The Campaign Builder's Guild

Actually, I really like your clarified explaination Kalos.  You should definitely add that to the post on magic, because it's really well done.

Also, your answers are good, but, they raise the question: is it because of cultural prejudice dwarves avoid magic, or for one of the reasons above?  I assume you were not saying they were less likely to be smart enough or have the resources?

It isn't so much cultural prejudice that causes the dwarves to be 'remedial' where magic is concerned.  It's simply that they lack a native magical tradition.  Dwarves were always too pragmatic in their thinking to give rise to either a strong theology or a strong philosophy, the two types of thinking most conducive in other races to magical development.  (Humans and gnomes tended to develop philosophically derived magical traditions, while orcs and halflings developed a more religiously oriented one and the elves, as already noted, went alchemical.)

Thus, dwarven magicians are forced to acquire their magical skills by learning non-native, human traditions.  Once they have done so, they are as proficient as any other race at the actual use of magic (exceeding most others, in fact, when it comes to the making of magical weapons), but because most teachers are reluctant to take on students of other cultures, let alone other races, dwarven magicians remain rare.

Progress Update:  Races have been taking longer than expected because (as usual for me) I'm cramming way too much information into the descriptions.  Nonetheless, proceeding in alphabetical order I just finished the gnomes.  Humans, Halflings and Orcs left to go.

As some bonus content, here's my newest version (hand-drawn - mostly in pencil-sketch but partially inked) of the map.  Be forewarned - I had to upload it via digital camera, because I have no scanner access.  However, I cleaned it up in photoshop a little, so you get the basic idea.

It was pointed out to me that the previous version sort of required that Salabria be in the tropics, since both orc-land and ferrund, on opposite sides of the map, were straddling arctic terrain.  As it is no small secret that the Salabrian Sea is supposed to be modelled on the Mediterranean, I've corrected for this by moving Sakrtskaya south into the tropics, where it feels quite at home.

The Bakhilun mountains merit some discussion, but I'll save it for the time being.

Are the races you've done posted?  I skimmed the earlier posts, but the only thing I saw was the original races spoiler.  Or are you doing them all before posting any (which I can understand)?

I feel your pain on reorganizing maps.  I've done that more than once for Kishar.  I'm glad things are shaping up for you.  The mountain "range" in southern part of the western continent have an usual shape.  Is this intended to be an important area?

Re: Races:  I want to post the races all as one.  I've got a post on the first page reserved for races, when I'm done i'll edit that to include them (I want them on the first page) and then 'bump' the thread to let people know that they went up.

Re: those mountains in the southwest: I'm not sure yet.  Originally only the lower, inked half of the mountains there were present.  I explain them as being a result of ancient continental collision between the 'Orcland' plate and the 'Sakrtskayan' Plate, much like the Himalayas.  Then, I decided to add some 'depth' to the range - it should be understood that the whole region enclosed by that range is mountainous.  Not sure whether there's anything there yet, or even whether it'll survive in my next incarnation of the map (Though the basic continental shapes are much more firm now than they were in the first conceptual draft on the previous page, in terms of landforms this is still very much a 'rough' draft.)

Whenever I go about creating a campaign world map, I tend to draw one or two versions of the map by hand per day, with each version changing some things and keeping others the same.  This carries on for about six or seven days until ideas really firm up.  I then scan the 'final' hand drawn version into the computer, where it can be more finely manipulated.  (This also allows me to use computer fonts for my labels, since my own script is rather poor.)

This is a day 3 map, meaning that things may well change quite a bit before the final version gets uploaded.

I tend to have a hard time drawing the same thing more than once, which is only bad if I was happy with the look I had...

So why does the map refer to "the Great Sea" instead of "the Salabrian" or something similar?

The Great Sea (less generic name coming, but like i said, that was a draft map) is the vast ocean which separates the two continents.  The Salabrian Sea refers only to the smaller inland sea in the upper-left quadrant of the map (look where all the mountains and labels are).  Although it looks small, remember that this map is on a vast scale.

That inner sea, and to a lesser extent the 'outer' coastline around it, is where 90% of the action of any given campaign will take place (in my mind, anyway - if by chance someone else picks up this setting and is more entranced by the exotic places, I say go for it).  With the exception of Taectenatl, Etaxor and Sakrtskaya (which have been moved to more foreign locations to suit their foreign cultures), all of the former island nations of Tasothilos 1.0 are to be found in that region.

As far as drawing the same thing more than once, before I make any given draft I ink the previous draft and set it underneath the new one.  That way, I can trace where I like what I had before and go astray where I don't.

Having read Tasothilos from 2005 onward, it was one of the main attractors to the CBG (that and limetom bugging me). I've now read over everything here in detail and eagerly await more. Although you've stated where you intend for the action to take place, do you have any thoughts concerning the lands to the far east (aka The Great Question Marks). What happens if you sail due south? Where is the equator of the world?

The equator passes just south of the 'land bridge' that connects the north-western and south-western continents - a little bit above where the name Sakrtskaya is written.  (Though more recent drafts of the map have changed the shape slightly, the same basic form still holds.)

Sailing far out beyond the sight of land Sea has only really been attempted by men in the past hundred years or so, and for that reason there are few reliable reports as to what lies in the far south.  The orcs, though far more comfortable with ocean voyages, do not chance the icebergs of the far southern seas very often.  The few that do have brought back reports of occasional rocky islands of with strange and monstrous bird-like inhabitants, and beyond lies a great land of ice and snow which has never been explored.
With advances in human seafaring, it's conceivable that attempts might be made to sail into the deep south during the lifetime of PCs who start in 1497.  Though probably unsuccessful, it would make for a great adventure...

Though I have actually got a couple of pages of notes about what lies at the north and south poles of Algarlin, I'm deliberately leaving the far east a mystery even to me - for now at least.  It makes it far more useful to me later on...

So it turns out that there's a post limit on replies to threads.  For that reason, all 14,000 words of my work on Races cannot be accomodated in a single post.  Instead, I'll spread it out over a sequence of posts.  This first one will address a few general issues as well as giving an intro to the format I'll use for talking about races.


[ooc]Note that the races of Tasothilos have been slightly â,¬Ërecalibratedâ,¬,,¢ on several counts.  They may not be balanced with core D&D.  My only concern is whether they are balanced with each other.

