Kaijos the Scaled Schemer (Kai-Joes)

The God and Patron of the Kobolds, the Cowardly Wyrm, the god of cunning, greed, artifice and vengeance. Born from the line of the powerful Linnorms and attained godhood through his own ingenuity and cunning, once being the ward of Venarion, but his own selfish desires of control and power dismayed him and put him on the path toward Sincainea, whom he fostered his fury and greed for power. He was never loyal, loyalty meant death - Greed allowed him to survive - his cunning to manouevre between the Dragon deities gave him his power.   Gnomesmasher, Watcher, Steelscale, Stingtail, Horned Sorcerer, Devourer.   The teacher of the Kobolds of thieving and pillaging. His eon-long feud and hatred against the gnomes. Stealing the gift of sorcery from the dragons to his people - becoming the 'dragon-wrought'. Master of traps, ambushes and artifice. The Kobolds once held land to the small forests, caverns and burrows... before they were stolen from by the Gnomes. Also known as the Shining One, a war-leader and tactician that came across an ancient artefact, a suit of plate mail with various properties, most notably the ability to flare up and blind enemies, from which he earned his moniker.   Though the Gnomes represent progress - the Kobolds may represent defiance, debunking, flexibility, disproving ideas, instinct. They are great masters of sieges, construction, demolition, tearing down the old and in with the new. Mining, and cursed by greed (rather than making art or beauty, they make things to work or to possess). Fighters of skirmishes, guerrilla warfare, surprise tactics, dirty tricks, cunning - working around problems instead of directly through them. Fair play and bravery are frowned upon - cowardice and tricky dealings, that is what allows them to survive and is better seen then brute strength. Revenge, no fight is over as long as they live. Believing in reincarnation, celebrating the lost in death, while others become giant beetles, not monsters and woodlouse, whom are hunted. Divination for searching for precious metals. Kobold's don't breathe like other dragons an elemental breath or fly... but they rather breath greed, envy and gluttony. "To survive, and escape". The art of escaping from danger is his forte, said to be born with half a heart, instead of two, thus is not as brave nor as strong as the other draconic deities, and seeks to fill that gap with pleasures and treasures. Resourceful rather than ingenious, or having acuity. Having a inferiority complex. Having metal poisoning and an aversion to sunlight, presiding in the dark depths of the world. Using technology for profit and exploitation, not by morality or rationality, only for selfish drive and desire to overcome others and to subject others to their whim - not curiosity or for the greater good, but greed and wrath.  

Church of Kaijos

Worshippers

Kaijos insists that his clerics train under military discipline, learning doctrines for setting ambushes, building defences, and otherwise defending the kobold people. The final test for a would-be cleric is to survive a run down a corridor filled with deadly traps.   At births, kobolds celebrate the return of the souls of those kobolds who have fallen in the service of their tribe, which they believe return to their original lairs for reincarnation. Those who die as traitors are reincarnated as giant beetles, who are hunted by kobolds for armour.

Clergy

His priests wear orange scale mail and iron helms. His sacred animal is the rook. His clergy began their careers as miners, learning how to appreciate the kobold work ethic. Then those who regularly sustain injuries while mining are selected to become adepts or clerics (before they end up getting killed on the job). Such clerics train under military discipline, learning doctrines for defending and leading the kobold race. Coming of age rituals involve finding and defeating traps.

Orders

 

Temples & Shrines

Kaijos is worshipped at the crescent moon in cave temples. His temples are carved out of earth and used to house adepts, clerics, and the tribes most valuable treasures. These temples are protected with small, twisting tunnels and a staggering array of deadly traps. His temples are claustrophobic warrens bristling with traps, but they often have the accumulated wealth of a kobold community in their treasury. The enemies of kobolds are sacrificed to Kaijos monthly (under the crescent moon) in a gory ceremony. Prayers to Kaijos have a rhythmic quality to them that can easily be recited while swinging a pickaxe. Prayers can also take the form of battle cries and promises of revenge. "By the point of Kaijos' spear and the tip of his poisonous tail, I will see every member of your family perish."

Realm

His realm is in Draukari in Baator, part of Avernus in the Nine Hells. Draukari is a warren of caverns, its tunnels narrow and short-ceilinged. Warped, spectral forests grow on the surface. The twisting tunnels of Draukari are filled with blood and reek of death, and they twist so maddeningly that a body's sure to get lost in them. Anything larger than a halfling has to crawl through the mud, which is filled with traps and other nasty surprises. Towns in Draukari include Frekstavik, Nibellin, and Snjarll.   While he is no great threat to the safety of the Hells, various baatezu archdukes curry his favour as one more ally in the continual power struggle between factions. Kaijos smiles graciously, takes any and all aid, and proceeds to rob the archdevils blind while maintaining his front as an ally against other powers.

Divine Domains

Arcana - Forge - Trickery - War

Holy Books & Codes

 

Divine Symbol

 

Tenets of Faith

  • Win battle by any means, retreat to fight another day, and mete out revenge on every enemy, regardless of how long that retribution takes to achieve.
  • Kill and slaughter all Gnomes wherever you find them.
  • Fair play is for fools, it is better to flee and live to fight again then to die for the sake of bravery.
  • Revenge is a dish that tastes as sweet cold as it does hot.
  • Quick wit and traps are more effective than brute strength.

