Gnome
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Gnomes or the Kentañ (sometimes called whispers or leprechauns) were once the most magically advanced race on Nora. There were two central locations of gnomes, Talamh-ráth on the earthmote, Dragonfly Island, and the twilithe city Eolas-ráth. The gnomes were nearly wiped out by the grells and Eolas-ráth was destroyed by the fomorians. Now most gnomes have relocated to the ruins of Eolas-ráth to rebuild.

Divisions


Appearance


A gnome is a short humanoid, one of the most bizarre and alien of the civilized races. They tend to be around three feet in height and unnervingly slender, although slightly taller than halflings. Gnomes age as other mortals do (albeit more slowly than most, but not as slowly as elves), but they also begin to suffer from a condition known as bleaching when they lose passion and fail to experience new things.

Gnomes have long spindly fingers and large heads, which have a subtly different shape than those of other humanoids. Compared to their bodies, they have surprising toughness, as their bones are of a harder but lighter cast than those of humans. Their coloration, like their aging, is altered by experience. Their skin, hair, and eyes can run the complete gamut of colors that appear in nature, betraying their fey nature like no other characteristic. Many, though not all, have skin tones that match those of other humanoids who live in the region, often with tints of olive or gold. Their hair in particular is often vibrantly colored; expressing their recent history and experiences in reds, greens and more, as often (if not more so) than browns and blonds. They have very long expressive eyebrows above large, child-like eyes that can cause others to be more trusting and protective of gnomes. Some find these traits, along with the too-wide mouths and smiles, to be alien and frightening.

Apart from their size, they resemble elves or eladrin, with pointed ears and chiseled facial features such as high cheekbones and sharp jaws. They have a more wild look than eladrin do, though, particularly in the hair that sprouts from their heads in random directions. Some male gnomes sprout tufts of hair from their chins, but they otherwise lack body hair.

Gnome skin tone ranges from a ruddy tan through woody brown to rocky gray. Their hair can be virtually any color, from stark white to blond and various shades of brown to autumnal orange or green. Their eyes are glittering black orbs.

Gnomes are long-lived, living over 300 years, but they show the effects of age. A gnome over the age of 100 has gray or white hair and skin that shows the wrinkled and weathered lines of a century of laughter, but even the oldest gnome retains the strength and agility of youth.

History


The Forgotten Gnome Wars

Early in the history of the realms, gnome warriors defended against shadowmancers lead by the undead creature Specter Scion. The gnomes prevailed, but records of how they defeated this enemy were lost with time. This period is now known as the Forgotten Gnome Wars.

Dragonfly Island and the Svirfneblin

The gnomes were one of the first Twilithe creatures to migrate from the fey realms to adnas. The gnomes, lead by Tamall decided to begin a society, but found the mortals on Nora too violent and excluded them. The gnomes built Talamh-ráth which was hailed as a city greater than Eolas-ráth itself. When the wizard, Tezdhnain, discovered the was city in danger from a falling star, they created the needed rituals to raise their city into the sky. This is the origin of Dragonfly Island.

A group of gnomes not wishing to live in the sky left the city lead by the sorcerer Koadeg and began to wander the land. Known later as the Koll or the Lost, a large group of these gnomes were captured by Elknor the Wretched and subjected to horrible experiments. The svirfneblin were created and served Elknor and his evil ways.

When elknor was defeated, the svirfneblin sought their sky-bound brothers, but although the dark gnomes did not serve evil anymore, there was a scar that could not be healed and the svirfneblin were exiled from Dragonfly Island.

Wars on Dragonfly Island

The gnomes in Dragonfly Island faced a civil war. The archmage annezad began to secretly undo the rituals holding the city in the sky. As he did this, the power of the rituals fed into him and increased his power greatly. He began to work against the city, but was discovered imprisoned. The city decided to ban higher magic from their society as they feared the power it could bring.

Annezad’s son, menydh, formed a rebellion of arcanist gnomes. The Whisperers of the Arcaene became a cabal of warlocks and wizards keeping their trade and seeking to overthrow the gnomish council. Annezad’s brother, Faolchu, became the first Spriggan, an elite gnome warrior, and banished the whisperers to the Shadowvast.

Since then all of Annezad's descendants became spriggan and they kept Dragonfly Island safe from enemies. From upstart whisperers to the other race found on the floating island, the grells. The entire island was nearly destroyed due to a massive magical energy flux caused by the grells, but the spriggans prevented that from happening. However, random and wild magic is still common on the island sometimes causing living spells to form.