On a completely different but equally important note, the racial generalities drawn up here are far from universal.  It is very possible to find individuals, or perhaps even entire cities, tribes, and nations, that defy these racial generalities.  No attempt will be made here to cover the full possible range of dwarvishness, for instance.   Where the generalities especially break down is with the dwarves, elves, humans and halflings, because recent exploration has revealed entire civilizations of these races dwelling across the sea in the east.  While occasional notes about these wildly foreign people will creep in here, for the most part my concern is to discuss the races as they exist around the Salabrian Sea, almost all PCs will have their backgrounds in that region and that is also where most of the people they interact with will be from.

Later on, larger tracts on each of the individual races will be written up, and in these I will attempt to give a better picture of the diversity of the races.
[/ooc]

[spoiler=Format Guide]
After the Meta-name, a very brief description of the whole race in summary
 Name: Here are listed 2 names, separated by commas.  The first is the Late Ekeusian name â,¬' that is, the way in which human scholars and nobles of the Salabrian region will refer to the race.  The second is the raceâ,¬,,¢s own name for itself.  Since some races, like Orcs, Elves and Dwarves, do not have a single racial language but several, the dominant racial language is used for this part.  Both names are given in the singular.  (Note that humans have just one name listed, since the two are logically identical).
Physical Desciption:  What do members of this race look like?  Average height and weight are given, along with skin colors, hair and eye colors, and other distinguishing features.
[note=Generations]The generation statistic is included for a reason.  In addition to giving some insight into relative rates of population increase, it also gives some insight into relative cultural memory.  To an elven child today, the era of the Andozian Empireâ,¬,,¢s height (~1000 AP) is the time of his grandfather or great-grandfather â,¬' while to a human child, the same era is more than 20 generations removed.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: These four numbers introduce some critical facts about the lifespan of the race.  The first is the number of years that it takes for a member of this race to grow to maturity and be considered an â,¬Ëadultâ,¬,,¢.  The second is the average lifespan of a member of this race, assuming that the individual reaches adulthood healthily.   (Infant and child mortality greatly distort life expectancy â,¬Ëchartsâ,¬,,¢.)  The third is the approximate *maximum* lifespan for a member of that race â,¬' while some live beyond this point, these persons are quite rare, usually quite frail, and never long outlast this point.  The fourth is the average length of a generation â,¬' that is, the approximate age at which members of this race reproduce.  This number is very approximate and does not reflect all parts of society: for instance, in modern America, the average generation is about 30 years among college-educated and the upper classes, while among the urban lower class, it is rapidly approaching half that number.
Demeanor: The demeanor of an entire race is a very difficult to summarize, but an attempt at common racial personality traits is made here.
Lands:  This section details both those regions where this race dominates, and also the role that members of this race play in â,¬Ëforeignâ,¬,,¢ (usually human) societies.
After â,¬ËLandsâ,¬,,¢, some of the races have special sections which should be fairly self-explanatory
History: The whole scope of a raceâ,¬,,¢s history is too broad a subject to cover adequately here â,¬' instead, I try to give an approximate summary.  These histories are (as with many things in Tasothilos) simply what the race believes and claims as itâ,¬,,¢s own history.  The objective â,¬Ëtruthâ,¬,,¢ may be similar, or may not be.  In several races, especially dwarves and halflings, this racial history is closely intertwined with religion.
Magic: Each race approaches magic in a different way, and some races (particularly the elves) have forms of magic all their own.  In this section, the raceâ,¬,,¢s attitude towards magic is summarized as well as
Languages: A general statement on the nature and descent of the languages spoken by this race.
Major Religions:  How do members of this race worship?  If several variants exist, each will be summarized.
 Adventurers:  What drives creatures of this sort to a life of adventuring?  Several different hooks are supplied here.
[spoiler=Statistics]  Here follows the statistical part of the race.  Ability Modifiers are included first, then size, base speed, and then any special abilities or powers.[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]

[ic=A Note on Half-Races]
Half-breed â,¬Ëracesâ,¬,,¢ do not exist in Tasothilos.  Humans are capable of interbreeding with *any* of the other races, but the blood of other races is somewhat weaker compared to human blood.  Thus, all offspring of these unions are statistically human, though they might show some minor aesthetic hints of their strange heritage.  (Humans with some elvish lineage might have slight points to their ears and be slight of build, while humans with dwarvish heritage might be exceptionally hairy.)  These â,¬Ëhalf-breedsâ,¬,,¢ are exceptionally rare, (with â,¬Ëhalf-elvesâ,¬,,¢ being the most common, as the offspring of human masters and elven slaves) but owing to the subtlety of their appearance they do not tend to face strong societal prejudice.
The ability of humans to mate with just about any sentient mammalian humanoid is a particular property of their race.  Matings that do not involve one human partner (a gnome and a halfling, for instance) are not capable of producing offspring.
[/ic]

