"He-Who-Enslaves took us from our homes to serve Him unto eternity in His desert lair. Generation after squabbling generation, the people of our line lived and died in His service, or at the hands of adventurers come to slay Him, throwing themselves into harm's way to give He-Who-Enslaves even more time to prepare. But then the Firemind came. His might surpassed He-Who-Enslaves and His intellect was incomparable. And when the vile blue dragon lay broken at His feet, our race bowed before Him, prepared to trade one evil master for another. But He bade us rise, for He had other plans..." - Crix, Goblin Cleric, on the history of her people.
(This is the first in what may be a series of supplemental posts for our current campaign, integrating carried over ideas from the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica with the Forgotten Realms setting, adding to and enhancing the default "canon" premises.)
Niv-Mizzet; the Firemind, the Dracogenius. Red dragons are fiercely territorial, highly intelligent, physically dominating enemies. Born the runt of his clutch, the Firemind wasn't expected to live long. He was quickly chased out of his mother's territory and left to fend for himself as a small wyrmling. But his intelligence far surpassed that of his clutchmates, and even, at that stage, of his mother. Capricious and cruel as all red dragons, Niv-Mizzet sought ways to turn any situation to his advantage, claiming and holding territory by ruling over bands of kobolds as lesser beings. Years went by as they do, with his hoard becoming larger, and threats neutralized. However, he grew more slowly than his kin and as a young red, he was still undersized when a rival came to invade his cavern. Confident his intellect would see him through, he was horrified to discover that his kobold underlings fled in their fear and he was forced to fight alone. Compounding the inevitable defeat, the elder red dragon that had arrived let him live, contrary to the normal "to the death" fighting red dragons engage in.
Humbled and humiliated, Niv-Mizzet's rage and self loathing threatened to tear him apart as he looked for ways to grow stronger and reclaim what was lost. He spent decades polymorphed into the form of an Elven scholar, searching for esoteric magics that would elevate him far above his peers, or for artifacts to do the same. Then he heard tales of a chalcedony-encrusted thurible created by the Eladrin which might aid him in the ways he sought. Unfortunately, those same tales laid rumors that this item was in the possession of a powerful blue dragon.
Putting his intellect to the problem at hand, the Firemind tracked signs of this new enemy, duping adventurers and would-be villains alike into doing the hard work for him. At last, information reached him which could not have pleased him more. Though the rumors had called the blue "powerful," he was but a young adult barely more than a century old. Compared to other red dragons of his vintage, he may have been undersized, but against a young blue dragon? Observing as his adventurers assaulted the blue dragon's lair, Niv-Mizzet watched as a tribe of goblins quickly came to the defense. Though not a match for the warriors he had sent in, the tribe nevertheless launched themselves with abandon at his team, headless of the danger they were in. Fascinated, the Firemind watched as the blue dragon, weakened by spells and arrows and blades, finished the adventurers off, thanks to the bravery of his slaves. A new idea blossomed then. There was a nobility to these creatures that he'd never before considered. Lesser than he though they were, their valor far surpassed their small stature.
Using stealth honed over years of necessity, Niv-Mizzet stole into the cave, dropping his spell and revealing his full glory to the blue dragon only to slay the weakened foe before he could react. The goblins, stunned beyond reason, dropped to their knees in supplication. The Firemind had the artifact he wanted, the blue dragon's entire hoard in fact, but he knew at that moment that he'd taken a far greater prize.
"Rise, my children," he commanded them in their own language, given freely as his first gift to his new people. Born as black-hearted as any red dragon could be, he saw in these goblins a different path to power. "This is a new beginning, for you and for I."
The tribe of goblinoids that would eventually become the Izzet once roamed over a wide range of territory as hunters, gatherers, and above all else, raiders. Like most goblins, they were a fractious lot, prone to fighting one another for scraps just as much as other races. Niv-Mizzet brought a hint of order from the chaos. Under his tutelage, the Izzet grew to value intelligence as a trait as much as any predilection towards violence. Over the centuries, and with a shift in desirable breeding traits, this particular subspecies of goblin obtained their tell-tale bulbous heads and bright yellow eyes. Exposure to magical experimentation, first of the Firemind and later of their fellow goblins, lent towards blue skin tones being as common as the more green or yellow-green of other goblin tribes. Whilst never able to truly shift the goblins fully from chaotic to lawful orientation, Niv-Mizzet was able to bend the chaos to more productive goals - alchemy, artifice, spellcrafting, etc.
