Re-imagining Gnomes: Giving Them a Personal Spin

[Condottiere 40K]

Why the Mace?


Basically, I just didn't want them to have a sword or even think about having one, and also I think I was effected by the Dark Sun aesthetic, which emphasized wide wastes, minimal resources and a certain Fertile Crescent feel.

A lot of the reasoning was ex post facto to justify the choice.

Basically, you need a backup or a hand weapon, and while a large knife seems like the answer it wasn't quite sufficient. A hatchet was also one of those dual purpose tools but didn't seem symbolic enough. And then you have the club.

The club does represent a sort of primitiveness and connection to nature, and it's up for grabs if it or the stone were the first personal weapons. Lethal weapon, anyway, considering the antics by some monkeys and waste disposal.

So the next step seems to be binding the stone to the club to create a more effective weapon. At this point, you have a split between leaving the head blunt, and having it sharpened, creating an axe. The axe would suit the Gnomish philosophy better, in developing weapons from tools.

However besides being to bludgeon opponents, especially those in cut resistant armour, it started to represent authority. Specifically, secular authority. Much as the staff, or the shepherd's crook, appears to represent the spiritual variant. Or wizardly.

The way Gnomish military doctrine works, it's based on the impact of a large mass of pole-armed infantry, so getting entangled in close combat was to be seldom, and handled by sharper instruments. Officers are more likely to find themselves facing single combat against armoured opponents, a shortened halberd or a spear more effective against the run of the mill soldierly that manage to get to them.

You could have an all metal mace, but again, when I look at the weapon type choices it seems that the Gnomes use a wooden staff to slot the business end of the weapons on, whether it's a pike, a halberd or a crossbow. As such, Gnomish maces are wooden shafts with a metal head.

You could justify this by the Gnomish believe to have a light a weapon as possible, with the minimum metal used to make the point. This could hark back to the Gnomish decision to use the metal available to manufacture suits of armour for protection.

Another interesting aspect are Roman fasces, the combination of rods and axe indicating the imperium to inflict capital punishment. The club would be a symbol of law enforcement authority, and the metal head, an upgrade of that.

[Condottiere 40K]

Gnomes as Pygmies


The Pygmies (Greek: Πυγμαῖοι Pygmaioi, from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή pygmē, "the length of the forearm") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane.
In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies armed with spears and slings, riding on the backs of goats, battling the flying cranes. The 2nd-century BC tomb near Panticapaeum, Crimea "shows the battle of human pygmies with a flock of herons".[1]


From Pliny's Natural History:

“ Beyond these in the most outlying mountain region we are told of the Three-Span (Trispithami) Pygmae who do not exceed three spans, that is, twenty-seven inches, in height; the climate is healthy and always spring-like, as it is protected on the north by a range of mountains; this tribe Homer has also recorded as being beset by cranes. It is reported that in springtime their entire band, mounted on the backs of rams and she-goats and armed with arrows, goes in a body down to the sea and eats the cranes' eggs and chickens, and that this outing occupies three months; and that otherwise they could not protect themselves against the flocks of cranes would grow up; and that their houses are made of mud and feathers and egg-shells. Aristotle says that the Pygmies live in caves, but in the rest of this statement about them he agrees with the other authorities.[2] ”
From The Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Flavius Philostratus:

“ And as to the pigmies, he said that they lived underground, and that they lay on the other side of the Ganges and lived in the manner which is related by all. As to men that are shadow-footed or have long heads, and as to the other poetical fancies which the reatise of Scylax recounts about them, he said that they didn't live anywhere on the earth, and least of all in India.[3] ”
From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville:

“ That river goeth through the land of Pigmies, where that the folk be of little stature, that be but three span long, and they be right fair and gentle, after their quantities, both the men and the women. And they marry them when they be half year of age and get children. And they live not but six year or seven at the most; and he that liveth eight year, men hold him there right passing old. These men be the best workers of gold, silver, cotton, silk and of all such things, of any other that be in the world. And they have oftentimes war with the birds of the country that they take and eat. This little folk neither labour in lands ne in vines; but they have great men amongst them of our stature that till the land and labour amongst the vines for them. And of those men of our stature have they as great scorn and wonder as we would have among us of giants, if they were amongst us. There is a good city, amongst others, where there is dwelling great plenty of those little folk, and it is a great city and a fair. And the men be great that dwell amongst them, but when they get any children they be as little as the pigmies. And therefore they be, all for the most part, all pigmies; for the nature of the land is such. The great Chan let keep this city full well, for it is his. And albeit, that the pigmies be little, yet they be full reasonable after their age, and can both wit and good and malice enough.[4]


AreGnomes pygmies?

