Entry: 2/038 - Kobolds

Dear self,

Kobolds are a species of sapient humanoids with native shapeshifting abilities. Pureblooded kobolds rarely cannot shift into at least one alternate form. Over eight tenths of House Kobolds gain one form before adulthood and over a third develop multiple forms throughout infantile, child, and juvenile stages of their lives. One in nineteen kobolds possess an alternate form that they can shift into within hours of their birth.

Kobolds with mixed bloodlines anywhere between their parents and great grandparents exhibit significantly reduced transformation capabilities without undergoing a bloodline awakening. Great great grandparent do not tend to measurably affect innate kobold abilities without having highly dominant bloodlines. Half-blood kobolds only develop alternate forms at am eighth of the rate pureblooded kobolds do, and never gain multiple alternate forms.

The kobolds race originally developed from wilds kobolds, which are kobolds that are not humanoid in their primary form. Wild kobolds have some similarity to mimics and tend to blend in to groups of other species with their transformation ability. They tend to develop forms that resemble species their parents had common contact with, adapting to the fauna within their environment. Wild Kobold tribes started to develop primary humanoid forms about four hundred cycles ago at the earliest estimate, and they only tend to develop humanoid forms on an individual basis. There have been no known cases of any individuals possessing multiple forms of the same or similar species.

While the House Kobold tribes almost always develop a primary humanoid form, they also tend to develop traits from other non-humanoid species integrated into their primary forms, which does not occurs within Wild Kobold populations. Kobolds have a shorter stature among the majority of Enlightened races and cannot transform into creature of significantly greater mass or volume than their primary forms. Common variant traits among House Kobolds appear mostly at the eyes, teeth, ears, limbs, or hair of any individual. Wild Kobolds who possess humanoid form are more likely to have no variant traits than a House Kobold would.

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House Kobolds are also completely covered in fine hair over their entire body, with the hair on traditionally hairless areas being extremely fine and translucent. The effect is that kobolds do not tend to appear as if they have hairy faces while they have a fuzzy coating across all of their skin excluding their palms and soles and similar places.

Kobold culture traditionally celebrates gaining alternate forms. Any time a child gains a alternate form of any kind is an event celebrated more than any other time in that individual’s life. Kobolds travelers avoid revealing their nature as kobolds and would remain shifted as an animal when traveling among Enlightened races except if they have no variant traits. Kobolds are capable of recognising others of their kind intrinsically when in skin contact, and non-humanoid kobold are capable of vocalizing speech with practice. Their alternate forms are possible by glamours integrated within their native power. This allows them to transform much more easily than creature that rely on transmutation, and the integration with their native power allows a more rigid glamour that cannot be dispelled as easily as more artificial workings. Every new form a kobold has is a glamour layered over the previous ones, which means their earliest forms become stronger as they gain more.

One particular kobold named Pyrril Swivelswift was infamous as a ship’s cat in the crew of a notorious pirate crew. He was said to have foiled several instances of mutiny among the pirate crew without revealing his nature as anything more than a mundane cat. He was also said to have seduced a maiden every time the ship entered port, and to have saved an imperial prince from rebels, as well as have stolen from the Highest of Swans and escaped with his life intact. The story is so old that we don’t even definitely know what his alternate forms were beyond wild speculation.

Hope we fare well.

Regards,

Me.

~*M*~