Rock Gnomes

Most of the Gnomes that are found in Andúnë are Rock Gnomes.
Crafty and resourceful, their innate talent for magic is well known across the lands, as is their curiosity and sunny disposition.
They live in tiny hovels and tend to gravitate around places of learning and of worship, often appreciating the chance for intellectual discourse that these environments seem to bring about.
It is not too uncommon for many a young Gnome to become enamoured with a question or specific subject and to set out on a path of adventure to try and find the answer to their query.
Many a tenured scholar of the most renowned schools of arcane disciplines have started their path of knowledge this way and somewhere, in their house, is a chest containing the relics of their younger years passed on the roads of Andúnë to expand their knowledge and meet learned teachers.
Many of them have a tendency to tinker with small contraptions and the life of a Gnome child is often blessed with tiny mechanical toys of all shapes that both entertain them and teach them about the world.
By and large, Rock Gnomes don't really have natural enemies in most of the surface countries but their diminutive size and social nature does expose them to the rougher elements of society who might try to take advantage of them. Cunning and magic are the tools they use to counter such perils.

In Vexanta - The Seventh Kingdom, there does not seem to be a great many number of them, and there isn't a large gnomish settlement, but rather many smaller enclaves in the larger cities of the country.
It is said that Rock Gnomes are secretly in control of one of the larger merchant guilds in Baumerall, with branches in all major cities in Vexanta.