Kobold
Kobolds are a species of diminutive, reptilian folk of draconic origin. Though distantly related to the dragonborn race, kobolds are considered by most folk to be a monstrous race. They are considered clever but easily tricked, communal but frequently subject to infighting. For this reason, they often find themselves exploited by mortal races and intelligent monsters, particularly those that appeal to their draconic heritage, such as true chromatic dragons. They typically live in subterranean communities of thirty to forty individuals and rarely leave their tunnels except to scavenge for the crafts of surface-dwelling mortals. They can be found throughout Hakoa and Nioa and in the lower latitude regions of Iroa and Auloa.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Kobolds are small creatures with raptorial hands, scaly skin, and long whip like tails. Like their dragonborn cousins, they are bipedal. However, unlike dragonborn, kobolds have retained the ability to walk on all fours thanks to a set of locking joints in the hips that allow them to swivel their bodies up. This is likely to allow for faster movement through the narrow tunnels that make up their subterranean dens, while also allowing them to hold objects with their hands. Their bodies have further exaggerated proportions, such as large heads with long, narrow snouts, compact bodies, and forelimbs of equal length to their hindlimbs.
Kobold tails are often seen by outsiders as rigid, acting as a balancing aid for their forward leaning torso. However, kobold tails actually snap to that position when moving on two legs. While in a quadrupedal stance, as when they are digging or moving underground, kobold tails lose their rigidity and become flexible, allowing the kobold to move through tight bends and corners without breaking their delicate tailbones. Some kobolds are born with wings, a vestige of their draconic heritage that appears rarely as a genetic mutation. These kobolds are called urds, and are favored by their communities as blessed by the gods. Urds have wingspans equal to twice their body length but are otherwise the same as non-winged kobolds in morphology.
Kobold tails are often seen by outsiders as rigid, acting as a balancing aid for their forward leaning torso. However, kobold tails actually snap to that position when moving on two legs. While in a quadrupedal stance, as when they are digging or moving underground, kobold tails lose their rigidity and become flexible, allowing the kobold to move through tight bends and corners without breaking their delicate tailbones. Some kobolds are born with wings, a vestige of their draconic heritage that appears rarely as a genetic mutation. These kobolds are called urds, and are favored by their communities as blessed by the gods. Urds have wingspans equal to twice their body length but are otherwise the same as non-winged kobolds in morphology.
Genetics and Reproduction
Kobolds are oviparous and lay clutches of six eggs at a time. Kobolds have long gestation periods, with females holding the eggs inside their wombs for around six months, and with the eggs developing over the course of another full year. This likely is a derived condition of their draconic heritage, which is known for having exceptionally long incubation periods to go along with their long lifespans.
Growth Rate & Stages
Kobolds reach adulthood far quicker than most folk, becoming sexually mature after just six years. While most kobolds will not see twenty years, this is largely a result of their inhospitable lifestyle as opposed to their natural anatomy. Some kobolds can reach over a century in age, another derived trait of their draconic heritage. Kobolds that reach such a venerable stage are called "grand wyrms" and are often treated as semi-divine.
Ecology and Habitats
Kobolds are naturally skilled tunnelers. Even without tools, their raptorial hands and wide, clawed feet make digging second nature. They seem to have near-instinctive senses of where sections of stone are strong or weak, are load-bearing or safe to excavate, and which areas are likely to contain minerals or subterranean springs. This allows them to create complex tunnels in areas that other creatures might consider inhospitable or even dangerous.
Living underground anywhere in Holos comes with unique challenges as many dangerous predators take advantage of the hollowed sections of the realm's crust. To protect against outsiders, kobold tunnels are have dimensions designed to naturally accommodate kobolds and pose a challenge to any outsider or intruder. Their tunnels are narrow and feature many tight curves with the diameter of these tunnels usually being no more than a meter wide. Chasms or larger natural caverns are often bridged by rickety walkways, designed to collapse under the weight of any creature heavier than a kobold. All of this ingenuity is done typically with simple stone tools and basic theories of construction, making their creation all the more impressive—and occasionally frustrating—to intruders.
