Svirfneblin (Deep Gnome)

The deep gnomes are closest thing the gnome family has to “black sheep.” Many surface dwellers count the deep gnomes along with their evil neighbors, the drow and the duergar, believing them to be little more than dark reflections of the friendly rock gnomes with whom they are more familiar. In fact, the svirfneblin are just as good-hearted as their sunnier kin. However, after centuries of dealing with the everyday perils of living in the Underdark, they have become understandably distrustful of all outsiders.
Compared to their better-known kin, the rock gnomes, the deep gnomes are as gray and lifeless as the subterranean caverns in which they choose to make their homes. They keep to themselves out of fear of outsiders—a fear born from numerous poor experiences with such people. To a deep gnome, the only people you can trust are other deep gnomes from your village, and preferably from your family. All others are best avoided.
With strangers, most deep gnomes are sullen, reserved, and suspicious, almost to a fault. However, when they are alone with their own kind, they are friendly and respectful to each other. Few people from outside a svirfneblin community have ever seen this more pleasant side of the deep gnomes. For their part, the deep gnomes would be horrified to find themselves observed by outsiders, and they find such a person staring at them—or even looking directly at them—quite rude.
Deep gnomes are gnarled and callused folk, with little fat at all on their wiry bodies. Their skin is the color of the rocks among which they live, almost as if they sprang directly from the stones themselves. They have dark gray eyes, tending toward black. Their hair is of a similar color, although it’s only seen on the woman, as the men are entirely bald and beardless.

History

While most gnomes have little use for history, tending to prefer living in the moment, deep gnomes are the worst of the lot. They do not have a formal calendar or any way to tell the turning of the days. Living far from the light of the sun, the very idea of night or day is foreign to them. Dozens of svirfneblin cities lie scattered throughout the Underdark of Faerûn, and dozens of more have surely risen and been abandoned over the years, but of all these settlements and refuges the story of only one is widely known to non-deep gnomes:

Blingdenstone

Blingdenstone was founded in –690 DR by several clans of deep gnomes fleeing west from the Underdark beneath Netheril, which had fallen into the power of the dreadful phaerimms. Despite the proximity of a powerful drow city (Menzoberranzan) and an equally strong duergar city (Gracklstugh), the deep gnomes established their city at its site because of the rich veins of arandur and other exotic metals and minerals. For almost two thousand years, the deep gnomes carried on their mining and smithing, avoiding their evil neighbors and strengthening Blingdenstone’s defenses against the day their enemies would come against them.
That day came in 1338 DR, although King Schnicktick and Queen Fricknarti could not have anticipated how it would come about. Drizzt Do’Urden, a renegade drow noble, arrived at Blingdenstone’s doorstep after years of exile in the Underdark, and received sanctuary among the deep gnomes. Although Drizzt remained among the deep gnomes for only a short time, the events of his exile eventually led to a full-scale drow attack against the dwarven citadel of Mithral Hall in 1358 DR. The invasion route passed close to Blingdenstone, and the deep gnomes chose to abandon their city. After the drow army passed, Belwar Dissengulp and other deep gnome wardens convinced King Schnicktick to join their forces to those of the defenders of Mithral Hall. The deep gnomes and their allies inflicted a great defeat on Menzoberranzan in the Keeper’s Dale, and the Menzoberranyr never forgot that the svirfneblin had contributed to their humiliation.
In Marpenoth of 1370 DR, the Matron Mothers of Menzoberranzan exacted their vengeance. Calling up dozens of powerful demons and bebiliths, they unleashed a plague of murderous fiends that overran Blingdenstone. Thousands of gnomes died in the fall of the city, and thousands more were captured by drow slavers waiting outside the city gates. A small number of the deep gnomes managed to escape to Mithral Hall and Silverymoon as refugees. Driven from their old homes, these svirfneblin have found a warm welcome among their former allies, but the prospect for returning to their old home looks bleak at best.

