Gnomes

Gnomes (singular: Gnome) are a diminutive race thought to be related to Dwarves. They stand about 3 - 3½ feet tall.
Although the males can grow prodigious facial hair (like Dwarves) most do keep it trimmed as they can trip over them. "Tripper" is gnomish slang for slovenly.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Thick bushy hair.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Gnomes choose a surname on their ascension to adulthood. Typically their first and last names will share the same first letter.

Major Language Groups and Dialects

All Gnomes outside of the Gnome cities in Holcroft speak Common Tongue, and one other Gnomish city language.
The seven Gnomish languages are named after the cities, the first four being the different sides of The Underwar

• Tikipip
• Hansfrang
• Osterfrang
• Sprack
• Hostentot
• Tokifoss
• Hortle

The first four contain enough common words to allow speakers to express simple basic phrases to each other.

History

After the unification of Holcroft it was discovered that there were four different underground Gnomish cities within its borders. Each had only a passing knowledge of the others, and had been nominally "at war" with each other for hundreds of years.
Distance, and the presence of warring human nations on the surface, had kept The Underwar from having any casualties for the last hundred years before the unification.
Eventually the cities became respectable parts of the Counties in Holcroft that contained them and emissaries from the Gnome cities met and declared an uneasy truce - facilitated by the existence of Common Tongue which meant no one Gnome language took precedence.
Subsequent Gnome cities have been discovered more recently. The most recent was Hortle about 10 years ago.

Female Gnome engineer from Sprack

Lifespan

90 years but some outliers reported at 200+

Average Height

1 - 1.4 metres

Average Weight

Hefty