TIL kobolds in Japan are dog-people because of a mistranslation in a copy of AD&D in the 80s
TIL kobolds in Japan are dog-people because of a mistranslation in a copy of AD&D in the 80s
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.
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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.
Should've just named the new ones drakobolds
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.
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.