Forest Gnomes
Forest gnomes are among the least commonly seen gnomes on Meneros. Small and reclusive, forest gnomes were so unknown to most non-gnomes that they had repeatedly been discovered by wandering outsiders who happened into their villages. Timid to an extreme, forest gnomes almost never left their hidden homes. Forest gnomes are painfully shy creatures who neither feel the need nor desire to interact with other races. For the most part, forest gnomes would simply like to be ignored as they had been for millennia. Unlike deep gnomes, this comes less out of a general mistrust of outsiders and more out of an extreme sense of privacy and affinity for the natural world, combined with a general ambivalence about things that are outside of their experience. Among their own kind, forest gnomes are quite friendly, if not particularly lively.
Like deep gnomes, forest gnomes rarely leave their remote homes. As a general rule, forest gnomes lack the curiosity typical of most gnomes and would only leave their homelands under intense pressure, such as a threat that they alone could not overcome. For the most part, forest gnomes prefer to stick to what they knew—caring for the wood around them.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
Forest gnomes live in an extreme state of primitivism, though their lives are generally comfortable and idyllic. Forest gnomes are largely hunter-gatherers, harvesting their food from wild fruits, nuts, and berries, and supplementing their diet with a little meat. Forest gnome villages are usually composed of less than a hundred members, who are often all a part of an extended family. Forest gnome homes are generally small, reclusive, and so well-hidden that a human might well walk within a few feet of a gnome home and not even realize it. Part of this is because of the unique manner in which forest gnomes constructed their homes, which were typically located within trees.
Forest gnomes spend the majority of their day tending to the forest and gathering food to feed the rest of the village, although a few, like their kin, search underground for gems in a manner unusual for most hunter-gatherers. Forest gnome children who are too young to contribute are generally allowed to do as they like, although they are prevented from wandering far from their protective parents. These children learn how to behave primarily by example, watching their elders, acquiring a reverence for the forest and appreciation for their society. Forest gnomes are generally organized in a loose gerontocracy, with the eldest member of the community serving an advisory role to the rest of the community, who generally only make decisions by consensus. Outside of their homes, this ethic carries on, though gnomes rarely gather in groups of more than two or three beyond their secluded villages.
Forest gnomes only rarely become adventurers, usually due to some kind of threat to their home or other need that requires them to leave their reclusive hovels.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
Compared with other gnomes, forest gnomes are even more diminutive, rarely growing taller than 2 amd a half feet in height or weighing in over 30 pounds. Typically, males are slightly larger than females, at the most by four inches or five pounds. Unlike other gnomes, forest gnomes generally grow their hair long and free, feeling neither the need nor desire to shave or trim their hair much, though males often do take careful care of their beards, trimming them to a fine point or curling them into hornlike spikes. Forest gnome skin is an earthy color and looked, in many ways, like wood, although it was not particularly tough. Forest gnome hair can be any color found in nature, though it fades with age, sometimes to a pure white. Like other gnomes, forest gnomes generally live for centuries, although their life expectancy is a bit longer than is the case for either rock or deep gnomes; 400 is the average life expectancy of a forest gnome.
Castles and Crusades Rules
Related Organizations
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