Gnomes are intelligent and crafty, and take pleasure in subtley manipulating their environments. They often come from tree-bound towns grown over many years, almost invisible from a distance. Gnomish culture is heavily based on tinkering and crafting delicate things, lots of old gnome art is beautifully intricate wooden carvings. They are usually very interested in the inner workings of everything, especially magic; a lot of information about the arcarna in Tariksani libraries was found in gnomish texts.
Civilization and Culture
Gnomes often have several first names, and although they have surnames (from one of their parents, it varies) these are rarely used. Some gnomes give themselves (or are given) honourary last names to signify a special place they hold to the town, like "fisher" or "oakhand".
The multiple first names usually come from how the individual introduces themself in certain groups, and what a gnome introduces themself as can tell you what capacity they are acting in. For example, they might have a home name, a friend name, a name for travelling, and a name for giving orders to others. This is common even among gnomes in other societies, although usually in a milder fashion. Some gnomes have had up to twenty different names.
Gnomes think being skinny is beautiful, a light build is important. They occasionally scorn the heavier peoples for their clumsiness.
Female gnomes are expected to be beautiful, as they are usually of a lighter build, and the smallest are seen as the perfect example of a gnome. Male gnomes should be capable builders and shapers of wood, as will be expected to maintain the town.
Gnomes give each other gifts a lot, to show their affection. They are monogamous, and often a couple will make some new room to a house to sleep in, as a show of their commitment.
Common and gnomish. Gnomish is written in dwarvish script but has similarities to old common, in that it's slightly smoother than germanic dwarvish {it could be seen as a bit like dutch}. It uses three different charecters to dwarvish, to denote sounds that don't exist in that script.
Post wave, the ancestors of gnomes gathered together and attempted to escape the dangerous magical beasts that roamed the lands by climbing trees and making their settlements as hard to see as possible. As they grew lighter and cleverer, different gnome towns would compete to see who could live in the most hidden towns, in the highest branches. Whereas elves were skilled at working around the deep forest, gnomes made the forest work for them. They do, however, have a similar culture to elves in some ways: both value delicate beauty and nature, although gnomes never strive for permanance in the same way, and tend to be a lot less ceremonial. They also have a similar interest for magic, as Gnomes were the first to understand and use the magic around them, post-wave.
Gnomes often find the wider world too large and unsubtle for their tastes, although the wealth of knowledge and need for skills draws many eagerly into society. They are largely welcomed, as people rarely have greviances against them, although they are unusual in Tariksan, and people have accused them of caring more for material or magical things than the lives of others.
