The god Reorx, having forged the world, took a number of men with him over the seas to learn his crafts and help him complete his work. Unfortunately, these people misused what Reorx taught them and strayed from neutrality. They were filled with petty desires and uses for their skills. In his anger, Reorx cursed them, reshaping their bodies and minds. As their desires were petty, then so, too, would be their new stature. As their uses for craftsmanship were petty, then so would they use them for eternity, never achieving the greatness of purpose that other races would know, regardless of what they developed.
Reorx's workshops were located far across the sea to the east of Ansalon. When the Graygem escaped, the gnomes went west after it in a fleet of ships, landing on the eastern shores of Ansalon and hurrying after it on foot. The gnomes who finally caught up with the Graygem at Gargath's kingdom were changed into dwarves and kender. The rest of the gnomes hurried on after the newly escaped Graygem until it sailed over the seas to the west, over Sancrist Isle.
At Sancrist, most pursuing gnomes gave up the chase. They were content to settle down, rather than risk another ocean voyage like the first, which had proved to be highly dangerous. The rest of the gnomes built ships and sailed on out of sight, with the best wishes of their fellows. Eventually, many gnomes who had been scattered across Ansalon during the chase migrated west to Sancrist; only a few gnomes now remain on the main continent.
Throughout their history, the gnomes have concentrated on scientific and technological development. They have working steam engines and steam-powered ships, clockwork mechanisms to keep time, ore-refining plants that make high-grade steel, and such mundane items as screw, pulleys, drive shafts, toothed gears, coiled springs, music boxes, and mechanical toys.
Two notable events occurred following the escape of the Graygem. The first was the arrival of the Knights of Solamnia on Sancrist. As a result of this contact, the gnomes now possess the formula for a poison gas that incapacitates its victims. More importantly, the gnomes have allied themselves with Solamnia's government and are now important trade partners with this kingdom. The Knights, ever suspicious of magical forces, are pleased to deal with a rave that varies the banner of technology, and Solamnia has profited greatly from this contact.
The second major event was the Cataclysm, which produced tremendous earthquakes that enlarged the size of Sancrist's mountainous northern half, where the gnomes lived. A number of gnomes were killed by landslides and tunnel collapses, but overall, the seismic activity was welcome. With vastly increased living space, the gnomes were little inclined to travel elsewhere. Many small groups of gnomes now make their homes in the northern Sancrist mountains, being occupied with mining and gem-hunting.
The largest settlement of gnomes exists in the immense tunnel complexes beneath Mount Nevermind, an extinct volcano on Sancrist Isle that is also the tallest mountain there. A recent census of the community indicates that fifty-nnine thousand gnomes live there, give or take a few hundred coming or going at any time. The Mount Nevermind community is thousands of years old an did the most highly developed of all gnome cities on Krynn.
The city of Mount Nevermind is built around the central shaft of the volcano, leading up to a ceiling just below the floor of the main crater. The crater itself has a central lake that freezes over in the wintertime. Gnome engineers long ago excavated the ash and rock from the volcano's throat and smoothed out a main floor the base of the Inner Hall (as it came to be known), and a horizontal shaft was excavated leading to the outside world at the base of the mountain (the Outer Hall).
The central shaft itself is a narrow funnel over 1050 yards high and 800 yards across at the domed ceiling. Illumination from thousands of lanterns, fires, candles, mirrors, and old glass globes with Continual Light spells cast within them illuminate the Inner Hall. the overall effect is stunning, much like the effects of the largest cathedral or cave chamber upon tourists.
Mount Nevermind is a scene of frantic, nonstop activity and noise. Everywhere one looks are gnomes hurrying from place to place, whistles blowing, gears turning, steam blasting, horns sounding, lights flashing, mechanical carts rolling. Gnomes have developed catapults ("gnomeflingers") to allow rapid access from the inner Hall to the various levels of the city, of which there are thirty-five in all. Hundreds of staircases, ramps, pulley elevators, ladders, and the like also cross from level to level. Wheeled carts mounted on rails encircle the city on many levels, powered by steam engines and providing quick travel across a single level. In an emergency, gnomes could move through the huge ventilation shafts cut into the mountain, though the steam-driven fans would make the going difficult.
