Kobold

...Cursed With Craven Cunning

Kobolds are weak, craven, and seethe with a festering resentment for the rest of the world, especially members of races that seem stronger, smarter, or superior to them in any way. They proudly claim kinship to dragons, but beneath all the bluster, the comparison to their glorious cousins leaves kobolds with a profound sense of inadequacy. Though they are hardworking, clever, and blessed with a natural talent for mechanical devices and mining, they spend their days nursing grudges and hatreds instead of celebrating their own gifts. Kobold tactics specialize in traps and ambushes, but kobolds enjoy anything that allows them to harm others without putting themselves at risk. Often, they seek to capture rather than to kill, taking out their frustrations on the helpless victims they drag back to their claustrophobic lairs.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Kobolds thrive in cramped quarters far from the light of the sun. Most live in vast warrens deep beneath the earth, but a few instead prefer to make their homes beneath tangles of overgrown trees and brush. Saving their malice for other races, most kobolds get along well with their own kind. While squabbles and feuds do occur, the elders who rule kobold communities tend to settle such conflicts swiftly. Kobolds delight in taking slaves, relishing the chance to torment and humiliate them. They are also cowardly and practical, and often end up bowing to more powerful beings. If these creatures are of another humanoid race, kobolds often scheme to free themselves from subjugation as soon as possible. If the overlord is a powerful draconic or monstrous creature, however, kobolds see no shame in submission, and often shower adoration on their new leader. This is especially true if the kobolds serve a true dragon, who they tend to worship outright.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Kobolds often seethe with hatred and jealousy, but their innate caution ensures that they only act on these impulses when they have the upper hand. If unable to safely indulge their urge to physically harm and degrade members of other races, they resort to careful insults and “practical jokes” instead. They consider both dwarves and elves to be deadly rivals. Kobolds fear the brute power of half-orcs and resent humans for the dominant status that race enjoys. They believe half-elves blend the best qualities of both parent races, which strikes kobolds as fundamentally unfair. Kobolds believe halflings, small in stature, make wonderful slaves and targets for kobold rage and practical jokes. When the gnomes first arrived in the mortal realm, kobolds saw them as perfect victims. This sparked waves of retaliation and reprisal that have echoed on down through the centuries and earned the kobolds’ permanent enmity.