Tinker Gnome

Tinker gnomes are industrious to the extreme.

Basics
No one is precisely sure where tinker gnomes originated, since most of their earliest records were destroyed in a fire resulting from dubious experiments in advanced record-keeping technology. Despite this event, most tinker gnomes insist that they can trace the personages and events surrounding their family lines all the way back to their creation by the god Sehanine. This assertion suggests that entire swaths of tinker gnome history are the product of sheer invention. To anyone who knows tinker gnomes, such a hypothesis seems a strong possibility.     Tinker gnomes are industrious to the extreme, exhibiting an obsessive need to build and redesign devices to help with every facet of their hectic lives. These gnomes challenge the limits of their world’s scientific and magical knowledge on a daily basis. The average tinker gnome generally regards those few members of the race who are uninterested in technology as either lazy or insane, since satisfaction with the status quo and reliance on mundane solutions is nearly unheard of in tinker gnome society.     Though all tinker gnomes have a penchant for invention and engineering, relatively few are truly gifted in this area. The bulk of gnomish experimentation relies on trial and error, and most gnomes cheerfully acknowledge that the majority of their efforts end in failure. This fact does not disturb them, however; they are always ready to move onward to their next pet project. Tinker gnomes average about three feet in height, and around fifty pounds in weight—slightly stout, but still nimble. Their hair is fine and pale—usually platinum blond or white—and most of the males grow luxuriant beards and mustaches. Tinker gnomes’ skin comes in varying shades of tan, and wrinkles develop at an early age.     When on the job or traveling, tinker gnomes prefer to wear heavily modified thick leather aprons festooned with all manner of small tools. A tinker gnome is always prepared to make improvements, no matter the situation.