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THE
GNORIAN
GNOMES |
The Gnorians are
gnomes who live
along the Eastern Santharian coast,
representing the most
numerous of the independent
gnomes. They are renowned for their skills at alchemy, glass production and medicine, due to their
ability with chemicals and their use of their dextrous hands and good eyesight
to measure minute quantities. As such they have made a large amount of money
trading and producing these chemicals for other people as well as themselves.
Appearance.
The Gnorians look like a typical gnomes,
the only distinguishing features tend to be the chemical stains on their hands.
Coat of Arms/Sign.
Gnomes do not normally go to war and are
not that well organised, as such they do not really have a coat of arms or a
special sign.
Territory.
The Gnorians live on the east coast of the
Santharian peninsula from above the Istarin Forest to just below the river
and city of Yorrick. Gnorian inhabited territory stretches as far in land as the
Paelelon. This stretch of land is relatively fertile, but it is
gnomish fertilising techniques which allow
the gnomes to produce all the plants they
need.
People.
All gnomes are peace loving creatures who
just want to be left alone, and so are the Gnorians. They are famous throughout
Santharia for the things they produce
like glass and dyes which has made them very wealthy. Unlike
dwarves
gnomes do not covet diamonds and gold but do enjoy amassing wealth for the
impact it has on their quality of life.
Gnorians do not have a religion of their own, believing that in the beginning
were the four elements, Fire,
Earth,
Wind,
Water and that these elements combined
to create the world and everything in it. They believe that everything consists
of some combination of these elements including the races. They also believe
that gnomes are the most well balanced and
that chemistry is the ultimate science, changing the balance of these elements.
The only other thing of religious relevance is the awe and reverence with which
they treat the memory of Arch-chemist Gnor the Unifier. Gnorians have a sense of
working for the community greater than among most other tribes. All the
undesirable jobs like farming are taken care of by each
gnome in turn, each doing his/her fair
share and receiving a fair reward. They are rather introvert as communities but
if someone comes to them from any race in need of help they can normally be
relied on to do their best.
Housing.
The Gnorian gnomes’ houses tend to be low and squat, only one story high and
that means the roof is normally only about 2 to 2 and a half peds high. Each
gnome’s house is a combination
home/laboratory/workshop where he experiments and creates ideas before finally
turning them into reality. All houses have windows with glass as
gnomes are the main and certainly the best
glassmakers in Santharia and probably
all of Caelereth. The walls are normally
cement created by the gnomes using
limestone and clay. They are built up inside wooden supports which are later
removed after the cement has dried. Inside the floor will also be cement covered
with rugs to keep the floor warm. The ceiling however tends to be water proofed
wood normally with packed wool attached to retain heat. Most rooms will be
heated by a coal fire and normally a house will contain 4 rooms, the bedroom,
the main room, the kitchen and the workshop. Many rooms will be decorated with
imported art, which the gnomes appreciate
although they are not very good at replicating themselves. The kitchen will
contain a cooker consisting of a clay oven and above it a metal ring for frying
things on. The main room is the biggest and where most socialising goes on, the
rest of the rooms being very private. It is rare for a
gnome to be invited into another’s
laboratory and virtually unheard of for anyone but family to go into the bedroom
or kitchen.
Most villages consist of a large open space where feasts take place surrounded
by houses for quite a distance and then animal pens and finally spreading out
from the village fields containing all the plants that the
gnomes
grow.
Clothing.
The independent gnomes dress in their own
unique style. The normal clothes are made out of specially treated flax that is
much softer yet stronger than normal linen. Clothes are normally died very
bright single colours. There are no major fashions for colour as long as it is
bright it is considered fine. The Gnorians are very proud of their dyes and
cloth and according to the "Merchant’s handbook":
"It is obvious to all impartial people that gnomish dyes and cloth are the highest quality dyes on the continent and, while we do not trade them cheaply they are reasonably priced and are not too expensive for most peasants to be able to afford at least one set of high quality Gnomish garments. The fact that they are not recognised as such and the inferior cloth from Carmalad is prized more highly is just another example of the other races relentless persecution of the gnomes."
-- Merchant's Handbook, p. 141
The style among the independent
Gnomes is a pair of flaxen breeches, with a tunic pulled over the top of the
head and pulled in using a leather belt. Leather shores are worn on the feet.
This is both everyday and holiday wear although normally a
gnome will have a pair of special occasion
clothes which are higher quality with brighter colours and are subjected to lees
wear and tear than everyday clothes, however they are in the same style. During
winter a gnome will normally wear a soft
undervest with a thick wool vest on top then his tunic. If it gets especially
cold they will wear a woollen jacket over their tunic.
