Racing Turtles

laurie 😔

I love the way Ryoko Kui draws almost all fantasy races but she really did something special with the kobolds like girl this shit is stunning

can't forget her kobold bikini

This is a question that’s been bothering me, and after looking into it I think I get it

So kobolds first appear in Germanic folklore as domestic spirits. Kobolds are also considered mine spirits, causing cave-ins and tapping on things in the dark to scare miners

Think the elves from The Elves and the Shoemaker, but bastards

This association with mines and caves and bastardy gets them into the world of tabletop RPGs when Gary Gygax adds them to his fantasy supplement of Chainmail. Kobolds are later added to Dungeons & Dragons as a subterranean race of monsters

Here’s the important thing: due to a throwaway line in the rulebooks about the kobolds having doglike voices, the first artist to depict a D&D kobold gave it a dog nose

This is the beginning point in the divergent evolution

Kobolds in western TTRPG will notoriously become more and more reptilian with each generation, leaning on the interpretation of “chihuahua dragons,” but it’s at this time, heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, that the video game series Wizardry begins

They brought the dog kobolds with them

Wizardry becomes extremely popular in Japan, inspiring JRPG series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as well as manga series like Dungeon Meshi. And while in the west the kobold has become increasingly reptilian with each edition, the Japanese kobold has become increasingly canine

And this is why in the greater fantasy genre, kobolds represent everything from

To

To

And

Some relevant art of mine

#then theres warcraft kobolds#that are rat people#i dont know where that came into play(vai@pisceancryptid)

Just a guess on my part but, given the sorts of places you tend to run into them, their presentation as fractious, alchemically-gifted pests, and Blizzard's tendency to rework Games Workshop concepts, it's possible their rat-kobolds are inspired by The Skaven.

Of course, it's equally-possible they were just trying to distinguish them from DnD kobolds, thought "underground mining badguys" and Rats popped into their heads.

This is a question that’s been bothering me, and after looking into it I think I get it

So kobolds first appear in Germanic folklore as domestic spirits. Kobolds are also considered mine spirits, causing cave-ins and tapping on things in the dark to scare miners

Think the elves from The Elves and the Shoemaker, but bastards

This association with mines and caves and bastardy gets them into the world of tabletop RPGs when Gary Gygax adds them to his fantasy supplement of Chainmail. Kobolds are later added to Dungeons & Dragons as a subterranean race of monsters

Here’s the important thing: due to a throwaway line in the rulebooks about the kobolds having doglike voices, the first artist to depict a D&D kobold gave it a dog nose

This is the beginning point in the divergent evolution

Kobolds in western TTRPG will notoriously become more and more reptilian with each generation, leaning on the interpretation of “chihuahua dragons,” but it’s at this time, heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, that the video game series Wizardry begins

They brought the dog kobolds with them

Wizardry becomes extremely popular in Japan, inspiring JRPG series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as well as manga series like Dungeon Meshi. And while in the west the kobold has become increasingly reptilian with each edition, the Japanese kobold has become increasingly canine

And this is why in the greater fantasy genre, kobolds represent everything from

To

To

And

Some relevant art of mine

I love the way Ryoko Kui draws almost all fantasy races but she really did something special with the kobolds like girl this shit is stunning

love my kobold base sm 🥺💕

probs my fav base i’ve made to date 🥺🐲💕✨

kobold design

lost in the moss

i’m not too familiar with Dungeon Meshi yet but i’m starting to fall in love with Ryoko Kui’s character design work

bonus very good advice:

@thepioden

Ok I agree with this per Dragons & current Kobolds, but I think most people don’t realize the history of Kobolds in D&D is more complicated.

This is from memory so I might get some stuff a bit off, but basically, Kobolds only really became draconic post 3.0. Before 3, Kobolds were monstrous caninimids like Gnolls and Bugbears(though technically goblinoids as well :|), and during 3 were still basically this, but with more draconic features and distantly related to dragons.

The Baldur’s Gate games, which came about during the 3.0 push, are a good artifact for this, as the Kobolds visual design is vaguely draconic(horns, big fangs, kinda scaly), but they yip like little dogs and retain their old D&D association with Gnolls(Gnolls:Kobolds::Orcs:Goblins).

So basically what I’m saying is; the tradition of presenting Kobolds with boobs may partially track back to when they were still considered mammals.

Dragons&Draconians are, of course, Right Out, except when polymorphed u_u

Dragonborn are of dragonkind, which is a warm blooded, egg laying, utterly magical animal kingdom unknown to our reality. They are not reptiles and metabolize completely differently, and yes we do have Lizardfolk specifically filling the place of closest equivalent.

Female dragonborn are also known to nurse for a short time, so yes female dragon born would have fat stores in order to make large, singular, and efficient eggs and milk. Why? Idk they’re humanoid, they were likely an old creator race infused with dragon dna by whatever created them and the origin race had tits like most of the remaining humanoids.

I am also going off of a Dragonborn ecology vid on youtube I listened to quite recently and this was a subject touched upon briefly. AJPicket has a pretty huge portfolio going over the ecology of a lot of dnd stuff, so I’d say he’s the closest to an actual expert outside of the creators themselves we’re gonna find.

Ok that’s kinda neat!

I don’t really know much about Dragonborn because I pretty much only Fondly Regard D&D these days. The closest thing for me would be the Draconians from earlier editions they were very vaguely based on/inspired by(unless... do they still explode in a shower/cloud of breath-weapon-relevant doom on death?), but if WotC canonically has them with mammary glands and nursing as some sort of platypusesque magical-evolutionary draconic/mammalian kludge, then I don’t see how folks could be claiming it’s non-canonical for them. Still doesn’t change things on what are, last I went on a wiki-binge, entirely draconic kobolds, or did they do something similar with them?

@thepioden

Ok I agree with this per Dragons & current Kobolds, but I think most people don’t realize the history of Kobolds in D&D is more complicated.

This is from memory so I might get some stuff a bit off, but basically, Kobolds only really became draconic post 3.0. Before 3, Kobolds were monstrous canimids like Gnolls and Bugbears(though technically they were all goblinoids :|), and during 3 were still basically this, but with more draconic features and distantly related to dragons.

The Baldur’s Gate games, which came about during the 3.0 push, are a good artifact for this, as the Kobolds visual design is vaguely draconic(horns, big fangs, kinda scaly), but they yip like little dogs and retain their old D&D association with Gnolls(Gnolls:Kobolds::Orcs:Goblins).

So basically what I’m saying is: the tradition of presenting Kobolds with boobs may partially track back to when they were still considered mammals.

Dragons&Draconians are, of course, Right Out, except when polymorphed u_u

“I’m gonna draw a Kobold girl!”

“Not bad… but everyone always draws them with big hips and thighs. I like the look myself, but I’d hate to be seen as someone who just goes with whatever’s popular…”

“I know! I’ll just subvert this trend! Everyone loves a good trope subversion.”

“Huh.”

@sunspotpony

Awhile back someone threw the prompt of “Synapsid-based kobolds” and I couldn’t really let that go…

A+ would play Permian–Triassic based tabletop game.

Bonus (Caravan Ride):

Synapsid based kobolds YES