No, because real life variants are taller and the mythological ones are shorter. The human variants would exist in a fantasy world.

Pygmy could be a derisive term for Gnomes, based on their fondness for boars, though you'd have trouble trying to fit the etymology.


Monkeysphere

Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.[1][2][3][4][5][6] This number was first proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who found a correlation between primate brain size and average social group size. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can only comfortably maintain 150 stable relationships.[7] Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. It has been proposed to lie between 100 and 250, with a commonly used value of 150.[8][9] Dunbar's number states the number of people one knows and keeps social contact with, and it does not include the number of people known personally with a ceased social relationship, nor people just generally known with a lack of persistent social relationship, a number which might be much higher and likely depends on long-term memory size.

Dunbar theorized that "this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained." On the periphery, the number also includes past colleagues, such as high school friends, with whom a person would want to reacquaint themself if they met again.[10]



You'd think that a long lived race would cultivate a larger group of individuals as personal friends or associates. For doctrinal reasons, I'm going to go with no, and cap if for Gnomes at a hundred, as the longer you live, the less likely you'll want to waste your time closely associating with people you don't really like or don't have to be with.

But it's also compartmentalized, between family, social, business and the members of your militia or military unit.

[Condottiere 40K]

Why the Mace?


So we've established the club is the symbol of secular authority, but in it's modern forms it's a much more sophisticated and streamlined variants.

Law enforcement officials are each issued a truncheon as both a symbol of their authority and a non lethal tool to subdue those that resist that authority.

I'm tempted to give swagger sticks to military officers, but the Gnomes aren't British. I don't see them goose-stepping either. But senior non commissioned officers would need them in order to encourage straight lines. Or maybe a boar spear.

Becoming a commissioned officer, you receive what we used to call, a horseman's mace. There used to be a time, the only people who had maces were the clerics.

Marshals used to get batons but that could be a general issue for any official, much like that of a badge on which the office and jurisdiction could be engraved. Though that could be awkward for undercover cops and Homeland security agents doing surveillance.

Another variant is the morning star, which has spikes. This can only be a combat weapon, since it would be awkward to handle in non combat functions. This is a specialized close combat weapon, but you need room to swing it, You could have the spikes spring loaded on an ordinary mace, as a form of a rather nasty surprise. It's actually a beguiling image to see a gnome with a spiked club. Something to consider.

[Condottiere 40K]

Martial Arts

Pole fighting

Being shorter than most of their opponents, you'd think the Gnomes would be interested in anything that evened the odds in their favour, which I'd see asthe ultimate goal being a head high (two metre) flying kick but I believe anyone's sense of disbelief would implode if a Bruce Lee Gnome clone did that. On the other hand, a hop, skip and a jump with a boar spear in hand does sound more plausible.



So the Gnomes experience their own Thermopylae to convince them that just sitting still even with heavy armour and large shields, shaking their boar spears is essentially a dead end, but if you do have Gnomes with boar spears you treat them as you would melee units equipped with hand weapons such as axes or swords, with the difference that the Gnomish boar spears would be balanced to act as a heavy javelin.



Notice the spike at the end; also could be lead filled to help balance.

A pike's pretty unwieldy for this sort of thing.

So you have the halberd, with a few extra bits and pieces to give the wielder more options.



Gnomes would try to get hold of a boar spear at a minimum if they're expecting combat, but in an emergency, any pole will do.



So you have three more or less related weapon techniques, that should serve most Gnomes at anytime.

[Condottiere 40K]

Martial Arts


The next logical step would be stick fighting and that would include hatchets, truncheons, canes and maces. This would normally be too Far Eastern for me, but it makes sense. The sticks are extensions of the arms, and the Gnomes would aim for weak and pressure points, though mostly at similarly sized opponents.

Hatchets and maces would use more striking manoeuvres, as their strengths are cutting or bludgeoning damage, and the weight is biased towards the business end.



I included canes since they're a legitimate form from the times that European streets weren't quite as peaceful, though a Gnomish administered area would have a remarkable lack of violent crime, as disturbances would tend to be the result mostly of inebriated people and the result of some deep seated tension. Criminals are aware they don't really have anywhere to hide, unless they make a run for the border, since parishes keep detailed records on where everyone lives, and a long lived law enforcers have a fairly good idea as to who are the usual suspects.

