The Gnome Realms
| The Gnome RealmsCopyright © 1999 by Rasgon Location:Dothion Shadow Heaven:Deeply ensconced in the hills of Dothion strange and marvelous sights become visible. Towering palaces and great jeweled caverns teeming with beautiful gnomes of every subrace fill and please the eye, if you like that sort of thing. Rivers run with gnomish mushroom ale and every gnome seems endowed with the powers of the greatest warrior, the greatest illusionist, the greatest artificer, and the greatest lover. Surely, this is the home of the gods. Sort of. Illusions and trickery are a fundamental part of gnomish culture, and this is carried even into their religious beliefs. It seems that only the truly worthy are allowed into the true realms of the powers, and that gnomish petitioners are tested with a land of false delights they call the Shadow Heaven. Everyone is allowed in the Shadow Heaven, but only gnomes are empowered by it. Gnomes are able to tap into it and draw forth illusionary delights of every shape and form they can imagine. This can be dangerous to the unprepared, as young and foolish gnomish spirits sometimes conjure dangerous things like mile-high cakes that can topple over or favorite riding beasts or hamsters that can get out of control. It is all just illusion, not even semi-real, but those that believe it can get hurt, sometimes. Gnome Heaven:Gnomes that prove themselves too canny for the deceptions and temperamentally pleasing to the gnome powers-industrious, clever, and good-hearted- eventually make it into the true Gnome Heaven, the jeweled realms of many names (the Golden Hills, etc.). Gnome Heaven is simple compared to the garish and sometimes lurid Shadow Heaven, an idealized gnomish settlement with room for every gnome ever born (for the powers of the gnomes hope that every one of their children might eventually win his or her way inside).Non-gnomes, or gnomes that have yet to prove themselves, are rarely invited inside unless they are needed in some way. Perhaps they have information on the whereabouts of a kidnapped petitioner or lost artifact of importance to the race, or they seek to rescue a doomed gnomish city on the prime. In those rare cases, archon-like proxies will escort good-aligned cutters in, and maybe even give them a tour.
|
- 918 reads