GNOMES
CHAPTER 2
chamber within Sheyanna’s temple and then walks to Garl’s The War of the Twins temple for the actual ceremony. The shining deity, Garl Glittergold, had just sat down to eat Rites: The marriage rite is central to Sheyanna’s faith. his breakfast one pure, perfect morning. The song of the She also blesses healthy babies and has a number of fertilwind among the leaves of the trees was sweet to his ears, ity rites. and the golden nectar upon which he supped caught the light perfectly, each golden drop a perfect culmination of Herald and Allies: The herald of Sheyanna is a 20thall that will be or ever was. The morning was all it should be level ghaele eladrin cleric. Her allies are bralani eladrins, and nothing it shouldn’t, and Garl felt a deep sense of peace. ghaele eladrins, and Huge fire elementals. Although each morning for him, each moment, was perfect Favored Weapon: Heavy flail. in his sight, the mornings were all unique, each one never to be replicated. As he sat, contemplating the perfection of the honeyed nectar on his tongue, he heard a noise—an odd, dissonant The gnomes have a parable about history that is often sound that ruined the music of the wind and made the repeated among their wise men (especially when outtaste of the nectar turn bitter. It was an angry, buzzing, siders ask about the age of their cities or customs): “If whining sound—the sound of someone in confl ict with a pebble drops into a bucket of water, a splash marks its all existence. entry, making ripples that extend in all directions. The Garl rose and went to see what the source of the sound pebble itself is gone, but the waves created by its passing was, to discover what new thing had come into being remain. Once the ripples are gone, though, what evidence that could sunder the world from its perfection. He is there that the pebble ever came?” The expected answer walked for days, but in only a few steps. He walked for is “None but the pebble itself, invisible and forgotten in miles in an instant. At last he came to the source of the the dark water.” terrible sound. Aside from the enjoyable (for a gnome) experience of confusing the questioner, the parable sums up the gnome view Befoee him stood a dark figure with black hair, gray skin, of history. Just because something is no longer remembered shining eyes, and a grim, unsmiling mouth. The figure was does not mean it never existed. The notion of historical the same height as Garl, the same shape, and even wore record and preserving memories for posterity is an amusthe same clothing; everything else about it, though, was ing concept for gnome scholars and inventors, for they are Garl’s opposite in every way. There was nothing that could taught from a young age that nothing is permanent but the be compared between the two, and yet everything was the passing of time—and some gnome mages are working on same. The figure was his dark twin, Gelf. Garl knew his that one. twin upon sight, even though they had never before met. Gnomes are studious record-keepers, but they keep writHis knowledge of Gelf was perfect, as was Gelf’s of him. ten records as a reference when needed rather than from a They were shadows of one another, opposite points on the desire to preserve their deeds for glory in posterity. Instead same sphere. of looking back, they focus on the present with an eye to the In his hands, Gelf held the source of the sound. It was a future. Gnomes plan rather than record, experience rather strange item, not wholly one thing or another. It was part than remember. As such, their racial history is considered sword, part wand, part scepter, part staff, and part lyre—all a matter beyond their ken and experience—worthwhile, of it shifting from one form to the next so that any one part but hardly something that can be known in any meaningof it could be anything at any time. It hurt the eyes to look ful way. While their recorded history goes back to ancient upon, and yet for all its dizzying changes, it remained steady times, few gnomes doubt that it extends far beyond what in Gelf’s hands. anyone deigned to write down. No gnome is surprised when Gelf looked at Garl, smiled, and waved the thing through gnome artifacts are discovered; instead, they are surprised the air. The sound increased, and apparitions of beauty fell that anyone would need to know exactly how old they are in from it like rain, obscuring the true perfection of the world the first place. beyond them. Anger and sorrow rose in Garl’s heart. “Gelf,” he said, “why do you carry such a thing? Put it MYTHIC ORIGINS aside, and come join me in the wholeness of the morning. The gnomes are unusual in that they have almost no creDo not spoil it by dancing with shadows.” ation myths relating to their emergence as a race, which is “What are shadows to you, dear brother, are perfection consistent with their view of existence as an infinite thing to me. I cannot abide the dreary world you cling to so deswith no beginning and no end. Queries on the matter to perately, and thus I will build one more to my liking.” Gelf Garl have been inconclusive, though the Prankster is hardly sneered, and cities of smoke and light rose up behind known for his straightforward answers in any case. him, blocking the wind and putting an end to the music The closest thing the gnomes have to a creation myth can of the leaves. be seen in the following story of the beginning of Garl’s Garl knew then that things could never be peaceful between battle with his dark twin, Gelf. This is an unusual legend him and his brother. The truth of one brother was anathema concerning Garl, since most of the others portray him as a to the other, and so it would ever be. With a heavy heart he lighthearted, mischievous prankster. took up his axe, Goldthane, and raised it to point at his twin.
HISTORY AND FOLKLORE
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