The Gnomes

The relative largeness of the apartment gave Burgell room to pack in all his gnome-sized gear. The front room was his workshop, and it contained a bewildering miscellany of tools: hammers, chisels, saws, lockpicks, tinted lenses, jeweler’s loupes, and jars of powdered and shredded ingredients for casting spells. A fat gray cat, the mage’s familiar, lay curled atop a grimoire. It opened its eyes, gave Aeron a disdainful yellow stare, then appeared to go back to sleep.

Gnome Traits

Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence increases by 3. You have minus 1 in Strength due to your small size.
Age: Gnomes reach physical maturity around the age of 10 because of their metabolism, slightly faster than humans and elves. This does not mean the gnome in question is in any way considered adult from this point forward however. Young gnomes are usually considered «officially» adult from the age of 20, and they typically live to be at least 150 years old, though many enhance their already long lives with magic
Alignment: Gnomes are most often good or neutral, although somewhat arrogant. Those who tend toward law are sages, engineers, researchers, scholars, investigators, or inventors. Those who tend toward chaos are minstrels, tricksters, wanderers, or fanciful jewelers. Gnomes are mostly well-meaning however, and even the tricksters among them are more playful than downright vicious, even if they can be both arrogant and mean-spirited.
Speed: Your base walking speed is 25 feet.
Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Gnomish/Gnim. The Gnim language, which uses the Dwarvish script, is renowned for its technical treatises and its catalogs of knowledge about the natural world. You might have learned Common through your background, but it is not a language your people usually learn. (Gnim dictionary: http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Gnome_dictionary)
Vision: Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light.
Favored Time of Day: Morning to midday. Gnomes often run on far less sleep than they should however, due to their active minds, and are therefore prone to stay up late at night.
Favored Climate: Temperate to warm
Favored Terrain: Gnome cities / The Pyramid

Bonus Proficiencies (Pick 2)

Mind for Magic: You have proficiency in the Arcana skill.
Historian: You have proficiency in the History skill.
Nimble Fingers: You have proficiency in the Sleight of hand skill.
Keen Eye: You have proficiency in the Investigation skill.
Culture and Faith: You have proficiency in the Religion skill.

Gnome Cunning:

Gnomes are intelligent and crafty. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma Saving Throws against magic.
Artificer’s Lore: Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to magic items, alchemical objects, or technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Tinker:

You have proficiency with artisan’s tools (tinker’s tools). Using those tools, you can spend 1 hour and 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny clockwork device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device ceases to function after 24 hours (unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep the device functioning), or when you use your action to dismantle it; at that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can have up to three such devices active at a time. When you create a device, choose one of the following options:
Clockwork Toy. This toy is a clockwork animal, monster, or person, such as a frog, mouse, Bird, dragon, or soldier. When placed on the ground, the toy moves 5 feet across the ground on each of your turns in a random direction. It makes noises as appropriate to the creature it represents.
Fire Starter. The device produces a miniature flame, which you can use to light a candle, torch, or campfire. Using the device requires your action.
Music Box. When opened, this music box plays a single song at a moderate volume. The boxstops playing when it reaches the song’s end or when it is closed.

Arcane Engineer:

As your people are the sole creators of many of the fantastical magical items on Gaea, like the airship. You can identify what is wrong with and fix any magical invention of Gnome origin in half the time it would take any other race, with a 80 percent success rate.

Keen Intellect:

Your kind is known for their exceptional intellect, whenever you try to persuade or convince any person of how smart, skilled or wise you are, you gain a 80 percent success rate, regardless of the difficulty of the persuasion check.

Appearance

By human standards, gnomes are very short, but about average for the gnome race in general. They rarely grow taller than 80cm, while weighing around 14 kg on average. They typically have slender builds, with the head, hands, and feet in somewhat exaggerated proportions. The head in particular is a wide, flat ellipsoid whose width is extended further by large, highly articulate ears which usually drop from the sides of the head, far larger and more animal-like than the other smallfolk. Gnome eyes are larger than usual and come in a variety of colors. Their mouths are wide and filled with pointed, sharklike teeth. Gnomes typically have a grayish hue to their skin.
Male and female gnomes are very similar in appearance; they are mostly differentiated by voice, and the fact that male gnomes are able to grow beards.

