An Instance of a Goblin
So I had this idea for a story. In your typical fantasy setting, after slaying their umpteenth gang of goblins, an adventurer asks, "Why do the goblins always look the same?" which leads the adventurer to ask other questions like, "Why haven't we killed off all of the goblins yet? Where do they keep coming from? How come we never find any goblin towns?" so on and so on, at first not realizing that these questions reflect the fundamental nature of the adventurer's reality. Between cryptic information from various sources, cliche old sages, ancient tomes, murals in dungeons, etc. the adventurer gets closer and closer to the truth. All the while the powers that be try to stop the adventurer. eventually the adventurer discovers the answer. The reason goblins are endless and identical is because each goblin is merely an instance of a goblin. That is to say that every time a goblin appears it is because the goblin subroutine executes. The adventurer further learns that the same is true for everything else in their world. Everything is an instanced object or subroutine in an elaborate program that dictates and describes everything in the adventurer's world. I haven't decided if the code can be changed or the implications of this discovery beyond how the revelation effects the adventurer.