Tell me about gnomes and halflings in your world(s)!

[prosfilaes]

I've got a race of gnomes related to the dwarves that were sent down the mountain as trade partners, since real dwarves hate leaving the mountain. Twenty years ago, the gnomes unilaterally seceded from the union with the dwarves, keeping the trade agreements. While the gnomes have taken the freedom to change their laws, no dwarf has noticed yet; they plan to present the first dwarf that crosses into their kingdom the declaration.

 

[Authweight]

In my world, halflings are river nomads. They build rafts and travel up and down the rivers of the world. They are descended from humans, but the river spirits made them smaller so they could have an easier time building rafts and living on them.

The gnomes are descendants of elves who, in response the a nearly apocalyptic crisis, chose to go into deep hiding. Nobody knows where the gnomes are; seeing one at all is quite rare.

 

[steeldragons]

Whatever happened to the Gnome/Kodold connection?

"Connection"? They still hate each other's guts, as far as I know, if that's what you mean.

Is there some other connection or a memo I missed?

...least in my world they still do.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Whatever happened to the Gnome/Kodold connection?

Kobolds are gnomes who got fed after midnight.

 

[Johnny Angel]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobold

I don't know if there was some connection hinted at in D&D materials, but the myths of such creatures as Kobolds, Gnomes, Goblins, Bogarts, Dwarves and various such terms may be of common origins, with no real way to distinguish them as a bunch of discrete categories of creature just going by what was said about them in folklore and literature. It was the influence of modern fantasy and RPG writers who solidified what these terms mean, and even now other writers mix and match these concepts and assign these names to them as it pleases them. Tolkien was sufficiently influential that few veer far from the meaning he applied to the name, but even D&D which drew from Tolkien quite directly made goblins and orcs a lot more distinct than Tolkien had.

Sigh.

If somebody ever tells you, "Well, originally [some creatures] were [some description]..." it's likely to have been a lot more complicated than that.

 

[Lalato]

In my world gnomes are very much fey and weird. They have a reputation for cannibalism, but that's not entirely true. They do have a ritual where they smoke the ashes of the dead. They believe that by doing so they can learn some lore from that person. One should always be careful when a gnome shares his pipe.

Halflings are a subrace of humans. They are also known as pygmies. While Halflings do breed true, about one in every thousand human births results in a halfling... And vice versa.

 

[Zardnaar]

Halflings are steppe riders on my world and have influences from Eberron and Darksun. They kind of fit the Mongol/Plainsindian/Turkoman role but with no trail of tears as thy are vicious and won.

Gnomes are the smartest race generally and are usually the Leonardo Da Vinchi types or the Medicci family. They are rich, hard working, smart and fuel technological progress along with the humans. If banking and magitech, alchemy and science exist the Gnomes are involved and unlike Krynn their stuff actually works at least if they do not bollocks it up in other ways. That is to say their inventions are not doomed to automatic failure. The Iron Bank from Game of Thrones for example would be a Gnome institution on my world and the Dothraki would be Halflings.

 

[Mercurius]

I like the whole gypsy theme for halflings, so my halflings are gypsy-like folk who live on barges along the largest river in my campaign region. You'll see them docked in most major towns and are known for stealing stuff.

Gnomes are very rare and almost always loners or living as pairs. I kind of modelled them off of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry. Anyhow, they're actually immortal - when a gnome dies its spirit returns to a place deep in the woods and grows another body in a kind of chrysalis. The process takes a few months and the gnome's previous life (and lives) seems like a dream. Because all gnomes are literally thousands of years old (there are no "new" gnomes), they have a chance of "gnowing" almost anything. But they tend not to retain anything, just having random thoughts. Also, when they are reborn they have a chance of regaining their previous stats, or just starting afresh at 1st level.

 

[Serendipity]

IMC, the halflings are organized into great trading houses as they are essentially merchants, slowly plying their trade into spelljamming and expanding markets above everyone's heads.
Gnomes are extinct as I don't much see the value in having two short races.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It seems like it's time for the annual reposting of my Unified Theory of Gnomes. Note that my campaign is set on Praemal, the world of Ptolus, which was Monte Cook's home campaign during 3E alpha testing, thus gnomes and halflings looking so much alike:

Gnomes are the equivalent of magical rabbits. They are smaller and weaker than almost everyone else (except for kobolds, whom they compete for living space with -- no one ever remembers that kobolds also live in dark forests per the RAW). EVERYONE can wipe them out if they want to, so gnomes, like rabbits, have learned to hide.

They're not illusionists because they're into Zen Buddhism, as Races of Stone tried to explain. They're illusionists because, if they're not, the local orc tribe will dig them all up and eat them during the next lunar eclipse.

And they're not illusionists in the cold, dry way that D&D magic is often portrayed. It permeates every aspect of their society. They learn tricks to hide their settlements, with secret doors and traps all over the place (albeit less cruel than the ones the kobolds use). They tell tall tales about the size of their settlements and nations, concealing the fact that the local king of the gnomes rules over four families living beneath a single meadow. They use false names and disguises when dealing with outsiders, to effectively increase their numbers. They lie and trick everyone they meet to see how easy they are to fool -- because they have to fool them to survive. Garl Glittergold isn't some Harlequin-style fool, he's El-ahrairah, the rabbit trickster hero from Watership Down. Some of them might even tell the world they're halflings because, you know, they're short and smart-alec and who really checks what race the short guy is?

They speak with animals because even the elves don't worry if a ground squirrel is watching them move through the forest, little realizing that the ground squirrel will pop into a gnome burrow for a treat later on, and tell the gnomes all about the band of elves marching single file through the woods.

They play with clockworks to bolster their numbers and master technology as an outgrowth in their trap-making expertise.

They trade in precious gems to buy the things they need to survive, and they call themselves "forest gnomes" who know nothing about mines and such when they're talking to races that figure a gnome burrow full of gems will be easy to rob.

There's one race of gnomes. They're just not foolish enough to show a single face to the world.