Wizards casting bolts of lightning and balls of fire became commonplace in the warrens of the Izzet. So much so that eventually, for the protection of the tribe itself, bands of goblin adventurers set out to see the world, to find new knowledges to add to the Firemind's stores, and eventually, to form villages and enclaves in some of the major cities of the Sword Coast. Revitalized Neverwinter became home to one of the largest Izzet laboratories in the Realms. Even smaller town likes Phandalin saw themselves receive these goblins, their alchemical skills put to good use creating healing elixirs for the common folk. Keeping to themselves earned begrudging acceptance, and a willingness to protect their new homes garnered admiration from the other races who came to accept that not all goblins were cowardly or evil.
And Niv-Mizzet? His time with the goblins wrought unexpected changes in him as well, more than he could have foreseen. Where most red dragons become exceptionally evil masterminds as they age toward great wyrm status, the Firemind found his nature tempered by his followers. His family. Time spent growing the Izzet with the care a master gardener would show a prized rosebush harnessed his ambitions into more than simple petty treasure hoarding. Where others of his kind would reward failure with a blast of fiery death, he would focus his anger and disappointment into a learning experience. He never wasted an opportunity to encourage more growth and more experimentation in the Izzet, as every new discovery by them was a new discovery by him, and as they matured as a species, so did he. Even his physiology mutated as the centuries wore on, a portion of his crimson scales gaining an azure hue. Over a thousand years after laying the foundations that would turn a tribe of chaotic murder machines into a race of exceptional masters of magic and machine, Niv-Mizzet announced to the Izzet elders that he would be leaving them, to contemplate all he had learned in solace that would very well last past the end of their lives, and possibly his own.
In the two hundred years since, his followers have done their best to make him proud of all that they've accomplished.
Goblin Traits:
Ability Score Increase - Dexterity increases by 2 and your Constitution or Intelligence increase by 1.
Age - Goblins reach adulthood around age 8, and rarely live longer than 60 years.
Alignment - Chaotic or neutral generally, with no real inclination towards good or evil. Even the most studious of Izzet goblins prefer chaos to lawfulness, seeing the latter as stagnation.
Size - Goblins are between 3 and 4 feet tall and weigh between 40 and 80 pounds. Your size is small.
Speed - Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision - You can see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You only see shades of gray in darkness, not color.
Fury of the Small - When you damage a creature with an attack or spell and the creature's is larger than yours, you can do extra damage equal to your level. This can be used once before a short or long rest.
Nimble Escape - You can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of your turns.
Languages - You can speak, read, and write Common, Goblin, and Draconic.
Class Preferences:
Izzet goblins prefer arcane mysteries to direct combat, but aren't afraid to get their hands dirty as well. Main preferences include;
Artificer
Fighter/Arcane Knight
Rogue/Arcane Trickster, Mastermind
Sorcerer/Draconic Bloodline, Storm Sorcery, Wild Magic
Wizard/School of Conjuration, School of Evocation, School of Transmutation
Izzet Leadership;
With the departure of Niv-Mizzet, the Izmagnus, a group of five to seven elders, organizes discoveries between various laboratories of the Izzet goblins.
Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Mizzix is a goblin galvanic blastseeker who began her rise in the ranks of the Izzet as a lowly attendant. But she quickly earned her a place at her own magical forge with a squadron of her own attendants. Through a combination of natural talent, calculated political moves, and fortunate accidents, Mizzix has now risen to the highest position in the tribe's court, occupying the first seat of the Izmagnus.
Niv-Mizzet
Ideal: "Innovation! Don't just have an idea - have all of them."
Bond: "I have spent more than a thousand years researching the mysteries of the world around me, but there is much more to discover."
Flaw: "I find it tedious to converse with simpletons who lack vision."
Stats - Don't ask. But his CR is 26, so... Him big boy, big spells, big brain.
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