Long time ago I promised to make up some fluff for the gnome army I'm creating... Now the first piece is finished... It's the first piece of fluff/fanfic I present to a broad audience. In the past I got some nice criticism for my Star Trek stories from all three people who have read them. So first time fantasy, first time English and first time I share my story with an international audience... Please be gentle! And now lets start the big proofreading! I hope you'll enjoy it! ---------------- The Gnomes - General Information on a generally unknown folk Though very common in the green areas of the old world, the Gnomes are a folk barely seen or known by most other races. This is nothing to wonder about according to their very much introverted and peaceful behaviour. Their habit is to hide from outsiders rather than to attack or fight those who unknowingly walk through their territories which are called hortus/horti. Visitors are not really welcome in such a hortus, but are more recognized as a time to time disturbance of their daily work. Rather than to turn those intruders out, the Gnomes will hide in ground holes and under roots just to return to their normal activity after those have left, who don't even know they been watched all the time of their visit. But all this does not mean The Gnomes are not able to fight. If one dares to destroy or harm any of their patiently and effortfully created horti, they will burst out of their hiding places and fight back those who disrespect their work. Because disrespect is a thing the Gnomes can't stand by any means! That is the time when they show their might. And it's the time when their relationship to their mountain dwelling cousins shows up. Being fighters of great strength (a circumstance not obvious due to their usual small size) they also benefit from a very powerful kind of magic, which in some proven cases is even more powerful than the magic of elves and lies far beyond that what a human wizard is capable of. (A circumstance that shows that gnomes and dwarfs though similar in their outer appearance are not to be confused) It is known, that some younger elven wizard who underestimated a Gnomelord's power due to his size and humble behavior, paid a high price for disrespecting and insulting those who are not seen. Rumour has it, that some individuals among The Gnomes even exceed the legendary Slann of Lustria both in age and magical powers. But this is not known for sure, and there will be hardly any proof of it, cause both species are rarely seen by outsiders nor any would have lived long enough to report on a clash of such powerful mages. Another weapon of The Gnomes are their vicious beasts of war. Huge numbers of them dwell hidden in the horti ready to serve the gnoman warriors as mounts or fight on their own under the command of their shepherds. Ants of dog size charge the enemy in endless number. Shredding through armor flesh and bone with their mandibles and shooting poisonous fluids out of stings on their back. Enemies of lager scale are taken on by giant mantis and their riders. These insects are of the size of a horse or even taller. Quick moving, they are capable of taking down a fully armed knight with one strike of their bladelike forelimbs starting to eat their prey no matter whether it's dead or still alive. ---------- Next part comes in a few days... Exams, you know?
So far this is awesome. Though I no longer trust my lawn ornaments. I do not want to fight off dog sized ants!
These are just the more dangerous ones... next part will be about the more common gnomes... those with spates, rakes and hoes...
No big proofread needed - your English is much better than my Reikspiel. Just ask Bullenscheisse. Reading this reminded me of the gnome description in Bloodbowl (supplied by @discomute) someone must have disrespected those ones. I wonder if your army is in an 8th Ed setting, or AoS. I'm not sure it even matters. They seem to have no care for wordly things like time, ambition and status. I wonder if their powerful magic 'feels' different to the battle magic. Now I want to read about a duel between a gnome and a Slann.
Yes... Something like that is what I have in mind... But without the deadly end... And I don't really know if it's 8th or aos... Or maybe both?