Fellowship of the Blooming Mind

The gnomes of Karos tend to be a deeply introspective people. The devotees of the Fellowship of the Blooming Mind take this contemplation to whole new levels, placing the foundational ideas of Gnottingham and the world at large under a microscope to be analyzed and dissected.

A Group of Dialecticians

They've taken up what now? Why would anyone care about whether a fallen leaf is still part of the tree?!

— -Ves Squigglehart, Elder of Gnottingham

Members of the Fellowship immerse themselves in ideas, arguments, and rhetoric with limitless abandon. Most of them care little about the topic and focus more on the ideas and arguments they can make to further the discourse. Certainly, some of their ideas and arguments bear fruit: most recently, much of their time has been focused on whether the gnomes of The Far Reaches would be better off leaving the tumultuous land for safer shores. Some of the more animated arguments have turned to traversing The Tempest Tides in an effort to leave the insular elves, expansionist humans, and brutal tribal races behind.

Wasting Time?

What is the color that best represents uncertainty? Seriously? Wait, do you think these people would watch my husband for a few hours?

— -Ves Squigglehart, Elder of Gnottingham

Still, many people, including some of the city's elders, see the Fellowship as a waste of time and effort. Certainly, they have the rare epiphany, but any organization that is more interested in the rhetorical beauty of an argument than in the topic itself cannot be intrinsically useful - or so they argue. To make matters worse, the Fellowship has recently commissioned the building of the Petalspire Pavillion, a significant undertaking that, as it continues to expand, has begun to tax the resources of the town. Half of the elders of Gnottingham have turned their attention toward limiting the influence of the Fellowship, claiming that the town cannot encourage often fruitless discourse when a crisis might be looming in the near future. The other half of the elders routinely attend the debates held in the Pavilion.

Fruitless Negotiations

What do you mean half the town went to the Pavilion today? They went to hear about the ethics of owning a pet rock?! Okay, that is enough - bring me their manager.

— -Ves Squigglehart, Elder of Gnottingham

According to the Charter of Gnottingham, which members of the Fellowship of the Blooming Mind have debated in painstaking detail, any gnome has the unequivocal right to meet and debate any policy, position, or concept they wish. Legally, the town's leadership has no grounds to curtail the group's activities. That means that any attempt to bring the Fellowship around to more reasonable activities would have to obey the rules of the group itself. Several elders and other prominent members of the community have tried, standing before the Fellowship to offer their arguments for temperance or at least a turn to relevant discussions. So far, those attempts have been largely fruitless - the arguments have invariably turned to scathing rebukes of their rhetorical form and lack of proper philosophical structure. Efforts are likely to continue, but at least for the time being, they seem doomed to failure.