Kopru
Encyclopedia
In the Dungeons & Dragons
roleplaying game, the kopru are an evil race of amphibious, mind-controlling creatures. They are classified as monstrous humanoids, with the aquatic subtype.
, written by David Cook
and Tom Moldvay
(ISBN 978-0394514260, ISBN 0394514262) in 1981, and then appeared in the Creature Catalogue
(1986), and the later Creature Catalog (1993). The kopru was featured as a player character
class
in The Sea People
(1990).
The kopru appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for the Mystara
setting in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).
The kopru appeared in the third edition Monster Manual II (2002). The creature was further detailed in Dragon
#354 (April 2007), which also featured the amphibious kopru.
The kopru is considered a "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License
.
s.
, reptilian creatures with smooth, hairless bodies. Their upper body is roughly humanoid, with a head and two arms, whilst their lower body is eel
-like and with the tail breaking into three fluke-like segments, each tipped with a claw. Their hands are webbed, and also with sharp claws. Small spikes also protrude from their shoulders and elbows. They have bulging, fish-like
eye
s and a tentacle
d, sphincter
-like mouth.
The expansion of kopru society is severely limited by their need for extremely hot, wet environments (such as volcanic hot spring
s). As a result, their civilization has been in a state of slow decline for many years.
module, the alignment of the kopru is described as "Chaotic." Of their behavior and beliefs, it is said that "while they do not truly hate all men, they view most humans as nothing but brutes to be used, played with, and controlled." A version of the kopru listed in the 3rd edition Monster Manual II states that the kopru's alignment is "always chaotic evil." Their society is described as being "matriarchal and savage."
The same source stated that the kopru once controlled a great empire on a remote volcanic island chain called the Thanegioth Archipelago. The kopru thrived in the hot geyser
s and mud springs
that could be found there, and eventually enslaved the native human population with their mind-controlling powers. With the humans under their control, they built a large temple for themselves on the largest island, the Isle of Dread. There, the enthralled humans served and worshipped them as gods for many years.
Eventually, and for reasons not explained in the module, the humans revolted against the kopru and fled many miles across the island to a small peninsula. The kopru did not pursue them, presumably because they were unable to survive for any length of time outside of their boiling mud geysers. Thus their empire crumbled, and their great temple fell into ruin.
In the description of an online web enhancement for "Stormwrack
", a 2006 hardcover rulebook in which they are prominently featured, author Darrin Drader writes:
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
roleplaying game, the kopru are an evil race of amphibious, mind-controlling creatures. They are classified as monstrous humanoids, with the aquatic subtype.
Publication history
The kopru first appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons adventure module, X-1: The Isle of DreadIsle of Dread
The Isle of Dread is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventure, module code X1, was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook, and Tom Moldvay, it is among the most widely circulated of all Dungeons & Dragons adventures due to its inclusion as part of...
, written by David Cook
David Cook (game designer)
David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years.-Early life:...
and Tom Moldvay
Tom Moldvay
Tom Moldvay was a game designer and author most notable for his work on early materials for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons .-Career:...
(ISBN 978-0394514260, ISBN 0394514262) in 1981, and then appeared in the Creature Catalogue
Creature Catalogue
AC9 - Creature Catalogue is an "Official Game Accessory" for Dungeons & Dragons Basic/Expert/Compainon/Master Sets.-Contents:...
(1986), and the later Creature Catalog (1993). The kopru was featured as a player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
class
Character class (Dungeons & Dragons)
A character class is a fundamental part of the identity and nature of characters in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. A character's capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses are largely defined by his or her chosen class; choosing a class is one of the first steps a player takes in order to...
in The Sea People
The Sea People
The Sea People is an accessory for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:The Sea People is a "Creature Crucible" supplement and campaign setting that describes the lands on the bottom of the Sea of Dread and the beings that dwell there. The supplement includes rules for player...
(1990).
The kopru appeared in second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for the Mystara
Mystara
Mystara is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role playing game. Although it has officially been dropped from production by its creators, many fans continue to develop and evolve this fantasy setting jointly, continuing its original theme of group development.-Development:It...
setting in the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994).
The kopru appeared in the third edition Monster Manual II (2002). The creature was further detailed in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#354 (April 2007), which also featured the amphibious kopru.
The kopru is considered a "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License
Open Gaming License
The Open Game License may be used by game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics.-Language of the licence:The OGL describes two forms of content:...
.
Ecology
Kopru have supernatural mental powers, which they use primarily to control and manipulate other creatures. In earlier versions this ability was described as a more powerful charm person effect, which had an indefinite duration.Environment
Kopru typically dwell in extremely hot and watery environments, such as hot springs or hydrothermal ventHydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. Hydrothermal vents are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart, ocean basins, and hotspots. Hydrothermal vents exist because the earth is both...
s.
