currents, safe harbors, dangerous reefs, and supply stations.

The One Percent Genius characteristic continued shaping each empire. Exceptional goblins appeared in every generation, but Noah had long since accepted that intelligence did not guarantee benevolence. Some became engineers who improved roads, irrigation systems, ships, and bridges. Others became physicians, scholars, generals, administrators, merchants, architects, or legal reformers. Some used the same gifts to become ruthless rulers, criminal organizers, political manipulators, or conquerors.

What mattered was that civilization could now use their discoveries after they died. Knowledge no longer depended completely on living memory. An engineer could leave drawings. A physician could record treatments. A general could preserve campaign maps. A merchant could maintain accounting methods inherited by descendants. The short goblin lifespan remained a disadvantage, but it was no longer capable of erasing progress as easily as it once had.

Beneath all four empires, the Mother Mana Vein continued spreading through the planet. Mana crystals were now common enough in certain mining regions that imperial governments treated them as a separate category of resource. Their true potential remained largely unknown. Nobles collected pure crystals as symbols of wealth, priests placed them in temples, and craftsmen experimented with weaker pieces near furnaces or tools.

In Varkesh, metalworkers had discovered that certain crystals changed the behavior of heated alloys. Skargrim priests believed crystals could strengthen sacred flames during ceremonies. Viridian healers studied plants growing near shallow mana deposits, while Luminous temples used bright crystals in religious rituals associated with the Great Light. None of these experiments had yet produced a mature magical system, but Noah could see the beginnings of something important. Had the time chamber continued for several more centuries, the goblins might have begun learning how to manipulate mana deliberately.

The final accelerated decades passed beneath Noah’s observation. Wars still occurred despite continental unification. Varkesh experienced provincial rebellions and disputes between merchant families. Skargrim struggled with succession conflicts whenever a weak emperor inherited the throne. Viridian fought repeated uprisings in remote jungle provinces, while the Luminous Empire faced resistance from regions that rejected imperial religious authority. Yet none of these crises threatened to return the goblins to primitive life.

That was the greatest difference between the civilization Noah saw now and the tribes he had watched during the earliest centuries. A ruler could die without taking the state with him. A city could burn without destroying the knowledge that created it. A dynasty could collapse while roads, farms, workshops, archives, and laws survived under whoever replaced it.

As the chamber approached its limit, Noah noticed the accelerated flow beginning to slow. The changes that had once rushed across his perception became easier to follow. Borders moved more slowly. Generations no longer passed in what felt like moments. Years became months, and months gradually narrowed toward ordinary days.

Life continued across the planet without any awareness that the accelerated age was ending. Varkesh merchants loaded ships for western ports while imperial officials argued over new tariffs. Skargrim farmers harvested cold-resistant grain as soldiers patrolled northern roads. Viridian riverboats carried goods between jungle cities while explorers prepared for another expedition into mana-touched territory. Luminous priests conducted ceremonies beneath radiant symbols while merchants from other continents filled the streets outside their temples.

Noah watched smiths hammer tools, scribes copy records, sailors repair ships, soldiers train within fortified cities, teachers instruct apprentices, healers prepare medicines, farmers work irrigation channels, and children run along streets built generations before their birth. The goblin world was not peaceful, but peace had never been the requirement for civilization. What mattered was that progress now continued through war, political change, famine, and the death of individual rulers.

The flow of time slowed further until Noah could distinguish individual days clearly. He expanded his perception over the planet one final time and viewed the four continental empires together. The Varkesh Empire ruled the central continent, the Skargrim Empire dominated the north, the Viridian Empire controlled the south, and the Luminous Empire governed the western land that had once existed completely beyond the knowledge of the others.

Four continents now held four civilizations large enough to shape the entire world around them.

Noah remembered the first goblins gathered around primitive fires, frightened by predators and struggling to understand agriculture. Their descendants now ruled cities, commanded armies, crossed oceans, maintained archives, negotiated international trade, mined mana crystals, and administered populations numbering in the millions. The transformation had taken centuries for them, even though only a small amount of time had passed for Noah.

Then the acceleration stopped.

The sudden stillness felt unnatural after so long spent watching generations race past. Noah’s awareness withdrew from the planet as the connection to the time chamber changed, and his consciousness returned fully to his body. When he opened his eyes, the smooth interior of the Aelwyn chamber looked almost exactly as it had when he entered.

Noah remained seated while his mind adjusted to the difference between the two flows of time. He had entered intending to give his goblins enough development to survive the academy’s monthly battle assessment. What emerged from those accelerated centuries had surpassed anything he had expected.

He would not be bringing scattered tribes into the coming assessment.

He would be bringing a planet divided between four continental empires, each capable of raising armies, maintaining fleets, organizing supplies, preserving knowledge, and waging war on a scale the first goblins could never have imagined.

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