Many myths, legends and stories surround this strange folk that lives under the earth of Tirakan. Allegedly, at least according to the Fraxut, the city of the Gnomes Rolltrutz travels on a huge rail network deep under the earth of Tirakan. In many Places, however, this story is dismissed as drunken gnome tales and weasel talk.
So run when the gnomish construct ticks.... - old Tirakanian proverb
It came, ticked and exploded... the gnome survived - old Tirakanian proverb
That smells like gnome work to me! - old Fraxut exclamation
You are blessed with the luck of the Gnomes! - old Tirakanian congratulation
Allegedly, Rolltrutz is laid out on 20 levels inside, each arranged around a shaft a good 100 steps high. The Gnomes get from one level to the next by using so-called jumping plates. The only way down is to jump into the shaft, at the bottom of which a huge cushion of air has been built up. On the highest level sits the chief developer, the leader of the Gnomes.
The sole purpose of gnomic society is to invent things. Even gnome children play with small building blocks that plug into each other, the so-called "gnomo". Later, these constructions often form the basis of the most insane inventions. There seems to be no limit to the Gnomes' imagination. It is not known exactly how old a gnome becomes, mainly because only the children are a little smaller, but all the other Gnomes look almost the same to the human eye. The Gnomes are all about one step tall, their children perhaps an inch shorter. Their skin is bluish in colour, they stand on skinny legs and have extremely thin arms. Their heads, on the other hand, seem disproportionately large, as do their huge eyes. It is not known whether there are male and female. According to gnomish accounts, the children are brought by storks, and this always happens when a gnome dies. The Gnomes can be distinguished by an individual device attached to their clothes. The chief gnome, for example, is said to have a small steam-driven vehicle running on rails over his body, others have extendable hats or small clocks and musical instruments attached to their bodies.
The gnome folk are consistently magic-diligent, so everything they build harbours a modicum of magical energy. This is one reason why Gnomes captured alive are sought-after, albeit unpredictably dangerous, stores of magic, especially by black mages. Gnomes are said to be incredibly lucky, which allows them to survive almost any of their "experiments".
In the 5th century, the kingdom of Asgoran succeeded in negotiating an alliance with the Gnomes, and since then, sometimes bizarre, but extremely effective weapons of all kinds have been found again and again on the battlefields of Tirakan. Walking defence towers and rolling fortresses are only two of the more "normal" examples... the splinter pear had to be withdrawn because of too much collateral damage.
Notorious is the gnomish language and especially its speed of speech. It is said that a gnome can speak over 200 gnomish words per second and still be understood by other Gnomes. Their names are correspondingly long, hardly completely memorable for Humans.
Despite their chaotic nature, the Gnomes are an extremely peaceful folk. The only exception is the Gnome-Dwarf War of about 2000 b.EC., which went in favour of the Gnomes, but which every Fraxut will dispute and insist on a draw. What moved the Gnomes to make devices against the lizards and bulls, only the Asgoran secret service knows...
It is said that the Gnomes were created from the dust that fell to the ground when the world was created. The sparks formed the Gnomes, the ashes their dark siblings the dark Gnomes.