Females’ clothes use the same fabric and bright colours. The current fashion
among women is to wear one very long length piece of fabric which is clasped
round the waist by another piece of fabric of the same colour. As always the
colours are exceedingly bright and well dyed. In summer they will leave their
arms bare, however, as it gets colder these will be covered up. During winter
they will wear linen under clothes covering their whole body with wool over it
followed by the normal dress. On special occasions or simply when they want to
look good to attract boys female gnomes who
still have hair will tie brightly coloured ribbons in it.
Gnomish skin is particularly sensitive and
that is why they always wear linen between wool and their skin, as they find
wool to be very irritating.
Diet.
Aside from the typical
gnomish food the Gnorians make several distinctive food types as well. One of the most famous
is eaten during the winter and consists of melted fat, milk, egg and flour and
then cooked below the roasting meat whose juices fall on it. It becomes a golden
brown colour, and is either cooked in small round trays or one large rectangular
one. It rises slightly in the oven and is a perfect accompaniment to any meat
dish. It is quite a “heavy” food type and fills you up a lot which is why it is
normally eaten in winter. Gnorians make a lot of bread as they have access to a
lot of yeast and flour made from
golden rain. The bread is among some of the
best in Santharia and often
gnomish bakeries in human cities do very well. They
often put chopped up bits of berries or vegetables in their bread to add to the
flavour and make them taste even better.
Often eaten for desert is a type of cake made from flour, eggs, sugar with
something added to make it rise. It is eaten all throughout the year and has a
very sweet but light taste due to the air bubbles. Another favourite is yoghurt
and cheeses both made from milk and improved through their knowledge of
chemistry and the large amount of chemicals available to the
gnomes.
One of the areas where Gnorians excel is the production of alcohol. They ferment
virtually anything containing sugar. They have the traditional beer, but on top
of that they have yolk beer (fermented eggs), ice wine (fermented
icemilk which
has a particularly minty taste and is very refreshing, often it is drunk after a
course to clear the palette for the next one). They also make cider and milk
beer (fermented milk). The Gnorians have also perfected the art of distillation
making all sorts of drink. All the above mentioned drinks can be distilled. One
of the most popular is ice brandy. The gnomes also make a drink from
tuberroots
which is incredibly alcoholic and only drunk in small quantities.
Weapons.
The Gnorians are not a very warlike people as a whole and as such they have few
weapons, most of which they get in trade from other races. There is no
gnomish
standing army, which has caused them to be conquered and enslaved several times
throughout their history. The mages often enslaved gnomes during the
War of the
Chosen and forced them to create chemicals for their magic. They were generally
left alone during the first two Santharian wars between
elves and men, however, in
the third they were again conquered and subjected to torture and slavery before
the humans,
elves, and
dwarves drove off the dark forces.
Occupations.
Most Gnorians are chemists and alchemists, constantly producing and refining their
chemical creations before selling them off. Chemistry is the most important
profession among gnomes. All females are housewives who do the cooking, cleaning
and sowing while the males work. Males are all either chemists or merchants.
Gnomes have a very communal attitude to life. The fields are tended by the young
gnomes
and the adults taking it in turns. If a new house needs to be built all
the gnomes will chip in with the construction. The
gnomes
are therefore either
chemists or merchants. Of course there are many different types of speciality
chemists among the gnomes
although many gnomes will do a lot of different
chemistry and most know one or two things about all the disciplines. When a
young gnome
comes of age at 20 he will be sent off to live with another
gnome
either in the village or from another village to learn all about the speciality
he has chosen. There is a list below of all the gnomish occupations,
sorted alphabetically.
Brewer/Vinter
Most gnomes will produce their own alcoholic drinks, but some gnomes will become
so good at this and their particular drink will become so popular that they will
mainly produce alcoholic drinks and not do anything else.
Cement mixer
Cement is exported to most of the people of
Caelereth and as such a cement mixer
can make a large profit if he is willing to churn out the same thing day after
day although as cement is quite simple most gnomes can mix it up and although
some villages won’t have dedicated cement mixers they can still build things
without importing cement.
Chemist
As you can see most of these jobs are chemical in nature, but some gnomes will
not specialize as much and create everything and anything from
magical reagents
to salt for their own use and for trade. Of course in this category some gnomes
will specialize for example one might work almost exclusively on producing
sulphur.
Doctor
One of the possibilities for a gnomes is the creation of tablets and medicines
to cure illness and their ability in this area is one of the reasons that gnomes
are rarely ill. Gnomes living among humans with this skill are always highly
prized. They create medicines to stop diseases, help bones re-grow and heal
wounds. Some of the gnomes living in human
settlements have started making
poisons but an independent gnome would never do that.
