The gnomes are a diminutive race that hail from the Dragon Coast to the northwest of the Dameshead. With sharp intellects and skill in magic, they are closely associated with the field of artificery, which they founded.
Appearance[]
Easily mistaken for their similarly-sized cousins the halflings from a distance, gnomes can be differentiated through certain distinct features. Gnomes notably have large, lightly-pointed ears unlike the smaller, rounded ears of halflings. They also lack the large furred feet of the other race, preferring to walk in shoes and boots instead of barefoot.
Gnomish skin color tends toward fair to pale, the latter more commonly found in the frequently-overcast islands of the Dragon Coast. While their straight-to-wavy hair is naturally found in earth tones, gnomes are known to dye them in bright colors, a trend popular among Creek Gnomes. They can also grow mustaches and beards with greater ability than halflings can.
Biology[]
Much of the physical features of gnomes are the result of the long-term damestear exposure of their ancestors. In particular, they can live up to 250 years, nearly four times longer than the typical halfling lifespan. In addition, they also gained innate magical ability as well as increased intellect, with gnomish minds often straying into eccentricity. Their metabolism is also comparatively slow, and thus they have less of a need to consume food as the halflings do, giving the average gnome a slimmer build.
Having diverged from halflings, interracial couples of the two peoples can still have gnomeling children, who are sterile.
History[]
The ancestors of the gnomish race were part of the ancient migration of halflings in 11000 BA who moved from Sarhal along the coast to reach the Shattered Bay in Cannor. The history of the Cannorian halflings and the gnomes diverged when the gnomish ancestors settled on the damestear-laden archipelago of the Splinters. Over the years, exposure to the damestear mutated them into their current race.
Gnomes began settling the mainland, but their encounters with more populous halfling tribes drove them into the highlands of the Dragonheights. These nomadic and pastoral Hill Gnomes would not descend into the lowlands until around 1200 BA, pushing halflings out of the Dragondowns and forming city-states around the Oddanroy River. A century later the city-state of Royvibobb united the gnomes, forming the Gnomish Hierarchy. This state was known as one of the great powers of ancient Cannor alongside the Damerian Republic and the Empire of Castanor, with gnomes spreading south and east alongside the Hierachy's borders into the Small Country and Lencenor. The high culture of the Hierarchy would be known as the Bay Gnomes, and they would come to shun the grim and more archaic Cliff Gnomes, who had remained on the Splinters and would come to form most of the population of Nimscodd. An offshoot population in Bulwar, the Delta Gnomes, originated from a Hierarchy delegation to the Kingdom of Kheterata during this period.
However, in the year 470, the Dragonwake saw Tayekan the Blue arise with a great storm over the Dragon Coast, followed by millions of kobolds pouring from the Dragondepths to swarm the gnomish homeland. Almost all gnomish administrators and soldiers were called back from across the Hierarchy to defend their homeland, leaving their Lencori human and halfling subjects to rule themselves. In spite of their efforts, they would only be able to secure the lands south of the Gnomish Pass, resulting in most gnomes fleeing to the backwater islands of Nimscodd and the Storm Isles, proclaiming the Nimscodd Hierarchy as a successor state. The unaffected provinces of Norroy and Ronroy also received refugees in the city of Portnamm, which would come under the rule of the Kingdom of Iochand. A few would go further: some into their former subject cities like Viswall and Beepeck, while an Esmari Kingdom gifted the lands of Giberd to refugees in exchange for their artificing secrets.
Divided, the gnomish people split in custom as well: the traumatized settlers who remained on Nimscodd and the isles assimilated into the dour native Cliff Gnome culture; the people of Iochand adopted Cannorian religion and courtly customs to become the cheery Creek Gnomes; and those who accepted Dameria's sanctuary became influenced by their neighbors as well, becoming the Imperial Gnomes. Though greatly diminished, these realms would remain largely stable over the years, barring the collapse of Iochand in 1264 which left Portnamm a free city. Gnomes would only come to resettle the Gnomish Pass under Nimscodd in 1396. By 1836, Nimscodd had reclaimed all but the caverns of the Dragonheights from the kobolds and proclaimed the reformation of the Gnomish Hierarchy.
Society[]
Gnomes are an ingenious people known for the tactile subterfuge and intellectual brilliance. Their magical prowess closely matches those of the elves, but while the elves seek to harness their gifts naturally many gnomes have gone to great technological lengths to control and subjugate magic instead. This manifested as a fascination with alchemy and techno-thaumaturgy in the days of the Hierarchy, with both coalescing into the modern science of artificery at the Nimscodd Engineering Academy in the aftermath of the Dragonwake.
Relations with Other Races[]
Gnomes have long seen themselves as a civilizing influence upon Western Cannor; when their cousins the halflings and their Lencori human neighbors were but tribes, they were already building cities with industry and centers of education. They were seen as natural subjects for the enlightened Gnomish Hierarchy, a sentiment that would carry on in the Kingdom of Iochand. Though relations were not hostile, seeing as the halflings of the Small Kingdom were willing to settle some Dragonwake refugees in their cities and Iochand could count on its more populous denizens to come to its defense, gnomes saw themselves as worthy of rule.
The fall of the Hierarchy changed that. While they carried on the torch of the Hierarchy's legacy, the gnomes of Nimscodd in particular grew isolationist; Iochand had to raise human and halfling nobles as nominally equal to gnomes; and those of Giberd and Koroshesh subjected themselves to human overlords, using their technology and intelligence to act as advisors. The change common to all of these disparate groups was the beginning of a hatred for the kobolds for depriving them of their homeland.
Gnomes remain friendliest with halflings, the vendettas of the Age of Antiquity largely forgotten by the latter people. Due to their similar size, halfling establishments are of a perfect size to accommodate gnomes and the two races often mingle in multiracial cities like Beepeck and Anbenncóst.
The Creek and Cliff Gnomes in particular have a turbulent relationship with the Reavers of the Era of Black Ice and their Reverian descendants. They were first attacked, with Portnamm and Nimscodd both successfully turning them away. Then, gnomes had directed them to other targets, namely the Kingdom of Eaglecrest and the Kingdom of Lorent, both threats to gnomish naval superiority in the western seas. The Reavers ended up seizing old Hierarchy land regardless to form their own country.
List of Gnomish Cultures[]
Cannor[]
Old Gnomish[]
- Hill Gnome †
- Bay Gnome †
Modern Gnomish[]
Bulwar[]
Aelantir[]
- Glacier Gnome
† = Extinct