On the Kopru

Been a while since I did on of these, eh? Well here is something about those strange dead creatures found all over the dungeon floors. Let us just assume that you found some papers laying around or something when running for your lives. These papers of from a researcher who studies races that are not often considered a nation or something to that extent. He has done research on creatures such as the lizard men, centaurs, and giants. Here is a picture of them.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm2_gallery/88268_620_77.jpg


The Kopru

The Kopru is a rare race of people. That is right, they are a race. Just as you can consider goblins, elves, and halflings races of people, you can consider the Kopru people. Their grotesque appearance does throw people off upon first viewing them. However, a deeper look at these people shows their abilities to think, feel, write, create, and so forth. We cannot rank them as monsters such as the purple wurm, wyverns, or giant ants. We must consider them a civilization. I am sure that you are reading this and wondering "who, or what, are the Kopru? If they are suppose to be capable of being called a civilization, then why have I not heard of them?" Well, that is because the Kopru now exists as small, hidden, isolated nation. To find them, you would really need to do some digging. To find the Kopru, one would need to travel to the Isle of Dread, into the heart of the island, and find the hidden nation in a volcano. This is no easy task, even for most seasoned adventurer. I do not have a whole lot of details of the recent history of the Kopru since reports of them are very few, but I did managed to gather up a larger amount of reports and theories on the Kopru before they became what they are today.

The Kopru appears to us as an aquatic creature. They have a tentacled style mouth, eel like lower body, reptilian style skin, huge bulging eyes, one head, two arms, webbed clawed hands, and small spikes coming out of their arms and shoulders. Some say that they might be related to the Naga or something similar. However, it is apparent that their origins is purely aquatic. I do not know exactly where they came from. There are several theories behind their origins that I will go into later. All I know for sure is that where ever they came from, they are a very ancient race. They appear to have Mindflayer properties in that they are capable of controlling other races by the power of their minds. Unlike the Mindflayers, the Kopru do not engage in the eating of brains. In fact, based on what I have learned of them, I would wager that they would be repulsed at the notion of eatting the brains of races that they felt to be inferior or stupid. The Kopru will eat a wide variety of dishes. They have devolped tastes and are capable of cooking fine dishes. In some cases, they can make fine dishes without cooking as fires cannot be built underwater with magic. The Kopru do not seem to favor clothing. They sometimes wear clothing to build a sense of importance, but they do not cloth because they feel naked like other races do. The Kopru do not seem to use weapons of any short. Instead, they use their claws when attacking. I beleive that this is done for two reasons. One is because wielding a weapon would limit their underwater movement. Unlike other aquatic creatures, the Kopru do not have incrediable speed when moving underwater. For this reason, they would need to do what they can to ensure that they are able to move away from danger quickly, or towards a targert quickly. The second reason is because they can just use peons. As all Koprus are capable of controling another being mind, they would find more use in having their peons attack for them rather than to sully their hands with the blood of the "inferior" races. The mind controlling ability of the Kopru works like a Charm Spell, but more effective and powerful. The danger in moving close towards where Koprus reside is that you risk becoming their slave from their mind control long before you even see them. In some reported cases, the people they took over do not even realize that they are the Koprus slave for a very long time. When the moment is right, the Kopru takes full command of a person and use that person to defend to Koprus. The Koprus are in a defensive state today trying to hold on to what ground they can. That is why they do not strike until they are ready to, and when they determine that the invaders to their land need to be dealt with. I have seen one reported case of a man who went to the Isle of Dread when he was a young lad. He returned and lived most of his life in Glantri. Near the end of his life, it was found out that he was under the effect of a charm spell. The charm spell laid dormant in the man's mind, and lived his life freely. The researchers of this man case believe that the charm spell found in this man mind was casted by a Kopru. What this shows is not only the power that the Kopru charm spell has, but it also shows that they do not wish to interact with anyone who comes to their lands unless the feel that they need to. Overall, it appears as though the Kopru wish to be left alone by everyone and just live their lives out as peacefully as they can. One final note about the charm spells of the Kopru, no one knows the limits to their charm spell. This means that we do not know how far their charm spells actually can reach, how many they can charm at a time, nor how long someone stays charmed by one of their spells. It is almost as though whoever made these creatures had intended them to rule over other races.

