Once slaves of the Ogres on the Isle of Kezan, the goblins were transformed by exposure to kaja'mite ore, which made them brilliant, greedy, and permanently overexcited.
The Steamwheedle Cartel enforces strict neutrality in its port towns — Booty Bay, Gadgetzan, Everlook, Ratchet — where Alliance and Horde drink at the same bar under threat of the Cartel's very serious bruisers. Violence in a goblin town is bad for business, and goblins deal with bad-for-business decisively.
Not all goblins are Steamwheedle. The Venture Company strip-mines Kalimdor with no regard for anything. The Bilgewater and other cartels freelance. The Blackwater Raiders run Booty Bay's docks.
Doing Business With Them
Goblins are Azeroth's logistics. They sell transport, explosives, information, and each other, and they will do it for anyone with coin regardless of banner — which makes a goblin contract one of the few things an Alliance and a Horde traveller can both hold at once.
