Introduction: The eccentric, often-brilliant Gnomes are one of the most peculiar races of the world. With their obsession for developing radical new technologies and constructing marvels of mind-bending engineering, it’s a wonder that any Gnomes have survived to proliferate. Thriving within the wondrous techno-city of Gnomeregan, the Gnomes shared the resources of the forested Dun Morogh Peaks with their Dwarven cousins. Though the Dwarves of Ironforge also have a propensity for technology and engineering – it is the gnomes who provide the critical, visionary designs for most of the Dwarves’ weapons and steam vehicles. The Gnomes served the Alliance well during the Second War, but strangely, they refused to send any personnel to aid their allies during the Burning Legion’s recent invasion. Though their designs helped turn the tide against the Legion, the Dwarves and Humans were shocked by the Gnomes’ decision to withhold their courageous troops and pilots. When the war ended, the Alliance discovered the reason for the Gnomes’ sudden withdrawal. Apparently, an ancient, barbaric menace had risen from the bowels of the earth and invaded Gnomeregan. Knowing that their allies’ priority was defeating the Burning Legion, the Gnomes decided to make their stand alone. Though they fought valiantly to save their beloved city, Gnomeregan was irrevocably lost. Nearly half of the Gnomish race was wiped out during the fall of Gnomeregan. The ragged Gnomes that survived fled to the safety of the Dwarves’ stronghold of Ironforge. Committed once again to the Alliance’s cause, the Gnomes spend their time devising strategies and weapons that will help them retake their ravaged city and build a brighter future for their people.
Gnome Information:
Affilation: Alliance
http://www.wowwiki.com/Alliance
Additional Intro: Though small in stature, the Gnomes of Khaz Modan have used their great intellect to secure a place in history. Indeed, their subterranean kingdom, Gnomeregan, was once a marvel of steam-driven technology. Even so, due to a massive Trogg invasion, the city was lost. Now it’s builders are vagabonds in the Dwarven lands, aiding their allies as best they can.
Leader: High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque
http://www.wowwiki.com/Gelbin_Mekkatorque
Capitol: Ironforge (Tinker Town)
http://www.wowwiki.com/Ironforge
Main Language: Gnomish
http://www.wowwiki.com/Gnomish_(language)
IC RP "Speak”: "English”, from crude to proper, some with a technology/techo-babble slant to it
Main Groups: Explorer’s League
Main faith/Philosophy: None
Allies: Dwarves, Humans, Night Elves, Draenei
Racial Enemy: Troggs (Also shaky truce – enemies with Horde forces)
Note: Not exactly a enemy, but Gnomes and Goblins have a slight "difference of opinion” of whose technology is the best.
Basic Height, Weight & Age:
Male Height: 3′2″-3′10″
Female Height: 3′-3′8″
Male Weight: 42-48 lb.
Female Weight: 37-43 lb.
Adulthood: 40 years.
Middle Age: 100 years.
Old: 150 years.
Venerable: 200 years.
Life Expectancy: 203-500 years.
OOC Culture Reference: Some Steampunk with a mix of fantasy and magic, depending on the character’s focus. Not all Gnomes are inventors, tinkers or mages, however.