Physical characteristics
Kopru are amphibiousAmphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
, reptilian creatures with smooth, hairless bodies. Their upper body is roughly humanoid, with a head and two arms, whilst their lower body is eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
-like and with the tail breaking into three fluke-like segments, each tipped with a claw. Their hands are webbed, and also with sharp claws. Small spikes also protrude from their shoulders and elbows. They have bulging, fish-like
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
eye
Eye
Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. The simplest photoreceptors in conscious vision connect light to movement...
s and a tentacle
Tentacle
A tentacle or bothrium is one of usually two or more elongated flexible organs present in animals, especially invertebrates. The term may also refer to the hairs of the leaves of some insectivorous plants. Usually, tentacles are used for feeding, feeling and grasping. Anatomically, they work like...
d, sphincter
Sphincter
A sphincter is an anatomical structure, or a circular muscle, that normally maintains constriction of a natural body passage or orifice and which relaxes as required by normal physiological functioning...
-like mouth.
The expansion of kopru society is severely limited by their need for extremely hot, wet environments (such as volcanic hot spring
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
s). As a result, their civilization has been in a state of slow decline for many years.
Society
In the original Isle of DreadIsle of Dread
The Isle of Dread is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventure, module code X1, was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook, and Tom Moldvay, it is among the most widely circulated of all Dungeons & Dragons adventures due to its inclusion as part of...
module, the alignment of the kopru is described as "Chaotic." Of their behavior and beliefs, it is said that "while they do not truly hate all men, they view most humans as nothing but brutes to be used, played with, and controlled." A version of the kopru listed in the 3rd edition Monster Manual II states that the kopru's alignment is "always chaotic evil." Their society is described as being "matriarchal and savage."
The same source stated that the kopru once controlled a great empire on a remote volcanic island chain called the Thanegioth Archipelago. The kopru thrived in the hot geyser
Geyser
A geyser is a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by a vapour phase . The word geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb geysa, "to gush", the verb...
s and mud springs
Hot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
that could be found there, and eventually enslaved the native human population with their mind-controlling powers. With the humans under their control, they built a large temple for themselves on the largest island, the Isle of Dread. There, the enthralled humans served and worshipped them as gods for many years.
Eventually, and for reasons not explained in the module, the humans revolted against the kopru and fled many miles across the island to a small peninsula. The kopru did not pursue them, presumably because they were unable to survive for any length of time outside of their boiling mud geysers. Thus their empire crumbled, and their great temple fell into ruin.
In the description of an online web enhancement for "Stormwrack
Stormwrack
Stormwrack is a supplemental source-book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:The book has detailed information and descriptions on various types of both realistic and fantastical watery environments, including underwater, the open ocean, ships, coral...
", a 2006 hardcover rulebook in which they are prominently featured, author Darrin Drader writes:
A race of cruel undersea creatures called the kopru once conquered a vast expanse of territory and established a huge, underwater empire. Since the demise of their civilization thousands of years ago, their race has steadily declined, until it became a mere shadow of its former self. While most of the kopru have succumbed to their monstrous natures and degenerated into barbarismBarbarianBarbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
, a few kopru matrons remember the tales of their race's former glory and seek to restore the golden age of the kopru empire. Most avoid their ancestral ruins because of the powerful magical safeguards placed there by the conquering elvesElf (Dungeons & Dragons)In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, elves are a fictional humanoid race that is one of the primary races available for play as player characters. Elves are renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the sword and bow...
to bar access to those sites, but recent raids in the area of a ruined kopru city suggest that one matron may have found a way around them and begun rebuilding the once-great Kopru Empire.
Additional reading
- Holian, GaryGary HolianGary Holian is an American author of several products and articles for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, especially for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting...
. "Exploring the Isle of Dread." DungeonDungeon (magazine)Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...
#114 (Paizo PublishingPaizo PublishingPaizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, 2004). - Vaughan, Greg A. "Torrents of Dread." Dungeon #114 (Paizo PublishingPaizo PublishingPaizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, 2004). - Drader, Darrin. StormwrackStormwrackStormwrack is a supplemental source-book for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.-Contents:The book has detailed information and descriptions on various types of both realistic and fantastical watery environments, including underwater, the open ocean, ships, coral...
, (Paizo PublishingPaizo PublishingPaizo Publishing is an American publishing company in Redmond, Washington that specializes in game aids and adventures for "the world's oldest fantasy roleplaying game" and its flagship spin-off game and setting, Pathfinder...
, 2006).