Some communities hire kobolds to dig their sewers or drainage systems, paying them with food and tools in exchange for solid workmanship. If they are treated well and left with little overbearing oversight, kobolds are known to work with great vigor and build a network of passageways beneath the streets that connect to nearby waterways and greatly improve the community's sanitation. If the kobolds like the area and aren't mistreated, they sometimes build warrens for themselves and make a permentant home within the bowels of the settlement. These "city-kobolds" live underground and generally keep to themselves, but are known to appear at night on the surface. Sometimes, a city or town will contract a group of kobolds and assume they've left after completing their contract only to find decades later that the kobolds never actually left, and have created a self-sufficient community right under the mortals's noses.
Kobolds are cold-blooded and so prefer temperate and tropical climates. They tend to build their warrens in areas with sturdy soils, avoiding places such as coastlines or swamps where moisture can cause cave-ins and structural issues for their tunnels. Kobolds are most common in hilly or mountainous terrain. Such locations usually have natural caves suitable for living spaces, plenty of room for digging, and access to food.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Kobolds are omnivorous and use their excellent scavenging abilities to hunt for food. They prefer to eat meat, as it is typically easier to find underground where little sunlight can sustain plant life, but do occasionally cultivate fungi and other hardy plants. Kobolds usually eat small animals, such as worms, centipedes, grubs, mice, rats, lizards, and other subterranean creatures. Rarely, a group of kobolds will band together to take on larger prey and only particularly desperate groups will consider hunting mortals that venture into their territory. Some kobold communities consider it improper to waste anything, including the dead and cannibalize their own after the conclusion of the deceased's funerary rites. Despite the rarity of these practices, rumors of man-eating kobolds persist in many mortal communities, further straining the relationship between the monstrous and mortalkind.
Biological Cycle
Kobolds shed teeth as they wear them out and grow new ones their entire lives. Many kobolds wear these lost teeth as jewelry, with more teeth symbolizing the wisdom gained over their lives.
Unlike their draconic ancestors, the hard lives of kobolds has caused them to evolve a unique kind of sexual identity. Kobolds can, over time, switch sexes from male to female. If a tribe finds itself in a position where they lack a sufficient number of one sex to sustain the population, a portion of the tribe will transition to the necessary sex. The process takes about a year to be fully completed, during which time the individual is sterile. However, after transitioning, the newly made female or male kobold will be indistinguishable from another kobold that was born a particular sex.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Kobold communities are generally structured as tribal societies with each kobold taking on a specialized role to help protect and sustain the group. Roles within a kobold tribe include hunters, warriors, crafters, herdsfolk, miners, and foragers. Unlike many other monstrous races, kobolds are constantly concerned that an intruder will enter their territory and attack them. For this reason, many kobold communities run drills to prepare their tribes for an attack, with every member known what their role in the battle will be. Often these plans revolve around fleeing or abandoning the warren and several escape routes are always accounted for.
Kobolds feel a cool affinity towards members of their tribe, usually considering even close allies to be more like coworkers than true friends. Kobolds do not marry or form permanent bonds with their mates, instead seeing it as an urge that must be fulfilled to keep the tribe alive. Eggs are kept in a communal hatchery, so no kobold truly knows their parents or their siblings and instead sees everyone in their tribe as a member of their extended family.
Because kobolds actually can switch sexes depending on the needs of the tribe, kobolds do not have a strong conception of gender. No role within kobold society is exclusively held by males or females. This further cements in the minds of kobolds the lack of a need to form life-long romantic partnerships with another kobold, as the tribe may come across a need for one of them to transition or for them to no longer pursue one another as mates. A particularly long-lived kobold may end up mating with every member of their tribe, and a result, inbreeding within kobold communities is common. It is unclear if this has had an adverse effect on the kobolds or if the average size of a kobold community has the genetic variation necessary to sustain a population through or in spite of inbreeding.
