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Message: <blockquote data-quote="drnuncheon" data-source="post: 680127" data-attributes="member: 96">It's not an Anglo-Saxon thing, it's a Dragonlance thing.You see, gnomes used to be cunning tricksters with a penchant for illusion.  They were closer to nature than dwarves, and far less serious than elves.Unfortunately, on a continent called Ansalon, on a world called Krynn, a terrible infection (thought by some to be related to syphilis) began racing through the gnomish population. As it destroyed their capacity for thought, it caused them to adopt long names made of impronounceable, incomprehensible, and nonsensical syllables, and also engendered a racial obsession with engineering on a scale heretofore unknown.A planar quarantine was called, and that woul dhave been the end of it, except some fool let the gnomes get ahold of a spelljamming helm.  With the help of the helm, the gnomes spread their terrible plague to other worlds.Fortunately for the population of these other worlds, the infection was less severe.  While the predisposition to tinkering was indeed transferred to its new victims, the disease did not seem to inhibit their mental capacity to as great of a degree.  These gnomes kept their traditional names, and went on to design devices that actually worked.  Prime examples of these 'second-stage' gnomes can be found on the island of Lantan on Toril, and in the so-called "steam gnome" communities existing under the city of Bluffside.  Unfortunately, the disease does become acute in some individuals, causing them to rename themselves with bizarre sobriquets, such as "Meadowflower Bananafana Alabama McBoingBoing" Strangely, svirvneblin and other gnomish subraces seem to have an innate resistance to the disease, and scientists are racing to study them and find a cure.Won't you please help?Your donation, of amounts as small as 5 or 10 gold pieces, could save gnomish young people from being forced to go through life constructing devices that would make Rube Goldberg go pale with horror, and from being named "Lagomorphinostaculodallabgnikcufecintoronomoustigmatiglobulonoodlenosicalanthropomandibulactiblesotomaculasupercallifragilisticexpialadociousistical (deep breath) Smith"Please, look deep into your hearts, and give what you can.  Our operators are standing by, waiting for your calls.  Help us find a cure for tinker gnomes.Send donations to:March of Silver Pieces100 Wave AvenueFreeport</blockquote>

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