Flying Toaster
Explorer
Considering what we now know about EGG’s willingness to use the rules and setting to enforce his personal ideas about fantasy archetypes, and his preference for pulp sword and sorcery, it is not surprising that Greyhawk did not have much room for Gnomes and Halflings. I seem to remember some mention of Gnomes from the Kron Hills joining other races and realms in battle against the Temple of Elemental Evil, but I do not remember much at all about Halfling forces or settlements.
Gnomes have always suffered somewhat from having little lore and few literary exemplars. Fun fact: gnomes were invented in 1566 by the German alchemist and “Renaissance Man” Paracelsus, who needed an earth being for his book on elemental spirits of the four classical elements: undines (water), sylphs (air), gnomes (earth) and salamanders (fire). He based these “gnomes” (scholars cannot even agree on the etymology of the name!) on German miners’ tales about trickster gremlins who haunted mine shafts with spooky tapping noises. Kobolds are based on the very same legends, which is ironic since the infamous 1E table of fantasy racial animosities had Gnomes and Kobolds as bitter enemies. Perhaps they are competing for the same limited subterranean living space and resources?
I like to think of Gnomes living underground and farming mushrooms for food, raw materials, or for magical mystical purposes (heh...
). The 1E MM gave them pets and guard beasts like giant weasels or giant badgers. I also like the Pathfinder concept of Gnomes as refugees from the fey realm, with wild hair and eye colors, who have a natural zest for life because they need to seek out new experiences or else slowly succumb to a horrible grey supernatural “Bleaching”.I am actually somewhat surprised that Gygax had so many non-human options in his own personalized “advanced” version of D&D anyway. Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings were probably already so popular with players that he felt he had to include them, but I doubt there was all that much clamor for Half-Elves or Half-Orcs (evil mongrel “goblin-men” or whatever were not exactly central to Tolkien’s mythos, or even a particularly good idea...).
Gnomes were probably lucky to make the cut at all, but I am glad that they did. One of my favorite 1E characters was a Gnome Illusionist-Thief. I will keep playing them as long as I can.
