Abrekuzan Gnomes
The Abrekuzan Gnomes are the largest group of gnomes native to the eastern hemisphere. Contrary to many other cultural groups of gnomes, The Abrekuzan gnomes value scholarly research as the most valuable and respectable way to focus the natural gnomish curiosity and energy. As such, the continent island of Abrekuza has more formal academies per capita than any other place on the planet. The Abrekuzan gnomes also value specialization, and resisting the urge to change focus regularly, instead believing that people should achieve a level of mastery in a field before moving on.
The Abrekuzans used to be quite isolationist a few hundred years ago, but opened their borders and their academies, and now accept students and apprentices of all backgrounds, so long as they are able to prove themselves as dedicated and able. Many people journey to Abrekuza to master crafts or magical arts, though they often cite the Gnomes as rigid and inflexible compared to their expectations.
One of the main advantages that the Abrekuzan Gnomes have is their achievement in the magical-technological field of summoning and binding elementals from the elemental planes to specifically designed devices, tools and machines. While elementals can be bound by anyone, the Abrekuzan gnomes have perfected the technique, and keep the secrets of how to perform it on more advanced and complex machines to themselves. The method for simple bindings have spread to other peoples, and include devices to stay warm or cook food using fire elementals or shovels that move dirt and rock as though they weighed nothing using earth elementals. Such items are already expensive and typically lose their binding after a year. The more complicated bindings allow for ships to cross the ocean, carts to run without horses, and even more fabulous things. Such things are worth fortunes, despite still requiring the binding to be refreshed every year.
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