Chainlink #3: Kobolds

 

Everything they've told you
about him is a filthy, filthy lie

Kei Laori is the name of an equatorial peninsula on the continent of Lakarta, along with a nearby set of islands. For the past few centuries, Kei Laori has been under the rule of Medura, a local kingdom, paying taxes in exchange for naval protection and autonomy. The communities on the islands are mostly made up of fishermen, whereas the peninsula sports a large number of farmers. In particular, they grow a sort of red banana which the king of Medura is said to enjoy greatly. The region has a local species of great ape, typically referred to as Laori Apes, which resemble chimpanzees, though they are a bit smaller than their cousins. The region was also home to a spellcaster of some note, Marsi of Niva, who arrived at the age of 34, remaining until his death 99 years later. 

Marsi was a beast mage of exceptional quality; to call him a generational talent would be understating his capabilities entirely. It would not be unreasonable to say that since the collapse of the Chelicurae, Marsi was the single greatest beast mage the world had ever seen, some hailing him as a scion of their lost empire, despite the impossibility. He was, as all beast mages were, fascinated with the Chelicurae, and his writings on their history are some of the best in the world, though they are still fragmented and deeply flawed. Marsi was responsible for the creation of several creatures which have been rather difficult to replicate owing to their complexity and seemingly inevitable instability. Of course, Marsi fancied himself a creator of life, and as such, he was inclined to create monsters which could breed, meaning several of his creatures are still around today, none more numerous than the kobolds.

When Marsi arrived upon the peninsula, he introduced himself to the local governor, informed him he would be building a keep on the south side of the peninsula, away from most of the larger settlements, and that he would not bother them. Marsi was an odd neighbor to the people of Kei Laori, and though there was some friction due to the strange beasts which he carried with him, generally, he was harmless. Marsi would venture into the capitol (barely a city, and more of a very large village) on occasion if he wished to buy or sell something, usually accompanied by strange, pale creatures, somewhat evocative of the Laori apes, but bird faced and armed with blades. Kobolds, he called them. Sometimes Marsi would not show up at all, and in his stead, several of his kobolds would arrive with wagons, bags of gold, and grocery lists. Gradually, Marsi stopped showing up altogether, though his apes did not. Marsi's health had taken a turn for the worse, and in the final few years of his life he was bed bound, forcing him to send his kobolds out on their own. After his death, all at once, the visits ceased, and gradually, the raids began. 

Small groups of kobolds would emerge from the woods, and wander into the market, wandering aimlessly before grabbing at the ample food stores on display. At first they were chided, then rebuked, when they did not provide payment, with most in the village believing they were still under Marsi's control. One such confrontation turned violent, an elderly fisherman drew a knife on a kobold which has snatched his fishing net, and chased after it. The kobold drew a rusty scimitar and the two fought, briefly, it did not take long for the kobold to close the distance between it and the fisherman, and it was surprisingly efficient with its blade. The fisherman bled out, and the kobold was killed by a mob.

After several such incidents, kobolds generally began to maintain distance from human settlements, and chance encounters with them in the woods became more violent. Eventually this would escalate into a sort of war, kobolds would arrive en masse at a village, brandishing their blades and howling like demons, taking any food they could get their hands on and fleeing into the woods. At this point, a formal request for aid against the strange beasts was made, and the King of Medura sent a battalion of soldiers to the peninsula to deal with the threat. The next time the kobolds attacked, they were met with a shower of arrows. Not to be deterred, they began arriving to the villages with shields. There were several degrees of escalation from this point onwards which culminated in a campaign of extermination, the strange beasts were to be driven from the region all together. This campaign was ultimately unsuccessful in eradicating the kobolds, but it did manage to push them away from most of the peninsula's settlements, and into the deep jungle. 

A century on, plagues of kobolds are much less of a problem in Kei Laori. They remain a common fixation of today's beast mages, who are typically greeted by locals with suspicion, given how badly the last guy seems to have fucked things up for their province. It is because of these mages that the kobolds of Kei Laori have spread to other parts of the world, typically becoming a nuisance wherever they go. 

What is a Kobold?

From afar they resemble stark white chimps. As one approaches, they will notice their giant, dinner-plate eyes, orange and slitted like a bird of prey. They have beaks too, concealing small needle like teeth. Their bodies are dotted with white scales, which alternate with areas of pale fur. They have teeny little tails on their butts, sort of like a pterosaur's. The component pieces which Marsi used to create kobolds aren't fully known but it is seemingly obvious that primates were involved somewhere in the process. Their physiology is not the primary point of curiosity but rather their brains, which are the result of some incredibly sophisticated magical tinkering. 

Kobold brains are like sponges. If a kobold spends enough time simply observing someone performing a skill, they can do it too, and they'll be pretty good at it. They use tools almost like the mortal peoples, though they seem to be rather bad at making things in any sort of industrial sense, and attempts to teach them language of any sort have been unsuccessful. There are many decent swordsmen among their ranks, however, which is a skill Marsi was keen to foster, as his primary use for kobolds was as guardsmen. Kobolds also have minds that are utterly vulnerable to mental suggestion, especially in the way of charm spells. This makes them decent minions for mages, but they do still have the chance to snap out of it and maul you. This doesn't stop many wizards from swinging by the peninsula and grabbing a handful of the buggers, of course.

When they fight, they use swords, shields, spears, whatever they can get their hands on. They throw rocks and knives, and are constantly screaming. Their goal is not necessarily to kill you, but to get you to go away, and so they will be loud, and scary, but usually won't follow you as you trip over your own feet trying to get away from them.

Kobolds are intelligent the way smart animals are intelligent, but their tool usage makes them seem more like people. Their intelligence seems to have been intentionally bounded by Marsi, seemingly in an effort to minimize the chances of rebellion against him. They have an average lifespan of about 40 years, but some exceptional kobolds might live longer, the oldest known subject being an individual known as the Grandmaster, believed to be a little over a century old. Kobolds seem to grow in size as they age, the Grandmaster is more comparable in size to a gorilla, and fights with a greatsword scavenged off of a Meduran soldier. He is, by most accounts, sluggish and slothful, spending most of his days sleeping in the canopy, kept fed by his mates and children. His body is a library of scars, earned from challenges with rivals and the occasional duel with a mortal opponent. It is often hypothesized that the Grandmaster is one of the greatest swordsmen in the world, though most mortal swordsmen dispute the idea that a mere beast could be so skilled. 

Maybe I'll detail more of Marsi's monsters at some point, the region probably has to deal with more than just the kobolds. I made these guys because wanted an intelligent animal type monster that uses tools, I think there's something interesting about finding a weird bird-ape thing that fights with a scavenged sword but is not necessarily a person, or intelligent enough to be malicious. They're animals, just like chimps, but they can be aggressive and dangerous, and fight in a pretty unusual way for animals. They're also a bit inspired by those monkeys with the katanas in Sekiro (and probably the humandrills from one piece, in retrospect), in fact I'm just now realizing the Grandmaster basically looks like Owl but if he was a weird creature instead of a human.