Description

Gnomes are magical folk created by gods of invention, illusions and life underground. The earliest gnomes were seldom seen by other folk due to the gnomes’ secretive nature and their propensity for living in forests and burrows. What they lacked in size, they made up for in cleverness. They confounded predators with traps and labyrinthine tunnels. They also learned magic from gods like Garl Glittergold, Baervan Wildwanderer and Baravar Cloakshadow, who visited them in disguise. That magic eventually created the lineages of forest gnomes and rock gnomes.

Gnomes are petite folk with big eyes and pointed ears, who live around 425 years. Many gnomes like the feeling of a roof over their head, even if that “roof” is nothing more than a hat.

History

During the Months of Anguish at the time of the Hadar Crisis, there was a time when a large number of Feywild portals opened up all throughout Kildar. Through these portals came a migration of Forest Gnomes, who settled in woodlands near these portals. These Gnomes were fleeing from persecution by the Fomorians living in the Feydark. The already present populations of Forest Gnomes swelled to a point where there are now more Forest Gnomes than Rock Gnomes, contrary to anywhere else on Toril.

Unlike Forest Gnomes, Rock Gnomes have always been in Kildar, and even fought against the Medvedov invasion to protect their kingdom of old. That kingdom is now long gone, and the Rock Gnomes have fully integrated into Kildarian society. They have made their presence known among the Guilds, using their Tinker abilities to use in various ways in each Guild.

Culture

Gnomes are forward thinking creatures who do not tend to keep a lot of written history besides professional achievements. They don’t carry grudges and will have forgotten about arguments had the night before come morning. They live in clans with heavy familial ties but without the grudges or family feuds that color the cultures of other species. The Gnomes are a friendly bunch that will just as likely simply forget about a slight. Gnomes also don’t typically like to fight. Instead, if a fight does threaten a Gnome, they will employ guards and mercenaries from the Mercenaries Guild.

By and large, Gnomes feel strongly about quid pro quo and balance. If something is taken, then something of equal value must be given, and what Gnome considers to be of equal value is the big question. In this manner they share similarities with Fey concerning reciprocity.

Hospitality is another pillar of Gnome society. Treating a visitor to one's home with courtesy and generosity is important to most Gnomes, but the visitor must show their Gnome host the same courtesy and not act boorishly or demonstrate blatant impropriety. Rudeness breaks the bond of reciprocity and frees a Gnome host from the obligation to be hospitable.

Relations

The Gnomes have a particularly friendly attitude toward all other majority species of Kildar’s society. They will even treat in a friendly manner with the Orc species, whom they will often employ or take as guild apprentices. Gnomes tend to not care about wars from the past, as their forward thinking nature does not allow for living in the past. It was the Gnomes who heartily welcomed the Orcs into the cities where the Gnomes had already been living for decades in their Gnometowns.

Additionally, the Gnomes hold a particular bond of friendship with the Elves with whom they share a common descent, namely the Feywild. You will find many Gnomes living among Elven Cities, where they often provide drink, merriment and laughter.

Language

The gnomish language, also known as Gnim, is a language very rarely spoken, but more commonly used to write down gnomish recipes in order to keep them secret from other unwanted onlookers. Gnim is mainly a written language and has a simple structure and fluid tones.

Most gnomes had a truly daunting vocabulary, however, with extremely fine degrees of distinction in, for example, kinds of love or shades of green. Their language was thus ideal for academic, artistic, and engineering pursuits, and it was widely used in academic circles even among other races. Many sages of many races considered Gnim to be a "scholar's language."

Some letters from the Gnim alphabet.

Names

Gnomes receive a first name at birth, and they take a Clan Name that identifies what clan their family belongs to. They introduce themselves in the following manner: “I am … of clan …”.

Otherworldly

Gnomish parents who give birth to an Aasimar or Tiefling will often view this as the result of a transaction. Gnomish faith is based around prayers as currency for transactions, and they will believe that this birth is the result of one of these bargains. In the case of an Aasimar child, it is generally seen as a gift from the celestials themselves, and surely this child will solve the problem that the parents have been praying for as the child was sent by Garl Glittergold themselves. In the case of a Tiefling child, it is generally seen as a curse from the Gods. Perhaps the parents displeased Garl or offered terms in a bargain that the god refused. As a result they were given a child that surely will be nothing but pain and trouble in their future. However, in both cases, Gnomish parents are loving creatures who will in the grand majority of cases always grant their children a loving home, regardless of their otherworldly origins.

Factions

As Gnomes tend to either isolate themselves or gravitate towards multicultural societies, there really aren’t any major factions that comprise only Gnomes. Instead, Gnomes find themselves entering many different factions. They are however heavily involved in a couple of minor artisanal Guilds, where they hold a large majority of members, and in one occasion even founded the Guild. These Guilds are the Alchemists Guild, the Brewers Guild, the Herbalists Guild, the Poisoners Guild and the Tinkers Guild.

