Skogarnithur

The Skogarnithur are a variation of Gnomes that have developed in line with a more mobile, best-hidden lifestyle of something that has the same alpha predator capabilities and nature of humans, but is small enough for most forested predators to take the bet faster than they would with Dwarves, Humans or Elves. As such, Skogarnithur are long and reedy, able to blend well into bushes and thin crops of trees, and have become innately skilled with some small illusion magic that allows them to distract or startle away predators.

expected to settle down into an adult lifestyle around the age of 40. Like humans, Gnomes tend to start out as pretty helpless, relying on parents or some form of family unit in order to survive, generally several months until the start of their childhood stage, around 4 to 5 years old. In childhood, Gnomes are expected to stay pretty close to their communities, or extended family, in order to be protected in a large group setting against predators. They start learning about the tinkering skills in their toys, developing deft hand skills and dexterity that is a hallmark of gnomes and generally retained throughout their lives from these complex inane and usually noisey distractors. Around adolescence, 12-16 years of age, Gnomes reach their full height, and display primary sex characteristics, and generally begin the process in Gnomish culture of a sexual segregation, where males and females are schooled separately and trained separately until they've reached their full maturity.
As adults, (20-280), Gnomes are generally reintroduced to the opposite sex, in co-educational secondary schools that primarily focus in the arts of stealth and bowery, however, the arcane and artificery are also popular subjects in gnomish cultures. Somewhere between 20 and 30, these gnomes graduate, and are expected to look for a mate, settle down, and begin expanding their own families.   Around 280 years, gnomes generally start feeling the age of years pressing upon them. It's not uncommon in the modern age to see many elder gnomes begin to experiment with prosthetics and other forms of augmentation artificery. Around 350 years, a gnome is viewed to have had a full life in the case of death. It's no longer a tragic life cut short as much as it is their time. You see many gnomes in this age category either embrace the physical decline and begin to settle into a more quiet life, or further push into heavy artificial augmentation, from artificial arcane eyes, to full sets of magical/mechanical joints or limbs.

The Skogarnithur have a long history with exploitation, first at the hands of the High Elves in the times of the Skylord, and then while under the humans in the Loricanium Empire.

Gnomes tend to be found in the north western portions of Kokintras, though there are some communities that live in and under Kuldmaed in the dwarven cities and human settlements.

Gnomes in general are very bright creatures, and favor an emotional and engineering intelligence that can be unrivaled by other races in the world. The Skógarniður are no exception, using such skills to become very lucrative as negotiators, or peace-talkers in the northwest Woldberge. For the more chaotic, they've also proven quite skilled at using these intelligences to manipulate other mortals out of their coin as Seers and Soothsayers.

Skogarnithur are descended from a people who were imprisoned and on the run. As such there is a lot of "Chain-breaking" iconography inherent to the popular culture of the Forestlings.

It's much rarer these days with the amount of integration in with other races in that region of the continent, but in the old days, part of the "reaching adulthood" custom for the Skogarnithur, was a manacle magically being affixed to the wrists, to serve as a reminder of what their fathers and mothers freed them from. This came to be from the ancient Lorcani practice of waiting until the adult age of a gnome before separating it from it's family group, and the physical manacles were symbolic then as well as "This gnome is old enough for sale."
Another more niche custom is the offering of an eagle on days of great importance. Usually anymore it's an eagle made of sackcloth, however it's said at one point the gnomes would kill an eagle as a sign of fortune for a newly married couple, or a first birth. The sackcloth eagles are usually three headed, in a reference to the Loricani Triple Eagle, a symbol of the empire that's used to this day.

Some would suspect that most gnomes would have an aversion about humans in general after what their shared cultural experience was with them after the fall of the Skylord. However, most gnomes don't see it that way. They are long lived enough to see humans be born, grow, start a family, die, and watch that next generation do the same for a few iterations in a single span. So they are very cognizent of the idea that "These humans are not the ones that have done us wrong." However, they do have an aversion to the institution of Loricanium, and take issue with those who are its representatives.