The World of the Maglore In the early stages of the story, they were the Vough, a race of evil fairies. But as my ideas for THE QUEEN' S NECKLACE expanded, so did the conception of my intended villains. By the time that I sat down to actually write the story, they had become the Maglore, a race of deceptively beautiful Goblins. Yet they still continue to play the same role in the legends and mythology of their world as the "bad fairy" plays in ours: they are elegant, arrogant, ruthless, and very, very deadly. This is what I know of the Goblin races: Their origins are shrouded in mystery, yet it seems likely that magic -- black magic -- went into their making. The world was already old when they first came into it; they were no fresh creation, but an imitation, a perversion of those who came before them. For five thousand years, the Maglore ruled a world-spanning Empire, enslaving Humanity and tyrannizing over the lesser Goblin races -- the Ouphs, Padfoots, Wrynecks, and Grants. The Maglore were powerful because they had learned the secret of combining magic with technology.

They invented intricate miniature devices to channel "Universal Magnetism" through artificially created gemstones, and used these devices for everything from mind control to harnessing the very forces of nature, moving mountains, turning back the ocean tides, causing volcanos to erupt -- or to remain dormant. Goblins do not reproduce as Humans do. With the Maglore, multiple fathers can.