Gnome Racial Overview

Given that gnomes have only ever been mentioned in passing before in the lore and Thousand Hands of Relief is set to have the first major gnome character, this sheet is a quick reference for how they will work in my series. I will add to it more over time as more lore is determined.

Overview

Gnomes are the smallest of the major races. Dwarves range from four to five feet tall, halflings from four to four and a half, whereas most gnomes barely make it past three to three and a half. To make it so that they're not seen as childlike, they have impish proportions. Wide hips, often large breasts for their build, human sized penises, and so on. They have big ears. On average they live to a hundred and fifty years, up to double that depending on how magically gifted they are.

The gnomes in my setting are very much derived from standard depictions of them in tabletop RPG's. They are a fun-loving, by and large goodhearted race who with an inquisitive mind who are always asking questions much to the annoyance of everyone around them. Gnomes never stop talking seemingly as a principal and they seldom have a thought they don't immediately expel out of their mouth. If you want your secrets kept that way, don't share them with a gnome.

It takes a special level of tolerance and patience to be friends with a gnome, but they are immensely loyal once you've earned their love. They routinely refer to their friends as if they were family, casually calling people sis, bro, and the like. The distinction between family and friend is almost nonexistent for a gnome. It is remarkably hard to permanently earn a gnome's enmity, but those who do end up severely regretting it.

The mind of a gnome makes them well suited to learning magic or pursuing technical achievements. The mushroom cities of their homerealm may not be as advanced as what the dwarves have going on in Hal Moldihr, but a lot of it is better than Karnalle's technology until the recent arctech developments in the modern era. Even more impressively is that it's all made from naturalistic components and metal is rarely used.

As for magic, traditional gnomish sorcery is practiced through consuming potions made from many of their homerealm's native species of fungi. These potions are exclusive to gnome usage, and drinking them does not bestow magical effects on other races as the gnomish body processes them in a special way. They boost the effects of certain types of magic, puts them into trances, and powers up the traditional nonverbal spellcasting that the species typically employs. Gnomish magic in general is centralized around illusions, telekinesis, trickery and deceit, and you don't often see a gnomish mage with an interest in fire magic unless they are Karnallian born.

Society

Gnomes are a incredibly social species, and are almost utopian in their beliefs. Gnomes do not believe that any one person is better than another intrinsically and think every voice deserves to be heard. This complicates their politics to an extent and drags out their decision-making, but at least everyone is satisfied by the results. Decisions are made by large gatherings and everyone who shows up gets to vote. If you didn't show up, you don't have the right to complain. There is still a level of corruption since more influential gnomes can garner favor from their peers and sway the public opinion, but gnomes generally have more integrity than humans and it's nowhere near as much of a problem as it is for other races.

Gnomish families have no definitive structure. Families can range from a man and a woman to large poly dynamics and other gnomes won't give a damn so long as everyone is happy and consenting. Similarly, they are very lax with gender roles and gnomes are encouraged to be whatever they want to be.

Gnomes look after each other by default and they operate under a highly socialist society where people's basic needs are guaranteed because when everyone is at their best they are all contributing to society and bettering their homerealm. Wars and conflict were very sparse throughout gnomish history. Things are already tough without gnomes trying to kill each other, why add that into the mix?

Gnomes also have a loose relationship with economics. Gnomes work because they want to, not because they need anything. This often gets them in trouble when seeking employment in other realms as the culture clash is significant.

Sexual Characteristics

As I've well-established, I like to give different races different sexual anatomy. For gnomes, they can take much bigger penises than their body would suggest as male gnomes are comparable to humans in length and girth. Mating is typically different for their species as the female's cervix opens up to close down around the male's head, where it will continually constrict until orgasm and often not even stop there, keeping it inside for multiple shots. It's very hard to pull out of this suction and male gnomes generally don't try. Many female gnomes prefer other species because of this because the pleasure when escaping the womb is tremendous. Not to sell the men short as male gnomes are enjoyed by certain females of other species thanks to their patient, gentle style of lovemaking and the larger than average, slightly-mushroom shaped cockhead they possess.

Language

Gnomish is a very silly language. Gnomish words often sounded nonsensical to the point of gibberish. Completely random sentence to serve as an example- "Lerp lemblek? Lid yindop blurp durblet! Vamblorp, kozzacko cleeba zerbo?" Some people are convinced that gnomish isn't even a real language and that gnomes are just fucking with everyone else because of how stupid it sounds. Gnomes born in their homerealm have similar nonsensical names but often take on Karnallian equivalents that are literal translations.