Beneath the main city is an enormous network of tunnels and mines that spread out in all directions. Called the "undercity" by visitors, this tunnel system is as ancient as the city itself and far more dangerous. Monster lairs and unfriendly subterranean races have been encountered, though gnomish technology has managed to isolate or barricade most of these hazards. Several engineering committees are investigating ways to harness the geothermal energy from live magma encountered deep in the earth, and have set up research stations here and there in the undercity. A number of tunnels also serve as dumping sites for regular and for hazardous wastes, and unpleasant things may be encountered there as well.
Each level is well separated from all others and from everything else be a thick layer of rock. The tunneling is superby engineering and reinforced, in remembrance of the earthquakes that occurred during the Cataclysm and which still strike on rare occasions. Some areas of the city are built with shock-absorbing ceilings reinforced by enormous steel springs, and steel rods are often drilled through the rock itself to lend additional reinforcement. The possibility that it might escape a second Cataclysm has not been ignored by its builders.
The slopes of Mount Nevermind have been extensively terraced, and a strange irrigation system directs water from the main crater down the slopes and into the main city inside the mountain. The terraces are carefully farmed and tended by the Agricultural Guild, which also maintains fungi-growing farms and herds of cavedwelling goats and sheep in the undercity. Additional food is provided by raising domestic animals in the surrounding countryside, and from game caught by the Hunters Guild. Research is being conducted into creating artificial food, but the results have universally been poisonous. A committee is still looking into the matter.
Mount Nevermind is governed by and elected oligarchy of clan leaders and guild masters, who serve in their positions for life. Methods of election vary from guild to guild and from clan to clan; some use closed ballots, debates, seniority, and contests, while some positions are actually hereditary.
Several hundred clans dwell within the mountain, and there are perhaps fifty major guilds and a host of minor ones present. the government is so heavily laden with bureaucracy that few major decisions are actually rendered in the Grand Council. Most of the decisions are made by guilds and clans who go off on their own tangents, regardless of the wishes of the rest of the community. Everyone insists upon regulation and doing things by the book but this process is so tedious and time-comsuming as to try the patience of even a gnome.
Each major guild is organized around a particular area of interest. One will find a Mathematics Guild, Philosophers Guild, Mechanical Engineering Guild, Weapons Guild, Education Guild. Coverage of the physical and technological sciences is very heavy, but only two guilds (the Agricultural and Medical Guilds) have anything to do with the life sciences. Scientific guilds without immediate application, such as astronomy, are usually small a lack a say in the affairs. of the community. the Acquisitions, Military, and Foreign Relations Guilds regularly train and employ gnome thieves and assassins (and even gully dwarf thieves on occasion). Clerical gnomes (when some existed) belonged to the Priests Guild, which was the first and only guild to become completely extinct. Their functions were largely absorbed by the Medical and Philosophers Guilds.
The largest gnomish community away from Mount Nevermind has only a thousand inhabitants. Most others average 200-400 citizens, and are found in mountainous or rough, hilly regions. Each of these small towns is organized similarly to Mount Nevermind, though fewer guilds are present handsome guilds perform multiple functions (e.g, the Medical Guild might also take care of agricultural needs).
Sages are very common in any gnomish community. Sages compile volumes of information, guesses, facts, figures, speculations, and philosophical doodles on their guild committee's selected topics. This pure research is sometimes (though rarely) helpful to future generations, but all of it is carefully labeled, archived, and cared for by gnomish librarians in their massive bookrooms. Sage gnomes almost never travel, preferring to devote themselves to life long study of a given subject.
A gnome has three sorts of names. One is the gnome's true name, which is actually a massive history of the gnome's entire family tree of ancestors extending back to their creation by Reorx. The history is compacted into a single, enormous word that can easily fill a large book. In fact, the complete cames of every gnome born on Sancrist are kept by the Genealogy Guild in the main library at Mount Nevermind. Interestingly, this record forms the only continuous history of the world since the Age of Dreams, though it says little about any race other than the gnomes.
Though each gnome can easily remember his complete name, or at least the first few thousand letters of it, gnomes have developed a shortened form of address for each other which takes merely half a minute to recite; this shorter name is simply a listing of the highlights of the gnomes's ancestors' lives. Humans and other races who deal with gnomes have developed even shorter names for them, consisting of the first on or two syllables of a particular gnome's name. Gnomes find this abbreviated name to be very undignified, but realize they have to put up with it.
