Kopru

Kopru were a degenerated race of monstrous humanoid amphibians.

Description
These creatures had a humanoid upper body, but their smooth eel-like heads that jutted forward from their trunks. The lower half of their bodies were sinuous and eel-like, terminating in long, flexible tails. Altogether their bodies measured in length and weighed around. There were no distinguishing traits between the kopru sexes, though the females of the species tended to be physically stronger than their male counterparts.

Their eel-like heads had large, bulging eyes that never blinked, with members of nobility having some of the largest. Their fanged mouths were surrounded by four to eight prehensile tentacles. The number of tentacles around a mouth varied depending upon a kopru's region and breeding. Their muscular, spine-covered arms ended in webbed hands with four clawed fingers,  though members of the nobility displayed five digits. These hands were equal in dexterity to those of surface dwellers.

Kopru tails were prehensile, described by some as resembling worms, and were capped with a sharp hooked barb. The number of tails, as well as the coloration of their bodies, varied widely depending upon the region. Their skin tones ranged from shades of grey, blue, green, and orange. Those that lived deep beneath the surface water tended to have three tails.

Kopru were never known to wear any form of clothing or jewelry. However, tattooing and piercings with either bone instruments or ornaments were common practice among them.

Personality
In the centuries following the fall of their ancient civilization, kopru were noted as suffering from melancholia and manic-depressive behavioral patterns. They are were also seen to be quite savage, yet cunning, driven solely by hunger and a need to survive. Kopru also adored darkness, but hated any form of light derived from the sun, the moon, or stars.

Those that lived near the ruins of their civilization tended to have a far more bitter disposition, due to being constantly confronted with a reminder of what their race had lost.

Biological
Kopru were an aquatic species who on average lived fifty years. Their bodies had very durable skin that was coated in oil, much like a whale, which helped to protect them from the elements. They could tolerate boiling temperatures without any harm. When fully immersing themselves in boiling waters, koprus would instinctively seal their eyes, gills, and nostrils.

Kopru were excelled at swimming, but their ability to function while on land varied because the gills and lungs of some regional breeds had atrophied over time. Those that lived near islands, within marshes, or underground were amphibious and could survive indefinitely on land. While on land they moved clumsily, slithering with their tail and crawling with their hands.

Magic
Kopru displayed a latent psionic ability, similar to the effect of the spell dominate person, that operated at a range of. This effect would last for a duration of eight days.

Female kopru had a far greater innate affinity for sorcery than their male counterparts. Kopru spellcasters tended to draw power from demonic patrons and employ the use of kopura clam shells.



Combat
Within water kopru would attack other creatures with their fanged mouths and clawed hands. They would also attempt to grapple and then constrict opponents with their many tails. However, outside of water kopru were largely ineffective at fighting unless they were of an amphibious breed.

Some kopru were known to wield fiendish weapons against their opponents.

History
Originating in the swamps of Chult, the kopru were one of many creatures who descended from the Creator Race known as Batrachi. In -2750 DR, human forces led by couatls forced the kopru to make an exodus from Chult. Following this loss of their homeland, the kopru went on to spread throughout Toril.

Eventually a large group of kopru settled in the Sea of Fallen Stars. There the kopru took after their progenitors, the batrachi, and built a large civilization at the bottom of the sea. It began over three thousand years prior to the 14 century DR and was comprised of thousands of city-states. Their civilization was founded by a group of male shamans who had learned how to imbue kopura, which had become quite abundant at the time, with demonic magic. Early on these shamans lived as the ruling nobility, but they were quickly ousted by female shamans.

These female shamans developed the form of government that all city-states within their civilization would operate under. This was a matriarchal oligarchy of noble families, led by the eldest female, with a strict caste system.

A thousand years following the foundation of their civilization, the kopru had become a powerful force among aquatic races that were exceeded only by the aboleths. Wherever they expanded, any aquatic race they came across would be enslaved. However, a number of resources were dwindling an outbreak of disease caused their primary food source to diminish. This resulted in a great famine, wherein many fed upon the slave population in order to survive. Some nobles even cannibalized lower-class kopru.

Wars soon broke out between neighboring city states and unrest rose between the social classes. Amidst all this chaos, the destruction of their civilization finally occurred fifteen-hundred years prior to the 14 century DR, when an immense rebellion of slaves took place. A united army of aquatic elves and sahuagin fought back against them, unleashing their slaves and reducing their cities to rubble. Nobles were hunted down and ruthlessly killed by both slaves and subjects. The sahuagin went so far as to slaughter all kopru they encountered. The surviving kopru fled to remote depths, as other aquatic races rose to conquer their former territories.

By the 14 century DR, almost no remnants of their ancient glory remained and their civilization had become largely a mystery to all other races What ruins remained were salt-encrusted and covered with seaweed, coral, anemones. Most aquatic races shunned these ruins as forsaken places associated with misery and murder.