Size and build: Gnomes rarely grow taller than 85cm, while weighing around 18 kg on average.
Skintones: Gnome skin is usually a darker or meidum grey or brown with lightly colored birthmarks, freckles or spots.
Haircolor: Haircolors typically comes in shades of brown, grey or black, matching the skintone somewhat, it grays with old age, sometimes to a pure white. Gnomes are also the only race of the smallfolk who sometimes have a very fine fuzz on parts of their bodies, ears and back.
Eye color: Gnome eyes come in a variety of colors, often with more «unnatural» hues than the the Elfin. Purple, orange, green, and brown are among the most common colours.
Ears: Gnomes have unique ears that most resemble the Munchkin variation of Goblins, big, droopy and sometimes with a light fuzz.
Clothes and adornments: Gnomes devote themselves to a variety of impressive artistic practices. Of all the races of Gaea, the gnomes are among the most crafty, intelligent and eccentric. They have supplied the world with most of the genious inventions currently used today, and of these inventions the magical and truly complicated ones are usually of gnomish origin. This also reflects in the clothes and adornments they wear on a day to day basis. Crystals, symmetry, magic and extravagant designs are all part of the norm for the gnomes. Which all seems quite alien to many of the other races.
Tattoos are quite uncommon to see on gnomes, as most view it as barbaric and uncivilized to decorate ones bodies and faces. Gnomes often have less messy hairstyles than the other smallfolk, and usually keep it shorter than the forest elfinBeards are somewhat rare and many gnomes are also completely bald to boot.

Diet

Gnomes largely harvest their food from fruits, nuts, and berries of which they grow themselves, and they like supplementing their diet with a little meat occasionally. Gnomes also tend to accentuate their dies with bugs, snakes, spiders or slugs. Some keep livestock too, and curiously enough they often chose to keep the largest animals as such, despite they themselves being quite small.

History

All smallfolk are direct descendants of the pixie-like feycreatures known as «smallfolk» that wandered over from the Feywilds many thousands of years ago. Gnomes are the subrace of these creatures, that during the second age split from their forest-dwelling brethren and developed their own culture and identity. When they split from their cousins, the gnomes started living in underground caverns and burrows, developing biological traits very different to the Elfin. After the discovery of how to handle the abundance of mana crystals that the gnomes discovered undergound, the race further developed their talent for everything arcane, and started building cities and inventions of great technological advancement. First their cities and settlements were built underground, but as other races, like goblins and kobolds startd contesting the gnomes for territory, they re-surfaced and started reaching for the skies, quite literally, instead. 
Gnomes consider themselves the most intelligent race on Gaea. They have largely turned their back on their feywild ancestry, and have instead focused their keen intellect on the arcane mysteries of the world. Throughout the centuries Gnomes have been responsible for a great number of game changing inventions, but they have still managed to keep their separate culture without mixing much with the other races. This is partly due to their greatest invention yet; the floating city of Pyramid. A giant fortress and city in-one that houses almost all gnomes on Gaea, that currently floats above a small mountainous region on the Emerald Steppe.