It is worth saying a few words about gnomes' relations with other races. In areas where gnomes are known to exist, they are generally not well liked. Their technological bent makes them very alien to people accustomed to magic, and their poor grasp of social relations puts off most potential friends. War was narrowly averted in one area after a gnomish digging machine plowed through a sacred elven grove, and similiar episodes deemed doomed to repeat themselves across Ansalon at regular intervals. The humans on Sancrist have managed to adjust to the gnomes by embracing their good points and otherwise avoiding contact with them whenever possible.
Being an immediate racial descendant of humanity, gnomes are much like humans in outlook. The influence of Reorx, however, has altered their personalities and perceptions in a member of areas. When compared to humans, gnomes appear compulsive, nervously active and driven, and intensely curious. They are serious unused to social pleasantries, and uncomfortable with emotional displays. Their happiest moments come from their work.
This is not to say that a gnome is a stick-in-the-mud. Gnomes can be as adventurous as any other race, though many are content to stay home and tinker with their engineering and mechanical projects. Adventuring gnomes are generally unable to learn from previous experience, and tend to reappear the same mistakes. Yet they often succeed in developing a quirky solution to a problem that carries the day for their fellow adventurers. Adventurer gnomes tend more to become general handymen, jacks-of-all-trades (and masters of none). Anything and everything will draw their attention and cause them to reach for their notebooks or tool belts. It was a gnome adventurer who first invented roller skates (with 3'diameter wheels), though he used them to descend a mountain slope and was not seen again. He'd forgotten about brakes.
One important belief that gnomes have concerns the Life Quest. At birth, each gnome is assigned a Life Quest by the Guild subcommittee to which his or her family belongs. A Life Quest is exactly that. A gnome assigned to study screws will spend years and years experimenting with different thread sizes, metals, screwdriver types, etc., and is unlikely at any point to have his committee formally declare his Life Quest to be completed. Completion of a Life Quest means that the gnome has performed so well that all that could possibly be known about the subject he was exploring is now known. In this event, the gnome's soul and all the souls of his forefathers (who will likely have shared the same Life Quest) are guaranteed a place beside Reorx, wherever he may now reside.
The Life Quest is almost always highly specific and is usually related to a technological device or process. In some cases, highly unusual magical devices will be studied in order to develop technological items that can replace their functions.
Gnomes like to acquire interesting things and may steal them, though not for the same reasons as kender do. Gnomes will deliberately take things that might provide calculabel information if taken apart, melted down, examined tuner a lens, and studied by a committee. A gnome at a royal coronation, for instance, might become fascinated by the unusual blue sheen of the queen's silver crown. He will be obsessed with idea of taking the crown, bringing it into a smithy, chipping at it, melting it down, performing tests on the metal, questioning the people who forged it, and so forth. Think of the great advances in metalwork that could be made! He could write a paper, advance his Life Quest, and start his own committee on the refining of metals. Only he has to get the crown first....
The technology of the gnomes has little overall effect upon the cultures of Krynn. Dwarves care little for such innovation; elves are repelled by technology; kender cannot appreciate its use beyond their thrill of seeing it work; and, goblins and gully dwarves are too stupid to use it consistently. Gnomes have technology -- but their innate incompetence is such that anything that their technology can do, magic can usually do more cheaply, quickly, and efficiently.
When a gnome sets out to invent something, it's a good bet that the invention will initially be at leasts thirty times larger than necessary, will make ten times the noise it should, will have many totally redundant features, and will fail miserably (if not disastrously). Some tinkering will gradually reduce the less favorable aspects of the device, though it may not always be safe when turned over for public use. Numerous fail-safe devices, warning signals )bells, horns, chimes, and whistles), and redundant safety features may be added to fix any equipment malfunctions, though these are usually added after numerous accidents with the device have occurred.
Worse yet, gnomes are not well organized in their research. They regularly reinvented the wheel, as the adage goes, because they aren't aware of advances in other fields of science and technology in other guilds. Whole projects are redesigned from scratch at any given failure point. Worst of all, they have difficulty conceiving of wimple things. Their minds whirl along through time and space, overlooking the clean design, the easy system, and the cost-effective program. Show takes first priority over substance; action is confused with accomplishment; the means outweighs the end result.
