Kobold

## Common Knowledge

The entirety of the race of Kobolds are found on Penskruingman. Dilghaon forces aided by the Binturians are the main reason the island was found beyond the World Line.

## Residence

Found almost solely on Penskruingman, since contact with the forces of Dilghao, Kobolds may soon make their way back into Orelisle.

## Biology

Kobolds are small anthropomorphic dogs (bearing resemblance to african wild dogs),standing at approximately 3 feet tall. They live 20-30 years and mature at 7 years old. Previously giving birth to litters of 6-8 twice a month. Due to the Binturians’ ritual, their reproductive rate has been reduced to a litter approximately every 3 months and their litters now tend to birth on the lower side of 2-4 pups.

## Religion/Culture

The entirety of the race lives on the island Penskruingman. They value themselves, their social units, and themselves as a collective.

On Penskruingman, the beings with the highest influence were the Qilin and the Shoggoths. Many Kobolds revere the Qilin as the island's patron of nature. The Kobolds of Shalour worshipped the Shoggoths due to their power and the subjugation the Kobolds were subject to. With the Binturians' extermination of them, the Shoggoths may be all but forgotten to few cultic followers they've accrued.

They are a primarily collectivist culture to coincide with their pride in themselves, their social units and community.

* The well-being of the community is their own well-being
* This is due to their short life-spans, so if they provide for each other, they live well, have a family, and know that they will also live well.

### Tribes

On Penskruingman, the Kobolds who live in tribes are not high up on the food chain, they need to rely on group tactics and such to successfully hunt enough to provide or to wage war against others if needed

* Their tactics have developed over time to account for their reproductive rate, so casualties are much more commonplace and accepted.
	+ That being said, the oldest are most likely to fill in for roles that lead to deaths/casualties, or at least if they’ve at least had offspring
	+ Their life-span usually means they put more value in protecting youth and providing for the community as a whole since trying to prolong their life via cowardice/selfishness is rather ineffectual if they die in 30 years anyway

* This helps balance how they manage resources for a species that has such a high rate of population growth.

Positions of leadership, chieftains, elders, councilmen for those in the city, tend to come with age and prowess, simply because of their experiences leading to better outcomes for the collective.

Mating is done by having the person who wishes to court another leading a hunting party to present a hunting trophy to them

* The better the trophy hunted and the smaller the number of casualties, the greater the value attached to the courtship
	+ Strong blood to pass on and more likely to live longer and achieve a respected position

* Naming conventions of pups are done descriptively, so many of them waits around a year to ensure the name is at least accurate if not fitting.

There are shamanic practices in the kobold tribes, they can be mainly categorized as Wild Shamans, Nature Shamans, and Origin Shamans

* Wild Shamans have observed the ferocity of the denizens of nature, pursuing magics that allow them to become such creatures allow them to aid their community in ways they couldn’t before. (shapeshifting druids)

* Nature Shamans have observed the aspects of nature and how all things can do nothing but struggle before it. Learning magics to ask favors of the forces of nature, these shamans are the harbingers of nature’s wrath to their enemies. (elemental druids)

* Origin Shamans have observed nature and realized that it is only a part of the greater world, just as elemental magic is only one school of magic. They delve into the study of universal magic, believing it to be at least part of the origin of everything as well as the schools of magic. They wonder what greatness they can reach studying the magic of which all others came to be. (non-specialized druids primarily trained in universal magics)

### City-Pelts

Honestly, they’re liking it, they’re more populated than tribes, so their hunting parties needed big hauls to feed more. They do need to adjust their tactics much more severely though, because truthfully, hunting parties was one of the best ways for them to cull the population.

The months of adjustment let them drop the population numbers a lot since they were developing new tactics alone and two, kind of gunning for it, so now they have less to worry about from overpopulating the cities even if tribes come to join. They’re advancing easily because they don’t have a tribal lifestyle to try to preserve and new technology from Dilghao is helping this advancement.

