Gnomes: Forest
Forest gnomes have a natural knack for illusion and inherent quickness and stealth. There are rare and secretive, even in the Evergreen. They gather in hidden communities in sylvan forests, using illusions and trickery to conceal themselves from threats or to mask their escape should they be detected. Forest gnomes tend to be friendly with other good-spirited woodland folk, and they regard elves and good fey as their most important allies. These gnomes also befriend small forest animals and rely on them for information about threats that might prowl their lands. Compared with other gnomes, forest gnomes are even more diminutive than is typical of the stunted race, rarely growing taller than 2½ feet in height or weighing in over 30 lbs. Typically, males are slightly larger than females, at the most by four inches or five pounds. Unlike other gnomes, forest gnomes generally grow their hair long and free, feeling neither the need nor desire to shave or trim their hair substantially, though males often do take careful care of their beards, trimming them to a fine point or curling them into hornlike spikes. Forest gnome skin is an earthy color and looks, in many ways, like wood, although it is not particularly tough. Forest gnome hair is brown or black, though it grays with age, sometimes to a pure white. Like other gnomes, forest gnomes generally live for centuries, although their life expectancy is a bit longer than is the case for either rock or deep gnomes; 400 is the average life expectancy of a forest gnome
They weren't all like this, they were all part of the great family of Gnomes, created by the Titan Father of the Forge. However, after the end of the First Age, The Titan War, they were found by an Archfey, some speculate it was the Old Man, who offered them safety in the Evergreen. They spent a lot of their time there, changing into what would be known as the Forest Gnomes. While millennia passed in the Material Plane, the forest gnomes felt weary and thought that they were more enslaved to the Fey world that a part of it. Wishing to be free, they made a pact with the Prince of Neverending Branches. For their freedom, cut ties of their souls to the Evergreen, they would be let go into the Material Plane but would stay friends with the Fey and never object to a request an Archfey might make of them. The race agreed and were transported back into the Material Plane during the Third Age, Kingdoms. They kept themselves to the forests of the world, finally feeling free and in control over their lives. At least, that's the feeling they had. Many Archfey would use their ancient pact to use the forest gnomes as their spies and agents in the Material World.
On Tethys
The forest gnomes do not seek to control, thus they only form tribes, no nations. There might be towns of the forest folk, deep in dense forests but nothing as big as human cities. They tend to have good relationships with their rock gnome cousins, even if their cultures vary dramatically. They seek to help nature as much as they can, becoming priests or druids of the nature gods, and try to keep friendships with elves living in the forests, Fey creatures and animals.First World
The forest gnomes were gnomes that escaped the war between humans and giants into their version of Evergreen, there the magic of the plane transformed them but they escaped. While for them it was just couple of years, it was centuries for the material plane. Lost in a new world, they became recluses in the First World.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
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