Eolas-ráth's Destruction

Eolas-ráth has remained neutral in the many conflicts of the Twilithe and Ädnas. They had minimal contact with Dragonfly Island, but grew concerned when they heard about the emergence of the spriggans. Eolas-ráth's primary ruler, Rince-Na, sent a team of bounty hunters to capture the spriggans and deliver them to Eolas-ráth. The plan failed and the hunter team leader, Anv-Verb, became infused with magical energy in the manner of the original spriggan. Instead of embracing the responsibility of the other spriggans, he turned to evil. Eolas-ráth's council deemed him too dangerous and attempted to defeat him, but his dark spriggan powers were too powerful and he left the city with vengeance in his heart. Anv-Verb gave Eolas-ráth's secret location to the fomorians, who proceeded to obliterate the ancient city. Rince-Na's journal was found later at the site.

Grell Uprising

Recently, after generations of successful defense, Dragonfly Island finally became vulnerable to the grells. They swarmed through the city and even the combined might of the spriggans and the whisperers was not able to push them back. The majority of the gnomes were killed or imprisoned. Even the arrival of Anv-Verb has not been able to cease the occupation.

Culture


Gnomeish culture is somewhat matriarchal. When a female gnome reaches the age of sixteen, she is introduced to society as a young lady in an event known as an Unveiling. Gnome females have two letter suffixes after their names, which is handed from mother to daughter like a surname.

Whisperers tend to replace large portions of their bodies with elemental grafts.

The Badger

Gnomes revere badgers as symbols of strength and reincarnation. The badger is said to have come from the sky. The gnomish festival, Lid Broc’h (meaning celebration of the badger), is celebrated in the spring with a hunter badger to be eaten by the celebrants in order to please the badger's spirit. The badger skull is then taken as a fetish by the Kure.

A tradition some gnomes choose is that of the Brochorad, meaning Disciple of the Dire Badger. These gnomes revel in their ability to harness the breath and bring on mighty rages in battle. Armed with large axes, the gnomish brochorad are a terror to behold.

Illusion

The gnome tradition of eiledurenn predates the teachings of Vancil. Naturally skilled with illusion, gnomes are very aware of the fleeting nature of appearance. While they use illusions to entertain themselves and snap others out of their daily drudgery and stagnant mind-sets, they are well aware of illusion’s limitations. The pleasure they find in creating a particularly beautiful or useful illusion (and the glee in fooling other races with one) comes from the truth that illusion can reveal when correctly used, not the image or sensation itself.

For all that gnome philosophers focus on the search for truth and a method of defining reality, one aspect that often escapes them is that gnomes are creatures of illusion. They claim their birthright honestly, with minor magical effects at their fingertips even in childhood. They are comfortable in a world highly decorated with magic and imagination, and they tend to enjoy using these abilities to enhance their lives. Everyone can do it, everyone does do it, and over time, it has become yet another method of gaining status within an insular society.

In smaller communities, this use of illusion is often restricted to fanciful decorations for festivities or camouflaging homes to ensure that outsiders don’t interrupt the residents’ lives too often. In larger cities, where the merchant lords hold sway and commerce is considered an art in itself, illusion is a pleasant diversion from business and a chance to show off a creative, artistic side that a gnome might not get as much chance to express during the daily grind.

This dichotomy between the larger and smaller communities is yet another echo of the battle. When a gnome searches for a balance between her two warring natures—or abandons the struggle as fruitless—she often gravitates to one side or the other: illusion or truth.

The cities are considered the stronghold of illusion, while the rural life is vested in the “truth” of the natural world. Yet some argue the opposite—that the struggle for civilization is the true meaning of life and the rural idyll is an illusion. While great minds and rebellious hearts argue the finer points, most common gnomes devote themselves to following their hearts and simply ensuring that they will live to the next day as comfortably as possible.

Cider

Sparkling and non-sparkling

Gnome names

Male gnomes tend to have exceedingly long, hard-to-pronounce names. Female gnomes' names are mostly short, with a short monosyllable at the end. Gnomes string the names of their fathers in a line all the way to their prime ancestor. However, usually gnome names are kept within 4-6 iterations for brevity.

Also, most gnomes will have a nickname to place after their given names to assure their individuality. These nicknames are chosen by the gnome's mother upon their adulthood.

Religion


see Sons of Winter

Two major Deities, Mother Sorser-Vil and Mother Annez-Ai

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