[/size]
An expansive and remarkably adaptive people, found nearly everwhere on the surface of Algarlin.
Name: Phoisir
Physical Desciption: Humans grow to be between 5 feet and 6 feet in height on average (exceptional members of the race may extend a foot or more in either direction).  They weigh between 120 and 220 pounds, with men being on average the larger sex.  The coloration of humans can vary widely, though in olden times it tended to be fairly uniform by region. (As emigration becomes more common, greater mixing and local variety can be observed, particularly in cities.) In the Salabrian Sea region, where most Tasothilos games will likely be set, hair colors tend towards the dark â,¬' black and deep browns are the most common.  The skin tones of these people are of a medium complexion and they tan easily.  Their eyes are generally brown, though occasional greens and blues are seen.  In the far north among the Vievnans and Ferrundar, the hair and skin tones are on the whole lighter â,¬' blonds, light browns, and reds are common for hair, and the skin is a pale, almost white color.  These Northerners frequently have red eyes.  Peoples from further parts of the world have even more diverse tones â,¬' the Sakrtskayans have very dark coloration, while the Taecs and the desert-folk exhibit great local variation in tones.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 15/75/100/25
Demeanor:  Humans are characterized above all by their ambition.  Like most races, human societies tend to have strict caste systems, but more than most races, humans constantly chafe against their assigned stations in life, ever seeking to become more than that which they were born to be.  This can be an extremely ennobling sentiment, but oftentimes it also degenerates into base greed.
Lands:Humans dominate a greater part of the geography of Algarlin than any other race.  However, they are a race with a natural tendency towards disunity â,¬' great empires of Men are the exception, not the rule.  The Salabrian Sea region abounds in kingdoms of the humans, and they are equally dominant in the wilder lands of the West among the Sakrtskayans.  In the great desert of Aganamil, however, humans are just one of several nomadic peoples, and not even the most important or powerful.  Across the ocean, the Taec humans control a vast empire and compete with several non-human empires of roughly equal strength.  Many of the humans in non-human lands tend to be working purely towards their own interests â,¬' as adventurers, raiders and bandits, or scholars.  A few humans are found among the dwarves in a more formal capacity, however, where they can frequently find employ as musicians, story-tellers, and royal historians.
History:  Salabrian historians, following on Ekeusian traditions, believe that men were created last of all the races by the gods.  They further believe that several of the thirteen â,¬Ëgoodâ,¬,,¢ deities mingled with the primordial men, producing each their own â,¬Ëraceâ,¬,,¢ of humanity.  (These races are delineated by â,¬'ur suffixes â,¬' Onalur, Eldur, Suphur, etc).  Within the Salabrian region, Human history has proceeded rather cyclically over the course of the past 5,000 years, with a series of empires and kingdoms rising and falling in turn.  The greatest of these, however, was the Ekeusian empire, which rose to dominate more than half of Salabria and some lands beyond around the first century MP.  Though it fell almost fifteen hundred years ago, Ekeusion still looms large in the human historical memory.
Magic:  Humans are not particularly adept at magic by nature.  However, the keenness of their minds and their philosophical instincts has allowed them to develop a relatively strong tradition of logomancy â,¬' most dwarven and many gnomish Spellcasters use logomantic traditions derived from the human tradition.  Also uniquely human is the tradition of Arithromancy â,¬' an (almost) scientific view towards magic with particularly potent divinatory powers.  While these traditions are quite strong, they are also quite exclusive â,¬' the percentage of humans able to use magic is lower than that of any other of the great races, save only the dwarves.
Languages:  University men of Salabria fairly universally agree that all humans speak languages that are, in their origins, corrupted from High Ekeusian, which is sometimes called the Tongue of Man.  Despite the fact that the varying languages of men sound extremely different, this position makes good sense â,¬' many of the most fundamental words in these languages can be shown to be roughly equivalent, and in structure they are somewhat similar.  The Taec case is unique, for it seems not to relate to other human languages as closely as Salabrian tongues do. As with many elements of Taec culture, the scholars have not yet arrived at satisfactory explanations.  In general, though widely divergent, the tongues of men are characterized by rich phonologies, and accentuation based on vowel length and on stress.
Major Religions:  Within the Salabrian Sea area, worship for the Ekeusian pantheon of deities is nearly absolute (though some persons still reject Second World Doctrine.)  The Sakrtskayans and desert folk of the west have strange pantheons, mostly revolving around the veneration of different animistic spirits of the air, plants, water and earth.  The Taecs of the eastern continent have their own panethon of gods under a terrible sun-queen, Aztli.
Adventurers:  Humans are the commonest adventurers of all â,¬' their overwhelming ambition causes them constantly to try to better their station, and the promise of quick wealth and glorious deeds is an irresistable draw to many, even if the threats are many and the mortality rates are high.  Whether it be a peasant seeking to become a lord, a lord seeking to become a king, or a petty scholar seeking to become a masterful wizard, humans are among the most driven of those who seek the adventuring lifestyle.
[spoiler=Statistics]

Humans have no racial ability bonuses *Medium Size *Speed 30 feet *Humans receive one extra feat at character creation. *At first level, humans get 4 extra points to spend on skills.  At every subsequent level-up, they receive 1 extra skill point.

[/spoiler]

