Deep Gnome

Deep gnomes, called svirfneblin in their own language, were a Gnome subrace that lived in The Underdark. While their surface cousins were known for their boundless optimism and cheerful mischief, most svirfneblin were serious and suspicious creatures. There are very few large Deep Gnome settlements, for the Underdark is a very dangerous place. They survived in the Underdark by maintaining wariness of others, practicing strong illusion and stoneshaping magics, and working hard to keep their underground society secret and spread out.

A Sky of Rock

Gnomes in general lacked any kind of cohesive history, never having maintained the kingdoms and empires of other mortal races. Deep gnomes brought this cultural idiosyncrasy to its greatest extreme; owing in part to their highly decentralized settlements, and lack of any sunlight exposure at all. Deep gnomes lacked a strong tradition of keeping records or writing biographies, but they also never developed a calendar or a method by which to track the passing of time as the did. To a deep gnome, the very concept of day or night was foreign, having never seen the light of the sun or the stars of a night sky. Instead, what little history Deep Gnomes kept was mostly in the form of oral tradition, carried on by select elders known as Stone Speakers. Culturally, many deep gnomes tend towards more similarities with Dwarves, than with their Gnomish cousins.

Cities of Secrets and Wonders

For most non-gnomish folk, the only Deep Gnome cities they may have ever heard of, is likely Mezzogan and its Crystal Halls or the ruined city of Wittenbock; and those same tales still do not know their location. But other cities do exist, while large in size for gnomes would likely still only be considered towns for aboveworlders. But their entire existence and safety resides on keeping their location, and perhaps even existence a secret. Most deep gnomes live in small, semi-nomadic groups of several family units. These clans settle in the underdark near veins of ore, forests of mushrooms, or fields of bio-luminescent fungi; trading these resource in permanent enclaves or to one another. Some will stay for protracted periods of time, while others will move with regularity.

Cities of the Underdark

Wittenbock - One of two Deep Gnome cities oft known by overworlders, but in this case known only for it's tragedy; not its grandeur. Wittenbock was once a large city, built in, around and under a series of beautiful, natural underground geothermal vents and mineral pools in the Kybar's Teeth Mountains, near the High Elven Realm of Lothrimir. Through gnomish crafting much of the steam was captured and redirected, while special minerals which accumulated near the banks of the pools was harvested. The town was known throughout gnomish circles for it's strange steam-mechano constructions. During one night, several hundred years ago, a great catastrophe took place at the pools on the surface, causing the caverns and pools of Wittenbock to collapse, and vent deadly gases trapped beneath the ground. Thousands of gnomes died that night, while some escaped to return to a nomadic way of life, became a refugee in another gnomish settlement, or took a risk on the world above ground. Mezzogan - Also known as the City of Crystal Halls, is believed to be the best (and only) known Deep Gnome city; although it's location remains a closely guarded secret. Some speculate that city resides somewhere near the ruins of Dun Vorgal and the Glimmershard cavernsin Eastern Kirkwall; but none can say for sure. The city is storied to be in part a dazzling rainbow of glowing crystals, as the locals grow farm, and mine the crystals themselves. The city has become quite rich from this access to crystals, which includes highly sought after realmstones such as Emberstone and Bones of Amber. Naroombaal - Naroombaal is a city awash in dim, continuous, bio-luminescent light. Residing in a hidden cavern near one of the great underground mushroom forests; the city hides among the great stalks of glowing mushrooms, under a cavern sky of twinkling, glowing grubs. Naroombaal is also absolutely unique among Deep Gnome communities because they share the space with a Myconid Sovereign mind for mutual benefit and protection. It is also one of few places able to consistently mine for the very rare Auramite metal.