Gnomes look on canes as an affectation, unless the user actually needs them for ambulation.




Of course, canes could have disguised weapons, such as varying lengths of blades, that can be drawn out, or spring loaded. Or a dart.

[Condottiere 40K]

Measurements


Unlike time, measurements of length is rather harder. Time had an more or less absolute in it, the daily rotation of the planet. Unless the Gnomes know how to measure the speed of light and build an equation around that.

Or it could be a divine revelation. But I think we'll have to stick with Gnomish scientific observations.

If you assume the average American and European male heights are 5'9" and 5'10" respectively, then your average male gnome should measure in at a tad over 3'10". Their foot size should be a little above 7" or 180mm.

But the theory goes the foot is actually a measurement of the shoe size, so if the Gnomes used that as a unit of measurement, a foot would be twenty centimetres.

The yard is actually a measurement of cloth, but I'm going on the premise that the Gnomes would take it as the average march step of their troops, which would allow them to guesstimate more precisely strategic movement and tactical deployments.

If you consider the stride of an average heighted man at just under twenty-nine inches, than a Gnome should have one of nineteen and a half inches. That puts it just under fifty centimetres.

Divided by a hundred, you need a term for half a centimetre. A splinter? A nail? A thumb tack?

A further division of a hundred could be termed a hair. Which, I believe, would nominally be correct.

We could say that a Gnomish metre is fifty centimetres and could be termed a rod. Or an ell. Or any term that divorces the word metre from it.

So, is a rod exactly fifty centimetres? It shouldn't be, but makes for a useful marker.

[Condottiere 40K]

Architecture


We are dealing with the Renaissance here, and the normal limitations the material they were working with would have on construction. Unless, Gnomes discovered concrete. And bricks.

The basic shape for most civilian buildings would be quadratic, either squarish or rectanglish. The occasional round or eight sided building would be possible.

But Gnomes could also build mansions that incorporate natural terrain features, though I think that's probably more Elven.

They could also build underground burrows, or mountain lairs, but Gnomes prefer to live topside under the sky, though commercial areas might be built underground, and military facilities secured in the heart of a mountain.

I've lived in several different houses and apartments, and one thing I've always found interesting was the various ceiling heights involved. I've discovered that fully stretched out arm still has about three inches space between the ceiling and my finger tips, it's tolerable.

Bearing in mind that Medieval housing is likely to have rather low ceilings, but that Gnomes are probably a post-Renaissance society, but also have to consider such things as heating in winter, and climate control during summer, lower is more economical, but higher allows air circulation.

Assuming the standard is just a tad under ninety six inches (you can assume the Gnomes have standardized this for most apartments), the ceiling would be a minimum of sixty four inches, giving a standard sized Gnome male of forty three inches about twenty one inches headroom.

A storey could be seventy nine inches.

[Condottiere 40K]

Gnomish Numerology


0
l
Ƨ
3
4
5
6೧೧
7
9
8
9

Zero, One and Eight

Zero tends to be represented by a circle or oval, which can be the symbol of universal recycling, unity, wholeness, perfection, totality, eternity, timelessness, cyclic movement, infinity, even God. No beginning or end. Is there a distinction between what is inside, and what is outside? In M:TG, there were protective circles based on mystic pentagrams or whatever esoteric designs magic-users believed could focus enhance or contain some supernatural power.

There's also one, both number and symbol, a straight line that can also imply unity. It's associated with with willpower will, positivity, pure energy. After all, the power on button on most our electrical appliances has a one, while the power off is a zero. The same with binary. It's action, mental and physical. New beginnings. And purity.

Then there's also eight, though in this particular case, I mean the symbol for it, which you might think of as a continuous Moebius strip crossing itself. Why would I think that the Gnomes would believe this represents a benign universal force as compared to the previous two symbols?

One's simple: it allows no diversity, no options, no change. It does imply the start of something. It's almost religiously fundamentalistic. Not what I'd go with for something more benign.

The circle can also symbolize the Ouroboros worm, a creature feeding off it's own tail, or sometimes even two representing completion, regeneration, eternity or even uniting two polarities.

However, I'm reminded of the concept from Dragonlance, which states that Evil Devours Itself.

Eight seems to me infinite variety and possibility in an eternal universe.

Zero is a border that separates a hungry void from the material universe.