Outlook

Dour and cynical, deep gnomes are resigned to their lot in life. They spend their days scratching out a living in the subterranean passages near their home. The males mostly mine for precious gems, while the females—who are rarely seen outside their villages— gather food, care for the children, and keep house. Few aspire to do anything other than live out their lives quietly focusing on doing their jobs the best that they can.
The svirfneblin literally have little or no light in their lives. To avoid detection by others in the Underdark, they often refuse to use fire for cooking or warmth whenever possible. Instead, they rely on their darkvision whenever possible, seeing the world only in black and white. The deep gnomes live and work in the eternal darkness out of their overwhelming love for gems. Most males spend almost their entirely lives trying to chip precious stones out of the earth. They favor rubies most of all.
Outsiders often think of deep gnomes as irredeemably sullen and suspicious. While there is some basis for this, these are the outward results of survival techniques that these gnomes have had to adopt to endure their harsh and unforgiving environment. Sounds of any kind—especially voices—travel in strange ways in the Underdark, and they have a tendency to attract visitors.
In the experience of most deep gnomes, such outsiders have only the worst of intentions, so when a svirfneblin encounters a stranger who is actually friendly, she normally is too suspicious to even consider responding in a like manner. She may eventually warm to a svirfneblin from another town, but even this can take time.
While deep gnome adventurers are rare, some deep gnomes succumb to gnomish curiosity about the world outside the caverns and mine shafts of their daily lives. This is especially true for those deep gnome illusionists who crave to learn more about the nature of their chosen school of magic, but who lack for instruction in the insular villages in which they live. Svirfneblin prospectors are also occasionally encountered in the Underdark far from their homes, questing for promising new veins to mine for their beloved rubies.

Deep Gnome Characters

Svirfneblin are rarely found outside their own society. When this does happen, it’s usually a lone prospector, a solitary illusionist, or a group of warriors who have struck out from their town for one reason or another. Typically deep gnomes only leave their home out of a deep and abiding curiosity about the outside world, a burning desire to find more rubies, or the need to find help for dealing with some creature or event the svirfneblin don’t feel they can handle on their own. Svirfneblin adventurers are most commonly fighters, rangers, rogues, or wizards (particularly illusionists). Naturally stealthy, they find that the skills honed in surviving the dangers of the Underdark also serve an adventuring ranger or rogue well.
Favored Class: Like all gnomes, svirfneblin are talented wizards, especially illusionists. With an illusionist’s powers, the deep gnome can keep out of sight of others until she decides to reveal herself. She can remain concealed, hide her home and friends, and deceive or misdirect enemies. Svirfneblin have learned that an enemy who can’t locate them can’t hurt them.

