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Chapter One: The Lands of Aeliode producing a muted shadow of past variance Skin tones tend towards standard human tones with only the occasional hint of green, blue, or reddish hue Society Much of gnomish culture and society has been destroyed over the past 500 years due to the race being hunted and killed by the shape changing servants of Syn Most gnomes lead solitary lives hiding in dark burrows and forever traveling across the land Gnomes may work together for short periods of time, but they have learned that long-term cooperation will likely lead to their death as Syn seems to sense groups of gnomes Gnomes still marry and have children, but the couple rarely stays at the same place for any length of time It is safer to limit meetings to a couple times a year Children born will spend their life with only one parent at a time When the parents meet they exchange the child Gnomes have begun a greeting ritual over recent centuries It is a combination greeting and test to prove that the newly met gnome is not a shapechanger As it is believed that a shapechanger’s blood will always flow blue, gnomes have taken to scratching themselves to show that their blood is red and that they are truly gnome This greeting is called “showing one’s color” While not all gnomes take part in this ritual, all at least know about it and it is considered, at the very least, rude not to show your color Arts Art has all but disappeared from gnomish practice, at least in the sense by which most races identify art Gnomes have turned camouflage and calligraphy into an art Many gnomes are masters at weaving beautiful cloth that can blend into most surroundings Their skill at applying pigments to their skin in order to aid in their stealth is a skill most other humanoids have liilte talent for Gnomes have applied these skills to their writing as well, crafting letters and words so that they can hide on a page amongst other words and letters This calligraphy, though not magical, only becomes apparent when viewing the letters from the correct angle Many gnomes also wear well-crafted rings they use in their “showing one’s color” greeting ceremony The rings have at least one barb which is used to scratch skin enough so that the color of blood can be been seen, but does so while minimizing pain and scarring History Many hundreds of years ago, prior to the 11700s AE, gnomes flourished across the Issian Peninsula They were farmers and fishers, living beneath the hills in warm and cheerful burrows Great celebrations were held throughout the year, most notably during midsummer Gnomes would welcome travelers, tinkerers, and visitors of all sort to their celebrations as well as into their homes Gnomish hospitality was known across the peninsula as a thing cherished and always counted on Then, one summer, priests of Syn turned their attention to the fair hill folk Some say that a cult of Syn, due to their malicious ways, was turned away from a gnome community on a rainy night Others say that Syn hated these children of Mahte because of the gifts she gave them No one is completely sure when or why it began, but during this fateful summer gnomes began disappearing from their homes They would retire for the evening, but in the morning they would not be found in their beds Sometimes the gnomes would be found huddled alongside a road, but more often than not they would never be found Slowly the disappearances began to increase in number as gnomes began to huddle together Once they gathered to express joy, but soon they began to gather out of fear Gnomes began to tell tales of strange travelers coming to town, then the visitors would disappear and so would one of the gnome villagers Then suddenly the next summer the disappearances stopped But once winter came, the gnomes’ reprieve was replaced with bloody murders Gnomes were found torn apart, only pieces of their bodies found strewn about their homes, all the while family members were found to be the murderers The celebrations ceased as the number of deaths began to rise No one understood, the gnomes least of all, why these violent murders of family members were happening Gnomes began to carry weapons at all times to defend themselves Family members became suspicious of each other, and families fractured Gnomes would go off alone into small burrows and lock themselves in with hopes of surviving till the morning After a third of the population had been killed or gone missing, a gnome seer named Rainouart claimed that Mahte had come to him in a dream and told him that the priests of Syn had sent duplicates, doppelgangers, into their midst in order to destroy the fair race The seer was soon found crucified mere days after telling others about his dream Today, the gnome population is a quarter of what it was five centuries ago Gnomes have taken the warning of the seer and have become paranoid xenophobes, obsessed with security and identifying shapeshifters Instead of cheerful welcomes, travelers near gnome lands will only 11
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