Gnome

 

Physiology

The smallest of all species, gnomes average only 60 cm tall and weigh as little as 7 kg. Gnomes exhibit very little physiological diversity; almost all of them have a pale, ruddy complexion, with big pointy ears, wide mouths, crooked teeth and gnarled fingers and toes. Most have ash blonde, platinum blonde or pale grey hair which is often mistaken by members of other species as greyed or whitened due to age, but gnome hair does not change colour with age. Gnome iris colouration is invariably a very dark purple, but their pupils are so large, it is almost impossible to see any color. About twenty percent seem to be albino, but aside from a lack of ruddiness in their skin tone, and the thin red ring of their iris around their pupil, it is almost impossible to tell them from non-albino gnomes.

Gender differences in normal physiology are negligible. Males almost always choose to sport beards (in dozens of different styles), as this is one of the few ways they can differentiate themselves. Females are almost always either pregnant, nursing, or both (see below), and because they have six breasts, they are often mistakes for jolly, pot-bellied gnomes by biased observers, when they are actually anything but.

Life Cycle

Gnomes have an unusual challenge. About 98% of gnomes are male. This means that for gnomes to continue to propagate, the typical female needs to bear between fifty and a hundred children. As a result of this bizarre distribution, gnome females have both an incredible amount of power, and also an incredible amount of responsibility. Gnome females continually recite the lineages of thousands of potential suitors; planning not only who they might mate with to have their own children, but who their daugthers and eventual granddaughters might mate with. The continued existence of their species depends on the accurate memorization of these lineages, and on the shared knowledge passed from mother to daughter.

Gnome women are almost always pregnant or nursing. Despite their small size, gnomes are pregnant for a full year, and when they give birth, it is usually to 3-4 children. Children require a lot of care from the mother and from supporting males, and it is usually about five years before a female can become pregnant again. Because gnomic lifespans are among the very longest, with a 12 year life cycle, a gnome woman may be pregnant twenty-five to thirty times over the course of her life.

About fifty percent of male gnomes choose to engage in the gnomic communities that support women (usually their sisters or cousins) finding suitable mates who are not too closely related, and helping to arrange partnerships and support child rearing. Of these, some will be selected to be partnered with females - often needing to travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers to do their duty. The best a male gnome can hope for is to sire a daughter, so his name may be passed on forever in the incantations of the sororities of gnomic women; a kind of immortality in the eyes of gnomes. Needless to say, gnomic names are matronymic, with males usually only carrying their mothers name as their last name, and with females usually having several names taken from the previous five or six generations of female ancestors.

Of the males who fail to sire daughters, and of the fifty percent who 'opt out' of gnomic society entirely, most go on to become so-called 'house gnomes'; living out their lives mostly in secret isolation. The rare few who do choose to integrate into human society are often discriminated against, though their intelligence, self-assuredness, and natural talents and capabilities can often make a big difference in their success.

Culture

About half of all gnomes participate in the matriarchal culture of the extended gnomic families. These large families, sometimes numbering up to a thousand, are insular, isolationist, and largely occult groups that converge around a group of females known as a sorority. The sorority is responsible for maintaining and passing on the ancestry records for their species as a lengthy series of incantations - an oral 'birth registry' dating back millenia. These secret incantations are learned by all gnome women, and they are the key to determining who gets to attempt to reproduce with who and in what order. Once elderly gnome women pass childbearing age, they become dowagers. They take on the responsibility of bringing their updated incantations to other gnome families, overseeing the 'merging' of their ancestry records with those of their neighbours, then bringing back updated incantations, and teaching them to their own sorority.

Within this branch of gnomic culture, a small number of males will be tasked by the sorority to integrate into the local humanoid society for the purpose of establishing a legal existence. This has the benefit of providing access to wealth, property and other things the extended family might need. In some cases, where the context especially merits it, and the potential benefits to the family are great, a female may also be selected to integrate in the broader society to establish a legal existence. This is usally only the case when a high enough social status has been established that the benefits of wealth, power and influence in the external culture need to be protected. This can mean projecting a familial structure that appears more 'normal' in the context of broader humanoid society. It is extraordinarily rare for a female gnome to be integrated in broader humanoid culture unless she is a noble of some regard.

About half of male gnomes end up rejecting this culture and leaving their families. Some of them try to integrate into normal humanoid society, but this is difficult for gnomes as their diminutive size and unusual perspectives makes it difficult for them to fit in. The majority of independent gnomes end up ‘adopting’ a humanoid family, and taking up residence in their home, barn, shop or business. This almost always starts when a homeless gnome finds a hole in a wall they can take shelter in, and thus they are sometimes considered pests like raccoons, possum, or similar vermin. Often, however, the gnome will start working secretly in order to 'pay' for their 'room and board' or for any food they appropriate. This often manifests as worn clothes found patched in the morning, or household repairs mysteriously completed while no one is home.

Eventually, these so-called 'house-gnomes' will be found out, and in many cases it will lead to a reciprocal arrangement with the gnome working as a servant, helper, groundskeeper, tutor, cook, or butler in exchange for food, shelter, and sometimes friendship. Due to their long lives, a house-gnome may outlive several generations of a humanoid family, and sometimes they will begin to sing the song of the lineage of the family that has adopted them, teaching it to each new generation.

Adjustments

Gnomes' extremely small size and weight make them poorly adapted to combat, and they suffer significant penalties to their movement and to damage, at the same time, they are very difficult to hit, and gain a huge bonus to their dodge defense.

Gnomes have sharp minds, an excellent sense of weights, measures and estimation, and they are fascinated by understanding how things work; they gain bonuses to Intelligence, Confidence and to their Concentration Derivative, as well as the Eyeballing perk. They also start with Apprentice level of mastery and a free initial roll in the Protosciences skill field.

Additionally - and no one really knows why - gnomes have the Catalyst perk, allowing them to use enchated items more effectively.