Kobolds

Kobolds are the things that dragons have forgotten.

Once the father of all dragons asked the darkness behind the moon for a gift and it was granted. Even today, all dragons remember every coin of their hoard, every bauble and every gem. This knowledge fills their narrow minds to bursting and so when they sleep their memories of everything but their hoard flows through their minds like a desert through a sieve.

But the memories of a dragon are not like the soft airy things of men, they are definite and they skitter and crawl. Men call them kobolds and are reminded of things half-seen in dream.

Kobolds are bitter creatures. How could they not be when the must squabble with rats as their minds writhe with migraine-visions of dancing with the fires of burning cities? As befits creatures born of thought, kobolds are cunning, filling their homes with a thousand traps. They are driven to do this by the certain knowledge of just how weak and puny there are that hammers at their minds every second of their existence.

Their days are filled with fear but when they dream they are dragons.

Dragons react variously to their accidental offspring. Some file them away in their caverns, forming squirming libraries of memory, some ignore them entirely and some eat any that they can find, hoping to reclaim their forgotten memories. But no kobold dares strike back for if they kill their dragon they will surely die. Instead many kobolds travel to far places to see and do and learn strange things in hopes of capturing memories strong enough to still the draconic thoughts that thrum beneath their hides. They almost always fail.

Connections

• Kobolds did indeed emerge from the Mind Chambers of the Infidel (27.12) but this is because dragons dream such potent dreams (i.e. kobolds) that they tend to bleed over in the dreams and nightmares of other races.
• This may explain the behavior of the kobolds of the Nameless Mountain (13.24). Perhaps the dragon will try to eat them when it wakes to reclaim its lost memories.
• The kobolds of Celadon congregate around his hidden treasure stashes (10.12).
• It is rare for kobolds to migrate in large numbers, but they have done so to the World's Edge (45.09).

Hooks

• What are the father of all dragons and the darkness behind the moon?
• Kobolds often appear in the dreams of others. What effects does this have?
• Who are some famous kobolds? What draconic memories are they composed of?

Kobold names

As everyone knows, kobolds are the things that dragons have forgotten and so they name themselves. If you want to randomly generate the meanings of kobold names translated from dragonic consult the follow table:

1. The memory of burning cows
2. The memory of soaring through broken towers
3. The memory of a flamingo hitting the left wing
4. The memory of dropping a tree on a sister
5. The memory of fangs gleaming in reflected starlight
6. The memory of rolling on new gold
7. The memory of the difficult to reach itch
8. The memory of a terrified elephant
9. The memory of afternoon napping
10. The memory of the tops of a thousand clouds
11. The memory of water steaming with blood
12. The memory of a child begging for his father
13. The memory of being awakened by a bear
14. The memory of kicking boulders off a cliff
15. The memory of an egg's first crack
16. The memory of the wind shrieking during a dive
17. The memory of worshipful monkeys
18. The memory of the sound a burning troll makes
19. The memory of stomping on trees for no readily apparent reason