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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ivocaliban" data-source="post: 1817058" data-attributes="member: 17596">I'll never understand the hate for the little people, but I'll not get into that argument again. Gnomes, in my game, are modeled quite closely after a number of literary characters ranging from Shakespeare's Puck (Robin Goodfellow) to Tolkien's Tom Bombadil. To me, they also embody elements of the trickster gods of various religions (Coyote, Raven, Ananse, Sun Wukong, Prometheus, etc.) and in this they have a certain wisdom that other races, even the long-lived elves, have somehow let slip through their fingers. Tricksters are often there for a purpose, usually to teach a lesson, but many subjected to their tricks are often too ignorant to appreciate the intrusion. Sometimes the lesson is merely not to take matters too seriously and to retain a sense of humour in the even the worst of circumstances.The recent release of Races of Stone helped me to solidify what I find so interesting and wonderful about gnomes. The duality of spirit, being torn between the reality and illusion, makes the gnomes' philosophical outlook more Eastern than Western. They seem far more like Taoists or Buddhists in their belief system and because of this seem to have a certain mysterious depth that other cultures often lack. In many ways, I think gnomes are the most mature and healthy-minded of the core D&D races. They, like the bards they now favour, are tasters of life who rarely tie themselves down to one thing, but search for truth through art in all its incarnations. It's fairly likely that no gnome will ever find this truth, but it is a noble search, just like the quest for the philosopher's stone through alchemy. In this search the gnomes become Rennasiance men/women of the highest calibur. They are artists, tricksters, tinkers, seekers, philosphers, and inventors. Gnomes happily accept themselves as they are and yet always strive to make improvements in themselves. In a sense, the culture of gnomes is an ideal human culture. One that both praises and practices introspection, innovation, humour, and magnanimity on the whole and sees no point in wanton destruction, war, and strife. Certainly they are idealized and less than real, but no less so than dwarves or elves...and no less interesting, either. In fact, I'd say that, culturally speaking, they're far better off than most.</blockquote>

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