Deep Gnome Society

Deep gnome communities are subterranean settlements deep beneath the surface of Toril. The central part of the city is usually set in a single large cavern with all sorts of other caverns, rooms, and even buildings attached to the main section by a complex system of narrow corridors and spiraling staircases.
When a town is first settled, the top-ranking members of the svirfneblin clan usually grab the largest stalagmites in the cavern and carve homes out of them. Most people, however, must carve their homes out of the cavern floors or walls. For gnome communities, deep gnome towns are large, usually comprising around one thousand people. However, these places are normally far more isolated than even the most remote surface gnome town. Most svirfneblin go their entire lives without ever traveling to another deep gnome town, much less actually seeing daylight. Because of the relatively crowded conditions in a deep gnome town, svirfneblin families typically crowd into a single, small room. Children often stay with the family until they are married, at which point they need to either find or make a new home for themselves.
Deep gnome children are treasured greatly. It’s rare for a family to have more than six children in it, and most have less than four. Deep gnome mothers dote on their children during their childhood. Once the children reach adolescence, they are immediately put to work in apprenticeships for whatever kinds of jobs they expect to have in adulthood. Deep gnomes don’t celebrate the transition to adulthood the way their sunlit kin do. Instead, they know they’ve reached adulthood when they start working at the job of a real adult in earnest.
The great majority of male svirfneblin work in their town’s mining operations, extracting precious gems and metals from the earth. Most of the rest spend their time processing and finishing the raw materials the others pull from the earth. By contrast, female svirfneblin spend their time gathering and preparing food, raising children, and keeping house. There is a strict division of labor along gender lines, and it’s rare to see it crossed: The female gnomes rule in the home and the males outside it. Most deep gnomes work until they literally drop dead at their jobs. There is no concept of retirement in deep gnome society. Those who are able must pull their own weight as best they can, since no deep gnome wishes to be a burden on her family and community.
In keeping with the svirfneblin concept of equal division of labor, every svirfneblin town is governed by both a king and a queen, each of whom holds the position for life. The king oversees the community’s mining operations and is responsible for managing the place’s defense. The queen ensures that the town has an adequate stock of both food and water, and she handles the town’s daily affairs. Each is supreme in his or her sphere, though each usually advises the other. The two are rarely married (at least, not to each other). When either monarch dies, the other chooses a successor for the deceased monarch by deciding on a contest that can be entered by any eligible member of the community. Usually eligibility is based on gender and status. The winner of the contest becomes the next monarch.
The staples of the deep gnome diet are a number of different kinds of fungi found or even farmed in the Underdark. To this, they sometimes add blind fish or occasionally a deep rothé, goat, or sheep. Svirfneblin do not often cook their food, preferring instead to preserve it by means of salting. These foods are so salty that most outsiders cannot stomach them.
Besides water, svirfneblin drink a salty, intoxicating brew made of fermented fish parts, which is best described as an acquired taste. On special occasions, they drink a wine called Gogondy, said to contain powdered ruby (among other mysterious ingredients).
Svirfneblin have only two holidays universally celebrated by all deep gnome communities, both in honor of Callarduran Smoothhands, their favored god. The Festival of the Ruby celebrates the mythical time when Callarduran hid rubies and other gems in the earth for the deep gnomes to find; it is considered a lucky day for seeking and finding. The Festival of the Star celebrates the continued protection the Deep Brother provides to the svirfneblin. Deep gnomes mark the holy day by assembling on the shore of a subterranean lake or pool to watch small patches of a specially bred species of phosphorescent fungi in the cavern roof light up like stars, creating an illusion of the night sky reflected in the waters below. This ceremony reaffirms the deep gnomes’ ancestral ties with the surface world, and reassures them that they have not been abandoned in the deep places of the world.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Svirfneblin speak Gnome, Undercommon, and whatever tongue is used by those on the surface of their region. Those who deal with outsiders often pick up a bit of Common as well. Given the nature of their closest neighbors in the Underdark, it’s not uncommon for deep gnome linguists to also learn languages like Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Illuskan, and Terran.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Deep Gnome Magic and Lore

Illusion is the favorite magic of every gnome, but for the svirfneblin, it’s essential to survival. The deep gnomes know more than simple invisibility spells. Delving into the cracks of the earth has uncovered many strange creatures, and lost lore from ancient empires. The deep gnomes treasure the powerful magic items, spellbooks, and other relics of bygone ages—even if they don’t completely understand how to use them.

Spells and Spellcasting

Deep gnomes become illusionists more than any other class. They also favor divination spells to help them discover the location of materials they are hunting for under the surface of the planet, and conjurations to bring earth elementals to lend them aid.

Deep Gnome Equipment

Svirfneblin decorate their possessions with gems they’ve mined themselves, and their smiths and jewelers are among the best in the Underdark. The deep gnomes have also turned mushroom farming into a science. Through arcane experimentation and careful crossbreeding, they’ve grown species of mushrooms that provide leathery fabric, woody stems, and any number of other useful materials.