It's also interesting where zero should be placed in the scheme of (divine) numbers, either in front of one or behind nine. If it's placed in front of one it could be implied that nothing existed, before order was made out of chaos, or that material was created out of nothingness.


As fot two, I'm thinking of replacing it with a reversed S to imply serpent, as two would represent a duality of nature, a balance, as opposed to zero, which represents nothingness.

[Condottiere 40K]

Fortifications


Mountain Fastnesses

Gnomes maintain fortresses in the mountainous country of their homeland. These tend to be built into and blend with the natural features, probably giving rising to the myth that Gnomes can disappear into the terrain.

But these alpine redoubts are actually meant to be last resorts, when facing an enemy that the Gnomish military cannot stop, so the populace has to retreat into areas that are difficult to besiege, and wait out the invaders, or give them a sanctuary from which to carry out a large scale insurgency campaign.


Watch Towers

Gnomes prefer to live in the open and down in the valleys and plains. They maintain a series of watch and signal towers, usually built on high and dominating terrain. Watch towers tend to be squarish and rather tall.

Gnomes chose to build their watch towers with stone, providing the detachment with sufficient protection against a smallish force and supplies till they can be relieved.

Most watch towers can be seen along the borders and along the primary internal communications lines.





A variant is a larger eight sided tower, used to house larger units, whose duties would include not only guarding important routes, but also acting as a base for patrols.

[Condottiere 40K]

Fortifications


Early Gnomish Settlements



Note the wooden watch tower, and let's term it a citadel.



Later settlement. Settlements are fortified villages and town, as compared to urban areas that happen to be walled and most likely to be found in or near unpacified frontier areas.

The Gnomish tendency to build high fortifications have both a practical purpose (height) and psychological dominating opponents. Perhaps Gnomes have a complex.


Castles

Gnomes don't build castles (for themselves) as they imply private fiefdom and dynastic control. Even palaces are a step too far for private habitation. Manor houses are acceptable and could be fortified.

[Condottiere 40K]

Gnome Visualization



It occurs to me that Erf units are closer to my concept than:

[Condottiere 40K]

Fortifications


Keeps



Some watch towers in strategic areas were transformed into square keeps. Okay, the above isn't a square, but you get the picture.



Or more realistically:





More of a watch tower.

Keeps are isolated strongholds, meant to hold out against any force without besieging equipment, or heavy duty magic, larger than watchtowers and meant and designed as more defensive rather than built to provide additional platforms to catch attackers in a crossfire, which also cuts down on possible infiltration accesses. They act as refuges for people in the local area that might not have the time to evacuate to a more defended area, as well as providing a means to observe enemy movements in relative security.

They're meant to be annoying speedbumps, that might delay invaders if they take the time to reduce them.

[Condottiere 40K]

Gnomish Units of Measurements


League - 100 stadia
Stadion - 100 stabs
Stab - 100 nails
Nail - 100 hairs

League, or leuge, or weglauf

Pretty standard type of measurement. If ordinary human soldiers can march 2.5 miles an hour with ten minute rest stops, and average around thirty kilometers per day, you'd suppose that Gnomes could hit twenty klicks in about an eight hour period. Essentially, 2.5 klicks an hour, multiplied by 2.4 equals six kilometres per Gnomish hour. Let's suppose you march the entire hour that's 60/50 at around 4.8 kilometres, or 3.2 kilometres per hour on Gnome scale. And 7.62 kilometres per Gnomish hour; 76.2 metres per Gnomish minute.

If Gnomes can march 4.2 klicks per hour for seventy two minutes, they'd cover five kilometres. If a Gnomish pace is half a metre, that's ten thousand paces, or 0.432 seconds per step or 139 steps per minute.

If a Gnomish column could quickmarch at around 138 steps per minute for seventy two minutes, it could be a league.Their pikemen should be able to trot in formation, with pikes in position, for about a kilometre.

Stadion

Fifty yard dash; seems correct. If we tend to glamourize the hundred metre run as one of the pinnacles of human performance, sixty six metres would be about appropriate for Gnomes, though this may not be correct if they actually have the same muscle power as humans, but in a smaller package.

Stab

Rough translation of rod, and traditionally slightly longer than a metre.

Nail or zoll

It's a placeholder until I find sometimes that could be defined as being around half a centimetre. Which zoll isn't, but might be close enough.

Hair

It's about correct. I guess the term would be haar.