In fact, you could define the gnomes as a race without a history to speak of. They are so very curious and inquisitive that they ask questions about everything, that they try to unravel any mysteries they encounter, and consider their personal life stories to be of little account. They've written tomes upon tomes on the inner workings of multi-polar data transfer relays and eletro-magnified parallel power circuits, but it never really occurred to them that they should write down the history of their species. They are a people always looking into the future, and whatever passes beyond the infinitely precious present becomes lost to them in the unseen reaches of the past -- out of sight, out of mind. That's not to say they have no memory -- they make use of their superb memories in carefully constructing their world-renown masterpieces of technological craftsmanship! Rather, it would be better to say that their minds only serve up memories relevant to the inquiry at hand. So if "For Gnomeregan!" They had been living in their underground city of mechanical wonders for generations upon generations, where they peacefully planned and carried out their experiments under the rulership of their elected High Tinkers. During the Second War, they aided the dwarves, high elves, and humans in their struggles against the orcs by supplying flying machines and submarines. But during the Third War, the gnomes withdrew from the Alliance for reasons that the Humans and Dwarves could not understand at the time. Within Gnomeregan, however, the gnomes were dealing with a crisis of unprecedented proportions, a drama of dastardly deeds, and a bastard's black-hearted betrayal. A foul greed and utterly ungnomely ambition had been festering in the gnome known as Sicco Thermaplugg for many long years, as he weaseled his way up the ranks of the gnomish society. Although he was the closest friend of High Tinker Mekkatorque, he plotted all along to ruin his leader's reputation and usurp his position. Thermaplugg conspired a series of events which led to an enormous army of evil troggs bursting up from deep underground through the city's defenses, rampaging through the city and laying waste to everything in their path. Although the gnomes fought bravely, they were much smaller than their monstrous invaders and not at all prepared to fight inside their peaceful home. Preying on the High Tinker's indefatigable courtesy and naivete, Thermaplugg dissuaded him from calling upon their friends in the Alliance for help, pointing out that their fight against the Burning Legion left them with little resources to aid the gnomes. He further used his trickery and guile to convince the increasingly desperate High Tinker Mekkatorque that the only way to save their city was to open the vents to the city's radioactive waste tanks and irradiate the city. Perhaps the High Tinker was too distressed to think clearly about the consequences of such an action, or perhaps he simply placed far too much trust in the assurances of his false friend, or perhaps both. But in the end, he and a small remnant of his people were lucky to escape with their lives, their health, and their sanity, to live as refugees within the dwarven capital of Ironforge. Whether Thermaplugg was trapped inside Gnomeregan against his will, or chose to hide there in anticipation of his victory, even the madman himself may not know. All the gnomes who were trapped inside certain sections of the city became afflicted with hideous leprosy and descended into madness, if they were not killed by radiation sickness or by mutated troggs first. Although many troggs had survived the radiation and still infested much of the city, Thermaplugg declared himself High Tinker of Gnomeregan and ruler of all the gnomes, twisting his remaining people into insane shadows of his own paranoid and demented mind. "An arclight spanner in the hand is worth two in the gyro-matic auto-expanding toolbox!" Of course this mindset lends itself towards the acquisition of more and more knowledge wherever there is scientific knowledge to be found. Gnomes excel as mages, warlocks, and sneaky rogues, and even as warriors with more brains than brawn. Their mindset is ill-suited towards more ambiguous professions such as those of the druid, shaman, priest or paladin, although some gnomes do profess a great reverence of the Holy Light. Some say that gnomes are not religious, but I would say that they simply do not let religion be religion -- they have to know how all that faith stuff actually works when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of it, and they get too bogged down in this investigation to realize that such spiritual things aren't made of nuts and bolts at all. "I tinker, therefore I am" Gnomes are, of course, most famous for their technology, and have been rivals of the goblins and their technology ever since anyone can remember. This rivalry has ever escalated into any sort of fighting, of course -- the gnomes are too good natured and the goblins are too economically minded for either of them to think of fighting about engineering methods -- but nonetheless the two forms of technology contrast sharply with one another. Goblins are a short-lived species who rely on wild inspiration and lucky improvisation to get things invented. If a goblin can't think of a practical marketing strategy for his invention, he'll just toss it on the trash heap and start over with something else. Gnomes on the other hand, often spend more time on planning a scientific endeavor than on actually undertaking it. Even a measly mechanical squirrel may have pages