Hertford Purple

Age 169

Weight 45lbs (a little pudgy)

Height 3’

Backstory

Herford is a Rock Gnome who comes from the Secret Gnome Realm below the Sunrise Mountains known as Songfarla the Hidden Kingdom. Home is a small hidden community in the mountains east of Thay about 2 days west from Songfarla called Thaywatch.

All Gnomes including Hertford take a solemn oath never to reveal the whereabouts or even the existence of Songfala or his community.

Hertford is as curious as the next “rock gnome” but he took it to extremes.

Hertford was born to an average tinker family, his parents and extended family all tinkers. His sister “Gerty“ is a famous inventor in their community, with many important inventions to her name. His father Albus Purple is chief engineer, and within 10 days march, no great engineering work has occurred, that his father did not have a major hand in.

To his father Hertford was a bit of a disappointment. In his early years Hertford showed great promise but nothing kept his focus. It seemed Hertford no sooner started a project then something else grabbed his attention and he would be off. Hertford was attracted to learning new things, but not to perfecting them, as his family expected.

In truth Herford was attracted to learning and knowledge for its own sake. He eventually found his niche with great “scriptorium” od Songfarla becoming a librarian, researcher and expert in the lore available to them. Over his first century Herford developed a great respect for knowledge and learning. He reached the office of the First Sage of the Scriptorium of Songfarla.

But it was not enough.

His research led him to discover some old arcane teachings. These truly gained his interest and over the following years these became his sole interest. He began to research the arcane, with no local wizard or anyone in the community that practiced these arts he began to experiment and found he had a talent for the Arcane.

Over time Hertford became a self taught wizard. What he does not yet realise is the only information he has had available has been from ancient War Mages. So unwittingly he has become a War Mage.

Finally having exhausted the knowledge available to him Hertford realised if he was to continue to learn he had to “travel”. So after his 160th birthday he decided he must find some adventurers, and join in with them. As the only way he could see he could progress was to seek out new knowledge.

Adventurers, he reasoned, have the reputation of those that seek out and find such things, so he will join with them. At least until he has found enough more information to satisfy many more years of research.

His first attempt at adventurting was a near disaster. A group of adventurers were rumored to be explaining a local historic site. So he went off to join with them. Knowing they would accept him due to his fine intellect it never occurred to him to even ask them could he tag along.

He found them battling a nest of Ankheg. Knowing adventurers always want to do things their way he stood nearby in the full view of the group and watched their fantastic efforts. He was most impressed, though disappointed that the halfling was eaten. As they dispatched the final Ankheg, Hertford loudly applauded. In reply the ranger sent three arrows in rapid fire at him, assuming the ranger was shooting at something behind him he turned to see who the target was.

Hertford awoke some hours later tied up and gagged being carried by the group. Seems they assumed he was some wizard that was controlling the Ankheg and were taking him to the lords court for their reward.

Lucky for Hertford he was known to the Lord and he was able to explain that these poor Adventurers were to stupid to know a someone his cailbre and interlect. Hertford demanded their imprisonment for attempted murder.

The Lord being wise paid the group double the bounty they expected for the Ankheg clearing, on the basis they take Hertford under their wing. Hertford understood the wisdom of this, as the Adventurers had no true intellect among them and needed him. The group initially refused the offer, until the Lord increased the payment, “for their trouble”.

Over time Hertford began to get the handle on Adventuring and slowly improved his magic, but what surprised him is he found he was quite good at sneaking and rogue things. When he discovered his new comrades were not interested in helping him find magics, he found it was up to him to do the itching and sneaking into places. He knew he was valued by them as no matter how far into difficulty he found himself following a lead they would alway find him and bring him back. Such Friends.

After a few years he found the rogue things more fun and slowed his search for magic, but it never ended.

“In truth the group was rescuing Hertford constantly, and we’re planning on losing him. Until finally it was realised he was so good at sneaking that he could rescue them…”

Where does he say he is from?

Should he be asked where he is from, Hertford is evasive. He will make comments of “oh it’s a small gnomish community you would never have heard of it” or “Oh you know us Rock Gnomes we live in deep caverns trying to explain where will take too much time” or “have you been to Semphar?. . . well it’s in the Hordelands . . . . anyway my family originally came from a small settlement deep in the hills but I grew bored there and moved on” or “well most recently I called Almorel – on the Golden Way home. But too many humans so I’m now a Gnome of the world. Maybe one day I’ll find a place I want to be from.”