Homerealm

Vippa Blonrap, literal translation meaning 'shroom-world'.

The gnomish homerealm is a singular landmass consisting primarily of lush forests and temperate jungles to the south. Unlike other realms known for their forest biomes such as Sylvandiel, the forests of Vippa Blonrap are staggeringly huge with canopies so tall they tower into the sky. Gnomes are a very small part of a very large world and they've had to adapt to that throughout their existence. It faces a similar problem to that of the orcish homerealm of Grurguhrohk in that they both house tremendous megafauna, but similarities end there. Whereas orcs are warlike, nomadic, and prone to infighting, gnomes are peaceful, industrious, and always up for a challenge.

The gnomes of Vippa Blonrap have all but conquered their homerealm in the modern era and live in sprawling cities of big buildings made from hollowed out giant mushrooms. These cities are dizzying to Karnallians, who experience massive culture clash upon seeing gnomish society. Imagine a whole city where seemingly everyone is unemployed and instead goes around doing whatever they want, singing songs, palling around and getting up to mischief all day.

Their most common predators were giant birds and insects, both of which have long since been domesticated and are used as mounts, and most major cities are well-equipped with state-of-the-art gnomish defenses to repel any of Vippa Blonrap's numerous predators. As one might expect, traveling anywhere in this realm is immensely dangerous. Gnomes solved that problem, too. Instead of roads connecting city to city, gnomes cut down the gigantic trees surrounding their cities, hollow out their trunks, and create large tunnels where carts transporting people and goods are sent back and forth thanks to an automated rope and pulley system. The exterior of these gigantic tunnels are just as well protected as their cities.

Gods

Zilbillis

God of ingenuity, creation, and inspiration

The whimsical creator of Vippa Blonrap who filled the world with things that amused him. It's believed that in the earliest days he grew tired with creation day and longed for amusement, wanting to see how others might play in his proverbial sandbox. As one does, Zilbillis transformed a pair of mushrooms into the first gnomes and gave them a speech about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and told them to get to work. Though gnomish history went through many ups and downs to get there, it can't be denied that they rose to the challenge.

Gnomes ask for his favor during their creative endeavors more than anything else, or they pray to him in the hopes that something they're looking forward to his as fun as they imagine it will be. They ask for interesting lives, protection from boredom and to always have something to work on. Gnomes don't really ask for things they can't do themselves.

Like many a trickster god, Zilbillis is known for taking on many forms. His most favored one is that of a tall, friendly traveler with a wide brim hat possessing gnomish facial features but human height.

Adherents of Zilbillis's religion and all gnomes who don't worship another deity face a binary system of what happens to their soul after they die. Did you impress Zilbillis and live an entertaining life and do tons of cool shit with it? If yes, welcome to Werdiderliss, a veritable wonderland of infinite spectacle and interesting things to discover. If no, then do it once more with feeling. You'll be reincarnated until you entertain him enough to gain entrance to his heavenly realm.

Burboblarg

The god of stagnation, setbacks, and boredom.

The enemy of all gnomes. Burboblarg is said to be a gray, featureless mass of slime that occasionally takes the shape of a gnome. His presence inspires listlessness and dulls the imagination. Legend goes that Zilbillis was in a rut at the beginning of creation and couldn't figure out where to start so he cast off the reluctant, inactive part of himself so that he could begin. Gnomes blame him for any rare lack of creativity they suffer, and his name is a common gnomish curse. They believe Burboblarg is jealous of all gnomes have accomplished and seeks to bring everything to a crawl one day by creating an all-encompassing depression.

Vippalakka

Goddess of mushrooms and magic.

The second most important deity in the gnomish pantheon and the mother of most of the other major gods aside from Zilbillis, her mate. When Zilbillis started the creation of Vippa Blonrap, the mushrooms did not come from him but instead naturally occurred on their own and Vippalakka manifested from their collective mycelium might. Gnomes believe that Zilbillis was uninterested in Vippalakka and she seduced him through gifting him the first mushroom potions, leading to the conception of other gods. Ever since, Zilbillis has tried to maintain distance as her presence distracts him from his fun and games but she always finds a way to get him to come back to her. She is the one who taught gnomes the ways of the mushroom and rudimentary spellcasting. She looks like a beautiful gnome woman wearing fungi themed dresses and a mushroom growing on top of her head.