Meepo

Enter Name Here
Basic Information
Aliases	Keeper of Dragons
Home	Sunless Citadel
Gender	Male
Race	Kobold
Age	Unknown
Rules Information
Alignment	True Neutral
Class	Sorcerer

"Some foes are more than they appear."

— Meepo

Meepo, Keeper of Dragons, is a kobold character who first appeared in the Dungeons & Dragons third edition adventure module The Sunless Citadel (2000).

Outside of Dungeons & Dragons, the name Meepo is best known from the character of Meepo the Geomancer, a hero in the 2003 videogame Defense of the Ancients, which featured many characters named for and inspired by existing popular fictional characters.

Appearance and personality

Meepo is a male reptilian kobold with reddish scales, scratched with numerous scars. He is small even for his normally short-statured kobold people. Meepo is a sensitive individual, and lacks the cruel streak which kobolds are often known for.

He typically carries a crudely-crafted spear, a sling, and wears pieces of leather armor.

Relationships

Meepo serves Yusdrayl, sorceress leader of his tribe, but obeys only because he is terrified of punishment. He holds no special loyalty to his brethren, who treat him poorly due to his physical weakness, and given the opportunity would gladly abandon them to follow a friendly group of outsiders.

Meepo loves his tribe's pet white dragon wyrmling Calcryx, who he helped to raise from an egg. Calcryx does not return the affection, and Meepo bears many scars from its attacks.

History

Among kobolds, the tales of Meepo are legendary.

Keeper of Dragons

Meepo first rose to prominence during the occupation of the Sunless Citadel by his kobold clan, under the leadership of the kobold sorceress Yusdrayl. Despite his low status among his clan, Meepo was assigned the prestigious role of Keeper of Dragons, a thankless and dangerous job which largely involved cleaning up dragon wyrmling droppings.

Meepo's sole charge was a tiny white dragon wyrmling named Calcryx, which the tribe hatched from a stolen egg. Calcryx was vicious and difficult to handle, and might readily kill a careless kobold. Yusdrayl intentionally appointed the weakling Meepo to tend to the dragon for this reason.

Meepo took his duty seriously. While the dragon made multiple attempts on Meepo's life, Meepo lived more in fear of what might happen if the dragon were to be harmed.

The Sunless Citadel

After the white wyrmling Calcryx was captured by goblins, Meepo fell into a deep melancholy and spent most of his time in nightmare-ridden sleep. The Sunless Citadel was invaded by a group of violent adventurers, who proceeded to slay the goblins and recover the wyrmling.

Unfortunately, Meepo overestimated the kindness of these adventurers. Unable to capture the wyrmling safely, they slew it, then turned their swords on Meepo's angry clan.

Disappearance

It was widely reported that Meepo was slain in the Sunless Citadel affair. In fact, Meepo was the lone survivor of his tribe, and as he fled, somehow stumbled into an entirely different world.

This world offered advanced technology, including a kind of powerful repeating musket known as a pump-action shotgun. With such ranged weapons and innovative camouflaged clothing, Meepo found himself well-suited to join a guerrila army, where his kobold instincts for sneaking and trapmaking earned him repute among his allies.

Mercenary career

Returning to his home world as mysteriously as he left it, Meepo used his acquired skills and newfound bravery to establish himself as a mercenary warband leader. He was highly successful and acquired a suit of armour made from the hide of a slain white dragon, wearing it proudly in honour of his former comrade Calcryx.

Apotheosis

Retiring after a successful campaign, Meepo took to travelling the world after discovering his latent talent for sorcery.

While adventuring alone in the wilderness, Meepo was ambushed by a pack of fleshraker dinosaurs, who unexpectedly robbed him and left him for dead. He soon discovered that they were lycanthropic werefleshraker dinosaurs, as Meepo found that he had become a werefleshraker.

Evoking the spirit of his late dragon pet Calcryx, Meepo's draconic sorcery manifested a gradual transformation into a dragonlike creature, turning his scales white and granting the ability to breathe cold. Combined with his ability to use sorcery in lycanthropic form, Meepo is a unique and terrifying creature when he chooses to assume this bestial shape.

Whether or not Meepo has since been cured of his lycanthropy, and the full extent of his draconic transformation, is unknown.

Abilities

Languages

Meepo has above-average in intelligence, and speaks Draconic, Common, Goblin, and an obscure otherworldly language called English.

Publishing history

D&D 3rd edition

Meepo and his pet dragon first appeared in The Sunless Citadel (2000), an adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons third edition. His entire statblock in this module is as follows:

Meepo: hp 2.

Meepo made a cameo in the D20 Modern core rulebook (2002), with a piece of artwork depicting a shotgun-wielding kobold guerrila whose name badge says "Meepo". The article 1d20 Villains: D&D's Most Wanted; Preferably Dead", Dragon #359 (Sep 2007), p.54, confirms that this is indeed the same Meepo from The Sunless Citadel, and enters Meepo's D20 Modern events into the D&D canon.

He appeared in the War of the Dragon Queen miniatures series as #06: Meepo Dragonlord. According to his stat card, Meepo has practiced his skills as a warrior, and paid tribute to his fallen pet by wearing white dragon full plate.

Meepo made another apppearance in a Wizards of the Coast D&D web article titled D&D Fight Club: Meepo the Kobold Dragon-Keeper. This describes the canonical ending to The Sunless Citadel and Meepo's eventual growth into a half white-dragon werefleshraker kobold sorcerer.

D&D 4th edition

"Meepo is just a pawn in big game of life."

— Meepo

Meepo appeared in Into the Unknown (2012), p.149. He is a level 1 striker role creature who can be acquired as a dungeon companion. Meepo is exceptionally agile and clever for a kobold, having 18 Dexterity, 12 Intelligence and 14 Wisdom; by comparison, the other first-level kobolds depicted in the Monster Manual (4e) (2008), p.167, have 16-17 Dexterity, 6-9 Intelligence and 10-12 Wisdom.

D&D 5th edition

Meepo appears once again in the D&D 5th edition conversion of The Sunless Citadel, in the adventure anthology Tales from the Yawning Portal (2017).

The name "Meepo" appears as an example name for kobold characters in Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016), p.66. Kobold names are usually descriptive in nature, although it is unknown what "Meepo" means.

Reception and influence

Meepo appeared as #1 in the article 1d20 Villains: D&D's Most Wanted; Preferably Dead", Dragon #359 (Sep 2007), p.54. He is described as a legendary hero among kobolds, and appears alongside such famous D&D characters as Artemis Entreri, Tharizdun, Acererak, Iggwilv, Demogorgon and Orcus.

The name Meepo is shared by the character of Meepo the Geomancer, in 2003 videogame Defense of the Ancients, a fan-made mod of Warcraft III. While it has never been officially asserted that this character was inspired by D&D's Meepo, he is one of several characters in that game who share names and identifying features with popular copyrighted fantasy characters. Meepo the Geomancer is a short, monsterlike individual of unspecified species. A prestige class named the Geomancer previously appeared in D&D's Masters of the Wild (2002), although that name was also used as a translation for Final Fantasy's geomancer or fuushuishi ("Feng Shui warrior") class, and in reference to historic real-world practitioners of the divination practice of geomancy.

Meepo later appeared in Valve Software's Dota 2.