Description

Hertford is a small (small for a gnome) rotund rock gnome.

He is a self taught wizard and dresses as he believes from his reading they do. When in his wizard role he will wear a tall hat with a star on top and a staff on his chest. “One must look the part” he says “if you dont look like a wizard how is anyone to know you are one?”

Likewise when being “sneaky” as he puts it, he will remove the stars, “as they are not right for the part” he was heard to say.

About

Hertford is a studious, sage.

He is not an outgoing person, he is very introverted, distracted, self centred and slow to accept other peoples undertaking or views. He has yet to meet another whose intellect he respects, so considers all others slow. This leads him to ignore these slow witted people and their ideas. He knows he will be right

His goal is knowledge, mostly knowledge that leads him to greater arcane understandings. If he finds knowledge he already knows he will just ignore it.

To Hertford nothing is more important than knowledge. This Adventuring thing is a necessary task he has to perform to meet his personal goals. Though he does enjoy this speaking thing. “It can be such fun.”

Herford left to himself will be found in a comfortable location, with his latest tome building his understanding often with his favourite Deep Gnome Stout “Deep Deep and Dark”.

Other Traits

Loves Cheese – considers himself an expert and has made a study

Summary

Personal Traits

I am horribly, horribly awkward in social situations.
I… speak… slowly… when talking… to idiots,… which… almost… everyone… is… compared… to me.

Ideals

Knowledge. The path to power and self-improvement is through knowledge.

Bonds

I’ve been searching my whole life for the answer to a certain question. Where does this arcane power actually frome from, where is it, how does it really work!

Flaws

Most people scream and run when they see a demon. I stop and take notes on its anatomy, interview it about its family life and ask for an autograph.

May I alter Hertfords backstory a touch as follows.

——————————————

Songfarla has a network of undercover operatives that help to obtain and report intelligence on the Red Wizards, Thay and any item that could interest them.

“As a Songfarla Gnome Hertford is expected to report to such operatives. And at all times be on lookout for anything that could be of interest.”

Hertford is doing just that.

His sketches are really part of his intelligence gathering and he encodes the images to pass on this intelligence via a skill known as Steganography.

Before leaving Songfarla, Hertford made a magical pact (curse), that he would never reveal anything of his homeland and should he find himself doing that the curse will activate and erase his mind (mind blank).

Hertford does this as a it is a duty, but he no intension of ever returning to Songfarla. He is looking for his perfect place to call home and so far none becon. But Cheese has him interested. . .

Songfarla – Gnome history

−469 DR,

the population of Songfarla was dwindling until four svirfneblin clans migrated there, the Covarrkar, Fungusfoot, Glasszhorm, and Longstepper clans.

–496 DR

Songfarla’s population swelled with the unexpected arrival of four deep gnome clans—the Covarrkar, the Fungusfoot, the Glasszhorm, and the Longstepper clans.

-555 DR

The gnomes of Songfarla come under attack from the demon armies of Narfell. The gnomes repel the first assaults and then veil their city with powerful illusions, preventing further attacks and hiding them from the rest of Faerun.

-3149 DR

Because of the large influx of gnome refugees into the area, the secret gnome kingdom of Songfarla is officially founded in the Sunrise Mountains separating the Hordelands from the Faerun.

Songfarla

Songfarla – this hidden gnome city is right on the border of Thay. When it held its short term war against Narfell, did it recover any lore? Has it infiltrated the school of illusion in Thay?

This hidden kingdom of gnomes lies nestled just under the eastern slopes of the Sunrise Mountains off a tributary of the River Murghôl. Settled almost 5,000 years ago by rock gnomes fleeing Netherese enslavement, Songfarla was founded when an influx of new refugees nearly quintupled the existing settlement’s population. Since that time the gnome population slowly dwindled, until –496 dr, when Songfarla’s population swelled with the unexpected arrival of four deep gnome clans—the Covarrkar, the Fungusfoot, the Glasszhorm, and the Longstepper clans. The Hidden Kingdom presently numbers some 12,000 gnomes, carefully secreted in a number of communities in the mountains east of Thay. Some half of them live in the city that names the kingdom. Songfarla (small city): Conventional; AL LG; 15,000 gp limit; Assets 7,877,250 gp; Population 5,807; Isolated (58% rock gnome, 42% deep gnome). Authority Figure: Laughing Mime (NG male rock gnome illusionist 13/cleric 8 of Garl Glittergold), Prime Jeweler of Songfarla. Important Characters: Lyssa Polishedstone (LG female rock gnome cleric 14 of Garl Glittergold), the Star Ruby (high priestess of Garl Glittergold; Esstor Wykurrik (LG male deep gnome fighter 11), the First Sentinel and leader of the Vigilant Sentinels; Filannil (CG female gloaming sorcerer 7), de facto head of the local gloaming ghetto (see Underdark for details on gloaming).

