Player’s Knowledge #
Description & Ambiance: Travelers are greeted by a breathtaking subterranean expanse where every surface, from the towering cavern walls to the jagged floor, pulses with the soft, kaleidoscopic glow of bioluminescent Phospore. The air is cool and heavy with the scent of rich, damp loam, filled only with the gentle echoes of dripping stalactites and the lively, melodic chatter of Gnomes traversing the mossy pathways.
Government & Public Law: The Assembly of Arcane Arbiters governs through a philosophical legal code that mandates free, universal education for all citizens to ensure a baseline of high-level discourse. Under this system, legal disputes and legislative changes are settled through rigorous public debates, where the strength of one’s logic and evidence holds more weight than mere social standing.
Exports & Reputation: Gnomonor is world-renowned as a premier bastion of enlightenment and travellers from across the world come to access the vast archives of the Gnomencodex. Beyond their intellectual trade, they are famous for a series of tiny, remarkably reliable mechanical tools and instruments that have become the gold standard for scholars and explorers all over Kemet.
Rumors & Folklore (Unverified):
“Some claim that Terragor, the great stone sentinel, isn’t a statue at all, but the very first Thallarch who petrified himself to wake only when the city faces a threat that logic and debate cannot solve.”
“Travelers whisper that the Mycelietum fungi don’t just glow; they actually mimic the heartbeats of those walking through the forest to lure them deeper into the spores until they forget their own names.”
“There’s a tavern tale that the shimmering liquid in the heart of the Prismatic Cavern is water that was infused by the remnants of a fallen star, and if you drink from it, you’ll be able to see exactly five minutes into your own future.”
DM’s Lore #
Formal Name: Gnomonor
Type & Rank: Democratic Republic, Regional Intellectual Powerhouse
Population: 261,611
Language/Name influences:
Synopsis: A utopia of balanced intellect that hides its location to prevent surface-dwellers from weaponizing their advanced magi-tech.
True History & Key Dates:
15,400 BR: The Gnomes established the city of Phospore within the heart of the Mewyn Hills, choosing a site where the cavern teemed with vibrantly lit fungi. They transformed these subterranean tunnels into a permanent home, utilizing the soft glow of the indigenous fungi to illuminate their spaces.
14,710 BR: Mossbelly Lichenroot oversaw the formal establishment of Tanglehold, a subterranean nation where societal status was rooted in intellectual merit rather than birthright. To facilitate this, he organized the populace into specialized guilds, ensuring that every gnome’s unique curiosity was channeled toward the collective flourishing of their cavernous home.
7,823 BR: The charismatic clan elder Theodoric Fuzzbottom successfully mediated a brewing civil conflict by integrating the ancient family lineages with the powerful merit-based guilds under a unified government. This historic compromise gave birth to the nation of Telluria, a society where traditional Gnomish kinship and cutting-edge intellectual progress could finally thrive side-by-side.
491 AR: The brilliant but uncompromising Master Artificer Orrery Clocksworth spearheaded a transformation of the government, rebranding the nation as Arcturia and prioritizing a singular focus on the fusion of magic and machine. This shift funneled the kingdom’s vast resources into grand engineering projects and astral research, positioning the most talented artificers as the primary architects of Gnomish society.
3,981 AR: The soft-spoken philosopher Profundus Pip led a vibrant scholarly revolution, reclaiming the nation’s heart by arguing through a series of legendary, public debates that wisdom should encompass art and history alongside artifice. This intellectual victory peacefully dissolved the rigid technocracy and established the democratic republic of Gnomonor, where every gnome’s voice is valued as a vital contribution to their collective pursuit of knowledge.
Internal Conflicts & Secrets:
The Arcturian Echo: A society of elite artificers continues to operate in the shadows, believing that the revolution that formed Gnomonor traded raw progress for sentimental fluff. They secretly plot to prove that only technology can protect the nation from the unpredictable threats of the surface world.
The Veil of the Path: While the Assembly of Arcane Arbiters once enforced total isolation through intricate illusions and strict social taboos, a recent scholarly mandate has officially opened Phospore to outsiders to foster modern trade and socialization. Despite this new era of transparency, a stubborn faction of traditionalists resent the influx of newcomers and continues to maintain advanced, illusory baffles over their clan’s territory of the city in an effort to protect their ancestral safety.
Key NPCs & Power Structure:
Coming soon.
Economy & Military Might:
Economy: Gnomonor thrives on serving as the world’s most prestigious center for intellectual exchange and the export of refined academic peer-reviews. Their primary revenue comes from a high-cost permit that grants outsiders access to the Gnomencodex archives, alongside the sale of durable mechanical tools used for scholarly research and exploration.
Military: Conflict is largely avoided through the use of an ancient defensive network of permanent illusion arrays and displacement fields that once kept the path to Phospore concealed from the outside world. It remains ready to be fully reactivated at a moment’s notice should the new policy of openness fail. If an intruder were to somehow circumvent these veils during a conflict, they would be forced to navigate a grueling gauntlet of labyrinthine tunnels laced with advanced defensive traps and fortified chokepoints.
Adventure Hooks:
Political: A prominent member of the Assembly of Arcane Arbiters is being blackmailed by a traditionalist who has discovered the Arbiter used privileged information to make lucrative private investments in foreign trade ventures to enrich himself. The party is asked to intervene before this evidence of self-enrichment is leaked.
Exploration: A seasoned spelunker has vanished while mapping a terrifying dead zone where the vibrant, glowing Phospore has inexplicably turned into a light-drinking, pitch-black rot. The Council fears this blight will spread and they need a team to brave the lightless tunnels.
Intrigue: After a local merchant noticed a traveler asking suspiciously pointed questions about clan loyalties, a member of the city guard believes a spy has successfully infiltrated Phospore. The party must identify and neutralize this agent before they escape with intelligence that could exploit the growing rift between scholars and isolationists.