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.
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.
Yeah. I’ve never really been sure what a Kobold was. My friend had an older monster manual that showed it as a chubby beady eyed goblin, while mine had a little rat man, and then I get back into the game a few decades later, and kobolds are now little dragons.
Found a really good source including a picture of the first edition. It looks like that they were mentioned indeed in the 2nd edition to be more dog like in a sense of voice “yappin like a dog” and smelling like damp dog. Their visuals however were not really dog like. So I assume it was maybe both a mistranlation and an over interpretation of some texts from 2nd edition or just pure free choice from the author of this anime. https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2022/01/dd-monster-spotlight-kobolds.html
Their visuals however were not really dog like.
The kobold in the 1st edition illustration in the article you linked has a distinctly dog-like muzzle. Other related media, such as Stone Soup, also depict or describe them as “dog-like”.
I guess with some imagination you could say the muzzle does indeed look dog like but the rest? I mean even if you morph some reptiles into humans you’d get such kind of muzzle. It’s not really that “distict” imo, but I get why some would say otherwise.
“Kobolds were first described as hairless humanoids with small horns by Gygax in the Monster Manual (1977)”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)?wprov=sfla1
That first edition version looks like a dog’s head with horns and pointy ears to me at least, and that’s kinda what I was referring to.
Admittedly the 2nd edition version looks a bit less doglike, but I still see similarities with some breeds.
Fahhhhk, thank you.
I swear I remembered dog people from 2nd edition and was super confused when I started playing DDO and they were some kind of dragonkin. Then people who started with 3rd were telling me kobolds had always been lizards.
Somewhere my old 2nd edition books are still around in a box, but damned if I know where.
Hm. The source for this is a vtubers YouTube short?
The most reliable source there is
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.
Kobolds are originally just the “small folk” of German mythology with all of them being gnome-like but with varying degrees of hospitality. That’s why you get your mine Kobolds, your Heinzelmännchen and your Klabautermann.
Bonus fact: Dog like Kobolds in DnD derived media are not exclusive to Japan, in the Everquest lore they are also dog like (and a bit hyena like, whereas gnolls here are fully canine)
Kobolds in Final Fantasy 14 are exactly as you described here. Small and gnome like.
You’ve ruined your own lands, you’ll not ruin mine!
Where I live (a German speaking country) a kobold is more like a small humanoid being, more like a gnome
Pretty sure they are germanic in origin, but I would have to double check.
Originally, in the middle ages miners experienced toxic gasses and other weird effects while mining iron, such as ore exploding when smelting. They attributed some of the problems to mischievous creatures they would call Kobolds hiding in the mines.
It was eventually discovered that these problems were caused by another whole element creating impurities in the ore, when separated and identified, it came to be known as Cobalt.
Isn’t Kobold basically just German for goblins and gremlins and the like?
American, but I also think of them as like blue, spiky icy imps. I’m not sure where I got it, but seems like a Nintendo era RPG, maybe Final Fantasy
They were more doglike in 1e and 2e of D&D, so I don’t think it’s a mistranslation
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.
In Germanic folklore, kobolds just look like small people that are often also depicted as being green and having large ears. They are spirits of the home and sometimes benevolent and sometimes mischievous.
Yeah I’d never seen Kobolds as lizard folk until I played Abennar.
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!
the halfling of Orcs
Damn… that’s so true
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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’s 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.
Bottom right, isn’t that the wolf that ate grandma?
I don’t know your grandma’s boyfriends but she sounds pretty wild
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.
Weird little fish guys? Are the ones bound to houses different looking?
If you expect a consistent appearance from fairy tale creatures I am sorry to disappoint you. They’re just weird, little, solitary creatures.
that explains the kobold enemy from quest64. that one confused me for ages
Accidental Death & Dismemberment?
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - one of the early editions of the book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editions_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons#Advanced_Dungeons_%26_DragonsThanks! I didn’t get into D&D until 5e so I’m light on some of the lore :)
Just call em furries
