Gnomes

Gnomes ("noniz" Flan) are thought to be related to dwarves, though they are smaller and enjoy the open air and forests much more than their cousins.
Gnomes have wood-colored skin in a variety of shades, from light ash to dark oak. Many gnomes live underground in shallow burrows, often in hills and forests. They enjoy work as much as they like merrymaking.
The gnomes of the Flanaess are aggressive in defending their territory and figure strongly in wars against humanoids and tyrants.
Gnomes (noniz in Flan) are solidly built and muscular despite their height. (Most gnomes stand just over 3 feet tall.) Two major groups of them exist: rock gnomes (the most commonly seen) and deep gnomes (who live far underground). Rock gnomes are brown-skinned and blue-eyed, and almost all adults have light hair with a tendency toward male baldness.
Males are most often bearded, though not so much as their dwarven cousins. Their facial features are a bit exaggerated compared to human norms, with prominent noses and eyebrows and leathery skin. Deep gnomes are hairless and wiry in physique, with gray or gray-brown skin.
Rock gnomes of the Flanaess have their origins as trappers and herders in the remote wooded highlands of the north. Their southward expansion began only a few centuries before the Invoked Devastation, bringing them into lands populated by other races. Their lairds and chieftains recognized the authority of elven or dwarven sovereigns, but discouraged any mingling of peoples until the Suel and Oeridian migrations encouraged cooperation between races. Most gnomes inhabit great burrow communities in the Lortmils and Kron Hills, and east in the Flinty Hills.
The history of the deep gnomes is unknown to others, as they are so isolated and little seen. Their homeland is said to be a vast kingdom within a miles-deep cavern, where they are ruled by a wise and brooding monarch.
Gnomes are possessed of sly humor and earthy wisdom. Measuring the practical value of things as seen by the gnomes against the pretensions of other cultures, their wit is often revealed in inventive and embarrassing ways. Their creativity is not limited to practical jokes. They are fine craftsmen who appreciate precious stones and make beautiful jewelry, along with woodwork, stonework, and leatherwork of excellent quality; they invent and experiment often.
Seldom avaricious, gnomes take equal pleasure in music and story, food and drink, nature and handmade things. Most gnomes are not prone to cruelty, though their lively jokes may sometimes make things appear otherwise.
Rock gnomes in the Flanaess tend to dress in dark colors, favoring earth tones but enjoying stripes and brightly dyed hats, belts, and boots. Males usually wear high-collared shirts or blouses with trousers and boots, and a double-breasted coat worn over all. Females wear high-necked blouses with aprons or ruffled skirts, often with a matching jacket. Their hunting garments are colored with mottled greens and browns intermixed. Deep gnomes are almost never seen unarmored, but are known to wear simple, dark tunics and aprons in their dwellings.
Famed primarily for their use of illusions, some gnome magicians are also master toymakers and artificers. Others are superb weavers, dyers, or tailors, who can create clothing that will improve the appearance of the wearer or even alter it completely.

Ethnicities

Rock gnomes are the most numerous, and tend to inhabit mountainous or hilly terrain. Rock gnomes are closely associated with dwarves, but have a whimsical streak. Rock gnomes always seem to be tinkering with something.
Forest gnomes are much more secretive than rock gnomes. Inhabiting deep forests, they use illusion and misdirection to stay undetected.
A third subrace of gnome live in the unforgiving Underdark, the svirfneblin. These gray-skinned gnomes are even more secretive than forest gnomes.

Tricks, Secrets, and Novelty

Perhaps due to their fey roots, gnomes are incredibly protective of the lands around them. Rock gnomes and svirfneblin tend to live in finished cave complexes, usually protected by a variety of secret doors, dead-end passages, traps and illusions, while forest gnomes live in secluded forest clearings and use tree roots, stumps, dead logs, and the like to hide the entrances into their homes, which are protected in the same way.
Most gnomes gravitate towards illusionary magic as a way to "liven up the place". They have a kind of frantic energy, always wanting to do something or be somewhere else. Gnomes who settle on a craft or profession similarly try to push the bounds and often experiment with new concepts, ideas, inventions, and innovations.
Gnomes are renowned for pranks, practical jokes and gags. The constant quest for surprise and novelty plays out in these pranks, which are often harmless but extremely embarrassing. However some gnomes of darker character actually create pranks that can be dangerous or even deadly as well.
Many an adventuring party has told of looking around for their gnomish companion and shrugging their shoulders. The expression, "found something shiny" is bantered around a lot in these groups. That doesn't mean that the gnomes in question are reckless. Their long standing practice with jokes and pranks, along with their often-personal war with kobolds makes gnomes particularly cautious and wary of tricks and traps.
Gnomes often experiment with their own looks, and hair dyed or magically colored in wild colors is a trademark of the race. Some gnomes have eyes of two different colors, and many have eye colors that don't exist in nature. Some of these changes are illusory, while others may be the result of transmutation magic.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

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

Average Physique

Rock Gnome Male

• Random Height: 3'0" +2d4

• Random Weight: 40 lb. + [height roll + 1d3 lb.]

• Average: 3'5", 50 lbs.

Rock Gnome Female

• Random Height: 2'10" + 2d4

• Random Weight: 35 lb. + [height roll + 1d3 lb.]

• Average: 3'3", 45 lbs.

Forest Gnomes

• Subtract 2d4 inches from height, and 2d6 lbs. from weight.

• Average Male: 3', 43 lbs.

• Average Female: 2'10", 40 lbs.