Kobold tribes are led by the oldest and wisest of their community; kobolds hold deep respect for the elderly members of their tribe, largely because they hold the old ones' survival to be a mark of divine favor and deep intelligence. All kobolds also instinctively believe that the survival of the tribe is far more important than the survival of the individual. For this reason, kobolds find cowardice both respectable and loathsome. For example, abandoning the tribe in a moment of weakness is seen as a sign of deep shame among kobolds. However, a tribe abandoning a mortal that has hired them when they are in peril is seen as a wise and prudent act, even if the tribe's full commitment to the mortal would have resulted in fewer deaths overall.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Kobolds have been exploited by mortal races and intelligent monsters for centuries. These creatures prey on the kobold's survivalist instinct as well as their innocence to act as sappers, spies, and even soldiers. The kobold's construction abilities is often in high demand, as is their vigilance against outside threats. In particular, an individual that can play on their admiration for their draconic heritage, such as an actual dragon, can easily bring a kobold tribe to heel as their personal, devoted followers.
Facial characteristics
Kobolds faces have long, narrow snouts and large, forward-facing reptilian eyes. Unlike dragonborn, kobolds do not have frills, crests or horns. Some osteoderms can be found around the eye sockets, but for the most part, kobolds have smooth scaled scalps and snouts. This helps them navigate and move through their tunnels and may be a vestige from when kobolds used their whole bodies to dig.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Average Intelligence
Kobolds are noted for being exceptionally clever and yet not very bright. They are excellent craftsfolk, construction workers, and trap makers, but frequently misjudge situations and are easily tricked. Moreover, their extreme survivalist instinct makes them incredibly craven, a trait that is often exploited by mortals and intelligent monsters. On average, most kobolds demonstrate the intelligence of a six year old human child.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Kobolds have large, forward-facing eyes, similar to those of owls or other predatory creatures. These eyes are exceptionally good at seeing in the dark, allowing them to see in total darkness up to 60 ft. However, because of their subterranean habitat, kobolds struggle in the open and have a sensitivity to sunlight. Kobolds also have a unique organ in the sides of their skulls, allowing them to pinpoint the direction of sounds even in a confusing tunnel system environment.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Kobolds frequently share their warrens with both prey and protected pets, particularly rats, dire rats, lizards, insects, arachnids, and worms. Kobolds corral these creatures or allow them to roam the tunnels freely. These animals help keep small pests at bay and also can be culled and used for food. Giant rats and lizards are occasionally seen being used by industrious kobolds as beasts of burden.
Some kobold communities have been reported using giant weasels as mounts, taking advantage of their speed, keen senses, and flexible size, which helps them move through kobold tunnels with relative ease. Other groups have trained giant bats as mounts, however, giant bats require a large amount of space to serve as a rookery, which is a luxury few kobold warrens have.
Some kobolds found in the Marrow Desert have even taken to domesticating the enormous toratons that roam the dunes and now use them as mobile warrens and transportation across a region that is not conducive to excavation.
Origin/Ancestry
Draconic
Lifespan
20-30 years
Average Height
.6-.9 m. (2-3 ft.)
Average Weight
25-30 lbs.
Average Length
2.3 m. (7.5 ft.)
Average Physique
Kobolds are not known for their strength but for their dexterity. Their bones are hollow in many places and their bodies are designed to flee when confronted with a more powerful foe.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Kobolds range in coloration across kobold communities, yet within each kobold community, the coloration of the kobolds is usually very similar. This helps them identify members of their own tribe and confuse predators. However, most kobolds have muted colors, perhaps because of their subterranean habitat. Kobold populations that spend a great deal of time above ground, or that have a closer draconic ancestor are more likely to have bright coloration.
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
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