Age of Legends

Gnomes are the tinkers and inventors of Krynn. Fast-thinking and fast-speaking, their minds are forever fixed on cogs, gears, wheels, bells, whistles, and steam-powered engines. Despite the dangers inherent in their work, gnomes (sometimes called “tinker” gnomes) adore technology and continue throughout the ages to pursue and perfect their inventions.

Personality

Inventive, skillful, and enthusiastic, gnomes are devoted to making life easier through technology, though their complex inventions usually have the exact opposite effect. Science is a gnome's life, so much so that every gnome chooses a special Life Quest upon reaching adulthood. More important than family ties, the Life Quest defines the gnome. The Life Quest is always related to furthering knowledge or developing technology.

The goal is specific and usually out of reach. It is not uncommon for Life Quests to be handed down from one generation to the next multiple times before it is achieved. Successful completion of a Life Quest ensures the gnome, and any forebear working on the same quest, a place in the afterlife with Reorx. Only one gnome was ever able to complete three separate Life Quests in his own lifetime, and he was deemed a mad gnome and cast out of Mount Nevermind for making everyone else look bad.

The gnome dedication to knowledge and invention leaves them sadly lacking in the social graces, at least when it concerns other races. Gnomes are always eager to discuss projects and compare notes, and in their hurry to explain what they mean, they often forget to be polite. Gnomes do care for other people's feelings, but they're typically focused on another matter entirely by the time it occurs to them that they were rude. The worse thing in the world (at least in the minds of other races) is a gnome apology. Believing that action speaks louder than words, a gnome making an apology will build an invention specifically for the injured party. All too often, this invention ends up hurting more than the person's feelings.

Gnomes appreciate the value of style and flash. Bigger must be better. The more bells, whistles, and steam engines attached to a project, the better the likelihood of its success. Never build something with only one lever or button, when ten or twenty ensure a safety margin for error. Redundancy is a factor that must be taken into account. Above all, embrace failure. One never knows when a mistake with one project may provide an intriguing lead for a completely new project. An invention that is too simple and works to well, stymies inventiveness and must be discouraged.

Physical Description

Both male and female gnomes average 3 feet in height, weighing about 45-50 pounds. Gnomes have brown skin that is the hue of polished teak, curly or straight white hair, blue or violet eyes, and strong, even, white teeth. Males grow soft and extremely curly beards and mustaches. Short and stocky, gnomes are very nimble, with quick, dexterous hands. Gnomes are much too busy to worry about how they look, and throw on any garment that happens to come to hand, as long as it has a great many pockets, each of which is stuffed filled with tools, notepads, and strange devices.

Gnome voices posses a similar quality in range and pitch as human voices, though gnomes have a more nasal, aspirated sound. Gnomes speak rapidly and with surprising intensity, running their words together into continuous sentences in the desperate need to express their thoughts before the thoughts are lost. Non-gnomes have difficulty keeping up and must often request that the gnome speak slowly and more clearly. Since gnomes are capable of speaking and listening simultaneously, they believe those unable to do so to be a bit dimwitted. Only when frightened, startled or unhappy will a gnome's sentences be abrupt and to the point (always a sure sign that a gnome is depressed).

Relations

In areas where gnomes have settled, they are typically not well liked. Besides poor social skills, the gnome reliance upon strange technology alienates other races in Ansalon. The elves, in particular, find gnome devices to be distasteful, while the gnomes feel the same about elven reliance upon magic (seen to be anti-machine and therefore highly suspect). Kender adore gnomes, who are sure to have the most interesting gadgets, but gnomes are extremely distrustful of kender, who are always flipping switches and touching things they're not suppose to. Dwarves and gnomes get along well, particularly since both races prefer dwelling underground. Both dwarves and gnomes value their privacy, so they keep out of each others way.

Typically, gnomes prefer to be left to their own devices-literally. They do not like outsiders messing with their projects, and they don't interfere with outsiders, unless dealing with outsiders furthers the Life Quest. Those rare gnomes who choose a Life Quest involving other races (such as a gnome whose Life Quest involves the study a dragon's internal combustion system or a gnome trying to discover a biological reason for kender fearlessness) tend to be more outgoing and personable.

