Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 3913629" data-attributes="member: 6533">Hmm, I think the issues you bring up become even more complicated with the inclusion of the Eladrin.But off the cuff I think my solution would be to make the Eladrin, Elves, and Gnomes three different generations of Fey Exiles.I'd say that the Gnomes have been out of the Fey Wild the longest, and that they have transferred a lot of their allegiance to the earth itself.  The urge towards the higher planes is still a part of their culture, however, and this expresses itself in song and their attempts to arrive at a magical understanding of the world around them.  Thus their mastery of song magic as an attempt to express their constantly evolving sense of understanding, and as a means of expressing their near fetishistic love of beauty.  It's not that they are obsessed with gems, but rather that gems are an expression of their desire to free beauty from the earth that surrounds it and prevents it from being appreciated.  At their worst Gnomish obsession with beauty can lead them to attempt to preserve it so that only they might appreciate it.Their natural environment would be hills, and though the Snirvfneblin are an exception it is not that they are subteranean so much as they tend to get at the heart of their environment.  Gnome houses are often a strange mix of burrow, hollowed out trunks, and arboreal patios.  All cleverly hidden, of course, as the true sign of beauty is that it is found and then celebrated, rather than celebrated in order to be found.  They practice highly advanced mix-use agriculture built around multi-species orchards.  A Gnomish 'farm' is nearly indistinguishable from the forest that surrounds it save that the diversity can actually be greater and parasitic species are carefully managed.Gnomeish merchants go to markets rather than have markets come to them or making any themselves.  Often Gnome bards and druids with their goods will just seem to show up at human crafts fairs.  What humans fail to realize is that they do the same thing among Gnomes, working as sort of orchard to orchard salesman.  Gnomes often have a strong mechanistic tradition, viewing it as a form of 'emergent' rather than found beauty.  Some communities become more obsessed with invention than others, but in those cases their machines often then seem to adopt a 'found' or inspired quality.Dwarves admire Gnomes, but the first exiled often find Dwarves too dour.  Gnomes view Tieflings and Eladrin with a sort of disdain for their inability to connect to the world.  They think of Elves almost paternalisticly as their most successful project.  Halflings, Gnomes, and humans seem to accept each other very easily just as rivers move through hills and plains and plains move into hills.  Dragonborn and Gnomes are strangely distrustful of each other.  Each sees in the other too much of their own love of treasure, and too little understanding of what the other seeks from it.Favored Classes:Bard - taking special advantage of the Races and Classes new Bards as spirit ridden song crafters/illusionists, representing the last of their connection to the arcane aspects of the Fae Wyld.Druid - their new kinship to beasts and the last of their divine connection to the fae wyld/new connection to the earth itselfBarbarian - their badger riding martial casteMinor Favored Classes:Warlocks - Some gnomes renew their connection to the fae wyld or seek power from other planes.Thieves - Theft is, of course, the highest compliment one can pay to beauty.</blockquote>

Verification