Gnomes in the Dawnlands are soul-forged vermin whose job is to hunt down stray corpses and devour their pineal glands. If a corpse isn't eaten, buried or burnt in the Dawnlands, it comes back as a vicious undead monster. Gnomes are pretty hated because they're seen (accurately) as devouring people's souls, but too useful to get rid of, since you don't want that guy who was thrown into the canals last week coming back as a revenant.
They still have a lot of the essence of gnomes, being small, clever, and malign fey creatures who live underground and that are not dwarves.
In general, I've appropriated a lot of conventional fantasy names to provide a touchpoint of familiarity to accentuate the weirdness. If I used too much new and idiosyncratic jargon, the game would be buried in that jargon, whereas by using familiar terms and then changing what they mean, PCs get at least a mental handle, and then start comparing how their baseline knowledge differs from what they are actually dealing with. It helps immersion and emphasises the unfamiliar.
Eww.
ReplyDeleteGnomes in the Dawnlands are soul-forged vermin whose job is to hunt down stray corpses and devour their pineal glands. If a corpse isn't eaten, buried or burnt in the Dawnlands, it comes back as a vicious undead monster. Gnomes are pretty hated because they're seen (accurately) as devouring people's souls, but too useful to get rid of, since you don't want that guy who was thrown into the canals last week coming back as a revenant.
DeleteNice, I can imagine them dancing merrily around a maypole as they prepare to enter their steam-driven balloon ship.
ReplyDeleteFollowed by a train of badger companions!
DeleteCool. But why call these dudes 'gnomes'?
ReplyDeleteThey still have a lot of the essence of gnomes, being small, clever, and malign fey creatures who live underground and that are not dwarves.
DeleteIn general, I've appropriated a lot of conventional fantasy names to provide a touchpoint of familiarity to accentuate the weirdness. If I used too much new and idiosyncratic jargon, the game would be buried in that jargon, whereas by using familiar terms and then changing what they mean, PCs get at least a mental handle, and then start comparing how their baseline knowledge differs from what they are actually dealing with. It helps immersion and emphasises the unfamiliar.