Gnome: Racial Deformation

Young gnomes are still considered young when they're deep into their second century. The marking of time is clear in their bodies and expressions however.

When a male gnome begins to feel the burden of age, the frowns and lines on his round face gain a deepness that is clear from a distance. Their nose grows to almost comical sizes and their bushy eyebrows elevate to hide their eyes to small pinpoint figures, lost in their cavities.

Female gnomes wrinkle when they age. Their skin softens as time passes and eventually becomes almost prune-like. Their bodies will start to hunch, and they seem to somewhat shrink in size. Elder female gnomes are known to carry elaborate walking sticks that aid them greatly as their bodies slowly lose their stoutness.

Gnomes reproduce sometime after their first century, but there is no real time constraint placed upon them to do so. Family is an important thing for them, but a lot of freedom is given when a particular individual is spending many years doing research on a project or invention or on more social aspects of life, following such research periods.

Gnomes have a very playful spirit. It shows in the way they deal with everything. While processes and organization are ingrained in their ways, they reserve little energy for seriousness and find joy in all the advancements and technologies they create or in simple pranks played on a fellow gnome.

Their love of creating things stands on equal footing with the appreciation they feel for the things they create. They hold far more value over gems and trinkets than actual gold, which makes them appear a tad materialistic. However, it is rarely driven by greed, mostly just an insatiable curiosity.

Because they are not a burly race, they prefer to solve problems with their heads instead of their fists. They will always pick the smartest solution and the one with the least physical effort. A gnome takes particular pleasure in out-thinking the opposition. Much of their trickery comes from their rather able brains.

They always want to improve on things and devise ways to not have to perform certain tasks. This makes gnomes a rather technological race and leads to many a conflict with those who learn to blend with their environments. Gnomes will also always try to modify every possible aspect of a device, often until it becomes something completely different from the original.