Forest Gnomes

As the name anticipates, the Forest Gnomes feel most at home in the countryside, far away from the more urbanised and populated areas. Many of them have found a place in The Marches of Laethralla, living in harmony with The Elves where they have built a network of small settlements that are often far away from the beaten paths.
In many ways, those Forest Gnomes live a fairly idyllic life, farming the land and keeping what little livestock they need to feed off.
It is only when the average Forest Gnome reaches adult age, that the need to explore grabs hold of them and pushes them to wander away from home, often heading West, towards lands where the stories tell them that many different species live all mingled together.
The fairly sedentary Gnomes find this fascinating and, at times, baffling, and seek to understand this. It is therefore not uncommon to find rather dishevelled Gnomes standing just outside of settlements in many parts of the Empire openly gazing in amazement at the spectacle of the Tall folk and the many other species.

It usually takes those Gnomes very little time to adapt their looks and their mannerisms to mingle as best they can with the locals, to the point that to the untrained eye and ear, they appear no different from a Rock Gnome that has lived his entire life there.
They are however rather restless and their curiosity, coupled with a degree of childish innocence, can get them into serious trouble, so the quicker they learn to navigate the complexities of a multi-ethnic society, the better their chances are to not find themselves mugged and abandoned at the wayside.
It is not unusual for a more world wise Rock Gnome or even a sympathetic Halfling to reach out to inexperienced and young Forest Gnomes, sort them out and help them get their bearings.

Once they have learned to be self-sufficient, Forest Gnomes can demonstrate their resourcefulness and hardiness and they often make good magic adepts and even better trackers. Most of them, after a few years of adventuring and exploring, get it out of their system and return home to their settlements bringing new knowledge of the world to their families, but it is not unheard of for a Forrest Gnome to stick around and establish themselves a home in some land far away from the Elven Marches.