Personality and Reputation

A constant hum of busy activity pervades the Pyramid where gnomes form their communities. Louder sounds punctuate the hum: a crunch of grinding gears here, a minor explosion there, a yelp of surprise or triumph, and especially bursts of laughter. Gnomes take delight in life, enjoying every moment of invention, exploration, investigation, creation, and play. Gnomes are extremely competitive about their inventions however, their society being extremely centered around accomplishments and intellect. Gnomes are quite rare to find wandering the world, and they almost never make their permanent homes in human cities, this being mostly because of their distaste for other races. They usually keep to their city Pyramid, where they are free to experiment to their hearts desires. Some view the gnomes as arrogant because of this, an assumption that would, in truth, be accurate. Gnomes aren’t as social and humorous as their elfin cousins, and they lack the adorable timidness of the forest elfin. Instead they are a race of highly realistic and capable beings, with the average brainpower to match the most genious of scholars among the other races.
Despite their distaste for other races, gnomes enjoy trading with other races, sharing their inventions with the rest of the world. They also have a decent relationship with the dwarves of the north, as they rely on them to get the necessary crystals to power their inventions and their magic. When they share inventions with the world, it partly due to arrogance and a desire to show the world how superior they are, but also partly because they in all honesty want to make the entire world a better place. Gnomes consider all forms of goblinkin to be extremely untrustworthy and give them a very wide berth if possible and they do not get along especially well with the other smallfolk either.

Society

When the planet was young and the first races started emmerging on Gaea, a group of small pixie-like fey would step out of the feywilds, into the material plane to make their homes in the forests and jungles of the planet. Centuries passed, and these creatures would evolve with the land, becoming the smallfolk we know today. Of all the smallfolk, gnomes have retained their feylike-qualities the least, both when it comes to natural abilities and outlook on life. They have no fondness for Eyr or the Feywilds, tending to their inventions and their magicks instead of trying to interpret signs from any gods.
The gnomes value intelligence and intellectual superiority over all other attributes. Individual gnomes will dedicate an entire lifespan to building a portfolio of successful projects or becoming the foremost expert of some tiny aspect of the arcane. They constantly seek to prove their own intellectual superiority, and by extension the superiority of their own race. They have quickly established their intellectual and magical superiority over the other races and view them as useful primarily for heavy lifting, taking risks, and asking stupid questions.
Gnome magical technology is second to none. Their experiments with magic are evident through the impressive floating structures found around and within their cities. The most important contribution of the gnomes to Antreian society is the invention of the flying ships and the discovery of the magical crystals who power them. These ships are able to travel great distances in record time, and it is the combination of expert engineering and magical complexetiy that make them able to fly. No one outside of gnome society is completely sure how the inventions of the gnomes function, though most scholars of other races agree that the magical crystals play a key part. Despite the gnomes having learned how to handle these crystals without getting sick from the adverse effects, most deposits exist where there are dwarves, and the gnomes have still not discovered a way to mine and handle large quantities in a way that would make them as effective as the dwarves. As such they have to trade their crystals, in which they are in need of many, from the dwarves.
Gnomes have a strong sense of family and extended family, they affectionately refer to their children as "progeny" or "offspring". They also venerate their parents, and grandparents. They tend to practice serial monogamy, in that they have a serious romantic relationship with only one other gnome at a time, not unlike the other smallfolk. Relationships that break up tend to feature more fights about who gets the inventions than who gets the kids.
Rather than organized government, the gnomes prefer to utilize smaller efficient task forces led by the most experienced member, designed to allow any individual to reach their maximum potential in any particular task. The gnomes also have a group known as the Arcane Council who are responsible for the mundane parts of city life on the Pyramid. The members of this council rotate - membership into this council is granted by performing a task which benefits the gnomes as a whole. The role is rarely desired as it means an individual cannot spend time advancing one's own research. Because of this most scoff at the kings, royal families or clan-leaders of many other races, as they view that kind of hierarchy as detrimental to the health of a society.

Religion

Gnomes do not believe in gods or higher beings of power. They rather believe in the idea that all beings and magic in the world are a part or function of a greater purpose or "machine". Gnome life is built around the research of the mysteries of the world, magical, psychological and biological. It is believed once complete mastery is gained over the deepest most complex mysteries of this world, especially when it comes to magic and its origins, mastery will be gained over all of Gaea.
A group of gnomes believe that they can gain total control the order of the world, by truly understanding magic. Their experiments are less ethical and more dangerous than those performed by other gnomes, and frequently involve time travel, necromancy and other subject banned by the Arcane Council. They have no qualms about experimentation on sentient beings and are considered dangerous and fanatical by most other gnomes and races of Antreia at large.