Arms and Armor

In battle, most svirfneblin favor light picks of the sort they carry with them constantly and use in their daily work in the mines. Female deep gnomes use hoes or other domestic implements for defense in an emergency. For ranged weapons, they prefer regular darts as well as the special kinds described below. Some also carry light crossbows for such work.
Unique Items: Svirfneblin manufacture and use a number of specialized weapons particular to their race, including acid darts, crystal caltrops, stun darts, and flash grenades (see the appendix). The latter are particularly effective against the deep gnomes’ drow enemies.

Animals and Pets

Deep gnomes often keep a herd of deep rothé, goats, or sheep somewhere on the edge of their towns. They tend them cautiously, always taking care to make sure the animals remain as silent as possible. The svirfneblin do not want their animals to attract unwanted visitors.
As for pets, most deep gnomes don’t keep them. There are some who have a few, small, blind fish in a glass bowl. Others might actually have moles, shrews, bats, dire rats, or cavvekans (see the appendix) as animal friends, although these live nearby the gnome’s home, not actually in it.

Common Myths and Legends

While the deep gnomes of Toril may not be particularly devout as a group, they do have a full pantheon of deities they share with the other gnomes. Svirfneblin clerics often move among both miners and mothers, keeping up community spirits. When they think the time is ripe, they declare a holiday festival in honor of whichever god they feel is appropriate.
Callarduran Smoothhands, the Master of Stone, is the most popular god among deep gnomes, many of whom spend their entire adult lives working in their town’s mines. Callarduran taught the svirfneblin to summon and befriend earth elementals.
Many deep gnome craftsmen work Callarduran’s star insignia into their jewelry and other handiwork. They are careful not to use this theme with a golden ring, however, reserving that privilege for the god himself.
Although he is the patriarch of the gnome pantheon, few deep gnomes are drawn to the faith of Garl Glittergold. Garl’s bright and sunny nature simply does not seem relevant to most svirfneblin. Some svirfneblin even feel that Garl has abandoned them in favor of their more cheery kin. Deep gnomes feel closer to Segojan Earthcaller, beloved by those deep gnomes who keep pets or work with their few domesticated animals (these are usually svirfneblin females, of course). The rare deep gnome ranger usually finds this god’s way with nature to his taste as well.
No gnomes really care for Urdlen, but he particularly frightens the svirfneblin. Tales of Urdlen’s habit of attacking especially greedy deep gnomes just as they are about to grasp the most valuable gem ever seen are commonly told to young deep gnomes to keep them in line. Such parables also illustrate the number of quick and senseless deaths that await deep gnomes throughout the Underdark. Only constant vigilance against such threats does any good and, for encouraging them to always be alert, Urdlen has earned the deep gnomes’ respect.

Relations with Other Races

Insular and suspicious, deep gnomes do not get along well with any other races. If forced to pick with whom they would rather keep company (outside other deep gnomes or no one at all), most deep gnomes would choose to associate with forest gnomes, and then rock gnomes. Beyond that, they might not mind gold dwarves or shield dwarves, or the occasional elf.
Svirfneblin do not have much feeling about any of the other standard character races, other than a general aversion to all of them. However, they have a deep and abiding hatred for drow and duergar. These two races, with whom the deep gnomes share the Underdark, have long been a thorn in the side of a people who would much rather just be left alone. Also, the evil tendencies of these races have led many surface dwellers to think that all who live in the Underdark are unrepentantly evil, a prejudice that frequently causes the deep gnomes grief when they first encounter an ignorant intruder from the surface.

Approximate Age Categories

Adult: 40 years
Middle Age: 100 years
Old: 150 years
Venerable: 200 years
Maximum Age: Most gnomes pass before their 550th year

Svirfneblin Male

Random Height: 3'0" +2d4"
Random Weight: 40 lb. +(Height Modifier × 2d3 lb.)

Svirfneblin Female

Random Height: 2'10" +2d4"
Random Weight: 35 lb. (Height Modifier × 2d3 lb.)

Encompassed species

• Gnome (Gnomes)