Kobold

A dragonoid race, these are a more diminutive cousin and not mentally or physically like the dragonborn or dragons. This race tends to live in tight knit clans that do not like to associate with other creatures. Unlike dragonborn they shun city states, and prefer to live in small settlements on their own. They are sometimes recruited as scouts or pathfinders. They prefer swamps and forests. Some city states may have some Kobolds living as squatters or as they expanded incorporated a Kobold village into their protection, maybe not even aware they did.
Adventurers tend to be more individualistic and interested in the outside world and have an ambition to be more than a chief of the sewer. Kobold mythology holds that Dragonborn subjugated them in the time before the Arrival and this explains their animosity toward each other.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Small dragonoids with scaled skins 4 fingers and toes. Digigrid legs. horns, fins, and wings are common variations. Scale color varies greatly by tribe and geography.

Biological Traits

Kobolds are cold blooded so they need external heat sources to remain active and motivated. This also means heat vision will not show these creatures until they are close by.

Genetics and Reproduction

Females lay up to 6 eggs a year. Eggs incubate for 6 weeks and hatch. Kobolds place eggs in communal incubators and are raised by the tribe.

Growth Rate & Stages

Kobolds can walk at birth, but don't have much strength or endurance for the first 8 weeks. They mature quickly and become full adults at age 6. Kobolds can live up to 120 years, but because of their environment and lifestyle it the actual average lifespan is 20 years.

Ecology and Habitats

Kobolds live in warrens underground. These tend to be in warm or tropical climes. They don't survive long in cold climates.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Kobolds are omnivores, they prefer small game, insects, vermin, and they prefer cooked to raw but can eat either. They will consume roots, legumes, fruits, berries, nuts, fungus and seeds in addition. They are known to practice cannibalism widely when resources are absent.

Biological Cycle

Kobolds may change sex naturally throughout it's life. This process can begin at any time, typically though when they are separated from the tribe for a long time or if the composition of the tribe is changed dramatically they react to the absence of male or female pheromones. They default to female when alone.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Kobolds live in tribes lead by the oldest member. This member may also be the smartest, most cleaver, or even a sorcerer. This leader appoints daily leaders and divides up work for the tribe as they need for the day. Males and females have no distinction and can be hard to pick out. The tribe doesn't have families and few Kobolds know who their parents are, and don't have a concept of paternal or maternal roles and are confused by it.

Facial characteristics

Long draconic faces with horns, spikes and scales. they have an ear pit, with usually a backward spike over each pit. They may have a row of spines from their head down the back of their neck, or other horns and smaller spikes that seem to follow a tribes ancestry.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Most Kobolds are found on Origin Island, Soki and Ayorhah lands. They may be more wide spread but are not easily located in the wild, and often go unnoticed in large cities.

Average Intelligence

Kobolds are not as intelligent as a human, but they are cunning and calculating. They have good ability to make long range plans and guess what other creatures might do as evidenced in their trap makings and false tunnels. They are not as interested in technology as they are in more durable tools, and avoid complicated devices. A chief may have a cypher they could have figured out how to use.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Kobolds have darkvision and can see well in dim light, and see in shades of grey in darkness. Their other senses seem to be on par with a human's.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

See Volo's Guide to Monsters.

Beauty Ideals

Kobolds love dragons and any art or crafts they make have a dragon motif. The draconic looking at kobold the more likely they are to mate often.

Gender Ideals

Kobolds have few distinctive sex traits. Kobold sex organs and gender is fluid. They change their sex throughout their lives as the balance of male and females changes in the tribe.

Courtship Ideals

Sex and pregnancy is a low risk activity; eggs will be raised by the tribe, there are no changes to status based on gender.

Relationship Ideals

Kobolds have only superficial relationships. Their associations are not strongly bonded to each other. Their identity is the tribe and that drives everything. As some point they will probably have to sacrifice friends, possession, even their own life for the tribe.

Average Technological Level

Kobolds have maintained a low level iron age existence and are able to smelt iron, tin, copper, and harvest gems, gold and silver. They can craft suitable if primitive iron tools and weapons. They know how to make bronze and can cast small items. They like their wealth to be portable and easily moved. They have a good tinkering ability to make traps and alarms. Kobolds steal equipment from nearby residents and that may include cyphers which a particularly intelligent kobold could learn it's functions. Magic items are given to sorcerers to figure out and use when needed.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

Kobolds speak and some write Draconic. They are conversant in the language, but may speak in a primitive way on purpose.
Most city kobolds will learn the city's language they live in.

Common Dress Code

kobolds make their clothing from a combination of cast-offs, vermin hides, and their own teeth.

History

Kobolds come from planet Perndragon and have some features of dragons and dragon born. These beings arrived with them, and their relationship before the crash is poorly understood. The Dragon born barely mention them in their surviving histories. Dragons may end up with Kobold servants, and unless it actively gets rid of them they will serve the dragons as henchmen.
Kobolds are not well educated, and don't write much down. The rare individuals who have committed their thoughts to paper have indicated the Dragon Born are to be hated for their crimes in the past. what those crimes are is unknown or what harm this brought to the Kobolds.
Most cities have a warren of Kobolds living under it, and few have any appreciation for the size of the population they have living underneath them. A few cities may try to engage them most try to negate their nuisance behaviors or bribe them into service over mischief.

Origin

Perndragon

Lifespan

20yrs, 120 maximum

Average Height

3'-0" to 3'-6"

Average Weight

50lb to 90lb

Average Length

4'-0" from snout to tail.

Average Physique

Kobolds are thin and wiry, they are not particularly strong or have good durability.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Kobolds come in many scale colors and patterns. The tribe tends to share similar colors and patterns.