and pages of blueprints and plans detailing every aspect of its manufacture. Gnomes persistently pursue every train of scientific thought to its ultimate end, whereas a goblin would scream out loud at the mere thought of thinking so much. Although engineers usually take the path of tinkering associated with their race, it is not uncommon for a gnome to take up goblin engineering even if just to find out why goblins find it so interesting. Nevermind that so few goblins live to tell about why it's so interesting -- the gnome still wants to know. "My pheromone emission analysis suggests that you and I share a 97.43% compatibility rating, and leads me to the inexorable conclusion that we should explore our mutual interest in our common inquiries with the ultimate intention of perpetuating our species in accordance with our natural biology!" A gnome life is, like that of a dwarf, long enough to enjoy the relentless pursuit of knowledge, but short enough not to get boring. While the dwarves pursue the mysteries of the past, however, the gnomes only have eyes for the future and the present. They both mature at about the same rate, becoming adult at 40 years, though the gnomes enter middle age a bit earlier at the age of 100 or so, and may die of old age as early as 150 years old. 200 is considered quite old, though a few gnomes have managed to survive up to 500 years, possibly just by wanting to scientifically prove it was possible to do so. Any gnome alive today would have grown up in Gnomeregan, of course, surrounded by the quest for knowledge on all sides. Upon reaching adulthood, he or she would have chosen a new surname as a mark of some personal achievement or trait (such as Manamilk, or Whistlespring). Some of the more mature gnomes might have participated to some extent in the Second War roughly 20 years ago, but a youthful gnome would have just reached the spritely young age of 45 or 50 or so when chaos broke loose in Gnomeregan. That experience was very likely the worst of your dear gnome's life, but he or she lived through it and sees no point in dwelling on the unpleasant things of life. Some gnomes, such as High Tinker Mekkatorque himself, bend all their energies towards retaking their home from the leper gnomes and the troggs, but many others have accepted its loss due to permanent radiation and have already moved on to other avenues of inquiry, seeking understanding of previously unimaginable mysteries. To be a gnome is to question the very foundations of reality, and live to make an invention out of it. For further reading about gnomes, check out WoWWiki's information about gnomes (though I found some things there to be inaccurate or confusing), as well as Dramatis-Personae's short summary of how a gnomish adventurer's story would start. Even though there isn't much lore about gnomes, they are possibly the most fertile ground for the imagination of all the WoW races, and require the least management of tricky dates and timelines. If you don't know much about WoW lore and have an appreciation for silliness and cuteness, gnomes are the race for you. Gnomes Views
Gnomes are probably the easiest race to roleplay in World of Warcraft. They have a strong (and mostly accurate) stereotype that people just get instantly, and there's a childlike "blank-slate" quality about them that means that they don't have to have complicated backstories. 
I'm partially overstating the forgiving and forgetful nature of the gnomes when it comes to Gnomeregan, because, although they do remain cheerful and friendly in the face of such a devastating disaster, they remain resolute in trying to get it back. That city was the whole world as far as the gnomes were concerned, perfectly suited to all their experiments and calculations. 
Although, as we have seen, gnomes do fall into megalomaniacal lunacy from time to time, by and large they are far too busy discovering the mysteries of the universe to be troubled with little things like who's going to have power over whom. Their natural curiosity is founded on an unshakable belief that all questions have an answer, even if we do not yet have the means to find it.
The gnomes are, at heart, a race of scholars. They may be engineers or sorcerers, historians or futurists, but the race as a whole is defined by a curiosity that keeps them in search of learning and knowledge. This must come through in their relationships, all of them.
The Alliance
Draenei: The gnomes are all about discovering the new. It’s why they are. If something new exists, they want to map it, research it, measure it and define it. Well, the draenei are something new. And what a new thing they are! Draenei technology is wonderous and sleek, a completely different model to the steampunk designs the gnomes themselves pioneered. Their magic is one of the pillars of their society. Frankly, it’s a small miracle that the Exodar isn’t flooded with gnomes, each measuring parts of the ship, experimentally breaking small devices to see what stops running, and asking the draenei interminable numbers of questions. Above all other races, the draenei are most likely to make gnomes act like gnomes: To bring out their nosiness, their agog inquisitiveness and awe. Individually, though, gnomes probably wish that draenei would be a little more forthcoming. While they seem polite enough, they’re a little reserved, and most gnomes are going to wonder why they seem so secretive and uncomfortable with simple questions. (Slightly more contemplative gnomes, by contrast, will question the wisdom of asking this many questions to people who’ve only just learned the language.)
