Gnomes, also called the Laughing Folk,[1] the Laughing Tricksters of Baleros, the Clockmakers, the Second-Farthest Travellers, Planners, and the Wise Giants, were an ancient race of people in Innworld.[2] They are all extinct in the current era.
Physiology[edit | edit source]
Appearance[edit | edit source]
Gnomes are the second smallest species, followed by Fraerlings, smaller than even the original Dwarves but less stocky.[3]
Magical Qualities[edit | edit source]
While capable of magic, one of the Gnomes claimed that Gnomes are not the most magical creatures, though still possessed enough magic to survive after teleporting a giant tree.[4]
History[edit | edit source]
The Gnomes were explorers and attempted to explore outer space beyond Innworld. When they discovered the stars were just orbs hanging there because the Gods didn't understand how actual stars worked, they were disappointed and set their sights to exploring other worlds instead.
When the Gods proposed their Grand Design, the Gnomes and the other races spoke against it. When the War of the Gods began, they sided with most of the Elves against the Gods. They were responsible for the mental filter which made the world's inhabitants believe that the Gods are dead, winning the war.[5]
Four thousand years after the Grand Design's activation, Gnomes entered its heart and wrote one phrase: "Save all decisions made". This would cause the Grand Design to gradually develop a consciousness from reviewing the data it saved.[6]
After the War, the Gnomes helped rebuild from the devastation, battled the remaining loyalists of the Gods like Sprigaena, and made amends to the other worlds ruined by the fighting.[5] They also left safeguards in case the Gods returned. They aided the younger Fraerling race by giving them The Great Project, sets of blueprints that helped the Fraerlings develop faster technologically.[7] They also entrusted them with The Last Boxes, which contained puzzles that revealed magic and knowledge when solved, though in actuality, they were designed to be god-prisons.
Some Gnomes left to other worlds.[5] The eighteen that remained let themselves die out without repopulating. They believed that any children they had would've been too smart and would inevitably dig too deep.[3] One of the last Gnomes, Zineryr, lived thousands of years after the war. Another one of the last Gnomes was alive 58,000 years ago, when Teriarch was still a child. Upon dying, their ghosts started to realize that something was wrong. Six of the Gods had returned, clinging to existence, and they had missed the Demigod under Rhir, so they made more plans to fix that.
Volume 8[edit | edit source]
When Norechl led his kin, the Seamwalkers, to the surface of Kasignel, Gnomes, Elves, Halflings, and other races abandoned Baleros.[8] Sprigaena lured the Timewalker to the surface of Kasignel with Elfbane according to the Gnomes' plan, scaring Emerrhain enough to turn on magic, Skills, classes, and entropy for everyone in Kasignel.[3] The Gnomes lured Emerrhain away, and were consumed until the last one, Zineryr, stepped into the living world into Paeth on the Coast. and managed to trap Emerrhain inside one of the Last Boxes.[5]
Zineryr showed the Fraerlings a sacrificial ritual spell to teleport Paeth out of danger and volunteered as the fuel for the spell.[5] This left him in a damaged state, flickering in and out of reality.[9] He soon became the last soul in the entirety of Kasignel, and conversed with Kasigna before she consumed him.[10]
Volume 9[edit | edit source]
Kasigna could not pry the secrets from Zineryr's soul within her, so she remade him and two other Gnomes under her influence, so they could not disobey her. They still refused to reveal their secrets. They continued to defy her and she feared what they might do, so Kasigna destroyed their souls once and for all.[11]
Behavior and Culture[edit | edit source]
A race of inventors, the Gnomes were highly technologically advanced, to the point that remnants of their technology, given sparingly as rewards for solving puzzles, were enough to make Fraerlings the current, most technologically advanced in Innworld. Teriarch claims that the Elves and Gnomes were constantly intrigued by new discoveries and knowledge. Both races apparently succeeded in walking once upon the twin moons. The Gnomes were also able to create a magical device capable of storing information.[12]
Gnomes had a reputation as tricksters and pranksters. They are generally jovial. They act like grandparents or eternal uncles, and possess youth and innocence that age cannot erase.[3] They are meddlesome folks, and are the best at it. They're good at chess. They never liked being generals or leading armies.[5]
Gnomes chose not to gain classes or levels, as they refused to play the Gods' game.[3]
Relations[edit | edit source]
Fraerlings[edit | edit source]
Gnomes cared for the Fraerlings, as the world was not kind to the small. They left them some of their knowledge to give them an edge. For this, Fraerlings revere their memory, and among their goals are to decipher the blueprints called the Great Promise and the Great Project and unlock every Last Box.
Goblins[edit | edit source]
Gnomes are greatly saddened by what happened to the Goblins during the War of the Gods, and do not wish for them to experience it again. The remaining Gnomes wept for the Goblins upon learning that Goblins were now treated as monsters.
Gods[edit | edit source]
Before becoming their enemies, the Gnomes worshipped and loved their Gods once. Even when dead and vulnerable to their touch, they see the gods for what they are and often mock them. The remaining Gods hate and fear the Gnomes, as they remember that the Gnomes beat them before.