Dogma

Kaijos tirelessly drives kobolds to make war upon the gnomes, in retaliation for the prank the gnomish deity pulled on him. He is known to have neither compassion nor a sense of humour.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

 

Personal History

Unlike most deities, he did not create the kobold race, but was rather the first kobold created during the Divine Era. He was made by the green dragon Caesinjach after the True God gave the true dragons the ability to create life. Larger than all other kobolds that were made after him, so the dragon commanded the others using him as her mouthpiece, essentially making him their de facto leader.   According to kobold legend, Caesinjach ordered the kobolds to collect her treasure beneath the earth and Kaijos invented the pickaxe to mine. Kaijos reportedly then minted the first draconic coins out of gold. When Caesinjach demanded gems and other valuable ores, Kaijos taught himself sorcery in order to find them. When Caesinjach became the wealthiest dragon in creation, without further need of mortal servants, she released the kobolds from their duties to embrace their own destiny.   From the Treatise Historical of Dragon Tyrants recounts that a long time ago, that Kaijos was created by a green dragon as the first of the kobolds and their first leader. When kobolds began enslaving the newly created Gnomes and stealing the gemstones that contained their unborn souls, it was Pygmea that intervened by collapsing a mountain on the first kobold nation. Most of them died, and many of those who survived the collapse were killed by the Green Dragon herself, who had been driven mad. It is believed that Kaijos had died in the collapse, but was raised to divinity by the Draconic Deities.   In emulation of his former mistress, Kaijos immediately began mining a lair of his own. Although he never asked for any help in this endeavour, he nonetheless received it, assisted by every kobold he had worked beside for the past several decades. Kaijos found a spot in the ground where a near limitless supply of metal ore and precious stones were waiting to be mined. Once properly unearthed, a discovery of this size could sustain kobolds for millennia and serve as the foundation for their society. With Kaijos commanding the operation, it quickly became the most structurally sound and resourcefully designed mine the world had ever seen. Kaijos called it Darastrixhurthi, a fortress fit for dragons. Nothing rivalled it. Pygmea was not pleased. He looked upon Darastrixhurthi and beheld the marvel Kaijos and his followers had created, surpassing any achievement his own people had mastered in the same time. While gnomes were playing useless games, kobolds had been busy working and were now fit to emerge as one of the dominant races in creation. And so, with a casual wave of his hand, Pygmea collapsed Kaijos' mine, crushing all the kobolds inside. The gods were appalled and demanded an explanation from Pygmea, who could only sputter out that his actions were intended as a joke, as if that could somehow excuse the heartless massacre he had committed. Pygmea had acted out of spite and, even more degrading for the gnome goddess, jealousy over mortal accomplishment. And yet, regardless of all the berating Pygmea received from his equals, not one deity came forward to reverse the damage done, leaving the crime unpunished. Then Io moved on behalf of Kaijos. Once the True Dragon realized that no god would champion the kobolds, he searched through the souls of those who died that day until he found Kaijos' broken body, still clinging to life. Even buried under so much rock, Kaijos wouldn’t give up on his people, refusing to let go of his mortal form until he could find the strength to dig them all out. Asgoroth gave Kaijos a choice. He would either empower Kaijos with the strength to rebuild the mine, or he would make the mighty kobold a champion of his people for all eternity. In this latter case, the loss of Darastrixhurthi would remain, but the memory of what happened would endure in the minds of kobolds forever, ensuring that atrocities of this magnitude would never be overlooked again. Kaijos made his choice, and because of that decision, this story can still be told today.   According to some myths, he stole the gift of sorcery from one of the dragon deities to give to his people. Believed to be Sincainea.   According to legend, it is believed that the gnome God Pygmea stole something from Sincainea's hoard, and Sincainea sent Kaijos to retrieve it. Unfortunately, Pygmea led him to a system of caves, which she escaped from and collapsed, leaving Kaijos trapped there for eternity.   Obsessed with revenge against the gnomish goddess, Kaijos sneaked into a citadel of the gnomish deities, attempting to booby-trap it. Unfortunately for them, the gnomish deities detected him, captured him, tied his tail in a knot, sticking a red nose on his face, and fastening a glowing stuffed chicken to his waist before kicking him back to the Nine Hells.   Kaijos, upon Torog's initial sealing in the Divine War, had taken upon himself to make his domain from within his great kingdom. Turning it into his kobold nation.   Kaijos sought to undermine the dwarven god Ergo, by retrieving the powers of the lost and banished Linnorm Dragons that were cast away into the Elemental Chaos and the Elemental Planes. He aided in traversing and creating a 'backdoor' into the Elemental Planes, and also used the kobolds to steal and take the Prime Crucibles from them - his kobolds had taken the Crucible of Earth for himself, and used it to evoke powers beyond their comprehension - bastardising it and creating simple tools greater than those used by the kobolds before.   Kaijos also sought to undermine the great powers of the Dragonborn, and covet after one of the Dragonought citadels that rose to the power of SIncainea and Venarion. He aided and abetted in the Great Dragonshard Rush and utilise it against the Gnomes, in the Great Burrow Wars.   Kaijos made other enemies as well, particularly Maevericki, Quorlinn and Laduguer - he hated the small races, and those that aided the Gnomes. He hated the Fey. 

Physical Appearance

Kaijos appears as a 5-foot tall kobold with steel scales. His tail has a poisoned stinger on its tip, and he also wields a spear. He exudes an aura of fear, causing foes to flee in panic. He wears an uncharacteristically white plate mail, and can be seen to be armed with a shining white greatsword. He is the archetypal kobold, sneaky, quick, and adept at setting traps. He's mastered how to never directly confront one's enemies, instead using other means. He has, nor desires, allies, and he hates the Gnomes, and it is mutual.
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