Hello everyone,
today is saturday, and the Miningdom of Coboldia is waiting for you to buy something, just like every other day!
As the game is basically at end of development, this will be the last devblog, as I want to give it 100% of my attention.
The remaining nations (humans and orcs) do not appear in the game, so there won't be any "loreday" about them.
As for the Living Hell of Scylla, I originally planned a loreday, but I ultimately decided against it.
I believe leaving their corrupted lands shrouded in mystery makes them more intriguing.
With that out of the way, let's start!
Map: Miningdom of Coboldia
Lavic Origins
Long ago, in the depth of the mountains, there was only fire. Magma.
From this burning abyss, the Cobolds were born, not in a divine act of creation or cosmic balance, but by sheer and unpredictable geological chaos.
According to coboldian myths, the lavic currents shaped their small, muscular bodies while the Ancient Magma Spirits whispered secrets of thought, cunning, and strenght into their molten skulls.
When they finally solidified, the first Cobolds blinked against the dark with gleaming eyes and an unexpected muscle mass.
Business is Life
Cobolds do not hunt. They don’t farm. They don’t paint, sculpt, or write poetry unless someone's willing to buy it.
Their entire society is built around earning.
Instead of lullabies, cobold children fall asleep to the soothing sound of coins flipping and pickaxes chiseling raw ore gold into splendid lingots.
The family unit is... flexible and everchanging.
In Coboldia, if your cousin sells you a used mining helmet at a discounted price, it’s considered an act of affection. If the price is too low, hower, it's a serious insult!
Daily life involves fierce underground markets, aggressive bartering, and midday breaks for something called "Fungffee & Contracts", a cherished tradition involving an exciting fungus brew and trade offers.
And yet, behind this chaotic capitalism there is something oddly beautiful.
Cobolds love what they do.
The clink of coins is their music. The smell of wet stone and inked receipts is their perfume.
They put their hearth in whatever they do, even if it is just for profits!
(Their Syndacus forced me to write the last paragraph).
The Eleventh Election
When the the Dwarves left the Cobold's Kingdom, they sensed a golden opportunity to be indipendent and raise even more taxes.
But rather than crowning a king or creating a republic, they invented something new:
The Miningdom of Coboldia.
It is both a monarchy and a democracy.
Every year, Coboldia holds a national election for its Supreme Excavator, or Syndacus, the closest thing they have to a head of state. But the winner isn’t the most popular candidate. Oh no. The 11th most voted cobold wins.
Why? Because the Moleoids, those paranoid tunnel diggers from the eastern border, taught them well. This way it's not the most powerful who gets the charge, but probably the most humble.
Maybe not the smartest, but that's better for taxation reasons.
This unique system has produced some truly strange leaders.
One was a blind mushroom vendor. Another was elected posthumously and had to be replaced by a ventriloquist dummy until the paperwork was cleared.
And yet, the Miningdom thrives.
International Trade
The cobold mining agencies are not only efficient, they are omnipresent.
If you dig a hole deep enough anywhere in the world, you’ll either strike magma or a coboldian branch office offering deals on drills and pickaxes.
From Dockiasa, they set sails and travel all around the world. They are the only ones to have succesfully circumnavigated the globe.
Infact they have warehouses, fortresses, and small settlements everywhere!
Even where they are not welcome...
For this reason, they train from a young age to wield hammers and pickaxes. They use them not only as tools for working, but also as weapons.
Their skills are unmatched, and even the most skilled swordmaster must be careful around one of cobold descent!
An Underground Life
Sunlight is the enemy, of course. It burns, blinds, and worst of all, reveals true lingots from false ones.
Cobolds believe too much light is bad for the soul, and bad for confidential agreements.
They live, love, and labor beneath the crust, in sprawling warrens lit by luminescent moss.
Their cities are built down, down, and further down, with tiered districts organized by profit.
The only cities found on the surface are mostly dedicated to trade with other races.
If someone chooses to live on the surface, without never coming back to the underground, they become "shamed", and live in small villages in the Exile Plains.
The Wormida Tradition
One of the oldest and most revered traditions in Coboldian culture is known as the "Wormida".
Armed with hammers and pickaxes, cobold warriors venture into the treacherous Wormida Mounts to hunt the fearsome "rockworms", massive, subterranean creatures that can grow up to a kilometer in length.
Though only a handful of these titanic beasts exist at any given time, an ancient and mysterious force ensures that for every rockworm slain, another is born.
Every ten years, one of them stirs violently beneath the earth, causing the very mountains to quake.
When this happens, the entire cobold society rallies together to begin the hunt.
The pursuit can stretch on for years and often comes at a terrible cost, claiming the lives of many brave hunters.
Yet the rewards are great: the warrior who delivers the final blow is honored with a generous government grant to start their own business, a mark of prestige and a chance at prosperity, and most importantly, profit.
Because of this, the Wormida is more than just a ritual, it is one of the most anticipated and celebrated events in Cobold society.
I hope you liked this one!
Have a great day and great profits!
-Giuseppe