## History

Many years ago, in the early development of Dilghao, the Kobolds were exiled from their native lands. The Dilghaons kindly afforded them land and the two parties enjoyed peace for a time. In ten years, the Kobolds' reproductive rate caused their population to soar, leading to a resource crisis. Forced to act to protect themselves, Dilghao and the Kobolds engaged in war. Eventually, the Kobolds were defeated and thought driven extinct. Surprisingly, a small number escaped by sea and made their way to Penskruingman, an island beyond the World Line. Their reproductive rate guaranteed their race's survival. Kobolds were since forgotten among the species driven to extinction.

It wasn't until Dilgahaon scryers found the island and an expedition was set to claim the land in the name of Dilghao. The Binturians were hired to aid in the reclamation efforts. After the initial landing, the Shoggoths were slain and the Kobold reproductive rate was gutted via ritual to facilitate new relations.

## Further/Related Information

- Dilghao

- Penskruingman

### The Ritual

On a tribal scale:

* the aftermath of the ritual to reduce their reproductive rate, many of the tribes and communities are panicking.
	+ Many thought the initial small litter sizes were flukes of bad health or such. This resulted in a short period of ostracizing of those who sired small litter sizes. But by the time a month has passed, chieftains are quickly realizing their current way of life is endangered as more are birthing small litters and as it is becoming harder for mates to be impregnated.
	+ Current hunting tactics/combat strategies allow for too many casualties in light of the new reproductive rate. If it were to continue, tribes could easily be wiped out.
		- Many tribes have begun collaborating to invent new tactics to account for this, trying to learn safer methods to allow smaller numbers to perform the same task bigger groups used to
			* This is leading to safer but much more time-consuming tactics
			* Tactics place much more emphasis on preservation of life
				+ Because now it’s “I have to live so the youth has a chance to” where before it was “I can die because the others will make sure the youth will be cared for until they are ready to care for their own youths”
			* These kinds of tactics would happen around 2-3 months after the ritual was done. All tribes by this point were probably halved in size before conglomerating or joining cities.
	+ Shamans have tried numerous fertility rituals but all of them have had little to no effect, the greatest achievements were that it made a few pregnancies easier and made a few litters larger, but never exceeding four.

* Things on how the ritual affects them
	+ They live to 30 years old
	+ 2-4 kids isn’t a lot, at all, and apparently gestation period was also lengthened
	+ Kobolds are not strong, they are pack hunters
	+ Almost everything on the island can kill them
	+ Death is common and normal, and very frequent
	+ Literally, 2-4 kids every few months isn’t good enough, it wouldn’t be enough to sustain smaller tribes
		- Some tribes probably will die out, because they were unprepared and their adaptation period would need to be very short.
		- Tribes will likely start integrating each other to survive, leading to much fewer but more massive tribes
	+ Dilghaon trade will reach the tribes near their outpost and Valsum, but not more out of the way tribes, even then, Kobolds were not promised expressed help from Dilghaons to adapt
		- Only the kobolds near the following are fine, tribes be fucked
			* Crystallid city
			* Valsum and cities
			* Dilghaon Outposts
	+ The more racist factions of Dilghao will push for conquest now that the ritual was done.
		- Their reproductive rate was one of the largest deterrents for war against the kobolds
		- Their current status is much weaker than their first war, many are tribal groups, and the few cities honestly wouldn’t be that much of a challenge to Dilghao’s more advanced technology and such
		- Tribes have to deal with other predators as well
		- Would be very easy to starve out the kobolds
	+ And I fully expect for at least a splinter faction of Kobolds to think that their new situation is due to the sudden visitation of the foreigners.
		- None of the kobolds were notified of this
		- Probably a good number will be wondering what could have happened
			* They’ll realize that the only new factor was the Binturians and Dilghao
			* They wished for trade and did kill the Shoggoths
			* But their sudden loss in fertility is far too outlandish to ignore
				+ Maybe it’s the precursor to an attack

* Yeah, Kobolds will need to consolidate at cities and the Dilghaon outpost. Their way of life will probably end except for the exceptionally ardent and lucky.
	+ Forced urbanization of many except for mega-tribes who will have a hard time