Now, your tentacles. I’m putting together a number of hypotheses about them and why you have them. My first theory was that they were a breeding mechanism, but that’s just lazy biologism – We always think that if we can’t see an immediate use for it, hee hee. Now I’m beginning to think that they’re actually a gnome detection system of some kind; because whenever a gnome gets close to you they begin twitching… ooh, like now! See, look how they’re agitating back and forth, it’s like a cat flicking his tail. Anyhow, why do you think draenei might come equipped with gnome detectors?
Dwarves: The dwarves have been the gnomes first and closest allies, and the gnomes have been highly valued by the dwarves for their technological prowess. The second war was won in part on gnomish technology, and the human/dwarf alliance made heavy use of gnomish-influenced technology in the third war, too. This is a role that tends to suit most gnomes; they’re a paternal species at heart. But one has to wonder how many gnomes are beginning to feel taken for granted. When the Third War broke out and the gnomes didn’t come to the frontline, the general response seems to have been, "Where are they?” than, "Oh god, what’s happened to them?” (Which surely should have been a consideration.) And, as Fegari’s player has observed, Gnomeregan has been exclusively a concern of the gnomes, it seems, for years now. Shouldn’t the dwarves be helping? While most gnomes believe that the dwarves are good and loyal friends, one has to wonder if some grumbling is setting in. Are there gnomish agitators, looking to leave Ironforge and find a new place to build a second Gnomeregan? None seem to have emerged in game yet, but it’s a sensible question to ask.
Oh, no no no. I always welcome a dwarf to my workshop. Their unique brand of engineering has been an inspiration to us, absolutely. I’ll need your expertise and ingenuity to complete this project! Now, hold that pipe down firm on the table. Of course that’s what I need you to do. I can’t hold it down and operate the blowtorch from over here, right?
Humans: The interesting thing about the humans is that they’ve accepted the gnomes as a people into their Alliance for two major wars now, even before the Warcraft setting, yet they don’t ever seem to have accepted their technology. Think about Ironforge. Even leaving aside Tinker Town, you can see gnomish influence in their siege engines. Their war quarter has gnomish inspired biplanes taking off at regular intervals. Guns are the favoured weapon of dwarvish hunters. But humans? Even the dwarvish part of town is fairly low-technology. Meanwhile they devote a whole town square to the Holy Light. While gnomes like the company of humans, most gnomes probably see humans as a bit superstitious and backwards.
Look, we don’t have time to argue on this. My patented Healatron™ medical apparatus represents the best chance of saving this man’s life! So what if you’ve prayed a million times for healing before and it’s always worked. Unless you can put forward a good mechanism for how it works, it’s still just speculation! Oh, pish posh.
Night Elves: Mind you, if the gnomes think the humans are a little backwards, they think the night elves are insane, surely. Declaring magic evil? No advanced technology whatsoever? How do they live? The gnomes and the night elves really are at complete and utter odds with each other. So naturally, of course, the gnomes are freaking fascinated by them. The humans are kind of dull by this point, they’ve been studied, found a titch superstitious but otherwise fairly boring. But the gnomes can’t even get a handle on why the night elves are the way they are. While they’ve been around each other long enough to get past the relentless questioning the draenei are undergoing, the night elves are probably the target of a massive ‘education’ campaign. (You can actually see this in the Stonetalon Mountains, where there’s a one-gnome crusade to bring the light of science and magic to the elves.) In many ways, the gnomes and the night elves remind me of the whole ‘red state/blue state’ argument of American politics; both sides are so convinced of their rightness that they can’t even begin to see why the other side thinks they way they do.
No no no. No! You’re wrong, wrong, and besides which discourteous. There’s nothing wrong with it, there’s nothing bad about it, and summoned food is perfectly nutritious! This is the way of the future! Cooking is for the past. I don’t care if you’ve had that recipe in your family for the last five thousand years. I just replicated it with a spell. You have to admit that’s impressive. Why don’t you admit that’s impressive?