A mountainous race of masterful craftsmen and engineers awaiting their Messiah.
Name: Druphir, Mahhad
Physical Desciption: Dwarves are somewhat short creatures, averaging in height around 4 feet, 3 inches (varying perhaps a half-foot in either direction).  They are however very solidly built, and weigh around 140 to 200 pounds.  Men and women are fairly close in terms of build, with the â,¬Ëaverageâ,¬,,¢ man being about an inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the â,¬Ëaverageâ,¬,,¢ woman.  Dwarves typically have eyes somewhat close together, and their noses are large and triangular.  Their faces are large, and have clearly-defined wrinkles in them even in youth, especially in the forehead.  Dwarves are very hairy creatures â,¬' both men and women have coarse hair on their arms and legs, and members of both sexes can grow beards.  (All but the most traditional or independently-minded Dwarvish women living in human society tend to shave their faces, since other races seem to find women with beards unsightly).  Almost all male dwarves wear very long beards.  Dwarvish skintone tends to be ruddy and of a medium shade, and their eyes are typically varying shades of brown, though occasional greens and reds are also seen, and the rare blue-eyed child is thought to be quite beautiful.  The most common of hair colors is a medium brown, though plenty of black-haired and red-haired dwarves also exist.  Fairhaired dwarves are sterotyped as being womanly and over-gentle.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 50/350/450/80
Demeanor: Dwarves are defined by their industriousness.  From an outsiderâ,¬,,¢s perspective, dwarves seem to be constantly busy with work.  While a dwarf will take some time for himself on occasion, this is seldom â,¬Ëleisureâ,¬,,¢ as other races would define it â,¬' rather, it is time that the dwarf takes to work on personal projects rather than plying his trade for others.  A fairly common dwarvish custom reserves actual leisure time for three groups â,¬' the very old, the very sick, and (for brief periods) war veterans. A noted and singular exception to this is the custom of the drinking party- but this complicated quasi-ritual has as itâ,¬,,¢s center a form of competition, and thus is not fully leisurely, despite itâ,¬,,¢s raucous atmosphere.  Dwarves are also known to value rhetoric and poetry, and to be excellent at both.  (The former art, in fact, is especially developed among the dwarves.)
Lands: Dwarven settlements across Algarlin share one trait in common â,¬' they are almost exclusively mountainous.  In the lower mountains of Salabria, dwarves prefer to built settlements near the peaks.  On higher, snow-capped mountains, however, the dwarves build lower down.  These cities are cut into the mountainâ,¬,,¢s side, with multiple terraces and good roads running between the various levels.  Unlike most other races, who are organized into kingdoms and nations, and unlike the halflings, who are organized according to clans, dwarves are organized largely in city states.  While from time to time one of these mountainous cities will reach out and secure political power over one of his neighbors, these situations are almost always temporary and usually decried as being â,¬Ëorcishâ,¬,,¢, â,¬Ëelvishâ,¬,,¢ or â,¬Ëmannishâ,¬,,¢, depending on who the nearest foreign race happens to be.
     Though culture varies widely throughout these different dwarven settlements, several constants remain.  One, the dwarves universally have a system of seven clans â,¬' not quite castes, members of a clan generally view each other as members of the same extended family.  Whenever there is internal dissent within a city, it tends to fall along clan lines.
     After the gnomes and elves, dwarves are the culture most integrated into human society.  While the vast majority of dwarves still live in their own remote mountainous homelands, a strong (>5%) Dwarvish presence can be felt in many major cities of Andozia and Philstaros.  Dwarves were first brought into human lands as paid government servants â,¬' seeing the tremendous feats of engineering found in dwarf cities, human rulers recruited them as mine overseers, defensive and siege engineers and as the builders of walls, palaces, and bridges.  Some dwarves are still retained in this official capacity by some nations.  Many other dwarves, however, now enjoy a civilianâ,¬,,¢s life, where they have become known as able craftsmen.  Dwarves in cities typically have their own craft guilds rather than joining with human groups, though in some cities the two races have fully integrated.
History: The standard dwarvish history teaches that the true home (or Muhdamud) of the dwarves lies deep beneath the surface of Algarlin, at the very center of the world.  It was there, they say, that the dwarves were first born, among natural caverns glistening with treasure, alongside underground rivers abundant in strange fish and other Edenic delights.  There, dwarves of all clans lived together as brothers.  But at some point, one of their own (his name has been permanently effaced so that no one might learn his clan and blame his descendants), desiring to rule over his fellows, invited the dwarvish demonic figure, Rawun, into Muhdamud.  The devious Rawun, once let in, overran it with his horde of wicked earth spirits, and cast the dwarves out en masse.  Through long centuries, the dwarven exiles worked their way to the upper world (that is, the surface), emerging somewhere high in the Bakhilun mountains.  From this initial point, dwarven settlements spread far and wide across Algarlin.  Ever suspect of the imperial desires that corrupted the Traitor in Muhdamud, dwarven settlements have always been very wary of expansionism, seeking to leave each other largely alone.  Even so, there have been a few great â,¬Ëempiresâ,¬,,¢ among the dwarves â,¬' the most noted is the Shumma â,¬Ëempireâ,¬,,¢, which flourished about 200 years before Ekeusion did.  This empire did not rule other settlements by conquest, but by industry, having spread its crafts, language, and poetry throughout much of the Salabrian region and very nearly forming a dwarven monoculture, however briefly.  Even today, the Shumma language is used as a kind of formal Dwarvish, akin in some ways to Late Ekeusian among the humans.
Magic:  Dwarves, being very focused on material craft and industry, never really developed the kind of philosophical tradition necessary to give rise to a strong magical streak.  Nor did their theology (which see below) provide much mysticism for them, either.  As a result, while occasional songs and poems speak of powerful sorcerous dwarves, as a whole dwarvish society is without a magical tradition of itâ,¬,,¢s own.  The few dwarvish magicians who do exist are instead educated in other traditions, most frequently the human one.  They have taken very well to the enchanting of objects, however, combining foreign magic with good, native dwarvish craft.
Languages:  As might be expected for so disparate a people, the dwarves of Tasothilos do not have a single unified language.  Rather, on the western continent, dwarven language is grouped largely into 3 families: Northwest, Central and South Dwarven.  Each family is further divided into several branches â,¬' there are about ~15 Dwarvish languages of note on the continent.  Fortunately, there are only three or four common to the Salabrian region, and only one of these is the language of dwarvish scholars, travellers and rulers â,¬' Old Shumma, the language of a cultural empire of the dwarves that existed almost 2000 years ago, is still learned and spoken by many dwarves.  Dwarvish languages in general have a tendency to be very rich and complicated in their articulation of consonants, but somewhat poor in vowels â,¬' most, in fact, tend to have only three or four (with varied longs and shorts.)
Major Religions: The distinguishing feature of dwarven religion is that it is messianic.  All of dwarven spiritual thought is in preparation for the arrival of the Awaâ,¬,,¢ullah, (approximately â,¬Ëthe Returnerâ,¬,,¢), a dwarven champion of great military prowess and equal piety who will unite the dwarvish peoples, cast open the long-forgotten gate in the Bakhilun range and lead the dwarves back to Muhdamud.  As with all messianic religions, there are a fair number of self-proclaimed Awaâ,¬,,¢ullahun â,¬' in fact, at least one every decade or so.  Most sensible dwarves ignore these pretenders.  Every couple of dwarvish generations, however, a real contender presents himself â,¬' one who actually gathers a loyal band of supporters and appears to fulfill some of the prophecies concerning the Awaâ,¬,,¢ullah.  Not one of them has yet completed the most important part of the prophetic teachings however â,¬' finding the Bakhilunian Gate.
As far as deities are concerned, the dwarves worship a pantheon of gods, the offspring of father Makkut and mother Qelevah.  These gods are said to wait in Muhdamud, but they also intervene in mortal affairs as well.  The most important members of the pantheon besides the parents are the Barakun, the gods of craft â,¬' 9 industrious sons and 9 busy daughters of Makkut.  It is worth noting that in human lands, the dwarves accept that the god Maxinir may well be simply another name for their god Makkut.  They further acknowledge that the Ekeusian deities exist â,¬' they simply claim that Maxinir/Makkut and his family, not Onaleus and the others, are the dwarf-gods.
Interestingly enough, the â,¬Ëwild dwarvesâ,¬,,¢ of the eastern continent appear to have a religion with several messianic trappings of itâ,¬,,¢s own.
Adventurers:  Dwarvish adventurers are somewhat on the rare side.  After all, though adventurers can do plenty of good in the world, they are not as a rule â,¬Ëproductiveâ,¬,,¢ in the dwarvish sense of the word.  Dwarves do not disdain adventurers as a rule â,¬' they have their uses â,¬' but they do tend to raise an eyebrow when one of their own takes up the lifestyle.  A good number of dwarven adventurers are driven to it by extreme poverty, though some are dwarves who have been exiled from their mountain home because of some crime or political mis-step.
[spoiler=Statistics]

+2 Con, -2 Dex: Dwarves of Tasothilos are not so gruff as their D&D equivalents.  While quite sturdy, however, they are somewhat slow. *Medium Size *Speed 20 feet *Darkvision (note that unlike D&D Darkvision which has range limitations, Tasothilos Darkvision has the same range as normal sight.  This makes it a slightly more substantial racial bonus.) *Stability (per Playerâ,¬,,¢s Handbook dwarves) *+2 to all saves versus poisons and intoxicating liquors.  *Dwarves recover vitality points at twice the rate of other races.  They recover wound points at the normal rate. * Dwarves are innately talented as craftsmen, and their innate talent is honed by a culture that encourages practice. At character creation, the player may choose one Craft skill.  That skill is ever after a class skill, and the character receives a +2 racial bonus to all checks made with it.  