NATURAL SMARTS

The gnomes are typically regarded as the most intelligent race on the planet. They constantly test this intellect against one-another, and every young gnome learn from a young age that the only thing that matters is your brain. Thus, they are typically less-than-skilled at physical labour and fighting, and prefer to cast spells or create constructs to do battle for them.

HOME IS WHERE THE INVENTIONS ARE

Gnomes rarely leave their Pyramid, and they tend to be very arrogant towards any race that isn’t a gnome. As a general rule, they too lack the wanderlust that is typical of most smallfolk and will only leave their homeland under intense pressure, such as a threat that they alone cannot overcome. For the most part, gnomes prefer to stick to what they know, mingling with their own and compete about inventions, rather than explore the world.

LOVERS OF KNOWLEDGE

Gnomes, with their intellect and their love for knowledge, tend to hoard it in large quantities. They keep records of nearly everything, and they have a love for history, religion, mythology, biology, physics, arcana and nearly antyhing else that make up the phsyical world. Most gnomes have also studied and learned about the different planes of existence throughout their careers in academics, and are thus more aware of the natural wonders of the world than other races. Gnomes speak as if they can’t get the thoughts out of their heads fast enough. Even as they offer ideas and opinions on a range of subjects, they still manage to listen carefully to others, adding the appropriate exclamations of surprise and appreciation along the way.

CRYSTAL-FUELED INVENTIONS

Most gnomish inventions run on the magical energies found in mana crystals, and they have traditionally been good at incorperating these crystals in everything from their attire to their architecture. The gnomes have found a way to utilize these crystals, and even wear them, without suffering the debilitating effects of crystal sickness. How they achieve this is a well guarded secret among the gnomes however, and no other race has been able to replicate it as of yet.

Classes

Gnome adventurers are somewhat rare because of their conservatism. However, a gnome who chooses to leave their home might do so in pursuit of new knowledge or a new perspective, which motivates the intelligent beings to excel at most everything they do.
Magic: Magic is the true forte of the gnomes. They have no qualms about openly practicing almost any kind of magic, although clerics are rare due to their lack of faith or conviction in higher powers.
Mix: Gnomes, being interested in most fields of magic, make excellent and experimental bards. Paladins are less common, but some might devote themselves to the pursuit of knowledge or protection of their cities and make excellent guardians in doing so.
Non-Magic: They do not shun the straighter forward ways of fighting like the other smallfolk. However, because of their small size most use mechanical parts to augment their strength and constitution. These inventions create powerful fighters and barbarians. Rogues are also common, especially among those who enjoy the arcane art of illusion.

Gnome Names

Gnomes love names, and most have half a dozen or so. A gnome’s mother, father, clan elder, aunts, and uncles each give the gnome a name, and various nicknames from just about everyone else might or might not stick over time. Gnome names are typically variants on the names of ancestors or distant relatives, though some are purely new inventions. When dealing with humans and others who are “stuffy” about names, a gnome learns to use no more than three names: a personal name, a clan name, and a nickname, choosing the one in each category that’s the most fun to say.
Male Names: Alston, Alvyn, Boddynock, Brocc, Burgell, Dimble, Eldon, Erky, Fonkin, Frug, Gerbo, Gimble, Glim, Jebeddo, Kellen, Namfoodle, Orryn, Roondar, Seebo, Sindri, Warryn, Wrenn, Zook
Female names: Bimpnottin, Breena, Caramip, Carlin, Donella, Duvamil, Ella, Ellyjobell, Ellywick, Lilli, Loopmottin, Lorilla, Mardnab, Nissa, Nyx, Oda, Orla, Roywyn, Shamil, Tana, Waywocket, Zanna
Clan Names: Beren, Daergel, Folkor, Garrick, Nackle, Murnig, Ningel, Raulnor, Scheppen, Timbers, Turen
Nicknames: Aleslosh, Ashhearth, Badger, Cloak, Doublelock, Filchbatter, Fnipper, Ku, Nim, Oneshoe, Pock, Sparklegem, Stumbleduck