At the headwaters of the northwestem most tributary of the River Murghol, on the eastern slopes of the Sunrise Mountains, midway between the Lake of Mists and the ruins of Delhumide, lies the Hidden Kingdom of Songfarla. Although it is commonly known throughout the region that a few isolated communities of rock gnomes survive in the shadow of Thay, learning of the existence of an entire kingdom of the Forgotten Folk so close to the borders of the land of the Red Wizards would shock even the Zulkir of Divination. The Hidden Kingdom is largely self-sufficient, although it does trade with its neighbors in ways designed to continue its anonymity and preserve its sanctity and security. The inhabitants of Songfarla have a few representatives in the city of Almorel who trade the Hidden Kingdom’s wares with traders traversing the Golden Way, in the city of Murghyr who trade with merchants on the River Rauthenflow, and in the city of Duirtanal who trade with merchants embarking on the Silk Road. Gnome goods are brought into all three cities in small quantities in the wagons of gnome merchants pretending to be itinerant peddlers and are then sold by a handful of gnome merchant families who have dwelt in each city for centuries. The secret of Songfarla’s existence has thus been kept secret, even from the fanciful tavern-tales of bards that inspire adventurers.

At the heart of Songfarla is the Gilded Nugget, so named for the giant chunk of gilded granite or iron pyrite (tales vary) with which the lands of the Hidden Kingdom were purchased centuries ago. This vast cavern at the heart of a great vein of gold studded with gems (an unexplained natural phenomenon) and a web of innumerable illusion-cloaked passages connecting the burrows of the Hidden Kingdom, this great amphitheater serves as a center of worship, government, commerce, and the arts for the entire community. Under the able leadership of an aged rock gnome known only as the Laughing Mime, the clergy of the Joker knit this disparate kingdom together in common purpose and harmony.

Although it is hardly the preeminent temple of the leader of the gnome pantheon, the Temple of Wisdom, called the Shrine of the Short by some humans, is one of the few gnome temples that regularly admits human supplicants, having even won a few converts among them, and it is thus the most widely known temple of Garl outside the insular communities of the Forgotten Folk. The Temple of Wisdom, run by the quiet, observant Gellana Mirrorshade, is located in the Friendly Arm, a waystop for caravans passing along the Coast Way between Beregost and Baldur’s Gate. Gellana and her husband, Bentley Mirrorshade, run an inn also called the Friendly Arm as a safe, secure place for travelers. Located within the secure walls of the holdfast, the Temple of Wisdom is a low building whose interior walls are studded with gems and gold nuggets and which is guarded by many illusions.

Songfarla was an ancient and hidden rock gnome realm located in the eastern spur of the Sunrise Mountains.[1]

Geography

Songfarla was located in the eastern Sunrise Mountains at the source of the most northwestern tributary of the River Murghol, which was approximately equidistant from the ruins of Delhumide and the Lake of Mists.[2]

Trade

To maintain their hidden existence, the gnomes of Songfarla traded their goods quietly, utilizing merchants who claimed no affiliation with any realm. These merchants operated in Almorel, Murghyr, and Duirtanal for things that the gnomes could not make themselves—they were otherwise completely self-sufficient.[2]

Defenses

Songfarla’s greatest defense was its anonymity. Not even the Thayan Zulkir of Divination knew of its existence.[2] Practically all passages into and around Songfarla were hidden by powerful illusion magic.[citation needed]

History

A settlement in the Sunrise Mountains was founded by escaped slaves from Netheril. In −3149 DR, it became the kingdom of Songfarla when its population exploded with an influx of more refugees.[3][4]

The kingdom was later caught up in the wars between Raumathar and Narfell, when conjured demons attacked in −555 DR. Afterwards, the gnomes cloaked their realm in illusions to avoid future detection and attack.[5]

