I was reading about Dungeon Meshi and Kuro, the “kobold”.
Kobolds are usually depicted as canine humanoids in Japanese media compared to the more reptilian humanoids that kobolds are depicted as in western media[4] such as Dungeons and Dragons. The reason for this is credited as either a mistranslation of the first Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual[5] or because of the lack of reference art in said Monster Manual, but a picture of a jackalwere being present on the opposite page[6], which was then used as reference art for the anime, The Record of the Lodoss War. That anime is credited for solidifying the trope of canine kobolds in Japanese media.
From https://delicious-in-dungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Kobolds#cite_note-5
And the supporting youtube video https://m.youtube.com/shorts/rUntTZ6spOc
Bonus fact: piglike orcs.
I’m still fighting the good fight of keeping Kobolds as they originally were in Germanic fairy tales: weird little guys spiritually bound to a house or ship.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/コボルト seems to have a bit of a different approach stating that D&D 3rd ed. changed them to be more reptilian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold actually seems to corroborate this. I played D&D since the end of the 1st ed. days and I think of them as kinda dog-like heads that were also scaly. I have a 2nd ed. Monstrous Manual, but it’s on the other side of the world at the moment so I can’t check.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold
https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Kobold_(Creature)
I’m not buying the OP here.
I hate to ask: can you update the fandom with your research?
https://delicious-in-dungeon.fandom.com/wiki/Kobolds
I don’t know enough about this topic and Im really enjoying learning all of this!
Anyone with an original copy of the western version should be able to easily confirm this, no?
My only real experience with them is from Pool of Radiance, the first “gold box” CRPG. They were pretty dog-like in that.
I had so many of the SSI gold)silver box titles. Death Knights of Krynn was my first IIRC
I don’t know if the “reptilian” description applies to all Western media. I think it might just be D&D, as I was always used to seeing dog-like Kobolds in EverQuest and rat-like Kobolds in World of Warcraft.
It’s not a mistranslation that caused it, kobolds were both described and illustrated as doglike until 3rd Edition where with no explanation they simply changed it and decided they were lizard like/draconic.
I do think the new version of kobolds is an interesting creature, but truthfully they should’ve just come up with a new name for this new creature instead of just completely changing the kobold.
Should’ve just named the new ones drakobolds
Could have brought viashino into D&D. They were introduced in MTG in 1998 so could have been added for 3rd edition. I kinda wish they had pulled more of magic’s original species into D&D earlier, there are some cool ones.
that explains the kobold enemy from quest64. that one confused me for ages
Accidental Death & Dismemberment?
I first heard of Kobolds in the PC game Age of Wonders. They were depicted as scrawny little goblin like creatures who lived in Orcish garbage piles. They had glowing green eyes. Certainly not doglike.
Plus they had a poison melee attack. Respect for those little resource reclamation engineer dudes
That’s where my mind goes when I think of kobold.
Like, the halfling of Orcs. And yes to poison attacks for some reason!
I was exposed to them as dog like humanoids in EverQuest before I had ever known about them in D&D even though I had played D&D prior, so when I learned they are actually lizard/dragon like I was confused.
Quest For Glory(not really D&D, but old) had them as a Grey, Pot-bellied, lanky, human-heightish, short-eared magical Goblinoid(holy shit: Endermen?). I never encountered any refference to them in western literature with either dog features or lizard tails or scales until some of the more recent Forgotten Realms books; Their presence always seemed like an after-thought. I mostly read the D&D novels though.
Never occoured to me that any dog-people I saw in anime or manga were kobolds, nor that those came into Japanese media through D&D, but un-like D&D, a lot of them were named characters that did stuff.
Still haven’t seen a depiction of a lizard-Kobold. Sounds more like a Dragon-born pet.
Huh, I forgot they called that little guy a kobold in Quest for Glory. I always went in there to steal his shrooms, but only discovered decades later he had an invisible chest in there too that can be revealed with detect magic.
Fun to see someone mention the game out in the wild.
I always saw kobolds as ‘slightly redder than normal goblins’ in old grindy korean MMOs
In the old D&D fluff, kobolds are described as having “dog like faces”. They became lizard and then dragon people later, so I guess you could say that both versions of kobold are equally divergent from the original concept.
Hm. The source for this is a vtubers YouTube short?
It smelled fishy when I posted it but honestly, I’m dumb as a doorknob to dig deeper and didn’t know how to start this convo on fantasy races.
Huh, TIL Kobold is lizard people in D&D. My knowledge of kobold is first via Ragnarok Online, it’s a game by South Korean company and it’s depict it as dog-people. Since then i didn’t see it depict as anything else.
I’m still not sure what the fuck they were supposed to be in WoW, I just know you no take candle.
Ohh, totally forgot about Blizzard’s kobold, i always assume they’re also dog-people but then i got confused with Gnoll. Apparently Kobold in Warcraft is rat-people lol.