[Condottiere 40K]

Guilds


Ranks


Grand Master
Guild Master
Subguild Master
Chapter Master
Master


Journeyman
Disciple
Adept
Craftsman
Apprentice


A simplified rank structure would be:


Grand Master
Guild Master
Master
Disciple
Apprentice


The object of most professional Gnomes would be to reach Master status in their respective guilds. A Master was a certified and recognized artisan of his craft, permitted to open up their own shops, employ assistants, and teach apprentices.


There was usually only one disciple per Master, who was considered his principle assistant, and was taught the more intricate trade-craft in preparation to his ascension to Master.

I see Guild Masters as having a diocese to administer, though they would be based in the largest or most important urban area.


Since there are only ten primary Major Guilds, there will be only ten Grand Masters at any one time. There can be any number of minor subguilds affiliated with the primary ones, but I don't see any reasonable way to keep them limited to ten.


Subguild Masters would be responsible for representing the interests of their trades, professions or crafts. Though a less awkward title has to be found.


Chapters for each Guild would be established in every town or city, and led by a Chapter Master. Lodges sound too comfortable.


Journeymen have finished their apprenticeship and travel from town to town to hone their skills, educate themselves further, broaden their horizons and network.


A disciple is lower in the hierarchy, though not necessarily in status, especially if he's a valued assistant to a high ranking master.


There's a question in my mind if Adept and Craftsman would still be considered as part of the Apprentice training programme, though I had thought that the first five years involved mostly teaching with a stipend, and the next five on the job salaried training.

[Condottiere 40K]

Guilds




Ecclesiastic Guild


Reserved exclusively for Gnomish clerics of the official Gnomish pantheon. There are eight subguilds, for each of the recognized cults; the benevolent universal force doesn't need one and the malevolent void is anathema.




Arcanology Guild


There aren't many Gnomish magic-users, as opposed to the clergy, who technically perform miracles rather than manipulate natural or supernatural forces. Most Gnomes tend to become Alchemists. While there is a subguild of Alchemists, most of the other guild members tend to form temporary and loose associations, depending on current availability and interests. Diviners have a subguild, more to impose a code of practice, similarly with necromancy, though there isn't a subguild devoted to that.


Anyone who's defined as a magic-user living or transiting through Gnomish lands needs to register with the Arcanology Guild. This is the Gnomish equivalent of certification and gun control.

[Condottiere 40K]

Fortifications


Forts

Early Gnomes forts were created by adding a curtain wall to an existing watch tower or keep, directly incorporating the structure as part of the defences.





It's meant to provide a secured area and act as a logistical base for local patrols.

Eventually, the Gnomes would evolve the fort into:



Five sided is fine, though there may be an intermediate step:







It's missing a tower, which any Gnome fort should have, since Gnomes like to know in advance who's coming for dinner. The walls could also be too low.

Perhaps, instead of stone, they'd install a timber tower, though in this period it would still be fairly useful to have it due to it's higher walls giving it the concentric capability to have an extra galleries to shoot attackers with.

[Condottiere 40K]

Armour

Gnomes would invest in stainless steel cuirasses and helmets, for the simple reason of permanence that armour made of organic material wouldn't last the centuries of use that a Gnome would have for it during his suitability for military service, and to have it reissued to the next (skipped) generation. I think it can be presumed that the armour would be of the best possible quality, if you go by the premise that armour should cost a normal annual salary, than a Gnome with hundreds of years of economic activity in front of him, would be able to afford it.

Speaking of organic, the underlying padding would be a quilted gambeson, usable as an armour on it's own. Likely tailored to fit each user. Light infantry would use them as their primary protection, and heavy infantry could discard their metal armour and still have some form of protection.

For helmets, burgonets would be favoured by most of the troops.

Gorgets would be used to protect the neck area, since Gnomes would have to worry about downward slashes.

I guess faulds would be a good idea as well, to act as an armoured skirts around the hips and waist.

And a codpiece.

For the leg, shynbald, sabaton and steel capped boots seems advisable

For the arms pauldron, gauntlet and inbetween, vambrace.

Officers might be more inclined to wear a buff coat, on which you still clip on armour.

If anyone could manufacture fine chainmail, it would be Gnomes. Besides more pragmatic uses as safety wear for butchers or other professions that deals with sharp objects, it would be a luxury item, probably for export. Gnomes might incorporate as part of composite armours. Gnomish mail might be preferred in the creation of magic chainmail, especially if the item were made of more stronger exotic material.

Gnomish plate is as good as dwarven manufactured armour, and might be tailored more closely to the wearer's physique, it would take twice as long to manufacture and cost three times as much.

