Of course! One of them babies just looked outside the cave and then came back and said "Hey guys, it's cold outside, let's just sit here and tell stories".

One of those naked Nords in Morrowind said his father was killed by the Snow Elves. The player couldn't be expected to believe him at the time, but it could have been true. I think it's one those things where people in the area know that there's something deadly around them and they have to take real caution to avoid it, even though the outside world thinks it's superstition.

Goblins are implied to be degenerate Elves. If true, then it is obvious that "Goblins" are indeed in Skyrim; they are the degenerate Falmer.

Bethesda *did* create goblins during the GameJam, so it's entirely possible that goblins were cut due to time restraints. But that's bad lore. Either way, they later re-purposed the models and used them as rieklings.

For what it's worth, there were no goblins in http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Bestiary. They may not have had a presence in the Illiac Bay region, but that doesn't preclude them from being in southern/eastern Hammerfell, especially since Orcs were thought to be essentially "big goblins" for at least some of recorded history (of course if gobs are also degenerate elves, that may not have been that big of a misconception after all).

In Redguard, there is goblins on Stros M'Kai

And Divad http://www.imperial-library.info/content/compilation-redguard-history in Hammerfell. It might be orcs, it might be goblins, if we heard the PGE it would be both of them.

Two reasons.

BGS never got around to implementing them.

Falmer gave them trouble.

Problem with the second one is that Goblins are more diurnal types from what we have seen. They could fill a niche on the surface that the Falmer cannot touch. Then you have the Giants though. Hard competition them.

Or it might be ogres, like the Goblin King in Redguard.

I don't see why Skyrim is more dangerous than any other province of Tamriel. That's right there are giants and so many other creatures, but it must be the same in the other provinces.

Inclement weather is rather nasty there, and the local fauna can be pretty aggressive. Its dangerous in comparison to places like Summerset, Cyrodiil, and High Rock, and traveling through mountainous terrain is a huge pain in the ass by itself.

I'm going to put my vote behind "goblins are degenerate elves, therefore Falmer ARE the goblins of Skyrim".

My pet theory regarding the relationship of goblins and orcs is that after the expulsion of the Trinimer/Left-Hand Elves from Yokuda, the refugees entering the Tamrielic wilderness were attacked by hordes of goblins. The male Trinimer were slaughtered and the remaining elf maidens were [vekhed] by the goblin-kin so that they would eventually bear the first generation of orcs. This would of course be the mundane event that parallels the divine death of Trinimac and and "birth" of Malacath.

That is good. Assuming that the slaughtered Trinimer eaten by the goblin-kin it's not a far stretch get to being consumed and expelled. I like hearing mundane explanations for the myth. would you have any others? Maybe start a thread on mundane events that precipitate the myth stories?

Goblins aren't the only semi-intelligent creature to appear irregularly off from game to game. Gone missing recently is also centraurs, minotaurs, nymphs and the true lizardmen (not related to Argonians) from Arena. Other than the nymphs, which were rumored to have been dropped for being naked (can't have naked nymphs running about in a hi-def world), I'm thinking they are there but devs aren't able to come up with a plotline to get the monsters included.

In-game explanation could be the semi-intel monsters have become a little smarter and now avoid the hero whenever possible.

I'm not really sure Arena is a great example of something to compare to. The Lore basically didn't exist yet when they developed that game. I imagine if we head back to High Rock or to Valenwood we'll be seeing Centaurs and Nymphs again

This is my favorite theory as well.

Its totally unconfirmed speculation, but it makes plenty of sense.

Falmer are degenerated Snow Elves. Goblins could be degenerated Heartland High Elves.

The seem to live mostly in areas where Ayleids lived/dominated.

They organize into 8 tribes, to match the 8 divines worshiped by the Ayleids. One of these tribes is MISSING a totem, war chief, and symbol (the Bitterfish tribe...who could be more bitter than Lorkhan. Alternatively could be Trinimac. Both are Missing.)

It also matches well with the idea that the transformation is more metaphysical, rather than just a result of Dwemer trickery, which I prefer. We've seen other races devolve without any known trickery (Minotaurs, Dreugh.)

everything has a beginning. don't discount the acorn you can hold in your hand for it will grow into a mighty oak tree.

These are just pet theories of mine. But since it has been already stated that TES Lore is now officially open source, kinda, we can freely throw in our own personal speculations as valid theories. I see the TES history presenting itself as series of mantlings and re-enactments of Dawn Era myths. For instance, I think there might have been an Atmoran king called Shor who waged war against the King Auriel when the nedes of Atmora rebelled against their elven overlords. Trinimac would have been the general of Auriel's army and he would have been rewarded with the Western Kingdoms and thousand slaves from the land of Al-Hared for defeating the King of Men. Also I think there actually was Ysgramor the man (unless we consider Skyrim non-lore) but there was also Ysgramor the legend. The real Ysgramor (perhaps mentioned in the black book Other Lives of Ysgramor) was petty pirate lord raiding the coasts of Falmeris who crowned himself as the king of the old Atmorans. The mythic Ysgramor, as stated many times befor, was probably a combination of different nordic kings with a bit of Lorkhan thrown in the mix.

But to get back on topic, I think the theory Ayeleids=>goblins is rather interesting theory yet I don't necessarily believe in it myself. Goblins are rather numerous to be merely descendants of Ayleids and they are found all over Nirn (even on Akavir). I do believe though that the remaining Ayleids might have been *ehem* "absorbed" by the Cyrodiilic goblin population. I find it actually rather ironic since the goblins have been usually lowest rank slave-labour to the elves and being [vekhed] by your former slaves is kind of a fitting fate for the Ayleids.