Draukari

Draukari was the divine realm of Kurtulmak, patron god of the kobolds.

Description
The cavernous domain of Draukari was closely watched by Kurtulmak. Despite being their patron and indeed looking after his kobolds, he staged battles throughout it, and the violence was not limited to outsiders. In his realm, glorious bloodshed and the frantic scrambling through the tunnels were worth pursuing, vengeance and gold were worth having, and all other things were superfluous.

In this kobold afterlife, life and death alike were considered cheap. The stench of death saturated the central halls, blown through the tunnels by the breeze, and life was nasty, brutish, and in particular, short. Pain was considered inevitable for all, but the denizens worked to be on the giving end as often as possible.

Blood, wealth, and vindication aside, gnomish ruination was among the primary drives in Draukari. If a gnome appeared in Kurtulmak's realm, the Gnomesmasher went into an immediate rage felt by every petitioner of the realm. All of them converged on the point of entry and hunted the unfortunate gnome down from there.

Geography
Draukari was completely underground, a sprawling, snaking network of tiny passages, tunnels and catacombs. There were few things inherently taxing about traversing the realm, assuming one was a kobold. Anyone taller than the average kobold would be forced to crawl through the mud, which often hid unpleasant surprises, and would be unable to properly bludgeon or slash while so positioned.

Furthermore, it was exceedingly easy for non-natives to get lost on a regular basis without guidance or some method of keeping on the right path, and it could be hours before one saw familiar ground again. Besides this, Draukari could be simply unpleasant, as blood from the surface seeped in through the ceiling to drench the inhabitants, and a hideous, reptilian stench overwhelming to non-kobold senses pervaded the realm.

Cosmology
In the Great Wheel Cosmology, the underground complex of Draukari was located underneath Avernus. In the hills near the Pillar of Skulls, just off the shore of the River of Blood, was a small cave leading several down from which one could enter the realm. Occassionally Bargrivyek, goblinoid god of territory and cooperation, led his goblin armies on raids there simply to prove nothing could stand against goblindom united.

In the World Tree cosmology, the short and narrow warrens of Draukari were located in Maglubiyet's plane of Clangor, though Kurtulmak still maintained portals to the Nine Hells. The kobolds of the planes had a preference for stealth, and their natural sorcery gave them a magical advantage over the goblinoids.

Notable Locations
Radiating from one huge central cavern were Draukari's towns, although they were more akin to giant warrens, and subsequent crawlspaces. The largest recorded warren held a population of over 40,000, although the populations were in a state of constant flux and clan chieftains were always locked in internal struggles.

Inhabitants
The primary inhabitants of Draukari were the fiendish kobold petitioners, who Kurtulmak granted full memories of their mortal life and a horrifically idealized version of their mortal forms, reborn as kobolds as needed. Kurtulmak refrained from infernal politics to focus on providing his petitioners their promised afterlife. Whilst life in Draukari might seem an unappealing reward, the petitioners found their gifts eminently satisfying and the realm a paradise. The blood that coated them functioned as a lubricant to help them more effectively wriggle their way through the mass of their fellows, their unfailing sense of direction there let them navigate it without fear, and they were free from hunger.

However, the vast population of kobolds on multiple Material Plane worlds resulted in a constant influx of new arrivals, and overcrowding periodically became intolerable even for them. A fiendish civil war ensued that culled the weakest and gave the strongest breathing room before it began bursting with kobolds again. This aside, the kobold clans that of the caverns were always planning for war and to exact revenge on the other clans regardless, and willing to hire travelers to help them get the edge over one another.

The kobolds of Draukari were free to travel Avernus, but had to do so warily, for breaking any of Baator's many rules or regulations could get them waylaid by devils and stripped of identity like any other soul. . However, the kobolds were willing to leave the realm, and even the Nine Hells entirely to hunt gnomes if given a location. While the ordinances of Baator were clearly unfair, Kurtulmak (along with other orderly deities) were bound by their lawful nature, and so all departing petitioners were warned to obey the laws and ignore devils tempting them otherwise.

Armies of Avernus (at least those composed of weaker baatezu) did not enter Draukari due the fact that lesser fiends were immediately slaughtered by ever-attentive Kurtulmak himself. Thieves in general were also unwelcome since the kobolds were expert sappers and miners who produced some of the best gems in the lower planes, selling them to the highest bidder (usually Baatorians) and it was much easier to just try and steal them.