[Condottiere 40K]

Governance


At it's basic level, sovereignty rests with the electorate. The electorate is composed of citizens of Gnomeland. Citizens are either naturalized beings, or their parents are or were citizens. Citizens qualify as electors once they pass their hundredth birthday.

Or Federal Service.

Naturalization is achieved by a majority vote of the electorate of the selected parish. Naturalization is seldom achieved.

At the parish level, a council of ten adults are elected to run the parish for a period of a year. The parishioners can act as a legislature.

The municipal level, is a sort of intermediate one, composed of several parishes within a large consolidated urban area. Run by ten adults, elected to serve ten years each. The legislature could be members of the all the parish councils.

At the canton level, a council of ten adults are elected to run the canton for ten years. Theoretically, you should have a legislature of a hundred to keep an eye on them, or you could a representative from each parish.

At the federal level, a council of ten adults are elected to run the State for ten years; candidates are selected from and elected by current legislators, one every year.

The federal legislature would be a single chamber representing all legitimate interests of one hundred legislators. Ten industrial representatives, ten cantonal representatives, ten urban representatives, ten rural representatives, and fifty legislators directly elected. Two each selected from active military, judiciary, clerical, bureaucracy, foreign service.

And above them, in theory and practice, the electorate.

In theory, there should be a clear separation between, church and state, judiciary and executive, civilian and military, Guild and administration, industry and regulation. In practise, it would be blurred, which where the composition of the Federal legislature reflects the various interest groups.

[Condottiere 40K]

Clocktower

Every town tries to have at least one clocktower with a public timekeeping piece, which could also double as the look out tower. I'm thinking it would be attached to the municipal administration building, rather than a church, though than you have to ask yourself if there are any belltowers, which would pull double duty as klaxons.

The mechanism of the clock tower would be the best that the parish could afford, and in some urban districts, the mechanism might be connected to mechanical figures, that could put on a show at selected times of the day.


Military

The rotte commander, Webel, receives double the salary of a Soldat while his assistant, the Gefreiter, receives only fifty percent more. That's because leadership by example means that as the file leader, he stands in the forward rank during combat, while his assistant is in the back, to ensure that the rest of the section remains cohesive.

So essentially, a Doppelsoldner.

If a Verloren Haufen is formed, sometimes referred to as the Forlorn Hope, troops get double their salaries as a bonus.

[Condottiere 40K]

Gnomish Magic-Users


I like to think that most magic systems do come down to these issues, where does the energy come from, how do you tap it, and how do you form the phenomenon.

You can't really know or study everything, though apparently Lizard Frogs and High Elves can. Magic can be divided by it's effects and origins into spheres, schools, realms.

For the arcane side, Gnomes could pick the following sub-classes:

1. Alchemist, which was kind of obvious.

2. Elementalist, I think you have to major in one, and minor in two others, but not in the direct opposite of the major.

3. Artificer, containing or infusing energy into constructs; probably the most interested in creating magic items.

4. Mystics, supposedly seculars able to channel divine magic; maybe an option after apotheosis.

5. Warlock/witch, in this case, magic-users that obtain access to arcane magic through a pact with a supernatural being. I'm going to say that this is outlawed.

6, Bard, no; if singers have or can incorporate magical effects in their singing or independent of that, it would be because they have a second class. They might specialize in the vibrations and harmonics of the universe.

7. Healer, I'd like to say yes, but then you don't really need clerics and physicians.

8. Archivist, casting directly from a magic tome.

9. Diviner

Gnome magic users aren't introspective, and more involved with the creation of things, like potions, scrolls and other magic items. Conjuration of spirits doesn't seem in character, but elemental forces would be. Should divination be a separate discipline? Divination in the identification of objects or energy fields should be possible, but magically forecasting or predicting events isn't possible.

On the other hand, if Gnomish magic tradition just revolves around the basic elemental schools, and that application of one or combinations of two or more can be used for the manipulation or creation of magic potions and items means that you could discard separate artificer and alchemist subclasses.

So you have five magical spheres:

1, Void

2. Fire

3. Water

4. Earth

5. Air

Which could be the difference between Gnomish magic users and clerics; the magic users spells are something that are flexible, and can be shaped as needed, but clerical spells are fixed.

There are eight priesthoods, that have to be more than the spiritual centre and moral compass of the community. If healing spells are so readily available, both the physical and spiritual wellbeing of society might rest with the clergy.