Historical Record #
The Gnomes, a people overflowing with a bottomless, beautiful curiosity, first walked into the world around 15,400 years before the current age. They didn’t march out to conquer the surface but were pulled down, deep beneath the silent earth of The Mewyn Hills. It was there they found their true home, a sprawling maze of caverns that were not dark, but stunningly lit by a thousand varieties of glowing, phosphorescent fungi they would call Phospore. Their earliest days were spent quietly, with methodical work, learning to farm those glowing mushrooms and build a society not on blood or gold, but on pure intellectual merit and the simple idea of pitching in. That informal system, where everyone found their best, most specialized place, was the first seed of their deep community.
By 14,710 BR, that seed had sprouted into something more organized. They named their fledgling nation Tanglehold, a place where skill was everything. The visionary leader, Mossbelly Lichenroot, earned his place as the first Thallarch by overseeing the creation of the first organized guilds: the keepers of the land (Mycelial Cultivation), the builders of the future (Mechanical Tinkering), the seekers of knowledge (Scholarly Pursuits), and the boldest pathfinders (Spelunking Specialists). To move up in a guild was to move up in society, and the Gnomish people absolutely thrived as scholars and inventors who were always chasing the very edges of possibility.
But over the next few thousand years, power got heavy. The guilds became massive, impersonal entities that began to overshadow the older, more personal Ancient Clans—the families and hearths that were the real bedrock of Gnomish life. The clans felt their shared history and traditional ties were simply being eroded by the guilds’ cold, merit-driven efficiency. The rising tension was a problem that threatened to tear the civilization apart. Finally, in 7,823 BR, they found a way to bridge the gap. They renamed the nation Telluria and created a council where the most influential clans and the four great guilds would all have a voice. This new, balanced system meant they could chase technological marvels while keeping their hearts connected to the community. Theodoric Fuzzbottom, a charismatic and respected clan elder, was the one who fought for this compromise and was elected the first council leader, a true peacemaker in a time of potential ruin.
Then the sky tore open. The Stellar Rupture washed over the world, not with destruction, but with a surge of raw astral energy that poured into the Gnomes. It didn’t just supercharge their magic and inventions; it made them restless. It was a golden age of magical engineering, a time when Gnomes, who were normally so insular, suddenly felt that frantic, irresistible urge to send explorers to the surface, motivated by a curiosity they couldn’t contain. But political change was coming again. By 491 AR, the old voices of the clans were being drowned out by a tight-knit, powerful group of gnomes who eventually just seized control. They called themselves The Council of Arcane & Artificer Guilds, and they ruthlessly remade the nation into Arcturia. Their leader, the brilliant but utterly unyielding Master Artificer Orrery Clocksworth, declared that the future belonged only to the fusion of magic and machine, dedicating every single resource to that singular, unforgiving purpose. It created a breathtaking era of innovation, yes, but it also hammered a new, cruel social wedge between the brilliant engineers and everyone else who simply lacked that specialized, narrow kind of aptitude.
The resulting unhappiness with Arcturia’s single-minded focus eventually led to a powerful counter-movement, a scholarly revolution. In 3,981 AR, a coalition of philosophers, artists, and historians—people who valued every kind of knowledge—rose up. They were led by the renowned, soft-spoken scholar Profundus Pip, who argued passionately that the true, magnificent foundation of Gnomish society was knowledge in all its forms, not just the arcane or mechanical. Through a series of peaceful but fiercely intellectual debates that captivated the populace, they successfully reformed the government into Gnomonor, a true democratic republic guided by a council of intellect. Now, every gnome was given a voice, regardless of their guild or clan, and the government focused on creating a perfect balance: progress alongside art, and innovation tethered to the history they cherished.
The Gnomes today remain a delightfully playful and endlessly curious people. Their inventive genius now shows up in fantastical, complex magical contraptions and an exemplary education system for all. While they occasionally send scholars and a few bold adventurers to the surface to satisfy that endless curiosity, they keep the secret of their magnificent subterranean city safely hidden, preserving their peace from the world above.
Present Day Details #
Founded: 3981 AR
Capitol City: Phospore
Citizen Population:
Government Type: Scholarly Council
Leadership: The Assembly of Arcane Arbiters