On the theories of the origins of the Kopru, there are four accepted theories. However, before I get to those theories, let me tell you the know history of the Kopru, which is a very small account. In recent times it appears as though the Kopru are in a state of decline. It appears as though their numbers are thinning, and some time in the future their will be no Kopru left in the world. Kopru appears to be found these days only on the Isle of Dread. I have heard no reports at the time of this writting of them being spotted elsewhere. What is odd is that they appear to be found right in the middle of the island instead of the surrounding waters. It appears as though they made some underground colony on that island. It appears as though the tribal people who live on this island was all under the control of the Kopru until recently. The last Alphatian researcher who was around the area was recorded to be at around 106 A.C. At that time he was leaving, he noted : "And so I leave the [Kopru] to the ruins of their Empire, if you could even call it an Empire. In all the years we have known of the [Kopru], we only saw their Empire declining. If that pattern continues, I can expect to hear reports at another time of the [Kopru Slaves] rebelling the same way the Thyatian Barbarians did. I wish the [Kopru] luck in hopes of seeing a better Alphatian future..." The Isle of Dread literally disappers from the records of history of years. It wasn't until 715 A.C. when a captain accidently "discovered" the Isle of Dread. In the captian reports, he makes no mention of the tribal people as being slaves or anything of that sort. We would know if they were slaves because they would have been more hostile to the captain in order to defend their Kopru masters. So we can assume that somewhere between 106 A.C. and 715 A.C. the tribal people on this island rebelled against the Kopru and "locked" the Kopru into the place where they are now. I would like to guess that this happened maybe a hundred to two hundred years after 106 A.C. since when the captain arrived he found a stone wall build on the south eastern tip of the island to keep the "dark gods" out or something like that. As the rebellion would not of been an easy one, and as the tribal people seemed to have long forgotten that part of their history, the time of that rebellion would have to of taken place long before that captain rediscovered that island. As for the Alphatians, when they were doing gods know what around that island, they reported the Kopru as being a declining Empire. On all those islands, they could find temples that appeared to belong to the Kopru at sometime. Their reports suggest that the Kopru found on the other islands appear to be in small numbers. Some even suggest that they were just animal life at first. It appears as though most of them were migrating towards the Isle of Dread for some reason. The Alphatians appeared to have no interest in controlling the Kopru. I assume this is because they either saw the danger that the Kopru posed and had no intentions of giving the Kopru "their healthy minds," or, as I believe, some of the more important researchers feel under the Kopru Spell early on and they took measures to ensure that no would bother the Kopru. Some important notes that the Alphatians found was that the Kopru's Empire appeared to of spread of many islands. Some islands were Kopru ruins were once found appears miles away. These days, most of those ruins crumbled to dust, and it is unlikely that we will be able to gain valuable information from the ones that do remain. Now this brings us to the theories of the Kopru origins.

One theory suggests that the Kopru comes from another plane of existence. The theory goes that the Kopru traveled to this world from their plane in order to escape their old dying world. In this theory, the Kopru came to those islands about three or four hundred years before the Alphatians arrived to those islands. In this way, it is assumed that the Kopru attempted to take over what they could, but where unable to adapt to the new environment. Thus, when the Alphatians came, they appeared as a dying Empire. The evidence to support this is few. One is the fact that they do not appear to have any relations with any other races. Even if they had an Empire before the Alphatians, their should of been more remains of that Empire. Thus, the fact that there were not that many remains of their Empire suggest that they might of came from another world. Also, the scale in which the Kopru empire was suppose to be is far too large for it to be something of this world. It is highly unlikely that they would of had any form of an Empire at the time they lived.

The second theory goes that some immortal made them for his own amusement. The prime proof of this theory is the fact that they worship gods that are unheard of in any other place in the world. Some Immortals do go by different names, but regardless, a bit of research will show that enough similarities to show that they are the names of the same Immortal. However, all forms of research comes up empty when determining who their Immortals are. Their Immortals do not appear anywhere else but in the Kopru's mythology. If we are to assume that their Immortals are real immortals, then we can assume that their Immortals (or Immortal) must of made the Kopru as their own children. One problem with this theory is the decline of the Kopru race. However, it is possible that the Immortals of the Kopru were either killed somehow or were cut off from the Kopru. One thing for certain by both believers of this theory and unbelievers of this theory, they all agree that whatever gods the Kopru worship are dark gods and are dangerous to this world should they exist.

The third theory is a complicated one. It suggests that some magical accident happened to a group of aquatic creatures a thousand of years ago which resulted in the Kopru. The Kopru would then live in the ocean for years and years before they were able to "slither" onto land. This theory suggests that the Kopru Empire is not in decline, and that somewhere deep in the ocean we should be able to find the Koprus that did not traverse onto land. The theory goes that the reason for the land Kopru's decline is because they were never suppose to be on land in the first place, and thus their bodies eventually betray them. Such magical accidents are not rare things. There are many reported cases of creatures coming into existence all because of some magical burp. Furthermore, it would explain why the Charm Spell the Kopru use is significantly more powerful than any regular Charm Spell. Also, there is no doubt, even for the aquatic races we do talk with, that there is much more to be found within the deep sea. Some of which are horrors that makes the landwalkers glad that though deep beast can never find their way to land (or so we hope).

The final theory is far more complicated than the others. The problem with this theory is that it does not explains the origins of the Kopru. It is a well accepted fact that some explosion shock this world. Once around 3000 B.C. and twice around1700 B.C. The first sent this world into a long ice age. The second spread an abnormal disease across the land. This theory goes that the Kopru were also victims of these events. The theory suggests that the change in the climate was something that the Kopru's bodies could not withstand. This is likely as the Kopru that we know appears to value temperate, warm climates. It would well explain the mass migration towards the Isle of Dread and into the volcano. However, the major problem with this theory is that it would now suggest that the Kopru was a massive empire before these two events. Unfortunately, all forms of history that we know do not go past those two events. They are buried in the sands of time. So we cannot speculate where the Kopru might of come before those two events.

In the end, I feel that we cannot count the Kopru as an evil race. All theories that we have on their past, the past that we do know, and the actions that we have found them to take suggest that the Kopru just want to survive. They do not have any interest with the other races. They do show signs of thinking other races as inferior or stupid. That sort of attitude might be because of the people that they had been exposed to the most were the tribal people around those islands. The Kopru might have been an evil race in the past, but I doubt they pose any real threat to the other races today. The only reason why they are dangerous and should be avoided is because they will lash out upon those who invade their remaining territory. That isn't an evil act, that is just someone trying to defend themselves. I do hope that someone will be able to communicate effectively with the Kopru before it is too late to help them.