[/spoiler]

A naturalistic race at the same time both noble and servile, both dignified and broken.
Name: Ailaphir, Aisa
Physical Desciption:  Elves stand just a bit shorter than men, with average heights between 4â,¬,,¢9â,¬Â and 5â,¬,,¢9â,¬Â. They tend to have slighter frames than human, (tending to weigh around 100 to 140 pounds) but are just as strong, if a little more fragile. There is absolutely no discernable difference in â,¬Ëaverageâ,¬,,¢ height and weight between male and female elves.  Their faces tend to be narrow and somewhat angular, with small but pointy noses and angled chins..  Their ears are somewhat pointed, being about an inch and a half longer than the average human ear.   Their hairlines tend to recede a little bit further back than the human average, giving the appearance of somewhat large foreheads.  Elves are biologically incapable of growing body hair or facial hair save on their heads.  Their coloration in youth tends to be exceptionally bright and deep: their hair is either the deepest black, the richest brown, or the brightest gold, and their eyes are deep blues, reds and greens.  Their skin is always pale, however.
Elves age in a curious fashion, however.  Rather than growing more shrivelled as other races tend to, the shape and features of an elf never change at all after he reaches adulthood.  Instead, what happens gradually over the course of their long lives is that the color fades from their bodies, hair, eyes, &tc.  Around the age of 200-250, the vivacious colors noted in younger elves have faded to more â,¬Ëaverage humanâ,¬,,¢ levels.  Around the age of 350-400, an elfâ,¬,,¢s color has faded more â,¬' an outsider might call his appearance â,¬Ëdrabâ,¬,,¢, but the elves consider this dimming of color to be quite noble.  If an elf lives to be truly ancient, he might become absolutely grey in hue.  These Grey Ones are held in high esteem by all elves.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 70/450/600/200 â,¬' Note that the average lifespan of a servile elf is much lower.
Demeanor: All peoples of Tasothilos place some importance upon tradition and history, but none to quite the extent that the elves do.  Elves are obsessed with their ancestors, and even those among the lowest free classes are likely to have a long genealogical tree of his forefathers. This map will be counted among his most valued possessions, and he will spend many hours of his long life studying it and learning the stories behind each of the names found on it.   The typical way that an elf introduces himself for the first time is to give his own name followed by the names of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.  It is considered to be a great insult to call an elf a â,¬Ëbastardâ,¬,,¢, as the term implies that he is cut off from the glorious deeds of his family by his illegitimacy.  Even among the slaves, a mother goes to great lengths to ensure that a young elf knows who his father is, even if the measures be extreme.  Those few servile elves who do not know their fathers are considered by elfkind to be the most unlucky of all.
Lands: For many years, the Elves had two states in the Salabrian Sea region, Ostarok and Aisatanimo. Both of these were in southeastern Salabria â,¬' Ostarok was a pleasant, fertile seaside plain, and Aisatanimo a hilly plateau largely guarded by a great range of mountains.  Both were heavily forested, and both were originally the furthest provinces of the elven Arjepakai Empire.  When that empire collapsed, the two nations became independent, though they remained closely tied to each other.  Aisatanimo remains free to this day.  Though economically quite strong, they are extremely xenophobic and close their borders to almost all outsiders, giving them relatively little influence in international politics.  The other state of Ostarok, however, fell hundreds of years ago to orcish invasions from the south.  Now called Angusalak, it remains more than 50% elven in population, but the orcish ruling class considers it to be the northernmost state of their empire, and they hold the elves in slavery.
     Most elves encountered outside of Aisatanimo are likely to be slaves, though the efforts of wealthy â,¬Ëabolitionistsâ,¬,,¢ have also created a small population of freed elves.  On occasion, however, young adult elves leave from Aisatanimo to travel abroad for a time before returning to their sensible duties at home.  Indeed, young elves are encouraged to make these trips, for after seeing the general poverty of human lands most return feeling much more grateful and loyal to their own country.  These elvish travelers always wear many insignia to mark them as Aisatanimar, lest someone think they are escaped slaves.  Though frowned upon by their elders, many wandering elves even go so far as to take human brides, produce children by them (see above on â,¬Ëhalf-breed racesâ,¬,,¢) and then return to their homeland once their human wives die of old age.  (To the elves, these are mere youthful dallianecs, even though they might be married 50 years.)
Elvish Slavery: For hundreds of years, orcs freely sold their elvish slaves throughout the Sea.  Even though slavery is now officially illegal in many of the more civilized countries of Salabria, few governments are actively hunting down the owners and dealers of slaves (indeed, several monarchs in these â,¬Ëfreeâ,¬,,¢ nations maintain a personal retinue of elves even as they proclaim their bans on the slave-dealers.)  Orcs continue to sell their â,¬Ëwaresâ,¬,,¢ in almost the same volume as they always have, albeit somewhat more discreetly.  Thus, when most Salabrians think of the elves, they conjure to mind not stately councils and alchemical wonders of Aisatanimo, but spiritually broken, subdued and tormented chattel.
Slaves are valued for a number of purposes.  The majority of these luckless elves are kept in Angusalak, where they are put to work on the beekeeping â,¬Ëplantationsâ,¬,,¢ there, producing honey and mead.  Slaves whoâ,¬,,¢ve been sold outside of the captured orcish land have various functions.  Because of a tradition that holds that elves are exceptionally good at communing with the plant world, the majority of these slaves work the land on large farms.  (There is no mega-crop that dominates agriculture to the extent that cotton did in the American south â,¬' these farms tend to be more diverse in their output.)   Another common use for the elves is as musicians and entertainers.  Native elvish music sounds quite strange to human ears, so these bardic slaves are instead compelled to learn and reproduce the tunes of the culture of the slaveholders.  Perhaps the most dignified (though still servile) role that an elf can hope for is that of personal retainer â,¬' humans long ago figured out that a single well-treated elf would live through many lifetimes of men, and so several noble houses put aside one slave to be the personal tutor and attendant of the head of household and his sons through several generations.  These retainers are kept quite close to their masters at all times, and often give them advice based on what their fathers, grandfathers or great-grandfathers had done.   Though a certain amount of trust comes with this position, the line between slave and owner is seldom blurred.
Elves are subjected to several torturous marks and brandings.  Not long after birth, slaves of either sex are branded by their â,¬Ëmakerâ,¬,,¢ (ie, the owner of their father) with a particular mark in the Orcish alphabet indicating their â,¬Ëoriginâ,¬,,¢.  Then, the males are castrated.  (This is done so that the elf-breeders can maintain a very tight control on the population â,¬' a few escape castration for use as breeding stock.)  After their sale, most elves receive a second branding indicating their proper owner.  Elves who attempt an escape and fail receive further marks as punishment â,¬' on the first offense, the tip of one pointed ear is forfeit.  On the second offense, the other ear is carved up.  On the third offense, one eye is put out.  On the fourth offense, the penalty is usually death â,¬' â,¬Å"What use would a blind slave be?â,¬Â, the reasoning usually goes.