The humans of Ansalon would use technological devices more widely if they only knew that such things existed. Because gnomes are so rare and communicate so little with the outside world, their discoveries go largely unnoticed. Then, too, because gnomes make things far more complicated and dangerous than they could be, humans are inadvertently discouraged from learning too much.
Solamnic visitors to Mount Nevermind often ponder a bit of folk wisdom first uttered by Heikmann Sester, one of the more cynical lords who governed the human colony on Sancrist. "If there's any possible way to ruin a perfectly good idea, " he declared, "a gnome will find ten of them." (This is now known as Sester's Law.) Lord Sester is also credited with the quote: "If you want something broken, give it to a gnome."
The influence of Sester's Law upon gnomish inventiveness can never be underestimated. A Solamnic knight once wanted a suit of armor that could be removed quickly in case the wearer fell into deep water. The gnome he hired returned to Mount Nevermind, formed a subcommittee in the Armorers Guild, and spent six months researching the problem. What came out was a suit of field plate armor with a 12-inch-long, 6-inch-wide release bar mounted on the chest, painted bright, gloss yellow, with an unreadable label done in microscopic red print, detailing the effects of striking the bar. When the release bar was struck, it undid all of the catches on the armor's chest, shoulders, and waists.
Unfortunately, the release bar was very easy for opponents to strike at in combat, instantly leaving the armor's wearer with no chest protection. Furthermore, the release bar rusted quickly when exposed to the elements and wouldn't work after a few days. To make things worse, the pieces of the armor were strung together with wire (to make it east to pick them up again). The wired pieces dangled themselves in the wearer's legs. The suit was quickly retired to a storeroom in Mount Nevermind, where it resides with several dozen other interesting but unused designs.
Finally, there is the story of the lighting system of Mount Nevermind. The gnomes ran long steel rods down the length of the Outer Hall and placed the ends in a magma pool. The rods soon began to glow bright yellow-orange, as was hoped, but the temperature made the outer Hall into the world's largest toster oven. A cooling system using water pumped from the top of Mount Nevermind was stalled next to the heated rods, which made part of the corridor unbearably hot and part of it frigid. The cooling system also produced heavy fog, which was cured by installing a giant fan at tithe inner end of the corridor. Unfortunately, the fan was steam powered, and the boiler tended to force heated water back through its pipes into the lower terraces, killing the plant life there. The whole problem has been referred to a committee for further evaluation and the lighting system has been disconnected. A similiar system in the Inner Hall has never been activated.
Among other devices currently being developed at Sancrist Isle are: the silent, folding, automatically repeating crossbow; the net-throwing arrow; and the spring-loaded, blade-throwing two-handed sword (which comes apart under normal use and may harm the owner). the archives of Mount Nevermind are filled with hundreds of other ill-fated inventions, though there are always gnomes willing to continue trying to develop them further and make them workable.
Despite the hundreds of false starts, some research has enormous potential, if it could be properly handled. Projects that have a broader scope include the robot (composed of clockwork mechanisms of unusual size), the submarine (actually a sunken boat on the wheels, with snorkle devices for the crew), the steam cannon and compressed-air gun (currently too large and dangerous to be of much use), the airplane ( a pilot propelled glider; this project is the second most dangerous one in operation), and blasting dust (gunpowder; this is the most dangerous project of all). And, of course, there is the little committee in the Flight Mechanism Guild, composed of three of four gnomes inspired the tale of the gnome who first captured the Graygem. Having established connections with the Astronomy Guild, they are quietly tinkering with space flight. After all, the first mortal creature to set foot on another heavenly body was a gnome....
The only deity that the gnomes recognize is Reorx. Though they have no formal religious services or clerics among them, the gnomes still have a healthy respect for Reorx and have no doubt at all (unlike others in the post-Cataclysm world) that the god exists. Reorx is though of as an usually large gnome who epitomizes their love of building, creating, inventing, and tinkering. A gem philosophers go so far as to declare that the universe is guided by the machines of Reorx, and that the sun and moons of Krynn are constructs in the mechanism that powers the universe.
