Overview
Kobolds are small, furnace-scarred dragon-worshipping tinkerers of the gem-mine. They are the only race that considers a dragon a landlord worth pleasing, and the pleasing is the point.
Habitat
Kobolds live in the gem-mine — their home is Anvil Caves, a cave of furnace-scarred stone where the gem is the only light and the anvil the only law. They need three things: a ground that is hard enough to dig, a gem that is close enough to reach, and a furnace that is hot enough to shape. They are settled around the caves, with mining-lines in the deep; a kobold who has not shaped a new gem in a season is called "the one who forgot the landlord."
Appearance
A kobold silhouette is the small, hunched, long-tailed shape — narrow-waisted, long-limbed, with the head that sits a little too far forward on the body, like a word that is waiting to be spoken, and the tail that is a separate sentence from the body. Males stand 76 cm to 91 cm, 11 kg–18 kg, hunched and quick, with the spine a little too curved and the hands a little too long; females 71 cm to 86 cm, 9 kg–16 kg, leaner and quicker, with a straighter back and a longer memory. Skin is a furnace-scarred umber to a soft, warm grey, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones and a network of fine, pale veins at the temples that show when a kobold is roused, and the scar is the tell — a single, deliberate scar on the left cheek, in deep umber, worn as a mark of the first gem the kobold ever shaped. The scales are the crown: a set of fine, true scales, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, at the shoulders, the throat, or the spine, with the scale-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the kobold line's most persistent claim, and the scales do not grow, and they do not come off. The eyes are large and a pale, luminous amber, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is the gem, and the gem is the point. The tail is the tell: a long, fine tail, in the same umber as the scales, with a clean, deliberate bone-white tip, worn as a mark of the blood, and the tail is the kobold's only ornament. Males carry the kobold line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the tail. Elders are marked by a full grey head and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — an old kobold moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a cave that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: a patchwork of leather and scrap in a muted umber or soft grey, a tool-belt with more pockets than sense, and boots that have been modified at least twice.
Behavior
Disposition: cunning, clannish, industrious, curious. In peace, kobolds are cheerful, nosy, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the cave, and they let you know it. In war they do not fight; they shape. Strangers are met with a question about what they carry, and the answer decides whether the kobold offers tea or a demonstration. The social unit is the cave-clan, ranked by shape, not by age. Two signature quirks: a kobold who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work. And they keep their gem for a lifetime, and they remember who broke it, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: ambush and trap — the kobold line never attacks; it rearranges the ground. Armor: none, by choice — a kobold who wears armor has already decided the hole is not enough. Weapons: the thrown tinker, the short crossbow, and the gem that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Gem-Notch, a single, deliberate chip in the left claw for every gem shaped, worn as a record of the long art; the Cave-Knot, a single knot in the braid worn over the right shoulder for every cave oath kept, in furnace-scarred umber; and the Anvil-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first gem the wearer ever shaped, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried back, their names spoken in the cave, and their tinkers laid across the threshold — a kobold buried without their tinker is buried as a stranger.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: stone-craft — kobold magic is the shape, the patient, precise holding of the gem across the cave. Secondaries: chaos and illusion. Named inborns: Gem-Sense (a kobold can feel the gem's mood the way a sailor feels the wind), Furnace-Eye (a kobold can see the stress-lines in any structure, glowing faintly amber), Tinker-Cunning (a kobold's mind is a locked room; charm and confusion do not find the door). Signature power: the Shape Word — a kobold can set a gem to repeat one action forever, and the gem will keep faith. Limitation: kobold magic is spent on the cave; a kobold who has spent their shape word must dig for one day, and the day is the worst one of the cave.
Religion
Kobolds worship the dragon — the dragon is the landlord, and the landlord is the point. They honor the dragon at the cave-temple, and the honoring is a courtesy, not a faith. A kobold who has angered the dragon is a kobold who has already decided the cave is not enough, and the deciding is the point. Priestly class: the Gem-Keeper, who keeps the cave-temple and speaks the shape word at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a gem broken, and there is no rite for that one; the cave simply stops remembering the breaker.
Society
Cave-clans of 20–60, led by the Gem-Keeper, rank decided by the shape — whose is cleanest, brightest, and most likely to please the landlord. Rank is never inherited, it is shaped: a cub whose first gem comes out clean can outrun its own elder before the season turns, and the outrunning is the whole of the law, because the landlord does not care about the blood, it cares about the work. The clans keep a guest-shelf in the deep — a single row of hollows where an outsider's tools are laid while they are welcome, and the laying is the whole of the courtesy, because a kobold who lays your tools has already decided you are a scrap worth keeping, and a kobold who does not lay them has already decided the cave is not enough. Outsiders are either a scrap or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the cave remembers — a mistake that breaks a gem is remembered until the gem is re-shaped, and the re-shaping is the whole of the apology, because an apology that is not shaped is not an apology, it is a word, and a word is not in the cave.
Home
They live in Anvil Caves, a cave of furnace-scarred stone where the gem is the only light and the anvil the only law.
Relations
The only race that considers a dragon a landlord worth pleasing, and the pleasing is the point. The Dragons of the deep are the landlords, and the landlord-ship is the whole of the bond — a kobold clan will empty a mine-face for a dragon that sleeps above it, and the emptying is the rent, and the rent is the peace. The Goblins of the shallows trade with them for scrap, and the trading is the whole of the distance, because the goblin keeps the surface and the kobold keeps the gem, and the two have learned that a gem that is not shaped is only a stone, and a scrap that is not traded is only trash. They keep their ground from the Ogres of the brotherhood — an ogre who digs in the deep is an ogre who has already decided the cave is his, and the deciding is the one thing a kobold cannot forgive, because a cave that is decided is a cave that is no longer shaped. Uaellaen keeps a page of kobold tinkering in the wiki — the shape word, the gem-notch, the guest-shelf — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a kobold who has been written about is a kobold who has been shaped for, and the shaping-for is the whole of the welcome. The Forgotten keep their distance at the mine-mouth, and the distance has held for two seasons, and the holding is the whole of the peace.
In the Story
In the current story, the kobolds are the shape under the camp — the gem Uaellaen writes about when the cave is the only law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the mine-mouth, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a guest-shelf was found in the deep with tools on it that no one in the camp laid — a row that is not in the cave's memory, and the not-memory is the whole of the warning, because the cave keeps its scrap and the scrap does not lie. The row is the one the camp has not been shown, and the showing is the shaping, and the shaping is the whole of the story.
We do not mine. The mine is for those who were not born to arrive. — a kobold elder