D&D General Christmas elves in dnd?

[Mecheon]

Characteristics like rural (pastoral) versus wilderness (reclusive), feel cultural, rather than species. Even if, the cultural distinctions can be significant for a concept.

Halflings aren't exactly talking to animals. That isn't just a cultural thing, that's a downright magical ability that gnomes just have because they're closer to fairies and elves than

The thing about Halflings is how Human they are. Sneaky and Lucky, can be Human backgrounds. They are easily a Human ethnicity, and Tolkien tended to euhemerize the Hob this way.

Those are halfling problems, not gnome problems.

Both Dwarf and Gnome can feel earthily Elemental.

The Viking Period Dwarf is fully humansize (Medium) and relates to fates, shamanic magic, and destructive magic items. (But Saxon Dwarf is short, waist-high.) The Romantic Period Gnome is normally knee-high (Tiny), and explicitly is any land area that Humans inhabit.

But even these distinctions could be culturally ethnic.

Dwarves and gnomes are nothing like each other in pop culture. You ask someone what the stereotypical dwarf trait is and its mining. They are digging a hole or singing a mournful dirge for a land long lost (Heck, this isn't even the only Boatmurdered inspired song I have). You are not confusing anyone in that metal music video with a gnome. The dwarf Vibe is so distinct you can put them in space and it just fits perfectly.

Gnomes, on the other hand, are frankly closer to elves. If you go and search up 'gnomecore' it is whimsy a plenty, very distinct from dwarfcore.

These distinctions are not culturally ethnic in the slightest., Like the only time I could see dwarves, halflings and gnomes being folded into one is if you're doing something with them being fey to begin with, in which case elves are getting folded into that as well because gnomes and elves are far, far closer than gnomes and halflings, and lemme tell you, I think people are going to be a might upset combining them all into one

 

[Yaarel]

Dwarves and gnomes are nothing like each other in pop culture. You ask someone what the stereotypical dwarf trait is and its mining. They are digging a hole or singing a mournful dirge for a land long lost (Heck, this isn't even the only Boatmurdered inspired song I have). You are not confusing anyone in that metal music video with a gnome. The dwarf Vibe is so distinct you can put them in space and it just fits perfectly.

Gnomes, on the other hand, are frankly closer to elves. If you go and search up 'gnomecore' it is whimsy a plenty, very distinct from dwarfcore.

These distinctions are not culturally ethnic in the slightest., Like the only time I could see dwarves, halflings and gnomes being folded into one is if you're doing something with them being fey to begin with, in which case elves are getting folded into that as well because gnomes and elves are far, far closer than gnomes and halflings, and lemme tell you, I think people are going to be a might upset combining them all into one

From my perspective, Elf and Dwarf are two sides of the same coin. The coin is Fate. Both personify every kind of magic. Both are fully humansize (as viking art portrays).

ELF	DWARF
Alfr	Dvergr
Good fate (success, love, descendants, social impact)	Bad fate (failure, loneliness, destruction, social inconsequence)
Sky above clouds	Earth below surface
Sunlight patterns	Mineral patterns
Sunlight	Darkness
(Air-Fire radiant)	(Earth-Water cold)

When a Dwarf is called an "Elf", it is an ironic nickname. The Dwarf as-if grants a person good luck, by cursing the enemies of that person with bad luck. That said, both Elf and Dwarf are highly competent at magic and can use it versatilely, toward whatever fates they orchestrate.


The concept of the Gnome tomt develops later, and tends to blend both Elf (good fate) and Dwarf (earth below surface), with British Isles fairy (whence small sprite).

The Gnome is almost as if a descendant that has Elf, Dwarf, and Fairy as ancestors. The land being and the family guardian, blur with house sprite, albeit remain distinguishable.

 

[Yaarel]

The point of referencing The Father Christmas Letters, which seems to have been missed, is that Christmas elves are not a folkloric tradition. They are a literary invention of the mid-19th century and a product of the decisions of authors and artists who have since chosen to make a subject of them. That the nisse probably influenced and was in return likely influenced by American Santa Claus, evolving into the Julenisse, does not make them the origin of Christmas elves.

The julnisser are folkloric. They emerge from within the fabric of folkbelief during the Romantic Period. The julnisser are attested by name during the 1840s. They retain local characteristics such as being nearby land beings (sometimes a nearby stream). The concept is that land beings sometimes also give a Christmas present on Christmas.

 

[Yaarel]

The Romantic Period clothing styles for nisser.

 

[Hriston]

My copy of Introduction to Attic Greek, Donald J. Mastronarde (1993), defines νόμος as "custom, law", so the meaning of the conjectured and unattested compound word γηνόμος could be something like "earth/land-custom" or perhaps "one who follows (enforces?, embodies?) the custom of the earth/land", but of course there's no evidence whatsoever that Paracelsus had such a word or meaning in mind when he coined gnomus, gnomos.

 

[Yaarel]

My copy of Introduction to Attic Greek, Donald J. Mastronarde (1993), defines νόμος as "custom, law", so the meaning of the conjectured and unattested compound word γηνόμος could be something like "earth/land-custom" or perhaps "one who follows (enforces?, embodies?) the custom of the earth/land", but of course there's no evidence whatsoever that Paracelsus had such a word or meaning in mind when he coined gnomus, gnomos.

There are two Greek forms for "nomos": νομός and νόμος. These are different suffixes. Both come from the verb νέμω "distribute", divide out, assign. Because Paracelsus employs a Latinate "nomus", both Greek forms are arguable for the etymology.

The Greek form νομός has the meaning "alotment", property, plot of land, in the sense of dividing up the land, whence a residence, a dwellingplace.

The Greek form νόμος has the meaning "law" (top down authoritative decree) or "custom" (bottom up authoritative tradition), both in the sense of assigning.

Where Paracelsus invents the Latin word "gnomus", the two Greek etymologies literally mean:

γη-νομός, "the property of land", a home.

γη-νόμος, "the custom of a land", the way that a place behaves.

Both etymologies refer to the same animistic phenomenon, the personality of a place.

Because the Middle Norse (Norwegian, Swedish, etcetera) term "tomt" translates precisely the Greek etymology γη-νομός "property of land", this Greek etymology is most probable. At least this is the meaning of the word "gnomus" as it is understood in historical usage.

Note the suffix "-e" from Norse suffix "-i" means "the one pertaining to". The form "tomte" literally means the one pertaining to the property of land: the personality of the place. Each property that humans inhabit has its own personality, its own palpable presence. Animistically, the place has a mind of its own and can exert influence.


For the D&D Gnome, it is a magical creature. 4e had it the Fey creature type. The 5e24 Humanoid creature type allows it to be a being of various planes: Fey, Elemental, Ethereal, Material. The Gnome species can describe how it is literally the being of a specific home. It might come into existence from a particular plot of land. The Gnome is the place. The home is part of the identity of the Gnome, and the Gnome is incomplete away elsewhere. If dislocated from a place of origin, the Gnome might feel an instinctive need to imprint on some other place elsewhere. It can be, when Humanoids move in to a place in the Material Plane, there can be tensions with the Gnomes that already live there in the same place in the Feywild. Of the Gnomes that inhabit the Material Plane, they are the pride of the place and ensure that everything there runs suitably.