Gnomes

Gnomes, alongside elves, are naturally more adept at magic and the arcane arts than the other races. Gnomish society is organized into separate "guilds," each guild specializing in one or more trades, skills, industries, etc. Guilds often ally themselves with other guilds that specialize in different areas and the two or more individual guilds then refer to eachother as guildkins with their larger organization being referred to as a Guild with a capital "G." Forming a Guild opens up trade and contractual bridges between the guildkins and they function as a single unit competing against other rival Guilds. Marriages and personal relationships are almost never formed between members of two different Guilds. Their settlements have always been closely tied to the dwarven kingdoms within the mountains and the two races have shared a relatively peaceful coexistence for thousands of years. Their relationship with dwarves was at a certain time almost symbiotic; dwarves lent their strength and protection while gnomes provided cunning and ingenuity. Gnomes, however, do not share a passion for history and studies of their own antiquity as their taller brethren do. Any attempts at doing so have only uncovered bits and pieces of a past marred by tragedy. Scars of these past tragedies are apparent in at least one gnomish cultural practice: the burning of their dead. Although the origins of this tradition have been lost to most of the gnomes living on Drakitosh, those that remain in the gnomish homeland of Lorander know full well why they burn their dead. Gnomes never really had any stake in the War of the Scales; dragonhunting was never a major part of their society. The only real connection they had to it was the fact that their dwarven neighbors often contracted gnomish Guilds to create technology that could benefit their dragonhunt.

Gnome PC Background and Goals

 * As a Gnome PC, you are most likely from a Guild or guild and have spent much of your life living in the mountain and hill country of Drakitosh.


 * From here you may have decided to leave your home to acquire new trade agreements with the nations of the other races.


 * Perhaps your guild does not have any guildkins as of yet and you wish to seek out a way to make your guild a desirable candidate for one of the Guilds.


 * You might be tired of your people's ignorance of their past and have decided to find a way back to Lorander to uncover secrets that were lost to history.


 * Maybe you wish to develop your magical or technological abilities even further.