History:  After their creation by Viljo and Aisa, the elves believe that they dwelled a long time in a great forest north of the desert Aganamil (this forest, they claim, has been claimed by the sands since they departed it.)  For several generations of elfdom they lived in this place governed by a small council of nobles, knowing no strife or care.  Then, however, there arose a great quarrel between three nobles â,¬' Arjeno the Eldest, Tamir his brother, and their sister Osia the Fair.  (Most recount that the cause for this quarrel was that Tamir and Arjeno each wished to pledge their sister to a different man in marriage, while Osia herself wished no marriage at all.)  As each was a powerful noble with many partisans, this feud soon erupted into a war which raged for 300 years and consumed more than half of the elvish population.  At last, however, the three originators of the conflict met in council to create a peace.  Since so much blood had been shed and so much vengeance was left unfilled, it was decided that the three parties of elves would separate, never to come together again.  Osia, whose party had fared worst in the conflict, took her people east to the sea, whence they departed in ships and were never seen again.  Savage Tamir, who had started the fighting, lead his people south across the desert into the mountains, where his people fell to faction and greater strife.  Arjeno had fallen during the fighting, but his son Malino represented his people at the peace council and led them afterwards to the west, where they settled in the great forest, Arjepakai.  From this settlement, the elves grew with passing generations into great empire, controlling much of the desert and even extending their reach south into the mountains of Tamirâ,¬,,¢s people and northern Sakrtskaya.  They also established two small colonies in Salabria â,¬' Aisatanimo and Ostarok.  This empire collapsed more than 2000 years ago, however.  The exact reason for the collapse is unknown, but magic is thought to be involved â,¬' the empireâ,¬,,¢s heart, the old Arjepakai forest, is now perpetually cloaked in the deepest winter and buried in many feet of snow.  When the center collapsed, most of the provinces were overthrown by natives, and only the two kingdoms of Aisatanimo and Ostarok survived.
Magic:  Elves have a fairly strong ritual tradition, and also their own tradition of Spellcasting, both of which evolved out of a more refined form of their religious rituals.  (The nonmagical religious rites, due to their extreme sanctity, are still practiced unchanged alongside the occasional magical ritual).  In Aisatanimo, the use of this logomancy is carefuly restricted to the Warlock caste.  The elves also have another form of magic, however â,¬' a â,¬Ëscienceâ,¬,,¢ of magical herbalism sometimes (somewhat incorrectly) termed Alchemy.  Ã¢,¬ËSacred Botanyâ,¬,,¢ would perhaps be a more accurate representation of the practice.  Elves use this â,¬Ëalchemyâ,¬,,¢ primarily among their own lands, in order to produce great yields of crops and live in relative ease.  Alchemy can be turned to other purposes, however â,¬' it is particularly strong in its influence on living tissues.
Languages: Because of their long lifespans, the elvish language has not changed nearly so much as other tongues.  While not quite mutually intelligible, having slightly different pronunciations and very distinct vocabularies, Arjepak (Old Elvish), Tanim (High Elvish) and Ostar (Slave Elvish) sound very similar to outsiders and are quite closely related structurally.  The main reason why these languages are considered to be distinct as opposed to different dialects is the elvish tendency to invent words.  Even though 1000 years represents only a handful of elven generations, and pronunciation does not shift that much in such a short time, in five elven generations thousands of new words are likely to enter the vocabulary of each dialect.  
Elvish pronunciation is exceedingly precise, with the refined elven ear and vocal apparatus able to produce and detect finer gradations of articulation than humans can.  There are, for instance, 4 different letters in Tanim that are pronounced similar to â,¬Å"tâ,¬Â, with only slight variations difficult for humans to pick up.  While other races can learn Elvish, their speech is always heavily accented and in a couple cases the meaning of what they say is blurred by their clumsy tongues.   The common Elvish term for a human, tailotailo â,¬Å"Death Friendâ,¬Â, is a pun both on the relatively short lives of other races and on the fact that the two Tanim words tailo â,¬Ëdeathâ,¬,,¢ and tailo â,¬Ëfriendâ,¬,,¢ are pronounced the same by humans despite using two different â,¬Ëtâ,¬,,¢s to Elvish ears.  (Gnomes, having excellent ears and tongues, can reproduce elvish perfectly, much to the annoyance of elves.)
Major Religions:  Elves, like humans, have a large and fairly complex pantheon of deities, though ancestor-worship also takes an important part in the religion.  The leader of the elven gods is Viljo (Salabrian theologians identify him as a son of Rholerex) â,¬' unlike dwarvish and Old Ekeusian religion, however, the pantheon is explicitly said not to be primarily a family structure.  Rather, a number of deities are said to have existed from the beginning of time.  Viljo rules not by paternity or by being oldest but by exceptional might.   His queen is Aisa, and their union is thought to be the origin of all elves.  The most noteworthy of the other gods is Helli, the goddess of the woods and trees.  She has almost as much prestige as her noble father.  The elven devil is called Vainok, and he is the prince of a host of wicked spirits (including the souls of deceased non-elves, a rather controversial hymn asserts).   Almost all elven souls after death unite with the host of Viljo and receive worship from their descendants.  Only a very few elven villains are wicked enough to be sent down to Vainok, where they become the great lieutenants of his host.
The most curious thing to outsiders about the Elvish religion is not its theology or mythology, which are fairly â,¬Ëstandardâ,¬,,¢ by the Salabrian metric.  Rather, it is the barbarism of itâ,¬,,¢s ritual.  Elves are a dignified people, conducting all secular affairs with noble grace.  When they practice their religion, however, it seems almost as if all traces of civilization leave their bodies.  They shout prayers, dance naked around fires naked shaking primitive instruments, and most peculiar of all, they engage in massive animal sacrifice (only the orcs among the other â,¬Ëcivilizedâ,¬,,¢ peoples still have any form of animal sacrifice, and they practice it only on the death of a great matriarch).  The bloody savagery of elven religion can be explained only when one considers the incredible reverence that Elves have for ancestral custom.  At a very early point, the religion of the elves â,¬Ëcrystallized,â,¬,,¢ and any deviation from this practice was thought to be sacrilege.  So complete was this crystalization that elvish ritual is still practiced the same way today as it was thousands of years ago.
Adventurers: Elven adventurers are either of free or servile descent.   Aisatanimo places no limitations on elves leaving their borders as they do on foreigners entering, and many young elves (between the ages of about 80 and 150) go abroad for a time to wander human lands before settling down in their caste duties.  Most of these are merely travellers, although a few become legitimate adventurers.  Amongst the slave-born adventuring elves, roughly a third are escaped slaves, while the majority have been legitimately liberated â,¬' sometimes  a slave who has served the master very well (perhaps going so far as to save his life) is rewarded with freedom, and sometimes a slave is purchased by a wealthy anti-slavery â,¬Ëactivistâ,¬,,¢ explicitly so that he may be liberated.  Whatever the particular history of an ex-slave, they almost all have undergone the brandings listed above â,¬' if youâ,¬,,¢d prefer an â,¬Ëundamagedâ,¬,,¢ elf, you must provide a very good explanation.
[spoiler=Statistics]