Sub-species

Within the species of the Gnomes is a duality, a rivalry, a conflict. The sub-species of the gnomes have a deep hatred for one another. The nature preserving mentality of the Forest Gnomes is in stark contrast with the heavy industrialization of the Rock Gnomes. Where Forest Gnomes wish to preserve forests and their natural landscape, Rock Gnomes wish to remove the forests to make way for factories and civilization. This has, on more than one occasion, led to conflict among the species, sometimes even armed conflict.

For the Gnomes, subrace and subculture are not mutually exclusive. A Forest Gnome is welcome to join Rock Gnome societies if their morals align more with industrialization, for example. Gnomes don't typically hold grudges, and if their new neighbor behaves in a way they like, they are quickly welcomed into the fold.

Forest Gnomes

The Gnomes originally arrived on Kildar through portals from the Feywild. The Forest Gnomes were those Gnomes that stayed in the Feywild the longest, and as such have kept most of the Feywild traditions alive. They have settled in sylvan woodland groves and magical giant mushroom villages around Feywild Portals throughout the continent. Here they live in general peace, away from prying eyes. There are many Forest Gnomes that have taken to becoming rangers and druids, traveling the wildlands to explore and help critters and animals in danger. It is no wonder then that the Forest Gnomes have the innate ability to magically speak to animals.

Many Forest Gnomes settle near villages of other species, where they will live as hermits in small forest dwellings from where they can help the local settlement with herbalism, creating healing salves and ointments. These Forest Gnomes often belong to the Herbalists Guild, who act in a similar manner. Forest Gnomes also make great forest and Feywild guides, as they live close to these places and often know them like the back of their hand.

Forest Gnomes particularly make great Rangers and Druids. Their cultural and physical ties to both the woodlands and the Feywild make them particularly gifted in these fields.

Rock Gnomes

Rock Gnomes are inventors, alchemists and industrialists first and foremost. Rock Gnomes don’t tend to live in settlements of their own, instead they inhabit larger towns and cities where they live in Gnomish neighborhoods. Rock Gnomes make great members of the Guilds of Kildar, being hard workers with great creativity who think outside the box. Rock Gnomes also have a very high work ethic, often reminding customers that “Time is money, friend!”.

Rock Gnomes also make great mountaineers and dungeoneers, acting like guides for adventuring parties or travelers.

In recent years, the Tinkers Guild was founded by a group of entrepreneuring Rock Gnomes that came across and mastered the remnant schematics discovered in the labs of Zixxle and expanded upon them in the decades after the Hadar Crisis. They developed the gunpowder used in Zixxle’s explosives and turned them into the pistols and muskets that are now slowly being introduced into the weapon’s market by the Merchants Guild.

The current process of producing these weapons is costly, and thus the firearms have yet to be mass produced for the weapons market. The Tinker’s Guild is however heavily involved in increasing their industries and have begun removing forests to build their factories. This has brought them into conflict with the rangers and druids of the OPS, along with other wood elves and forest gnomes.

Rock Gnomes are versatile and skilled. Culturally, they are not particularly magical people. They tend to prefer staying grounded as it were, and using their inventions and potions instead of these magics. They make particularly good rogues because of their affinity with potions, but also surprisingly good fighters when they use potions to level the playing field. In addition they gain a lot of utility from throwing alchemist’s fire brews at hordes of enemies.

Deep Gnomes

Deep gnomes, or svirfneblin, are natives of the Underdark and are suffused with that subterranean realm’s magic. They can supernaturally camouflage themselves, and their svirfneblin magic renders them difficult to locate. These abilities have enabled them to survive for generations among the perils of the Underdark.

Like other gnomes, deep gnomes can live for centuries, up to 500 years.

Deep gnomes, called svirfneblin in their own language, are a gnome subrace that predominantly lives in the Underdark. While their surface cousins were known for their boundless optimism and cheerful mischief, the svirfneblin are serious and suspicious creatures. They survived in the Underdark by maintaining wariness of others and working hard to keep their underground societies secret

Notable members

• Nyx of Clan Welber, Rock Gnome head and founder of the Tinkers Guild. She is a living inspiration that parents compare their children to. “Be more like Nyx!”

• Drimble of Clan Maekkelferce, high priestess of the Glittergold Bank. She is the spiritual leader of the Gnomes and leads a large number of priests dedicated to Garl.

• Seebo of Clan Wildwander. This Forest Gnome led the exodus from the Feywild into Kildar during the Hadar Crisis. He is viewed as a hero that saved a large amount of Gnomes from the dangers of the Feywild.