A Chill Place to Be
Bellbrook doesn't have an official founding date, nor does it have any sort of confirmation that it is, in fact, the Gnomish Land's capital. These facts are mostly guessed upon by outsiders, as the gnomes just don't overly care. When asked if Bellbrook is their capital most gnomes will shrug and say, "Sure, if you like" or "I dunno...you coming to the pub tonight?."
For the gnomes of Bellbrook, their focus is on the present, and not the past, the only past they are interested in is the gossip of the last party, feast, or gathering held. The gnomes just roll that way, they are lackadaisical (though still enthusiastic), whimsical, carefree, and peaceful. Bellbrook is likely the strangest place a visitor can travel to in almost all of Fyria, as the gnome's way of life is so out of sorts when compared to the rest of the continent that it can be a jarring experience.
The gnomes of Bellbrook are lunatics, but they are a good crowd.
Just watch what you say to them, they are uncontrolled gossips.
This is because the gnomes even in the densest settlement in their lands just do not operate in the same manner as any other nation both economically and culturally. They conduct almost no trade with the outside world, not because they don't care to just because they can't be bothered, trade that does happen is hand to hand from person to person on the occasion someone passes through.
Gnomes gossiping at their nightly get together.
The local economy in Bellbrook is a thriving place despite the sometimes lazy ways of the gnomes, with hundreds of shops of varying kinds lying about. The most popular of which are the cheesemongers and the brew meister shops, which are two of the gnome's favourite things.
There is no common work week or work hours in Bellbrook, shops open when they open and close when they close upon the whims of the owners and operators. But commonly gnomes are up a few hours after dawn and back home before nightfall so they can nap and be up once again to join each other at whatever feast, festival, party, or gathering that night has to offer.
The gnomes also have next to no crime, they are the most peaceful party animals on the planet and they don't have a violent bone in their body. They can get rowdy during a party or competition sure, but to the point of bodily harm, never. As such they have the continent's smallest guard force, consisting of about two hundred volunteer gnomes who only joined because they like taking long walks in their neighbourhoods.
The gnomes have a small government, a council of sorts who tend to matters of both local and national importance but they only meet once a month and oftentimes have little to discuss outside the latest gossip. Gnomes love their gossip. Bellbrook has a mayor on top of this council, Mayor Izop Biddlefoot, but no one can remember the last time they had an election nor they do know when they should run another, it doesn't overly seem to matter though.
Architecture and Construction
The gnomes are quite ingenious engineers and have created a town constructed in a way that leaves you quite breathless when viewed. The entire city was built and continues to be expanded upon the pure whims of their inhabitants with no plan, no intent, only creativity and the pure passion to get something done as quickly as possible; so that they can get back to the party, or get back to napping, or whatever whim catches their fancy at the time.
The builders of Bellbrook, or rather any gnome arsed to build a house or an establishment of some sort, construct them in a variety of normal and mundane ways. Simply, gather the material (aka whatever is lying around; wood, stone, glass, cheese, whatever will keep a shape), and build the thing.
The trick is really in who your friends are, as any gnome of good muster that says his hellos and is altogether a good fellow will have a wagon load or more of friends that will all pile together to build a home or whatnot in the blink of an eye.
Imagine a pile of gnomes speedily springing about in a cloud of dust and debris for a few hours and suddenly a home appears in their wake. And as long as a feast is provided alongside the work, and drinks and cheese after the work is done, a gnome and their friends will do the work cheerfully. But despite this whimsical and slap-dash approach to building a city, the gnomes do it, and they do it well. They have devised several different means of constructing buildings and roads quickly, sometimes overnight, that no foreigner can aspire to understand fully.
A view of the whimsical architecture of Bellbrook.
Even if they sat amongst the gnomes for weeks, the only thing they would likely come to understand is that gnomes cannot explain a thing worth a damn. If asked they may shrug and say, "Work needs doing, cheese needs eating." nodding philosophically and walking off, leaving the visitor more confused than before. Gnomes aren't one for explaining things, especially when guests are about, as their priority always turns to show them a good time whether they like it or not.