+2 Cha, -2 Con: The Elves of Tasothilos are known for having slight frames but rather commanding presences. *Medium Size *Speed 35 feet â,¬' Elves move a little more swiftly than members of other medium races. *Low-Light Vision *+2 to all saves versus mind-affecting magic of any kind. *Elves have very keen senses and receive a +2 to Search, Spot and Listen checks.  (Theyâ,¬,,¢re no better at seeking secret doors than anybody else, though.) *Elves receive a +2 to Climb checks. *Elves step very lightly â,¬' anyone attempting to track an elf suffers a â,¬'2 penalty to the attempt.  When travelling in a forest environment, this penalty is instead -4.

[/spoiler]

A vivacious, semi-aquatic, diminutive folk well integrated with human society, and yet intimately connected with the natural world.
Name: Gnoumos, Akmu
Physical Desciption:  The taller of the two branches of â,¬Ëlittle peopleâ,¬,,¢, gnomes stand on average around 3â,¬,,¢4â,¬Â, and may vary as much as 5â,¬Â in either direction.  They have a tendency to be a little plump, with the average weight being around 45-60 pounds.  Gnomes have rounded faces â,¬' they are most distinct for their somewhat small but nearly perfectly round, bulbous noses and their slightly-larger-than-proportional eyes.  They have ears which are slightly larger than human average, and mouths that are slightly smaller than average.   Gnomes have a wide variety of possible hair colors, occasionally dipping into the exotic â,¬' one may see browns, blacks and blonds, but also deep reds and occasional purples.  Eyes are more mundane â,¬' they tend to be very light colors, like grey and bright blue.  Gnomish skin is a medium â,¬Ëcaucasianâ,¬,,¢ hue.
     Gnomes have a peculiar custom where hair is concerned.  Keeping the rest of their hair cut fairly short as is the popular style, young men and women both grow out a single long, thin braid of hair, starting around the time that they turn 15.  When they marry, they cut off this braid and tie it around their new spouseâ,¬,,¢s wrist, and ever after keep their hair fairly short.  These hair-bracelets serve in lieu of wedding rings, though after the tying ceremony, because they are so precious and fragile, they tend not to be worn on a daily basis.
Mat./Avg. LS/Max. LS/Gen.: 30/200/275/50
Demeanor: Gnomes are frequently characterized as being a frivolous and flightly people, but this is not strictly the case.  It is far more accurate to say that the gnomish temperment is one of extremes.  A gnome is never happy â,¬' he is overjoyed.  When a human would be sad, a gnome is miserable.  Similarly, gnomes do not have friends and rivals but boon companions and hateful nemeses.  It is important to note that the distinction is not merely rhetorical.  That is, a gnome does not merely SAY that he is â,¬Ëoverjoyedâ,¬,,¢ at having found a silver piece on the sidewalk â,¬' he feels a very deep sensation of happiness, far beyond the manner in which a human would react at so small a turn of luck.  Gnomes weep heavily and laugh heartily, and when necessarily they fight savagely in their own defense.  It is simply out of their tendency to be overly thankful for small blessings that they get stereotyped as â,¬Ëflightyâ,¬,,¢ and â,¬Ëhappy-go-luckyâ,¬,,¢.  When one considers the extreme closeness that they feel with their friends and the lengths they will go to to protect them, it is clear that gnomes are anything but â,¬Ëfrivolousâ,¬,,¢.
Lands:  Gnomes are the smallest of races in terms of world population and land possessions.  Like orcs alone of the other major races, gnomes are exclusively â,¬Ëwesternâ,¬,,¢ and have no analog yet discovered among the newly-found eastern lands of the Taecs.  While the orcs, however, control a vast empire stretching across the southern lands, gnomes hold only a single island â,¬' Akmet, located near where the Salabrian Sea spills out into the ocean beyond.  The island is considered to be very beautiful â,¬' near its center stands triad of very tall mountains, while the rest of the island consists of running hills, wild forests and grasslands.  The island is dotted with numerous lakes, ponds, rivers and streams, and it is along these that the gnomes have built their famous semi-aquatic cities, both as a defense against outsiders and for the sheer aesthetic pleasure of it.
     Gnomes are also the most closely-integrated with humanity of all the races, even eclipsing elves.  Having made friends with the Ekeusians at an early point in their history, and played at diplomacy with that aggressive empire exceedingly cautiously, the gnomes had a relatively good experience living within imperial jurisdiction, and indeed the current island-wide government of Akmet is partially a remnant of imperial administration.  The diminutive folk quickly became enchanted by the lands beyond their isle, and many emigrated to various parts of the imperial domain.  Some established their own communities - nowadays, one can occasionally even find Akmet-style gnomish cities built into shallow ponds or lakes in some parts of the north.  Most gnomes, however, integrated with the human communities instead, finding the large folk and their cities inherently fascinating.  A second â,¬Ëwaveâ,¬,,¢ of gnomish emigration followed during the height of the Andozian conquests around ~900, and a third â,¬Ëwaveâ,¬,,¢ has begun in recent years.
    In the cities of Philstaros, Andozia and Sanceline especially, gnomes can be found doing just about any task that humans do (though obviously they are not quite as good at physical labor as the bigger folk are).  They are excellent craftsmen and even better entertainers, having voices that are well known for their dexterity and power.  They are especially good, too, at animal handling - most inns in the major cities use young gnomes as their â,¬Ëstableboysâ,¬,,¢.   Though they work together with humans, however, and interact comfortably with humans in social settings as well, most gnomes prefer to actually live outside of the â,¬Ëcity limitsâ,¬,,¢ in small, primarily gnomish villages.
Gnomish Inventions:  Gnomes in many other settings have a reputation for being tinkerers and exceptional inventors, introducing all sorts of outlandish quasi-modern devices into an otherwise medieval setting.  Gnomes of Algarlin do not behave in this way.  The vast majority of gnomes do not have anything to do with invention or strange mechanical products, being a much more â,¬Ëearthyâ,¬,,¢ people.  However, a small circle of gnomish inventors, associated with the Akmetian city of Inu-Ataj, have introduced a number of exciting technologies in just the past 25 years, giving the gnomes a short-term reputation as great inventors.  (Again, this is a popular perception based on the actions of less than a dozen gnomes in one city.)  A brief list of their three most important inventions should suffice:

