Kobold
Reptiles and reptilian races are vanishingly rare in The Shattered Continent, but kobolds are the exception to this rule. Present in every corner of the continent, kobolds tend to congregate around places of power, building communities nearby in the hopes that their eggs will be influenced by and take on the traits of these loci. Valuing cunning and resourcefulness over bravery and strength has lead some to call them a cowardly people, but anyone who has ever tried to brave the traps and labyrinthine layout of a kobold den and survived knows not to underestimate them.
History
Although regarded as little more than an annoyance by most, kobolds have been part of the tapestry of races which make up the people of The Shattered Continent for long enough that no histories contain records of a time before their creation.
Before The Serpentfolk
The kobolds were created by their god, The Great Wyrmdragon, in some long forgotten age; as a joke it created them knowing nothing about the deity except for its title and the fact that it was a dragon, and it didn't tell them what exactly a dragon was. Kobolds were left to figure out exactly what their god was and how to worship it on their own, and in the ages following their creation, the random and creative nature of their worship resulted in their god losing the knowledge of its own name and nature and being stripped down to the simple concept of a draconic god of chaos. In the following ages they spread across the world, seeking out both places of power to make their nests near and knowledge of The Great Wyrmdragon.
Reign Of The Serpentfolk
As a fellow reptilian race, one might think that the serpentfolk would have felt some sort of kinship with the kobolds and at least treated them as a slave caste like the lizardfolk rather then chattel slaves and fodder like most other races, but this was not the case. The serpentfolk seem to have regarded them as vermin, and for their own part the kobolds regarded the serpentfolk, their god, and any places of power related to as abominations and anathema to The Great Wyrmdragon.
The serpentfolk made an active attempt to wipe the kobolds from the face of the earth, and in response the kobolds seem to have made it their goal in life to harass and harm the serpentfolk whenever and wherever possible. While they would never build their nests anywhere that the power of the serpentfolk might influence their eggs, many bands of kobold warriors built dens and camps underneath and in the dark corners of serpentfolk cities. From these camps they could commit sabotage, undermine buildings, poison food and water stocks, and generally be menaces to the enemies of their god.
After The Cataclysm
When the wave of sympathetic magic from the cataclysm wiped most reptilian creatures from the face of the freshly forming Shattered Continent, many believed (and some hoped) that that the kobolds had gone the same way. In a stroke of good luck and perhaps literal divine intervention, any kobolds whose eggs had been influenced by non-reptilian sources of power were hidden from this backlash and so didn't go the way of the serpentfolk. It is, however, a remarkable piece of irony that kobolds who had found actual dragons to empower their tribes were not spared destruction.
In the years of chaos following The Cataclysm, relieved of the need to remain hidden from the serpentfolk, some kobolds emerged from their hidden dens and began to spread out across the continent, but most who had found suitable places of power chose to remain where they were. Lacking the ability to compete militarily with the rapidly expanding human and orc kingdoms, they interacted with both but stayed well clear of the wars that regularly broke out between the burgeoning powers.
Modern times
Today, kobolds live much as they have for millennia; seeking out places of power to lay their eggs and raise their children near, worshiping and seeking the nature of The Great Wyrmdragon, and always looking for new experiences to have and people to meet in order to keep life interesting. While often treated like racoons which have gotten into the garbage, they love living among other peoples so that they can experience as many interesting new things as possible.
Kobold Society
Kobold society is centered around seeking places of power around which to build their nests so that their offspring can take on their traits and be empowered by The Great Wyrmdragon. While these places are incredibly important for nesting, kobolds also love living around other races, the more varied the better, in order to meet interesting people and seek out new experiences. Since places of power are typically not located within major cities, most kobolds who are not actively interested in settling down and having kids leave their village of their birth and explore the world. Because of this, kobold villages tend to come in one of two types, villages built near places of power where eggs are laid and children are raised and villages located in the cities and towns of other races where most kobolds spend the majority of their lives.