Alignment

Although they consider themselves above such antiquated concepts of “good” and “evil,” the studious (some would say fanatical) nature of gnomes gives them a strong lawful bent. Gnomes embrace the philosophy that knowledge is neither good nor evil. Evil gnomes are as rare as evil kender, and end up either being catapulted (sometimes literally) out of gnome society or leaving on their own accord to focus their energies entirely upon their studies.

Gnome Lands

The largest settlement gnomes is found in Mount Nevermind, an extinct volcano on Sancrist Island. The population of the settlement boasted more than 65,000 gnomes during the War of Souls. Thousands of years old, the settlement in Mount Nevermind is one of the oldest settlements in Krynn, and is the most highly developed gnome city. The largest community of gnomes outside Mount Nevermind numbers only 1,000 inhabitants, with gnome communities averaging between 200-400 citizens. Each of these settlements is found in the mountainous or hilly regions, and built in networks of caverns created by the gnomes. Theses communities are self-sustaining, and other nearby inhabitants usually have no idea that a gnome community is in the vicinity until a gnome experiments goes awry. Even then, the resulting explosion may be explained away as a minor earthquake or tremor.

Religion

The major deity in gnome religion is Reorx. Since religious services rarely require steampower, gnome priests are very rare. Gnomes respect Reorx, but show their devotion through the creation of their devices rather than through traditional worship. A few gnomes revere the goddess of industry, Shinare, whose followers pray for smooth-running machines. It is not uncommon for gnomes to mutter a prayer to both deities just before pulling the lever or pushing the button to start their newest inventions. Gnomes believe that the two deities give their blessing to only the most unique and inventive machines, which is why gnomes keep building bigger and “better” devices.

Language

The gnome language is based on the Common tongue, sprinkled liberally with highly technical phrases and jargon that other races do not comprehend. Spoken very rapidly, Gnomes utilize a lot of catch phrases, acronyms, and scientific terminology, creating an entirely new language that few on Krynn are able to fully understand. When around non-gnomes, a gnome must often be reminded to speak slowly and succinctly.

Names

Gnomes have three different names. The first is the gnome's given name, which traces the gnome's family tree clear back to the creation of the first gnome by Reorx. Understandably, this name can be extremely long and unwieldy to speak in every day usage, so the gnome adopts a second, shortened name that is composed of highlights from the gnome's family tree. This name may take only about thirty minutes to speak, rather than a few days. Other races who deal with gnomes give a gnome a third name, composed of the first few syllables of the gnome's real name. Gnomes find these “nicknames" to be extremely undignified, but mark it down as the inability of other races to think on the same level as they do.

Examples of Names

Male Gnome Names (Abbreviated): Aerodym, Conundrum, Gnimish, Gnosh, Kaboom, Nervous, Sinker, Spanner.

Female Gnome Names (Abbreviated): Bally, Cinder, Folly, Gnira, Grenda, Pepper, Mystie, Hydrola, Sealan, Widge.

Guilds

Aerodynamics, Appliances, Architecture, Chemistry, Communication, Hydraulics, Hydrodynamics, Kinetics, Thermodynamics, Transportation

Adventurers

Because of their dedication to their projects, gnome tend to be homebodies, rarely leaving the place they were born. Gnomes who deal with the occasional subterranean threat uncovered during expansion of gnome tunnels (As members of the committee for the Slaying of Beasts and Monsters) are passable fighters, while other pick up a knack for “acquiring” supplies needed for experiments (committee for the Acquisition and Requisitioning of Goods and Supplies).

A very few gnomes whose Life Quest have led them to study magical items to better replicate the effects through technology take up the arcane arts from the Wizards of High Sorcery. No gnome has taken the Test of High Sorcery (perhaps miffed by the fact that the use of generators is not permitted) thus all gnome wizards are renegades. Gnome priests are almost as rare as gnome wizards.