quote:
Originally posted by Deto:
<STRONG>As far as I know, nope Why?</STRONG>
Well, a load of other fantastical critters are inspired by Tolkien's works in his quest to fill in that blank space in English mythology, and at other points, shamelessly ripped off. Don't just recall Kobolds in any of his works.
Random Trivia:
Kobold has its origins in the german word for goblin, or gnome, and was apparently "a mischiveous cave spirit" that played merry hell with Old mines, giving the workers a more fanciful explanation than that the pit-props simply rotted through and collapsed.
DnD writers, desperate to fill out the glaringly blank pages of their monster manuals, adopted the Kobold to serve as newbie adventurer blade fodder.
Over time the humble 2 hit die wonders went from canoid subspecies, to tiny reptiloid, then back, then diverged. Putting the racial characteristics of a kobolt around the high end of "speculative". - In Blizzard's eight million subcribing Epic Money Grinder, the lowly kobold is viewed as a meager rat-like creature, carving out a meager existance by raiding and holding mines. And a nearly religious devotion to candles.
Back in familiar dnd territory, the kobolds and goblinoid races, despite being essentially the same thing but in different languages. (Originally dark elves, how the heck did they evolve into so many cheap "monster" species?) are at constant war over viable mines/or caves. Resulting in humorous conflicts as one fodder species piledrives another fodder species.
Why kobolds place so much value in mining is unknown, - since they rarely use weapons or armor more complicated than cheap metal daggers and chaingun'esque bows.
I really should not be trying to type up posts with a head cold.. x_X