D&D General Why Do People Hate Gnomes?

[CleverNickName]

If you're looking for some interesting (or just different) lore for gnomes, allow me to present the Gnomes of Shannara, as written by Terry Brooks.

Gnomes in Shannara
Gnomes are one of the five main races that exist in the Shannara universe. As the story goes, the world was destroyed long ago by a series of Great Wars, followed by an event called The Cataclysm. (It's heavily suggested that these Great Wars were World War III, and this Cataclysm was the detonation of some kind of nuclear or biochemical weapon.) Trolls were descended from survivors in the above-ground ruins of cities, and were therefore most exposed to the fallout and contamination of this event. Dwarves are descended from the survivors who fled underground to escape the destruction, and were mutated the least. And humans in specially-constructed facilities escaped mutation altogether. As for the gnomes? Gnomes are descended from the humans who fled into the remote jungles and forests during the cataclysm, and were impacted somewhat less than the trolls, but much more than the dwarves.

Gnomes in Shannara have short, twisted bodies with a yellowish cast to their skin. They have limbs that are too long for their bodies, and they tend to move the way spiders do. Due to their small size, slender build, and stealthy behavior, they are often portrayed as scouts, infiltrators, hunters, and spies. And with rare exception, they are almost always given villainous roles.

There are a few "subraces" of gnomes in Shannara: the Spider Gnomes, the Stors, and the Urdas.

Spider Gnomes: remote, primitive gnomes that live in dark, wooded canyons. They are feral, almost beast-like, and have a much more pronounced resemblance to spiders. (The way Brooks describes them reminds me more of ettercaps than anything else.) They're really superstitious, and they revere the most powerful monsters in their lands... often leaving offerings and sacrifices to appease them and gain favor.

Stors: the most 'civilized' of the gnomes, they are usually described as peaceful healers and pacifists, right down to the white robes. They tend to be carefully, deliberately neutral in all matters of politics and ethics. It makes me wonder if Terry Brooks wrote them to be the opposite of the Spider Gnomes. Anyway, they get their name from their largest settlement, Storlock.

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Urdas: sort of a part-gnome, part-troll species, who live deep in the most remote parts of the mountains. These gnomes are larger, but more bent and brutish-looking. They are extreme outsiders, and live in small fortified villages near the ancient ruins (they hold these ruins sacred, and consider themselves to be their protectors.) They are some of the most isolated people in the Four Lands.

 

[Argyle King]

...
I still think my proposal, which kinda takes a leaf from DL albeit not intentionally, is a better path. Make gnomes and halflings two sides of the same coin. Halflings are the ones associated with forest and field, the wanderers and wardens (lightfoot and stoutheart). Gnomes are the ones associated with crag and chasm, the inventors and mystics (cragstep and ghostwise). Much as "elf" encompasses four distinct branches (moon/forest, sun/faerie, star/underearth, void/shadow).
...

Years ago, I ran a campaign in which I did something like that but in different way.

I had an area of my campaign world that was a large island populated by Halflings and Gnomes.

To the outside world, the two words were used interchangeably and both looked exactly the same.

To the residents of the island, being called the wrong species was extremely insulting, and they (the residents) felt it was obvious to tell the difference (based upon minor differences in culture, spoken language, and looks that all may or may not actually exist).

I was running 4E at the time, and I used the info above as a basis for a skill challenge in which the PCs were trying to navigate the social intricacies of a dinner party including Gnome & Halfling nobility (all of which looked exactly the same to the PCs).

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Years ago, I ran a campaign in which I did something like that but in different way.

I had an area of my campaign world that was a large island populated by Halflings and Gnomes.

To the outside world, the two words were used interchangeably and both looked exactly the same.

To the residents of the island, being called the wrong species was extremely insulting, and they (the residents) felt it was obvious to tell the difference (based upon minor differences in culture, spoken language, and looks that all may or may not actually exist).

I was running 4E at the time, and I used the info above as a basis for a skill challenge in which the PCs were trying to navigate the social intricacies of a dinner party including Gnome & Halfling nobility (all of which looked exactly the same to the PCs).

That's delightful.

 

[Aldarc]

Gnomes were in the Silmarillion; they were just called the Noldor

Which would make Galadriel a "gnome."

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Which would make Galadriel a "gnome."

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Which would make Galadriel a "gnome."

Having looked it up...she's got so much of a mix of heritages, she's almost every kind of elf. Her father was a Ňoldo prince...but his mother was a Vanyar princess, and that's where Galadriel got her beautiful hair...and then Galadriel's mother was a Teleri noblewoman! But the real thing about her, AIUI, was that she had beheld the light of the Two Trees and such; being exposed to the glory of the Undying Lands tended to be pretty transformative, inside and out.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Which would make Galadriel a "gnome."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Years ago, I ran a campaign in which I did something like that but in different way.

I had an area of my campaign world that was a large island populated by Halflings and Gnomes.

To the outside world, the two words were used interchangeably and both looked exactly the same.

To the residents of the island, being called the wrong species was extremely insulting, and they (the residents) felt it was obvious to tell the difference (based upon minor differences in culture, spoken language, and looks that all may or may not actually exist).

I was running 4E at the time, and I used the info above as a basis for a skill challenge in which the PCs were trying to navigate the social intricacies of a dinner party including Gnome & Halfling nobility (all of which looked exactly the same to the PCs).

I do something similar in my Ptolus campaign. In that setting, Monte Cook basically makes the same joke, but they actually are two distinct species split off from a common ancestor.

 

[Argyle King]

I think the "elves" in Disenchantment would be gnomes.

 

[MGibster]

I think the "elves" in Disenchantment would be gnomes.

How would you classify the Keebler Elves?