The printing press with moveable type was recently developed by the gnome Neshek Atep.  At present, less than fifty of these fantastic machines have been created â,¬' after all, the device is only about 20 years old, and for the first ten years of its life its creation was a secret carefully guarded by that scoundrel Kalos Mer.  At present, it is mostly used for the reproduction of the works of that philandering wanderer and for religious documents.  In the next hundred years, however, the use of the printing press promises to revolutionize literacy and education.
*Neshek Atep is also responsible for the invention of the most widely used of gnomish inventions, an translucent reddish liquid called Gnome Oil.  While it looks somewhat like watered-down wine, in fact this alchemical compound is a very powerful water-proofing agent.  If applied an object in a heavy coatand then allowed to dry for a ful day, the gnome-oil forever after repels water from the item in question â,¬' if submerged and then removed from water, the item will instantly be bone-dry.  Neshekâ,¬,,¢s workshop produces vast amounts of the liquid, so itâ,¬,,¢s ingredients must be fairly cheap â,¬' however, the precise formula is a carefully guarded secret.  (As a side effect, the oil turns whatever item it is applied to a slight reddish color.)
*A group of gnomes in Inu-Ataj have been experimenting with a powder that if lit, explodes with great force.  So far, the substance is very hard to control.  However, it is reasonable to expect that their experiments might produce something more useful in due course.[/list]
History:  Gnomes alone among the Salabrian peoples freely and cheerfully admit their complete uncertainty regarding the origins of their races.  The great chronicle of the gnomish people, the Book of Akmet, begins by saying â,¬Å"So far as we know, the gnomes have lived here forever.â,¬Â  It then goes on to chronicle those parts of gnomish history which are certain, beginning around 500 MP.  In those days, gnomes lived in completely isolated watery villages, never really venturing beyond their borders.  In the next five hundred years, gnomish cities bickered and warred incessantly, though these wars were usually rather brief since (due to the famous gnomish temper) they had begun with very little grounds to fight in the first place.  There were several aborted attempts to create some semblance of a â,¬Ënationalâ,¬,,¢ government, but nothing really succeeded until 25-19 MP, during which time the island was added to the Ekeusian territories.  The Ekeusians had known about the island for hundreds of years, but stayed away out of fear of rumored terrifying inhabitants.  When they finally came and found that instead of man-eating giants, the island belonged to gnomes, they immediately developed a fondness for the little creatures, and this fondness was returned by the gnomes.  Over the course of six years, every village was united under a single human administration, in almost every case by diplomatic agreements rather than by force.  Though they chafed a little against the taxes when they got too high and imperial annals occasionally speak of Akmet rebellions, for the most part gnomes were remarkably pleased with the good organization which the humans had given to them.  In 295 YP, following over 300 years of human rule, the gnomish island was given freedom from the Imperial government when a gnomish fleet proved instrumental in repelling a massive invasion of orcs.  Since that time, the gnomes have lived in relative peace with humanity.
Magic:  Gnomes are brilliant logomancers, having very little in the way of developed Ritual but a very potent tradition of Spellcasting.  They are also the race best able to adapt â,¬Ëforeignâ,¬,,¢ magical traditions, combining their own native Gnomish spells with human, elvish and orcish spells with remarkable ease.  They are also incredibly talented at musomancy, having naturally forceful voices.
Languages: As a relative monoculture and one with an exceptional lifespan at that, gnomes alone among the races have a single, â,¬Ëracialâ,¬,,¢ language, one that is carefully cultivated even among those gnomish families living in human lands.  Different regions of gnomes may have distinctive dialects â,¬' gnomes in human lands pronounce things a little differently than Akmet gnomes and also borrow human words into their lexicon â,¬' but so far, at least, the language remains mutually intelligible.  Gnomish language is characterized by being tonal.  Gnomish words have three different â,¬Ëpitchesâ,¬,,¢, one of which is always present in the accented syllable of a word.  This gives gnomish language a unique kind of â,¬Ëmusicâ,¬,,¢ to it, but it also makes the language notoriously difficult for non-native speakers to learn.
Major Religions: Gnomish religion is a strange case â,¬' the gnomes were largely atheistic prior to contact with the Ekeusians, worshipping if anything a simple concept of â,¬Ëcreationâ,¬,,¢.  After encountering the Ekeusians, however, they found themselves enchanted by the stories of the god Bimpnos, and they have adapted him as their own god.  They freely acknowledge the existence and power of other deities, however they claim Bimpnos as their own patron in all things.  Gnomish worship is fairly simple, consisting of prayers spoken aloud twice or three times each day, and silent prayers when in times of great need.  Gnomes have not developed any concept of sacrifice or tithe, unlike human worshippers.
Adventurers:  Gnomes take to adventuring more readily than any other race except for humans.  Their delight is in traveling the world and seeing the various sights that the natural world has to offer â,¬'this kind of wanderlust naturally gets them into a great deal of trouble, and from such troubles are adventurers born.  They are also natural when it comes to the party dynamic â,¬' though seldom the â,¬Ëleaderâ,¬,,¢ or â,¬Ëface-manâ,¬,,¢ for a group of adventurers, they frequently become the â,¬Ëheart and soulâ,¬,,¢ of the group.
[spoiler=Statistics]

+2 Con, -2 Str *Small Size *Speed 20 feet *Low-light vision *Hold Breath â,¬' Gnomes have exceptional control over their own respiratory systems and a tremendous lung capacity.  For that reason, they are able to hold their breaths for 10 times the amount of time that normal people can. (IE, 2x their Constitution scores in minutes.)  This also provides them with a +2 racial save bonus versus gaseous attacks of any kind. *Gnomes have +2 to all Swim checks, and Swim is always a class skill for them.  *Due to their finely-tuned ears, gnomes have +2 to all Listen checks.  *Tongues of Nature = Unique among the â,¬Ëspeakingâ,¬,,¢ races, Gnomes are able to spend skill points to acquire the languages of animals just as they can the languages of other races.  (This power will be covered in detail later.)

[/spoiler]