Lots of mishmashed buildings exist in Bellbrook, wooden lodges, stone cottages, cheese wheel cobbler shacks, and more. But another form of construction often takes place, which really staggers those from afar. More commonly constructed by the gnome's druid community, who are fond of using their magics to spring forth malleable buildings, statues, and all sorts of bizarre structures made straight from the materials of the earth. And a favourite material of these druids is, of course, the mighty fungus.
Throughout Bellbrook have sprouted hundreds of large ballooning mushrooms some shaped and hollowed to become dwellings and businesses, others just left to grow and spore as a sort of decor or art installation. These fungi do however pose some occasion issues, especially for foreigners, who are not used to their occasional spring and summer sporring effects. Where clouds of colourful clouds of spore blow about in the wind, occasionally causing hallucinogenic effects. For the gnomes it is just a party enhancer, they love it. For unaware visitors though, it can frequently lead to awkward situations of pure delirium, like when the travelling bard found himself awaking upon a shroom tower with no pants and a love letter from a local gnome lady.
Geography
Bellbrook takes up roughly two-quarters of the entire territory in which the Gnomish Lands holds, or roughly 500 km2 of the total 1200 km2 that the Gnomish Lands reside within.
You could fairly easily walk through the entirety of Bellbrook in a day and a half on foot, or the entire span of the country in less than three days. Faster if on horseback. The geography of Bellbrook and the surrounding area as well is best described as calm and quaint.
Gnomish Riding Goats grazing in the Forest of Trees.
Bellbrook is situated on the plains below, and alongside and top of a large hill called Big Bumpy.
A name graciously bestowed upon the grand hill by a gaggle of drunken gnomes one-night several moons ago. A fitting naming ceremony there ever was one for the gnomes of Bellbrook.
At the top of Big Bumpy is Lake Bobble, the gnomes love their b names, and the Forest of Trees. Lake Bobble has several rivers that flow from it and down Big Bumpy, the rivers run through the city and drain out into the plains in several small creeks.
One lone river reaches into the Forest of Trees and out of the Gnomish Lands running deep into the interior territory of Estrua.
The Forest of Trees as its very gnome-appropriate name suggests, is a forest with numerous mixed-species trees, though this is an underappreciation for the forest's liveliness.
It also plays home to hundreds of fungi species that sprout throughout the forest, some of which climb as tall as the trees themselves giving the canopy of the forest a bizarre but not unpleasing mottled look. It also houses dozens of animal species, including a lovely and adorable assortment of wild forest
Gnomish Riding Goats.
Demographics - So Many Gnomes
The permanent population of Bellbrook and all of the Gnomish Lands is almost completely comprised of gnomes to no real surprise. Not many have the patience to spend even a few days within the Gnomish Lands and Bellbrook let alone permanently stay with them.
What is surprising, however, is just how many varieties of gnomes there are within Bellbrook. All shapes, sizes, and heights can be found within Bellbrook, with the tallest of the gnomes being about four feet tall, and the shortest being merely centimetres. There are no official names for these gnomes, to gnomes, they are just that, gnomes. So, watch where you step if you care to visit.
The Tall Ones
As described these are the tallest of the gnome people, creeping up to a staggering four feet tall, the Tall Ones find themselves as the reachers of the city.
Often being asked to reach up to tall shelves to retrieve far away items of the long lost recesses locked to those of shorter stature.
The Tall Ones can often be identified by their more patched-together clothing and their long walking sticks, often topped with a flower or mushroom of some colourful sort.
The Garden Ones
Gnomes that have a close affinity with the soil and with tending to a cozy patch of ground, the Garden Ones love to play in the dirt and tend to their vegetable patches.
Though some branch off into animal keeping and husbandry like the famous Binboo at his
Great Goady Farm.
The Garden Ones can often be found dressed in colourful slacks and gloves, and bright drooping sunhats ready to spend the day in the gardens before joining their friends for a drink later in the day.
The Teeny Ones
The smallest of the gnomes, some of the Teeny Ones only reach up to a few dozen centimetres tall, about the size of a human hand. The Teeny Ones are shockingly wonderful workers and are some the most eager in the Gnomish Lands, a rarity amongst the gnomes as most are admittedly fairly lazy.
And while the Teeny Ones enjoy their brew and cheese as much as the next they also stay hard at work much longer than most do, and have been behind most of the patchwork roads in Bellbrook. With many of the roads popping up in between buildings in a few hours or overnight.
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