Kobold

"With a name coming from the Draconic ko-boldek, meaning 'little dragon', kobolds are tiny dragon-folk often seen amongst dragons, dragonborn, as well as in their own clans. They are often characterized by their close camraderie with their clans, their off-putting behavior, and oftentimes their enormous egos for such small creatures."

Basic Information

Anatomy

Kobolds are small, draconic humanoids with scaly skin, tails, and horns. They have digitigrade legs and clawed feet and hands, and occasionally their tails have sharp points growing out of them.

Genetics and Reproduction

Kobolds hatch from eggs! And that's all I'm gonna say on the matter.

Growth Rate & Stages

Kobolds hatch around 20 days after their egg is laid, and are considered children until the age of six, where they stop growing. The develop their horns at age four. They can reach up to 120 years of age, though their... inherent impulsivity often prevents this.

Ecology and Habitats

Kobolds can live anywhere! Though if they make their home above ground, they typically adopt a nocturnal lifestyle to avoid the bright sunlight.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Kobolds are omnivorous, but they prefer meat.

Biological Cycle

Kobolds are warm-blooded, but still prefer warmth to chilly, unruly weather. They occasionally shed their skin like snakes or lizards, this time usually coming around every couple of years until they are six and have stopped growing.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Kobolds are a very social people as a whole, though their social structure varies wildly from clan to clan. Some are patriarchal, some are matriarchal, some have no leaders at all and are instead guided by higher non-kobold figures like dragons or other beasts. Rarely, other humanoids become leaders of kobold clans.

Facial characteristics

Kobolds have slit-pupil eyes like their draconic brethren, and long draconic snouts. Occasionally, genetic mutations give them spines growing from their faces along with their horns. Sharp teeth, pointy tongues, the works.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

As stated previously, kobolds can live just about anywhere. A lot of them hail from Capitel Sottgen, the draconic nation to the south, but also from overseas. Native Nobliyan kobolds are rare, but still around. Primarily these come from the ancient kobold clan in the Bladehills, built for harsh mountain environments.

Average Intelligence

Kobolds are not stupid! They have never been stupid! It is simply that they tend to pool their knowledge more than act individually. When a kobold leaves home, they cannot take the whole of their clan's knowledge with them, so often they are left a little... clueless. Which is why it is a common practice for kobolds to have an oral record keeper within their clan, referred to as the bookie. (See Common Customs and Observed Traditions section for more information on kobold record-keeping customs.)

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Kobolds have average senses, though they are often very sensitive to sunlight, since many of them grew up underground or in other dark places.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Kobolds do not care much for names, preferring them to be short and, to the outside eye, rather crude-sounding. Digs, Mud, Wash, and Snott to name a few.

Major Organizations

Every clan great and small could be considered a "major" organization by kobold standards.

Beauty Ideals

Kobolds typically have no real "standards" for beauty. Those that value draconic ideals tend to think more draconic features are beautiful. More horns, spikes, maybe even finding firebreath attractive. On the flipside, some kobolds think dirty is pretty. It's a sign of hard work or suffering for a clan.

Gender Ideals

Kobolds have little way to tell between the sexes, and most of the time they don't care to. If you help the clan with tasks, they don't care what you are or how you identify.

Courtship Ideals

Kobolds take after their draconic roots and traditions when it comes time to court another kobold they hold dear. They hoard things, small treasures and trinkets and even random bits of nature. All things that remind them of their beloved. When they want to confess, they invite their beloved into that hoard, presenting it to them. If their beloved accepts, they can be considered a couple. If not, their beloved still gets the hoard to do with what they wish. Oftentimes, they won't destroy it, and if the two kobolds remain friends they allow the other to visit if they want.

Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals

Kobolds have many different traditions across the many different clans, but there seems to be one that is maintained as a constant: a record-keeper, usually of oral histories. This record-keeper is known as the bookie of the clan (ironic, considering they do not keep books) and it is a position that is typically passed down through the generations. The bookie is the keeper of all history and collective knowledge in the clan. Any sort of thing, from who's related to whom, to where the clan has lived, to even more common stuff like where the best foraging spots are, or who the clan trusts. The bookie keeps all of those important bits of information locked inside their noggin, and tell it to anyone who needs it.
This in particular is why kobolds are rarely as smart by themselves than they are as a group. The bookie keeps everyone as informed as they can. But individual kobolds are often underprepared for everything outside the clan, and thus that leaves them seeming a bit... naive.

Common Taboos

• Water: Kobolds are often small and lightweight enough to get swept away by currents or crushed by waves. As a result, large bodies of water have become a taboo and a hazard they don't tend to go near.
• Sunlight: Though plenty of kobold clans make their homes above ground now, their bodies are still made for life below it. They prefer to travel by night, and looking into the sun is basically a death sentence. As a result, it's become something of a slang term. "Out of the shade" refers to something being unattainable or inconvenient.

History

The lack of... written history for kobolds has led many false claims that kobolds did not have a history, or are very recent in their arrival to Nobliya and Tu'ril at large. This is not true. Kobolds and kobold clans have a rich history, it is simply an oral history first and foremost.
Kobolds date back to the birth of dragons, where myth has it that they were created as the lowest rung on the draconic hierarchy. Kobolds are literally the littlest dragons, and as such are believed to have been made with the "scraps" of material left after creating the true dragons and the dragonborn.
Of course, this is the first of many fates that koboldkind scoffed at and continued to survive despite it.
While it is true that many of the first kobolds spoken of in lore and legend were servants of dragons, very quickly did that narrative fall down. Kobolds became their own groups, defined by their families and friends, not by higher powers. The goal became not to serve some dragon who cared not if they lived or died, but rather to serve one another, and to serve the clan. It's a rather inspiring tale of growth, is it not?

Historical Figures

Very few kobolds make it to written history, but there are two that have.

• Equity Goldbrook, the Halruaan soldier who mutinied against the captain of her war machine and founded the Traction City of Otherwhere out of it
• Her son, Zegariah, who captains the city to this day

Common Myths and Legends

As stated in the histories section, the most common myth about the "creation" of kobolds is called the "scrap material" myth.

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Millenia ago, when the world was young, a cosmic craftsman was making the first draconic creatures.
He started big, with the grand forms of chromatic and metallic dragons, all shimmering scales and lashing tails and brilliant, beating wings.
Then, he created the dragonborn, who lost their wings and size but now stood upright, just as strong and smart as a whip.
The craftsman would have stopped at this point, but he had leftover pieces of draconic material strewn about.
He couldn't just let it all go to waste, so he collected the scraps and began to experiment.
This yielded very small dragons, no wings, no shimmering scales, but with glints in their eyes and trust in one another.
The little dragons had been created, out of nothing but the leftovers, but they had been created nonetheless.

Scientific Name

Draconus minor

Origin/Ancestry

Draconic

Lifespan

120 years

Average Height

2-3 feet. Kobolds are very short.

Average Weight

25-35 pounds. Kobolds are very light! You can throw one, probably.

Average Physique

Kobolds are small, and thus, not particularly strong. What makes them a formidable force is their numbers. Unless they leave on a mission or with a purpose, a kobold never travels alone.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

As with dragons and dragonborn, kobolds can be any of the draconic colors, chromatic or metallic. Very occasionally, a kobold can bear crystalline scales like crystal dragons, but this is a very rare mutation and has never been seen within Nobliya, only in Helimire.