Kobold

Key Similarities with Faerun's Version

• Kobolds are small reptilian humanoids that appear as a cross between a miniature dragon and a large lizard of sorts. They are extremely small, in fact they are the smallest Kith race you are likely to come across in Adra, measuring on average under 3ft in height.
• Kobolds are originally descended from an ancient race of Dragonkin, a race of humanoids created by dragons long ago. They share this lineage with Dragonborn and Lizardfolk, with Dragonborn being more similar to the original Dragonkin than kobolds, and Lizardfolk being less like them than kobolds.
• Often, Kobolds have been associated with being the servants or followers of actual dragons, often obsessed with becoming like a dragon themselves. Dragons, usually chromatic dragons, would commonly manipulate this impulse and gather armies of kobolds to fight for them. Often, these armies took on a cult-like culture. Today however, most of the old Kobold armies are gone, and fewer kobolds remain in service to dragons as those who don't. The height of this kind of phenomenon was sometime during the 1st Era, and has declined continuously since then, as Kobolds move out to pursue other ends.

Key Differences with Faerun's Version

• Kobolds were best known historically for their making up in great numbers the population of the Old Jungle Kingdom of Yongara. There, they made up one of the dominant political groups, until the doom of the jungle came. When the jungle was destroyed, the old kingdom's western protectorates came to rule what was left of the arable land - the once influential kobolds were immediately relegated to an underclass in the protectorates where they were a minority - while in the east, most kobolds became desert nomads, clinging onto what was left of their old culture. Some would venture out further east, reaching new homes far from Kelior.
• In many parts of Adra, kobolds are not associated with violence - except in those places where kobolds still maintain their cults of worship to dragons, or to the people of the Eastern and Western edges of the Bleached Desert, and in particular those of the Western part, where the nomadic kobolds of the desert are known for exacting brutal hit and run raids on caravans and small towns, often freeing their fellows in bondage when they do (since Kobolds, along with Goblins and Kenku are one of the three slave races of Kelior). Those with political interests against the Western Satraps often cheer on, or even actively support these raids.

Subraces of Kobold

• Bleached Kobold: The subrace of Kobolds from Old Yongara who remained in and around their ancestral homelands after the kingdom fell. Overtime, their survivors have rapidly adapted to the desert, with those unfit for its conditions having died off many generations ago. Bleacehd Kobolds, true to their name, tend to have a white or ivory hue to their scales, meant to keep them as cool as possible in the hot sun (where they usually wear as few clothes as possible to maximize this effect). Rather than idolize dragons, like their ancient kin, the Bleached Kobolds, forever holding the past close to their hearts, tend to hate dragons more than any creature in this world.
• Forest Kobold: The subrace of Kobolds from Old Yongara who moved eastward after the kingdom fell. These kobolds made their way to the Yalewood, a place inhabited only by a few druidic peoples at the time. They were welcomed, and continue to live there in some number to this day. The forest kobolds are the closest to the kobolds that once lived in Old Yongara in ancient times. Forest kobolds tend to have scales the color of dark green or brown.
• Pure-Strain Kobold: Pure-Strain kobolds, sometimes called dragon-worshipers, are the kobold most closely descended to the kobolds of ancient times who maintained a worship of dragons. Some Pure-Strain Kobolds now live in other places and do other things, but many of them still worship and serve dragons to this day, some of them coming to the Kingdom of Aegyri after its capture by dragons. Pure-strain kobolds have colors that reflect chromatic dragons.

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