Kobold

At a glance

Feature	Details
Appearance	Short, hunched, tailless humanoids with dog-, hyena-, or rat-like faces.
Origins and communities	Communities include Rock Bottom, and Siha Dylis beneath Azdun.
Culture	Stone and gem cutting, tinkering and spellcraft; local traditions differ between settlements.
Racial abilities	Hoarder; Scavenge; Tinkering

Origins and history

The Kobolds of Sapience have a long, tumultuous history, dating back to the First Epoch. Along with the Goblins, they are the children of the former Trickster Goddess Khepri, serving as prototypes to Her favoured Imps, and were driven from the land of Sehal early on due to perceived inferiority.

Through to the Second Epoch, the Kobolds served as mercenaries and lackeys to the powerful dark mages of the Indoron Empire. Today’s Kobolds retain their skill at casting spells, though to find a descendant of the Indoron Empire among them is rare.

Working closely with their sister race, the Goblins, Kobolds tended toward more spiritual and creative forays, becoming expert stone and gemcutters as well as tinkerers. In the distant past, they were often seen as far south as El’Jazira and as far north as the Great Rock, where they warred against the Ophidians. This was the case until they united and were compelled to dig what is now known as the underground castle of Azdun.

Appearance

Trait	Details
Eyes	gold, brown, grey, rarely green
Pelts	ivory, grey, brown, russet, black
Size	4 – 4.5 feet / 1.1 – 1.4 meters

Kobolds resemble tailless, humanoid canines, bipedal with a distinct hunch to their backs. Over epochs, the race has developed more diversity in their facial structure, ranging from dog- or hyena-like to rat-like.

Craft and culture

Kobolds are traditionally innovative, if dangerous, and seek to improve and alter their surroundings with whatever bright idea they are fixated upon at the moment. They value practical application over aesthetics. Their food includes things grown underground, particularly tubers and burrowing rodents.

Settlements

Rock Bottom

These Kobolds tend to have rat-like faces and focus more on tinkering and experimenting with rudimentary and magical contraptions. Rock Bottom is a village built in the shadow of the Great Rock, united with the Ophidians under the leadership of Kobold Empress Agra and Ophidian Emperor Pa’akth. Associated with Bloodloch and Spinesreach after the war of the Liruma. (Events 234)

Siha Dylis

The Kobolds of Siha Dylis tend to have dog-like faces and practice magery with a strong elemental and spiritual emphasis. In the caverns beneath Azdun, the Kobolds and Goblins have allied against the encroaching Chiav. They are associated with Enorian, many having trained with the Hammer’s guilds. (Events 145)

Racial abilities

Level 1: Hoarder

This ability is passive.

Fast fingers make for greater treasures. You can pick up an extra 25 items at once.

Level 31: Scavenge

Syntax: SCAVENGE <crafted item>

Take apart a crafted item for a chance to recover some of the commodities used in its construction, destroying it in the process. The chance is higher based on the remaining time till decay.

Level 61: Tinkering

This ability is passive.

A quick mind lets you spot the best use for bombs and traps. As such, your knowledge-sourced damage increases by 1%.

Class ideas for roleplay

These are potential starting points for a character’s story and are offered as suggestions only. You can make almost any class or race combination work in Aetolia as your race gives no special advantage with these classes; availability follows the usual class and guild rules.

Alchemist

A Kobold tinkerer could turn a workshop habit of testing and adjusting into scientific work with Spinesreach’s Archivists. Chemical reactions, blighted plants, and living experiments would supply new problems to solve, along with consequences far beyond a broken contraption.

Ascendril

A Kobold from Siha Dylis might join Enorian’s Ascendril to build on their community’s tradition of elemental spellcraft. They could study fire, water, and air as a scholar, teach those arts to others, or use them to defend the city against threats from the Shadow plane.

Archivist

A Kobold gem-cutter could become fascinated by the relationship between faceted shapes and magical force. In Spinesreach, a codex and the Spheres of Numerology could turn that fascination into research that serves the Theocracy’s pursuit of progress and ascension.

See also: The Races of Aetolia · The World of Aetolia · Character Classes