Like humans Gnomes have a variety of cultures. Mostly it depends on where the gnomes live that determines their attitudes towards humans, each other, and the world in general. In Gnome their are five commonly encountered categories of gnome culture.
1. The Tunnelers: As their name implies this variety of gnome tends to live underground. Typically when a group of young gnomes decide that their warren is too crowded or too stale for their liking they set out and look for an abandoned burrow (rabbit warrens are prefered but if the surface is good enough even a snake hole will suffice) and settle in to carve new tunnels and rooms from the soil. Tunnelers are by nature a stoic, quiet people that makes them seem cold or even completely devoid of emotion to other gnomes. Truth be told they are a very thoughtful and philosophical people who enjoy quieter forms of entertainment. From the safety of their underground homes they contemplate the deeper aspects of gnome life and ask the important questions: why are we here? Who or what got us here? And why did they make everyone else so comedically big?
2. The Wild Gnomes: When explorers talk about pygmy cannibals living deep in the dark hearts of jungles it's likely they were not referring to the humans who rarely cannibalize if at all, and generally only short because that's just how genetic drift tends to work. Likely they were reffering to the small, vicious people that are sometimes their neighbors, the wild gnomes. Wild gnomes are not technically cannibals as humans and gnomes are two entirely different species. Wild gnomes are tribal, superstitious and perhaps the most different from the gnome cultures in that they do not scavenge from humans for the means to survive, except perhaps as food.
3. The Dwellers in the Walls: This variety of gnome lives hidden from humans often disguising themselves as mice or rats when the need arises that a human encounter might occur. Some popular fiction might have you believe these people live in human homes. While the occasional small family or clan can be found in such places truly impressive gnome civilizations are found in places of human businesses. A single grocery store could provide a comfortable home for thousands of gnomes. There are even tales of entire gnomish empires rising and falling in gigantic human business dwellings called malls. Here life is relatively easy unless you get into the twisted maze of gnomish politics.
4. The Nomads: Nomads are simply a catch all for gnomes on the move. Gnomish life is brutal. Often it comes that the gnomes are forced to move on. Other times religion, a search for a promised land, propels these gnomes. Still, there are gnomes who cannot fathom living in the same place for long and build an entire nomadic culture.
5. The Cloud People: Don't have much more then a neat concept. Just gnomes who live on top skyscrapers and tame birds to travel between buildings.
1. The Tunnelers: As their name implies this variety of gnome tends to live underground. Typically when a group of young gnomes decide that their warren is too crowded or too stale for their liking they set out and look for an abandoned burrow (rabbit warrens are prefered but if the surface is good enough even a snake hole will suffice) and settle in to carve new tunnels and rooms from the soil. Tunnelers are by nature a stoic, quiet people that makes them seem cold or even completely devoid of emotion to other gnomes. Truth be told they are a very thoughtful and philosophical people who enjoy quieter forms of entertainment. From the safety of their underground homes they contemplate the deeper aspects of gnome life and ask the important questions: why are we here? Who or what got us here? And why did they make everyone else so comedically big?
2. The Wild Gnomes: When explorers talk about pygmy cannibals living deep in the dark hearts of jungles it's likely they were not referring to the humans who rarely cannibalize if at all, and generally only short because that's just how genetic drift tends to work. Likely they were reffering to the small, vicious people that are sometimes their neighbors, the wild gnomes. Wild gnomes are not technically cannibals as humans and gnomes are two entirely different species. Wild gnomes are tribal, superstitious and perhaps the most different from the gnome cultures in that they do not scavenge from humans for the means to survive, except perhaps as food.
3. The Dwellers in the Walls: This variety of gnome lives hidden from humans often disguising themselves as mice or rats when the need arises that a human encounter might occur. Some popular fiction might have you believe these people live in human homes. While the occasional small family or clan can be found in such places truly impressive gnome civilizations are found in places of human businesses. A single grocery store could provide a comfortable home for thousands of gnomes. There are even tales of entire gnomish empires rising and falling in gigantic human business dwellings called malls. Here life is relatively easy unless you get into the twisted maze of gnomish politics.
4. The Nomads: Nomads are simply a catch all for gnomes on the move. Gnomish life is brutal. Often it comes that the gnomes are forced to move on. Other times religion, a search for a promised land, propels these gnomes. Still, there are gnomes who cannot fathom living in the same place for long and build an entire nomadic culture.
5. The Cloud People: Don't have much more then a neat concept. Just gnomes who live on top skyscrapers and tame birds to travel between buildings.
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