An existing community, rather small by most standards, of Gnomes was discovered living beneath the mountain (as Dwarves do) of Rockhome (as the Gnomes called it). The Gnomes were initially believed to be an off shoot of Dwarves, but upon closer examination there was quite a few differences. Gnomes did not care much for forging weapons, armor or magnificent halls; they were more interested in wealth – but not for the sake of being rich, but rather to fund their “experiments” which involved an assortment of contraptions. Gnomes have mastered the ability to use steam, to power everything within their environment. Unlike their “Dwarven Cousins” – gnomes are capable of magic. Who, or how they learned to use magic, remains completely unknown. (Not even the Gnomes remember who first brought Magic to their people). There is said to be only about 1,000 known gnomes in the “known” world thus far, making them the most uncommon race. Some gnomes are “touched” by what is called “Touch of Bargledar” which compels gnomes to acquire diamonds and jewels to “rebuild the Great Star.” Gnomes do not record much of anything; all their time “writing things down” is dedicated to schematics. So there is no calendar (thus no gnomes know their age in years), there’s no history of population, etc.

• Gnomes have given themselves all kinds of first names; and some have last names, some do not (it gets confusing, because if it’s not about building steam contraptions, gnomes are notorious for simply not keeping record of it). So one gnome may adopt the last name of Streampower, and their son may take up the last name of Lavaburst, or no last name at all.

Forest Gnome. As a forest gnome, you have a natural knack for illusion and inherent quickness and stealth. In the worlds of D&D, forest gnomes are rare and secretive. They gather in hidden communities in sylvan forests, using illusions and trickery to conceal themselves from threats or to mask their escape should they be detected. Forest gnomes tend to be friendly with other good-spirited woodland folk, and they regard elves and good fey as their most important allies. These gnomes also befriend small forest animals and rely on them for information about threats that might prowl their lands.

Rock Gnome. Rock Gnomes are the gnomes, who live their dwarven “cousins” have lived beneath the mountains – and share the same affinity for “forging” things – however, Rock Gnomes specialize in “tinkering” items together such as music boxes and clock work toys. Many Rock Gnomes eventually travel to go and see what other things exist in the world that they can potentially tinker something together and make life, overall, ideally – better.

Autognome. Autognomes are gnomes that normal gnomes sent off into the Astral Plane (like the Mars Rover) in hopes in gaining information about the Astral Plane – but over time, the self-repairing Autognomes eventually grew to become sentient and continued to build other sentient Autognomes and are now seen throughout the Astral Plane, often aboard Spelljammers.

Here are some additional examples of what may have sent the Autognome on their own –

Deep Gnome. Forest gnomes and rock gnomes are the gnomes most commonly encountered in the lands of the surface world. There is another subrace of gnomes rarely seen by any surface-dweller: deep gnomes, also known as svirfneblin. Guarded, and suspicious of outsiders, svirfneblin are cunning and taciturn, but can be just as kind-hearted, loyal, and compassionate as their surface cousins.