Rumors & Legends
Not knowing of their batrachi heritage, some scholars speculated that kopru were related in some way to mindflayers because of the tentacles that surrounded their mouths.

Remnants of the kopru noble class were rumored to still live underneath some of the ruins of their civilization, which other races referred to as "high skull" kopru. There they were said to spend their time renewing ancient traditions, such as skull deformation, and rediscovering the secrets of their ancestors.

A variety or offshoot of the kopru were thought to live in the Bottomless Bogs of Vaasa as of the 13 century DR. These had adapted to swim through the waist-deep mud in order to ambush travelers and caravans. The local human tribes referred to them as the "bog people."

Society
Following the destruction of their civilization, kopru lived either solitary lives or in small colonies of three to twenty six members with a matriarchal society. They tended to mate in tropical regions.

During the days of their civilization, it was unlawful for commoners to form named families. Competing in ritualistic warfare was typically one of the only ways for commoners to earn respect.

In their civilization, nobility engaged in the practice of skull deformation with their youth. This allowed them to grow larger and more intelligent by a program of hypernutrition. The involved rituals could only bestow benefits upon the newly born. By the 14 century DR, kopru had largely forgotten about this practice.



Reproduction
Kopru annually laid three to five eggs, which required a warm climate to hatch. Once fertilized, femaled would seek out either sulfuric waters or hot springs in which to lay their eggs.

Lairs
These creatures typically lived in quiet grottoes or inside of underwater caves, close to the ruins of their ancient fallen civilization. They would sometimes go into these ruins in order to hide from their enemies or in hopes of relieving themselves of the melancholy that all kopru suffer from.

Their ancient city-states featured a number of palaces, pyramidal temples, lesser houses, and large town squares. Carvings of kopru heads were a prominent artistic fixture in their architecture. These pyramids were made of basalt and built above deep, nearly bottomless undersea pits. Atop the pyramids were large amber cylinders, with a stone piston inside that pushed down a millstone to crush sacrifices.

Homelands
Kopru inhabited oceans and marshes in areas with a tropical climate. Kopru that lived deep beneath the oceans' surface spent their whole lives down in those depths. While the amphibious, coastal variety regularly made forays out of their aquatic habitats. They were rarely seen during the day, as they believed light from the sky had long ago been responsible for hurting their deity Prukal. For the same reason, they were more likely to be encountered on nights devoid of moonlight or starlight.

Kopru primarily inhabited the Pirate Isles and Sea of Swords.

Outside of Toril, these creatures were known to exist on the planets Mystara and Oerth.

Languages
Kopru were capable of speaking both common and aquan. However, they rarely chose to speak since whenever they tried to communicate vocally their words often came out in a string of unnerving, faltering belches, gasps, and hisses. Kopru communicated among themselves by means of eye movement, with nobles being able to perform more elaborate communications due to their larger eyes.

Their ancient system of writing was an uncoordinated and loose ideographic code, with hundreds of thousands of complex symbols. Falling the fall of their civilization, time this written language was gradually forgotten by the kopru. Later civilizations found it to be indecipherable without the aid of magic.

Religions
During the days of their ancient civilization the kopru worshiped the demon lord Demogorgon and his supposed ancestors. This belief system of theirs had an organized clergy that was formed by shamans. A college of exclusively male shamans was the other major major power within kopru society.

Kopru would conduct mock, ritualistic wars between their city-states, wherein each death was considered a sacrifice to Demogorgon. They also periodically sacrificed slaves to entities known as Prukal the Dark Globe and Shothotugg the Great Whirlpool, who they believed to be the divine creators of their race as well as the parents of Demogorgon. They felt that these two entities represented darkness and water respectively, or the "qualities" of the Abyss.

Sacrifices to Shothotugg, mother of Demogorgon, would be conducted weekly on their pyramids. These crushed sacrifices would have their blood read by the shamans in order to foresee the future. Sacrifices on Prukal were conducted only on special occasions &mdash; celebrations, successful slave raids, the end of a ritual war, or a matriarch's annual egg laying.

In later years, some kopru took up the worship of the deity Panzuriel.

Relationships
Veteran sailors, natives of remote islands, and some aquatic races were the most knowledgeable about kopru.

During the days of their ancient civilization the kopru engaged in hunting raids to capture and enslave races through use of their domination ability. They typically enslaved locathah, sahuagin, and sea elves. Outside of slavery, they were regularly in conflict with ixitxachitls and occasionally forged alliances with kuo-toa.

As worshipers of Demogorgon, these creatures often had demonic allies. And being an aquatic race that mentally dominated others and whose civilization had fallen, there were strong ties of kinship between kopru and aboleths.

Usage
Some wizards were known to utilize certain glands within kopru brains in the construction of rings of human influence and various other protective charms.