I am quite surprised not to see any mention of either in the new Skyrim game.

I'm so glad though that the falmer are featured and that they are a different race to the riekling who were featured in Morrowind's Bloonmoon add-on.

In Bloodmoon there was mention of Nordic folklore saying the riekling were remnants of the falmer but to me they looked more like the primitive looking goblins of Tribunal and Oblivion that a race descended from mer. In Bloodmoon one of the Altmer mentions that the Elven races say the Nordic folklore is rubbish and that the riekling are just snow goblins.

What does everyone else think? Does anyone else like the goblins & riekling or did they just find them as annoying pests? In Tribunal we had a goblin king (i think thats right) and the goblins were brought in as mercenaries. In Oblivion we saw Goblins clan wars which i thought was quite good. The way the riekling rode around on the back of boars wielding primitive weaponry was quite cool. I can't recall ever seeing goblins riding on boars but that'll be just as cool to see.

What if an add-on for Skyrim featured a return of the rielking? I'd like to see a goblin v's reikling clan scenario bringing the two together.

What if the only difference between "Riekling" and "Falmer" (aside from graphical representation) is one of nomenclature?

Falmer are blind (and live only underground), Rieklings are not. I believe that to be a large enough difference to be able to say they are not the same.

Also falmer are twice the size and more organized / civilized / industrialized. Rieklings may be related to goblins, but I'd guess that the relationship is a distant one, considering their vastly different body shapes. Goblins are all hunched over & lanky, while the reiklings were almost gnome like.

I assumed that "goblin" was an informal grouping used to say "small dudes who aren't particularly smart and attack us all the time," rather than a taxonomical distinction.

That'd disqualify the Summerset goblin slaves (who presumably don't attack their masters all the time).

You know what I mean. Derogatory slang rather than an actual species.

Rieklings were the bane of my existence in Solstheim. The only things they should be related to are the worms that digest their miserable corpses after my half hour battles with their hordes.

I honestly don't. I mean, there definitely is a species of green-skinned short lanky dudes who are slaves to the Altmer and a menace to the Cyrodiils, right? And they're called goblins, right? So why do you think that's anything other than the name of their species? I don't think I've ever seen the word used in any other way, nor have I seen the green-skinned fellows called by any name but "goblin". I guess goblin could have taken on a second meaning as "violent pest." Is that what you mean?