Kobolds may have a reputation as craven cowards and annoyances on the same level of an animal which keeps getting into the trash or chicken coop, but anyone who spends some time with them will quickly learn that there is much more to them. What at first glance comes off as cowardice can be more generously attributed to a mix of pragmatism, resourcefulness and an acknowledgement of their own weaknesses, and the common perception of them as little more than vermin is a result of a combination of their inquisitive nature and disregard or ignorance of many of the niceties of other societies.
Most kobolds eventually find a passion in life, something somewhere between a hobby and obsession depending on the individual, and pursue it with the same zeal that they exhibit in the rest of their lives. While an elf or dwarf might spend decades studying their areas of interest and fastidiously perfecting their craft or art, the shorter lived kobolds simply throw themselves into their passion with great enthusiasm. An aspiring kobold smith is an individual who really loves making things by hitting metal with a hammer, and while this might not often produce a smith of the calibre of the greatest elven and dwarven craftsmen, practice is practice and the kobold is almost certainly having more fun.
Religion
Worship of The Great Wyrmdragon is a driving force for most kobolds but some do find other gods, and even among those who worship their creator god, many do so in incredibly varied and strange ways.
The Great Wyrmdragon
The kobolds relationship with the Great Wyrmdragon is a bit different than most races relationships with their creator gods. Born knowing their god's title and draconic nature, but nothing else about it including exactly what a dragon is, seeking out and gaining an understanding of their god is a core element of kobold society. They are prone to attributing nearly any unexplainable event to The Great Wyrmdragon and assuming that any powerful and vaguely reptilian creature is a dragon.
Their lack of knowledge and tendency towards creative explanations has long since resulted in their god losing its original name and all semblance of whatever its identity once was outside of 'chaos' and 'dragon'. Due to its nature as a god of chaos, it is possible that this was actually its original intention when it created the kobolds.
Other Gods
It isn't uncommon for kobolds living inside of outside cultures to adopt their gods as their own... sort of; The worship of gods other than The Great Wyrmdragon by kobolds takes one of two forms, mistaken identity and true worship, with mistaken identity being by far the more common. Many kobolds will, when encountering people worshipping another god particularly fervently, come to the conclusion that this other god is in fact The Great Wyrmdragon, because otherwise people wouldn't be worshipping them. When a kobold comes to this conclusion and finds the other god particularly interesting, they will sometimes begin worshiping the new god as The Great Wyrmdragon.
The worship of a kobold who is engaging in this sort of mistaken identity worship still flows to The Great Wyrmdragon rather than the god in question, much to the consternation of quite a few deities. There are some kobolds who make the conscious decision to worship other gods over their creator god, and these kobolds are little different than any other worshippers of said gods.
Notable Tribes
Nearly all kobolds worship The Great Wyrmdragon and seek out places of power, and the natures of those places shape the societies of the tribes that live near and revere them.
The Tinkerscale Kobolds
Residing under The Godforge, the tinkerscale kobolds have a close relationship with the dwarves of that great hold, with many of them working as forge assistants or even becoming smiths in their own right. The many different magics involved in the operation of the forge mean that a tremendous number of different blessings can be attained from it depending on exactly where clutches of eggs are laid and incubated.
Kobolds Out In The World
In their search for places of power and in service of their own desire to meet interesting people and have new experiences, kobolds are some of the most well travelled beings in The Shattered Continent, although their presence is not always appreciated. Although frequently treated like a raccoon which has gotten into the trash or a particularly poorly behaved dog, most kobolds don't let this dissuade them from enthusiastically introducing themselves to anyone who seems interesting. For all of their enthusiasm and typically optimistic attitude when it comes to meeting new people, an individual who goes above and beyond to be cruel to them will frequently find themselves the victim of an unrelenting campaign of pranks or outright vandalism and sabotage.
Relations With Other Races
Between being one of the most widespread and well travelled races and their propensity to live within the cities of other races, the kobolds have had extensive contact with essentially every other race on The Shattered Continent. Many view kobolds as annoyances at best, but a few have particularly notable relationships with them.
The Dwarves
As a people who are lawful by nature and known as extremely skilled and fastidious craftsmen, dwarves have a relatively low level of tolerance for the chaotic behavior of kobolds and the enthusiastic but frequently sloppy nature of their artisans.
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