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Species Kobold
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There's a lot of kobold varieties and breeds out there, a quick handy guide for getting to know a few of the more common ones.
EDIT: Stop explaining "translation error" to me, I know. I've had countless people across multiple platforms explain to me, I know. I've had people and friends DM me, I know. I knew the stories and info behind it long before I even made this post, I simply was making dumb for a joke. I KNOW.
EDIT: Stop explaining "translation error" to me, I know. I've had countless people across multiple platforms explain to me, I know. I've had people and friends DM me, I know. I knew the stories and info behind it long before I even made this post, I simply was making dumb for a joke. I KNOW.
Category All / All
Species Kobold
Size 2912 x 2847px
File Size 6.67 MB
That's what I really like about kobolds. They've taken so many different forms over the years, that there's a ton of creative freedom for you to make your own thing out of them and still have it be readily accepted as "kobold." As opposed to stuff like orcs or gnolls, which really can't deviate much beyond the stereotypical form before people stop recognizing them for what they are
If you wanna get nerded on a bit: it's because Orcs and Gnolls are both newer species that come from more direct narrative sources. Orcs being "described" in Tolkien books and gnolls not only being described but illustrated in the original versions of D&D. Compared to kobolds which are a far more distant mythological source without as much of a set description or set illustration being a part of public folklore.
Netizen is cute though... but yeah, can't otherwise disagree with anything here. All seems pretty accurate.
IIRC the dog kobolds is a Japanese thing..? Seems like because the really early D&D kobolds were dog-like-ish, then a game series called Wizardry used the dog kobolds, and then Wizardry blew up over there.
IIRC the dog kobolds is a Japanese thing..? Seems like because the really early D&D kobolds were dog-like-ish, then a game series called Wizardry used the dog kobolds, and then Wizardry blew up over there.
Well the myhological Kobold would be more akin to a gnome as they (and dwarves to some extend) were basiaclly all considered "House spirits" in german folklore. They were more or less the same there or more that the terms got used for the same concepts.
Funnily enought theres also a (most likley unintentional) basis for the reptile/dragon concept of the Kobold in german folklore because according to a Legend from the Erzgebirge (If I remember correctly) Kobolds would shapeshift into a small dragon at Night to fly into the chimney of houses.
But anyway Kobolds are dope.
Funnily enought theres also a (most likley unintentional) basis for the reptile/dragon concept of the Kobold in german folklore because according to a Legend from the Erzgebirge (If I remember correctly) Kobolds would shapeshift into a small dragon at Night to fly into the chimney of houses.
But anyway Kobolds are dope.
Honestly, I think all of them can be a bit of "You can tell what game the artist first found them."
Most Spawn from first edition D&D. You could even do a phylogenetic tree using kobolds. The goblin/Gnome one being the original Kobold (though technically that could have grown from other myths like the Koblynau). The original D&D kobolds came from this, being described as just goblins but weaker.
Then, ad&d D&D had the dog-rat-lizard kobolds, and that's very important because this is where things diverge. The dog aspects became popular in Asia and accentuating the dog aspects led to the dog-like kobolds we see in many jrpgs today, making the dog kobold branch a basal kobold.
Another basal kobold would be the rat kind, though it only really appeared in Warcraft.
However, 2e had kobolds with rather accentuated mammalian features, so the rat or dog-like ones should have also diverged from here- especially the rat-like ones.
3e really emphasized the Reptilian, Draconic look and it's been all draconic from there. Pathfinder kept them Draconic before going for a Salamander look, 4e and 5e made them look even more Draconic and less Scrawny (5e seems to have given them a little dog nose too). Netizen and actually a dragon came from this. I'm not sure where the big ears evolved, but it's likely related here.
Yeah, the evolution of kobolds is fun and interesting.
Edit: I suspect Rat-bolds will die out soon as newer generations will be more influenced by 3rd than by 1e or 2e d&d.
Most Spawn from first edition D&D. You could even do a phylogenetic tree using kobolds. The goblin/Gnome one being the original Kobold (though technically that could have grown from other myths like the Koblynau). The original D&D kobolds came from this, being described as just goblins but weaker.
Then, ad&d D&D had the dog-rat-lizard kobolds, and that's very important because this is where things diverge. The dog aspects became popular in Asia and accentuating the dog aspects led to the dog-like kobolds we see in many jrpgs today, making the dog kobold branch a basal kobold.
Another basal kobold would be the rat kind, though it only really appeared in Warcraft.
However, 2e had kobolds with rather accentuated mammalian features, so the rat or dog-like ones should have also diverged from here- especially the rat-like ones.
3e really emphasized the Reptilian, Draconic look and it's been all draconic from there. Pathfinder kept them Draconic before going for a Salamander look, 4e and 5e made them look even more Draconic and less Scrawny (5e seems to have given them a little dog nose too). Netizen and actually a dragon came from this. I'm not sure where the big ears evolved, but it's likely related here.
Yeah, the evolution of kobolds is fun and interesting.
Edit: I suspect Rat-bolds will die out soon as newer generations will be more influenced by 3rd than by 1e or 2e d&d.
Kobolds' appearance also got codified earlier in popular consciousness in Japan, than it did in America, thanks to depictions in influential media like Records of Lodoss War and Jun Suemi's designs for the Japanese releases of the Wizardry games, and thus in-turn video games inspired by those like (Shin) Megami Tensei. This means they got formalized prior to the 3e dragonification of Kobolds, and specifically through BD&D, rather than AD&D, which usually emphasized the "dog-like humanoids" part of their appearance over any lizard, rat, goblin, etc. elements.
Furthermore RuneQuest was proportionally much bigger and more influential in the early Japanese TTRPG scene than it was in it's home country. This resulted in Dragonewts already being considered a stock fantasy TTRPG species, making the later changes D&D made to Kobolds kind of redundant to a Japanese audience as they already had Dragonewts for that, limiting the adoption of those changes further.
Furthermore RuneQuest was proportionally much bigger and more influential in the early Japanese TTRPG scene than it was in it's home country. This resulted in Dragonewts already being considered a stock fantasy TTRPG species, making the later changes D&D made to Kobolds kind of redundant to a Japanese audience as they already had Dragonewts for that, limiting the adoption of those changes further.
I like the idea of an oddly smart orcish researcher who traveled the world to categorize things. And they had a tendency to name anything that was short, made a lot of noise, and annoying as a "kobold". Then generations later there are these creatures who now fight over the name because they don't understand what it means.
I'm not sure if this was already mentioned but, to answer the "how did we get here" for the Dog Kobold, when the Kobold DnD race was first introduced to Japan, they took the canine aspects of the race (like their "yips" and "dog-like snouts") very literally and ran with it as them being dogfolk. This interpretation was also reinforced by the game everquest (which came to Japan at around the same time DnD did), which also painted Kobolds as canids in their artstyle.
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