Gnome
Gnomes ("noniz" in Flan) are believed by some to be related to dwarves, but aside from height, there are few similarities. Gnomes favor woodlands for their homes, residing in burrows just below the surface in hilly country. Gnomes are rarely taller than three and a half feet, are moderately built, and have skin that resembles the color of wood (from light ash to dark oak). They work well and enjoy merrymaking.
Civilization and Culture
Average Technological Level
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.
Common Dress Code
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.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
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.
History
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 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.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Gnomes' hilly homes have been threatened by the humanoids, driving many of them into the plains of human-dominated lands where they seek help to re-establish their old heartlands. Many, too, co-exist with elves in the woodlands; where the elves are active in working with human interests, so are the gnomes. Hill gnomes often share living space with dwarves, and are a brave, tough folk who are loyal to their neighbors and fight side by side with them.
Gnome Subraces
Gnomes are typically classified by where they make their home. While the "surface gnomes", the Rock and Forest gnomes, are widely known and common in the Flaeness, the deep gnomes make their homes far below the surface, away from the eye of the surface races.Forest Gnomes
The most commonly-seen gnome, forest gnomes make their burrows in hills among humans and elves alike.Rock Gnomes
Not as commonly seen as their forest kin, rock gnomes tend to live among the dwarves, and are of a sturdier stock than the forest gnomes.Deep Gnomes
Not much in known about these gnomes, though dwarves and gnomes believe them to be one of the only good "deepfolk" races.
A gnome rogue exploring a lost ruin.
Lifespan
300+ Years
Average Height
3′0″ to 4′0″
Average Weight
40 to 45 lbs.
Related Ethnicities