The Horde
Blood Elves: The gnomes are probably a touch confused by the sindor’ei. Having joined the Alliance just before the Second War and then having skipped the Third, they were there to fight alongside the high elves exactly once. At the time, they seemed to be perfectly normal. Their priests were top-notch, the preferred priests on the battlefield. Their mages were incredibly powerful. And yet, having come out of Gnomeregan, they’re informed that the blood elves are now part of the horde. The gnomes no doubt believe them (and once they’ve faced one on the battlefield, they’ll believe it even more) but they likely remain kind of baffled by the whole affair.
No, no. It’s not that I distrust you. The night elves are our firm allies. It’s just… when we arrived, we went to war, and the high elves were our allies. Then, there was a war, and the night elves were our allies then. So, if we have another war, which elves become our allies next, is all?
Orcs & Trolls: Being inquisitive sorts, the gnomes are more likely than a few other Alliance races to distinguish between orcs and trolls, but historically they’re more or less on a similar ground, and the difference in their relationships is mostly academic. Trolls, in particular, probably are described in angry, ugly tones by more than a few gnomes, the family of gnomes who died in the second war to them. And while a very few gnomes might have some more interest in the orcs (those few being the gnomes fascinated by the draenei and whom know of their shared history), the main thing the gnomes likely have to contribute to a discussion of orcs is battle tactics.
Alright, listen up people! We have bare minutes to prepare our strategy, and our extensive studies on the matter have revealed that while a percentage of orcs are skilled with long range attacks, the majority of them (sixty-two point eight percent) favour close combat. We therefore are going to make a strategic retreat of approximately fifty miles per day of combat, peppering their numbers with gunfire, until they’re of minimal size (forty percent that of our own) and we can engage directly. What? They have trolls with them? Oh, rats. Let me find my backup plan. I knew I had it here somewhere. Give me a moment.
Tauren: The intriguing thing about the gnomes and the tauren is that until World of Warcraft, the two races had never known about each other. Seriously. The gnomes sat out the Third War. The tauren didn’t enter the scene until then. There is, ergo, no history of acrimony between the shortest and the tallest of races. It therefore seems unlikely that there’s really much strong blood between the two; sure, they’re enemies and all, but this is purely a matter of coincidence.
Sigh. What? Oh, nothing. I was just wondering what it would be like to see the world from that high up. Hold on. I’m fetching a ladder.
Undead (Forsaken): Which wins out: Disgust or curiosity? We all know the answer for that with the gnomes, and ergo it follows that frankly the gnomes aren’t going to hate the forsaken so much as be unbelievably intrigued by them. How do they walk about despite being dead? How do they speak if they don’t breath? How do they speak if they don’t have a lower jaw? Like the tauren, there’s no history behind the undead and the gnomes, and gnomes just don’t squick enough to be naturally repulsed by the undead. I can completely imagine a gnome sneaking around following an undead rather than killing it, taking notes. And I’m certain that a more medically oriented gnome would love to conduct an autopsy on one. (Which may or may not involve ‘killing’ it first. They’re already dead, after all.)
I have another hypothesis about the zombies. No no, really, hear me out on this. They’re a repeating loop control spell. Really, really, c’mon, listen to me, this works. The undead are inherently magical. We know undead can be raised and controlled via a spell. If the spell got disrupted, it would reattach itself -– I’ve done the thaumic calculations on this – to the closest magical being.. which would be the undead itself. See? They’ve got a controlling spell on themselves, that’s how it all works … you never believe in my ideas! Why do you always hurt me like this?
Viewing the Classes
Death Knight: How are there gnomish death knights anyway? I know David Bowers already addressed this already, but it still doesn’t ring quite true to me – The gnomes were all shut away when the Lich King was doin’ his thing, so the only way I can explain it is to assume that the gnomish death knights must have been outside Gnomeregan when the gates got shut, or have become so since. In both cases, the paternalistic gnomes are likely to be surprisingly understanding. The horrors of being locked outside their homeland or the horrors of seeing their people obliterated could both explain their descent, so it’s unlikely that a gnome will hate someone for being a death knight, although the kind of people death knights are likely to be might make gnomes dislike them on their personality alone.