Before the Cataclysm, clerics of Reorx were fairly common among the gnomes; it is very possible that following the Third Dragon War, such clerics will again appear among them. Gnomish records show that the old clerics vanished at the time of the Cataclysm, much to the irritation of the rest of their people. The loss of the clerics led directly to advances in medical science and the development of new alarm and protective systems, to compensate for the spells the clerics had once provided. Gnomes are rather disdainful of clerics at present, believing themselves to be above spellcasting and such, and feeling that clerics are an untrustworthy lot if they can disappear just anytime they feel like it. Nonetheless, clerics would soon be accepted into the ranks of the gnomes it they were to return.
Gnomes average 3' in height and weigh about 45-50 lbs. Females are as large as amles. All gnomes have rich brown skin, straight white hair, china-blue or violet eyes, and surprisingly even, cavity-free teeth. Males have soft, white beards and mustaches; females are beardless. Both sexes develop facial wrinkles after age 50. Gnomes are very short and stocky, though their movements are quick, and their hands are slender, deft, and sure. They have rounded ears and often large noses.
Gnomes sound much like humans in vocal range and pitch, except for having a more nasal voice. They speak very intensely and rapidly, running their words together in unending sentences joined by connectors like and, so, anyway, but, or, therefore, then, and so forth. Gnomes are capable of speaking and listening carefully at the same time. If two gnomes meet, each will babble away at the other until they've both finished their say, often answering questions later in their dialog as part of the same continuous sentence. Gnomes have learned to speak slowly and distinctly when around other races, in a manner which some people find both condescending and irritating. If frightened, startled, or depressed, a gnome may speak much shorter sentences.
Gnomes involved in certain major industrial operations may develop "industrial diseases" from smog and other working hazards. Mild respiratory and eye infections will be fairly common, but will clear up quickly if an affected gnome is put in fresh air for a few days. Industrial accidents, noise and visual pollution, and other problems may temporarily or permanently disable a gnome, leading to early retirement from active pursuits.
Unless they are adventurers, gnomes rarely carry weapons of any sort except incidentally (such as dagger like tools hammers, a handful of stones, a club like pipe, etc.). Strange weapons of questionable value are always being invented, like the yo-yo, though others show more promise. Slingshots and switchblades of varying sizes have been developed, and some gnomes are working on a dust-cannon, which is a compressed-air gun firing powder into opponents' faces. The possibility of making a compressed-air pellet gun has been discussed, but current designs are unworkable.
Hand=held and light crossbows, slings, short bows, javelins, darts, and melee weapons that may be hurled (like hammers and hand axes) may be used as missile weapons. Large seige engines and catapult-type devices are well known and used for a variety of purposes (like gnome-flingers). The knights of Solamnia use gnomish artillery engines and engineers on a regular basis.
Gnomes are not the snappiest dressers on Krynn, and would easily qualify as the worst, were it not for goblins and gull dwarves. Gnomes will wear almost anything that is relatively clean, but seem to have a special taste for gaudy, baggy, mismatched clothes. Scarves and shawls are much used, and they enjoy hard leather footwear (not liking to go barefoot). In their research areas and laboratories, gnomes tend to be rather disordered in appearance and prefer wearing easily cleaned smocks and suits.
Gnomes on adventures usually carry a few regular clothes with them, and invariably have writing implements and paper for taking notes. Gnomes with senses of humor will bring items like water pistols to test out on their friends. Items acquired for their research value will often fill a gnome's pockets, especially those gnomes who have developed thieving talents.
Hobby items are commonly carried as well. a gnome's hobby often has a great deal to do with his work; to anyone else but the gnome, the hobby is the gnome's work. A gnome assigned to develop better catapults may make miniature catapults; a gnome who works with steel refining may putter around with making small items from samples of his refined steel.
Gnomes keep pets, though rarely for long. Town gnomes keep them for amusement or curiosity, and adventurers have them for company in the wilderness. Pets, however, are often poorly chosen as the gnomes know so little about the animal kingdom, and they assume that anything can be domesticated if you catch it when it's small. Thus, one sees gnomes with saber tooth tiger cubs, immature stirges, and axe beak chicks. Once the "pet" reaches adulthood, the predictable thing happens, and the "pet" either leaves on its own or is captured or killed by other gnomes.
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