Dyer
Although women always weave the cloth the creation of the dyes and the
preparation of the cloth for weaving are considered honourable duties for a man
and a top dyer can be very well respected.
Glass maker/blower
These gnomes as suggested by the title make glass from limestone and sand and either produce flat sheets for windows or mirrors or blow the glass into
glasses or bottles. Often they will also produce coloured glass for more
expensive goblets or even stained glass for decorative windows. There are
several temples to Foiros containing these works of art, splitting the sun’s light
into different colours representing how the sun affects all life. The biggest
stain glass work is in the temple of Foiros in
Strata.
Merchant
The merchants are the gnomes who carry out all the trading for the gnomish
people. They will travel to other places to negotiate trade agreements then take
the goods using horse and carts. This section of society is among one of the
richest but is not as well respected as the top chemists. There is a hierarchy
of traders. A recently promoted gnome will simply take goods from his village
and trade them as he likes. As he gets better he may be recognized by the gnomes
above him and promoted so he might trade for several villages and at this point
he will start to do more negotiations and leave the transport of the goods to
the lower merchants. A gnome gradually gets higher up the system through
promotions, the top level being the High merchants who help to decide the trade
for all of the gnomes, the only higher level being the Mercantile Lord who is
described below.
Gnomes living among
humans will either choose one of the above jobs, produce
chemical weapons which always fetch a high price or do any job they can which a
human normally does in the settlement in which they live.
Government.
The Government of the Gnorian gnomes is a Meritocracy. The best merchant and
chemist (from all the disciplines) form the government. The best chemist is
selected completely apolitically and is called the Arch-Chemist. There are
certain chemical reactions to perform and questions on chemistry to answer. When
the chemist reaches this post he writes down the tests to be performed by the
Arch-Chemist 3 generations in the future. This means that all the questions and
tasks remain up to date but it is impossible for the Arch-Chemist to influence
his successor by asking questions that only one of the candidates would know
about. The selection of the best merchant is slightly more politically
orientated. The wealth of a merchant is ascertained, anything he inherited is
removed and then the top 10 merchants are selected. The rest of the merchants
then vote on which merchant shall become the Mercantile Lord.
Both of these positions are for life. The Arch-Chemist outranks the Mercantile
Lord and has the final say on everything. The Mercantile Lord is just there to
advise the Arch-Chemist on how to run the relationships between other races and
trade. The Mercantile-Lord may insist on a meeting with the Arch-Chemist where
the Arch-Chemist cannot leave until the Mercantile Lord lets him or ten hours
have passed.
This system is considered very primitive by most other races as the Gnorians do
not believe that a qualification in chemistry makes you a good leader. This is
probably true, but birth or the ability to persuade people are not that good
indicators anyway, and this system turns up about as many good leaders as bad.
One problem that does effect this system however is that often apathetic leaders
gain power, but as the Gnorians generally stay out of the rest of the world’s
way and there is seldom anything for the chief chemist to decide, this is
probably a good thing for the gnomes.
Gnomish local government works on the same
system whereby the best chemist and merchant is in charge with the chemist
having the final say but it is a lot less organised.
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Image description. The Farseer Device
("Nearscope"), a device invented either by gnomes or
dwarves, and often fabricated by hobbits. Drawn
by Seeker. |
Production/Trade.
The Gnorian gnomes produce all things chemical aswell as large amounts of food
and alcohol. They make magical reagents normally sold to the magicians of
Ximax and brilliant medicines available to
all who have the money. They also create the finest quality glass and brightly
dyed cloth. They are one of the major suppliers of cement to the people of
Santharia who often use it in their
buildings as well as salt which is required to keep food through the winter
months. The finest artists will also use Gnorian made paints as these give the
strongest, longest lasting colours.
They trade a lot with humans, mainly
receiving luxury goods or art in return as well as some wood which they mainly
need for building as they trade with the Korkulgeron dwarves for coal for fires.
Gnomes also trade with
humans for stone and manufactured goods
like chairs and tables which they seldom produce on their own. Their major
trading partners however are the dwarves.
They trade with the dwarves for metals
both for reactions and ready produced goods, limestone and other rocks they need
to extract chemicals out of especially rock salt as well as the already
mentioned coal. In return the gnomes supply
fresh fruit and vegetables, the specially treated charcoal to produce the
colours of iron, salt (they find it ironic that one of the major buyers of salts
supplies the raw materials) and a large amount of ice brandy (distilled ice
wine) which the dwarves have quite a
liking for as well as other specialist alcohols. All this trading started during
the time of Apothek Urdan Dwarffriend and both races think they're getting a
great deal (“all this food, drink and that stuff we use in iron for a load of
waste rock?” and “We sell loads of salt and glass to the
dwarves while their supplying some of the
main ingredients!”).
