Editing Gnomes

'''Gnomes''', also called the '''Laughing Folk''',<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/10/12/9-20/ Chapter 9.20]</ref> the '''Laughing Tricksters of [[Baleros]]''', the '''Clockmakers''', the '''Second-Farthest Travellers''', '''Planners''', and the '''Wise Giants''', were an ancient race of people in [[Innworld|Innworld.]]<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/03/27/8-76-b/ Chapter 8.76 B]</ref>  They are all extinct in the current era.

== Physiology ==

=== Appearance ===
Gnomes are the second smallest species, followed by Fraerlings, smaller than even the original [[Dwarves]] but less stocky.<ref name=":0">[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/04/13/8-79/ Chapter 8.79]</ref>

=== Magical Qualities ===
While capable of magic, [[Zineryr|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.<ref>[[Chapter 8.85]]</ref>  

== History ==
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 of Isthekenous|Grand Design]], the Gnomes and the other races spoke against it. When the [[God War|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.<ref name=":1">[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/04/17/8-80/ Chapter 8.80]</ref>

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.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2023/10/17/9-61-g/ Chapter 9.61 G]</ref>

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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2021/06/08/interlude-luan-the-giant/ Interlude - Luan the Giant]</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":0" /> 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. [[Dead Gods|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 ===
When [[Norechl]] led his kin, the [[Seamwalkers]], to the surface of [[Kasignel]], Gnomes, [[Elves]], [[Halflings]], and other races abandoned Baleros.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/04/10/8-78-f/ Chapter 8.78 F]</ref> Sprigaena lured the [[Timewalker]] to the surface of Kasignel with [https://thewanderinginn.fandom.com/wiki/Sprigaena#Equipment Elfbane] according to the Gnomes' plan, scaring Emerrhain enough to turn on magic, Skills, classes, and entropy for everyone in Kasignel.<ref name=":0" /> The Gnomes lured Emerrhain away, and were consumed until the last one, Zineryr, stepped into the living world into [[Paeth|Paeth on the Coast]]. and managed to trap Emerrhain inside one of the Last Boxes.<ref name=":1" />

Zineryr showed the Fraerlings a sacrificial ritual spell to teleport Paeth out of danger and volunteered as the fuel for the spell.<ref name=":1" /> This left him in a damaged state, flickering in and out of reality.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/05/03/8-85/ Chapter 8.85]</ref> He soon became the last soul in the entirety of Kasignel, and conversed with [[Kasigna]] before she consumed him.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2022/05/03/epilogue/ Volume 8 Epilogue]</ref>

=== Volume 9 ===
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.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2023/11/26/9-67-pt-1/ Chapter 9.67 (Pt. 1)]</ref>

== Behavior and Culture ==
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|twin moons]]. The Gnomes were also able to create a magical device capable of storing information.<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2017/07/22/2-39/ Chapter 2.46]</ref> 

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.<ref name=":0" /> They are meddlesome folks, and are the best at it. They're good at chess. They never liked being generals or leading armies.<ref name=":1" />

Gnomes chose not to gain classes or levels, as they refused to play the Gods' game.<ref name=":0" />

== Relations ==

=== Fraerlings ===
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]] ===
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 ===
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.

== Known Gnomes ==

* [[Zineryr]] (''Soul destroyed'')
* [[Calispe]] (''Soul consumed'')
* [[Ameitp]] (''Soul consumed'')
* Beitrne (''Soul destroyed'')<ref>[https://wanderinginn.com/2023/11/26/9-67-pt-1/ Chapter 9.67 (Pt. 1)]</ref>
* Fifteen other dead Gnomes (''Souls consumed'')

== Trivia ==

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Races]]
[[Category:Gnomes]]
[[Category:Extinct]]