Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="QuietBrowser" data-source="post: 6937192" data-attributes="member: 6855057">Okay, thank you, that really does clarify things a lot. Let me see if I can explain things/answer your questions...I think a big part of where things went wrong in the description of them as a whole is that, whilst the foundation of kobold culture is this burning drive to be more draconic, there's also tribes who are breaking away from that. You can only watch so many generations of having your kids get turned into faerie dragons and T-Rexes and the like before you start to rebel against the mad magi-scientists conducting all these failed experiments, right?Essentially, I wanted to make it clear that there are kobolds, both individually and as tribes, who've chosen to try and take some pride in themselves, rather than being dominated by these "Old World Blues". They may be a minority, but they are out there.Do you - or anyone else following this discussion - have any suggestion on how I might clear up the cultural kerfuffle? Because, you're right, the foundation of kobolds as a species is and always has been "they're not real dragons, they're broken shards of dragons forced into a semblance of the human shape, and they yearn to recover their ancestral glory". Heck, I even battered around whether or not some kobolds are - or at least claim to be - literal shards of dragons slain during the Black Dawn, having spontaneously erupted from dragon corpses the way Norse dwarves were the maggots who crawled out of Ymir. If possible, I'd like to preserve the idea that there are kobolds who aren't crazy about it or have even turned their back on it, because, you know, the fact they created and continue to create the various reptilian monsters roaming the wasteland is something that would make people pretty hostile, but I definitely want to preserve this general vengeful mad scientist theme they have.As for the lizard-breasts thing... well, I'll be honest, a part of them is personal appeal to me. But I don't want them to be just about that.My original justification for them was just a weird biology quirk, that in this reptilian species, not only does fat manifest mostly in breast-like growths, but the culture has developed a "fat is beautiful" mentality,  because of the whole "any kobold who actually has the food and leisure to get fat is clearly a very successful kobold and thusly is desireable as a breeding partner" angle, which honestly would probably work just as well, if not better, for a lizardfolk species that maintains more of its traditional "primal" mentality.  Which reminds me, I want to talk about the possibility of incorporating lizardfolk into the Malebolge in the future.From there, the idea was replaced with the idea that this is part of their "curse"; whatever changed them from dragondom forced them into such a "human-like" mold that they even defy their seemingly reptilian appearance by growing the semblance of breasts, something not helped by the fact that, from a biological viewpoint, every kobold is female (just as every kobold is also male), and so their biology is kind of screwed up. This idea was further exaggerated by the fact that, well, kobolds are the Mad Scientist race, as you said; I'm growing increasingly convinced that a tiefling style "variable racial traits" approach might be the best idea for handling them, at least in the Malebolge. Mutations run rampant through the kobold tribes, which is why you have kobolds with superior strength rubbing shoulder with those who have gliding wings with those who can belch fireballs with those who can innately cast certain spells. When you add this to their existing biology, well, pseudo-breasts didn't seem that strange.So, now that this is explained, does it justify them at all? Is there anything that can justify them better?I will make a confession; I actually rather liked the lore of dragonborn in 4e being monotremes, and I'm considering if I shouldn't reappropriate that lore for kobolds (and thus dragonborn) in this setting too. It just further emphasizes, in my mind, that they aren't dragons anymore and that they probably never will be dragons again, which is why there are kobolds who have turned away from "The Great Pursuit". Of course, what I had in mind is that they're closer to actual monotremes; no nipples, just glands in the chest that ooze milk, and pseudo-breasts do help by making it possible for the hatchlings to suck the milk off. On the herm aspect, you said that you're fine with it. Do you think the current setup, complete with slightly different genitalia arrangements, makes sense, emphasizing the "dragons forced into the humanoid mold" angle I've been trying to go with as the kobold's basis? Or do you think the hint of gender semblance should be removed, so all kobolds have femininely curved features, wide egg-laying hips, a seperate penile slit, and a cloaca, and they're effectively a unisexual race in appearance and in nature?I could probably come up with more stuff to talk about, but I've gone on long enough and I want to avoid breaking this topic up whilst it's still in need of settlement.</blockquote>

Verification