Natural Resources.
Not many natural resources are present where the independent
gnomes live. They mainly produce plants to
supply them with what they need and trade for other things like stone, metal,
wood, coal and luxury items. The only resources that the
gnomes use but do not grow are some rare
plants that will only grow in the Seanian Swamps, muds from the swamps and river
which they use to produce cement and many other things and finally sand which
they find along the sea shore and is normally combined with limestone to make
glass.
There are two resources known to the gnomes
in their land that they do not use: Sea water used to be evaporated to obtain
salt but since the days of Urdan Dwarffriend this is very seldom done as rock
salt is now imported from the dwarves (at
a relatively cheap price as the dwarves
can’t understand what they use this rock for) which is then refined to remove
the sand and leave you with pure salt a lot of which is sold back to the
dwarves for a tidy profit. The only people
who still extract sea salt are those living very close to the coast. The other
natural resource is wood, which used to be cut down from the Paelelon and
Istarin woods but earlier the elves had
attacked and stopped the destruction of these woods so now wood is imported but
coal is mainly used for burning.
Holidays, Festivals
and Observances.
The Gnorian gnomes have several major holidays.
The
Apprentices Feast
The Apprentices Feast is a major holiday celebrated on the last day of august.
It is on this day that all apprenticeships finish for the older
gnomes and is
the day before apprenticeships start with the younger gnomes. In each community
all the gnomes will get together, normally in the open, with the youngsters who
have just completed their apprenticeships in seats of special honour, and
everyone sits down for a huge feast. A large amount of food is eaten, and
although it is not particularly special food, mainly everyday fare, there is a
lot of it and it is normally cooked with more care than is usual. The
spectacular part of the feast is the alcohol. The gnomes are experts in the
fermentation and then distillation of chemicals to make alcohol. On these days
all the best alcohol is consumed and as completing your apprenticeship makes you
a man thus allowed to drink, the new men tend to become very drunk, which is
normally okay in gnomish villages but in the
human cities it can cause friction
with the local authorities.
The Apprentices Fast
The Apprentices Fast happens the next day. This is the day all gnomes 20 years
old pack up to leave their family and become apprentices. The apprentices do not
eat this day as they are supposed to contemplate the comforts they’ll lose as
they leave home. No other gnomes eat either, partly to show solidarity with the
new apprentices but mainly because they are full from the feast the day before
and nursing terrible hangovers. It is on this day that a 20 year old
gnome
receives a gift from his parents. It is often though not always something to
help him in his apprenticeship, for example a particularly well decorated pestle
and mortar.
The Spring Feast
The Spring Feast is celebrated on the first day of spring which is considered
by gnomes to be the day after the first green things return to the Earth. This
means that when the first leaf or blade of grass appears the gnomes will begin
to prepare for the celebrations. All the winter stores, that are normally quite
extensive and stored communally, since the Vardýnnian
Atonement almost wiped out
the gnomes and now they have a huge fear of starvation, are emptied and all the
women of the tribe prepare them for the meal the next day while the men bring
out tables for the communal feast and select the best alcohol for the next day.
On the day of the feast everyone eats and drinks and acts merrily. It is a
tradition that any strangers should be allowed to eat at this feasts and also
through any of the winter months before as the gnomes remember how during the
Atonement they were turned away by
humans who had stores of food. They also put
out food and drink for Arch-chemist Gnor the Unifier, a messiah figure for the
gnomes.
History. The centre of Gnorian gnomish history is the story of their unification. This story is normally thought to begin with the birth of Arch-chemist Gnor the Unifier. He was born in 1720 b.S. and 57 years later he had already become the leader of the city of Rasson now renamed Gnorath in his honour. It was in 1655 when he received the information that the dragon Seargon had been killed. Most objective historians believe that he realised that this was going to cause a huge war and that gnomes were best off collecting food and getting ready to leave the city if need be with this food. However, Gnor used the phrase “a year of darkness” which is of course what happened during the Vardýnnian Atonement of 1649 b.S. and so now gnomes claim that he knew that this was going to happen and that is why he ordered that large amounts of food should be stockpiled. For whatever reason the city of Rasson had one of the largest stores of food in the world during the Year of Atonement. Gnor was not selfish and neither were the people of Rasson so when other gnomes came to them in the time of darkness they willingly gave them food in exchange for an oath of loyalty.
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