Druid: The whole shapechanging idea for druids comes from Celtic lore, where several Celtic heroes (though not actually celtic druids) were given the ability to become an animal so that they might see the world from another perspective. While it’s likely that gnomes will think that this idea is a wonderful one, in practice they may find it more frustrating than anything else. Gnomes do very well in seeing the world from their rationalistic worldview, but most are probably a little narrow minded in that they think their worldview is truly the best one there is. Rationally, it makes sense that more than one worldview will create a better understanding of the world, but they hate leaving their rationalistic ideas for animal instinct. As such, druids probably frustrate gnomes as a whole.
Hunter: In some ways, I’m surprised there aren’t any gnome hunters. I guess gnomes get more into laboratory work than field work. None-the-less, any gnome with an interest in biology and zoology is going to love hunters and try to hire them on a regular basis. (A hunter ‘research assistant’ could actually be a fun concept.)
Mage: The gnomes love magic even though it doesn’t operate on strict scientific guidelines, at least partly surely because it helps their science. (It’s kind of like how you can use imaginary numbers in mathematics even though they’re not actually real. Besides, how else are you going to freeze lab specimens in Azeroth?) In addition to this, they’re good at it, and gnomes like being good at things. However, since gnomes are fairly practically minded, it’s unlikely that they’re the foremost scholars of what magic is (they leave that research to the humans), although they’re probably some of the leading researchers into new magic and spells. Gnomes have a lot of respect for mages in general, though, since they have respect for any intellectual disciplines.
Paladin: Gnomes aren’t particularly atheistic. They’re just not very religious. Some of them follow the Holy Light, but the lack of religious classes among the gnomes says a lot. I think a lot of gnomes find religion very interesting on an academic level (since gods and religious beings provably exist) but the whole idea of worship seems… odd to them. Paladins are therefore probably very admired for their service, but they’re not likely seen as intellectual giants. Gnomes probably treat them a little condescendingly.
Priest: On the other hand, priests represent a difficulty for gnomes. They’re very clever and certainly can be persuasive despite worshipping a deity, which just seems odd. They probably especially admire the counselling work priests can do. I think the moment a gnome decides to try and create a priest without the worship, we will see the birth of psychoanalysis in Azeroth.
Rogue: A genuine, complete repeat of the dwarvish attitude. Gnomes likely see rogues as criminals, but at least (for Alliance rogues) criminals on their side. That said, if you were ever to find a treasure hunting, Indiana Jones-style rogue, he’d be a gnome.
Shaman: Like hunters, every gnome probably looks at a shaman and thinks: Research assistant. Here, it’s the powers of lightning that shamans seem able to wield that probably intrigues gnomes. Their religious elements are also a bit more sensible to gnomes; dealing with and controlling spirits makes sense to them – They can immediately see the benefit.
Warlock: I wonder whether or not gnomes are a bit divided on warlocks. On one hand, it can’t be denied that at least some gnome warlocks see themselves as pariahs of the society. On the other hand, why don’t gnomes just see it as another line of inquiry? They suffered more from troggs than demons in their past, and gnomes rarely ascribe moral dilemmas to the pursuit of knowledge. While the game suggests that gnome warlocks aren’t any more accepted than any other, I think there’s a role-playing case to be made that many gnomes, at least, aren’t that down on warlocks. For a gnome, your actions toward other people matter more than your methods.
Warrior: Gnomes definitely have a lot of respect for the martial arts, and their warriors are probably some of the most hardened urban fighters you’ll ever find. They’re tiny, quick-witted, and they’ve been hardened from fighting the troggs in their homelands for months, most probably. Given the intellectual bent of gnomes, they’re probably some of the best strategists you’ll ever find, too. Do not mock a gnome warrior.
