Gnow Your Gnomes: Scribkin

It’s hard to define the Gnomes of Arth; they're said to take as many shapes and sizes as the clouds in the sky.  Gnomish legends say that they once shared a common ancestor, but the great Clans have all become their own sub-races.  Be that as it may, it’s proper to refer to any of them, from a Halfling to a Tinderkin to a Deep Gnome, as a Gnome.

Scribkin, as the Gnomes of Clan Tinkrin are commonly known, are generally thought by most people to be the quintessential Gnomes (a viewpoint wholeheartedly embraced by most Scribkin).  They stand half as tall as most humans, with stocky builds, bulbous noses, and thick, bushy hair.  Industrious and curious, Scribkin make for some of Arth’s most innovative inventors, enchanters, and engineers.

Clan Tinkrin’s ancestral home of Essenpi sits amid the southern peaks of the Ironbreakers, the great mountains in the northwestern Freedlands and the Old Dwarven Kingdoms.    Living among the jagged Eboncrags forced Clan Tinkrin to adapt and innovate, and their skyways and flying transports are unlike anything else on Arth.

The Scribkin were decimated near the end of the third age in the War of Betrayal, when the Kobolds drove them from Essenpi.  When the remnant's of Clan Tinkrin retook their homeland early in the fourth age, they had lost the knowledge of many of the ancient machines and enchantments at the heart of the city. To this day, they have not unlocked all the mysteries that their forefathers left behind.

Scribkin are sometimes referred to as ‘High Gnomes,' ostensibly because of the elevation of their homeland, but more likely because of their collective conviction that Clan Tinkrin represents the pinnacle of Gnomedom.

The largest populations of Arth's Scribkin live in Essenpi, or in Baseton, the mixed-race settlement at the foot of Essenpi's mountain.  However, most of the world's Scribkin are spread over the rest of the world. Roaming High Gnomes have set up shops in cities all over Arth, and their services as inventors, engineers, and arch-enchanters are always in demand.  Scribkin always prefer intellectual tasks to manual labor, but those tasks can be in any field, and Scribkin make excellent scholars, teachers, priests, accountants, naturalists, executives, or anything else they can put their impressive minds to.

You can read more about Arth, the Scribkin and the other Gnomish clans in Orconomics: A Satire.