In −469 DR, the population of Songfarla was dwindling until four svirfneblin clans migrated there, the Covarrkar, Fungusfoot, Glasszhorm, and Longstepper clans.[6]

Rumors and Legends

Gnomish tales tell of the purchase of Songfarla’s lands for a massive piece of fool’s gold, though whom the lands were bought from and even if it was fool’s gold that was used (another common tale says gilded granite) could change with the teller.[2]

Notable locations

The Gilded Nugget was a vast cavern within the mountains located in the thickest part of a massive gold vein that was somehow naturally studded with gemstones. The Nugget was a center of both government and worship (it was considered one of Garl Glittergold’s greatest temples) as well as a community hub for other activities, including commerce and the arts.[2]

Songfarla—The Hidden Kingdom

Songfarla (small city): Conventional; AL LG; 15,000 gp limit; Assets 7,877,250 gp; Population 5,807; Isolated (58% rock gnome, 42% deep gnome).

Authority Figure: Laughing Mime (NG male rock gnome illusionist 13/cleric 8 of Garl Glittergold), Prime Jeweler of Songfarla.

Important Characters: Lyssa Polishedstone (LG female rock gnome cleric 14 of Garl Glittergold), the Star Ruby (high priestess) of Garl Glittergold; Esstor Wykurrik (LG male deep gnome fighter 11), the First Sentinel and leader of the Vigilant Sentinels; Filannil (CG female gloaming sorcerer 7), de facto head of the local gloaming ghetto (see Underdark for details on gloaming)

Sunrise Mountains

Area Thay

The Sunrise Mountains is the name of two mountain ranges. The most important are mountains in Thay which form much of that countries eastern border. They mark the edge of Faerûn. These Sunrise mountains are quite high, towering a good 15,000 feet above sea level and are full of old Raumathar ruins. the alternate (local) name for the Sunrise Mountains (which is the Aglarondan and hence Inner Sea name for them) is the Thaedanth Range, or Thaedanths. Yes, the “Thae” is pronounced like “Thay.”

Comprising a lengthy row of lowly peaks, the Sunrise Mountain range marks the western border of the Endless Waste with the evil magocracy of Thay. The eastern side of the mountains have long hidden the secret underground gnome kingdom of Songfarla. The slopes are also home to bands of bugbears, goblins, gnolls, escaped Thayvian slaves, and barbarian bandits who remain unaware of the gnomish realm under their feet. More interested with its formal enemies to the west, Thay mostly ignores this side of its kingdom, although Red Wizards frequent the Sunrise Mountains to hunt both beasts and humanoids for sport.

The other range known as the Sunrise Mountains is a short mountain range in located in the northern Tortured Land between Anauroch and the Great Glacier. It lies northeast of the Frozen Forest and the Great Mount Ghaethluntar and marks roughly the change from boreal prairies to tundra. The region is mostly populated by wild animals, but one may run into Flinds from Ghaethluntar in a hunting expedition.

————–

The following comes from

From https://www.realmshelps.net/faerun/thay/index.shtml

Sunrise Mountains

The Sunrise Mountains, which many consider to mark the eastern end of Faerûn proper, run all the way from the center of Rashemen to just past the southeastern border of Thay. They form the entirety of Thay’s eastern border, towering almost 15,000 feet above sea level. To get to the Thayan portion of the Sunrise Mountains, a traveler must first tackle the Surague Escarpment. Few find even this to be worthwhile, as the Sunrises themselves are virtually impassable to those on foot. As well, the lands above the Surague Escarpment are wild and untended, nothing like the civilized plains of the First Escarpment. They are teeming with dangerous animals and hostile humanoids. From time to time, scouts from the goblin and kobold tribes living here forage into Thay proper. Every now and then, the tharchions of Surthay, Gauros, Pyrados, and Thazalhar send an expedition into the peaks. Old Raumviran towers and strongholds lie buried under the snows of the high slopes, as well as the ancient well-like fortresses of some even older people now forgotten by time. High and perilous passes cross the mountains at Daggertooth and Thazar, but there have long been rumors of a secret passage through the deeps into the Endless Wastes beyond. If this could be found and secured, it might divert the trade of the Golden Way south to Thay and increase tenfold the power of the tharchion whose people discovered the pass.

Scouts and adventurers have so far failed to discover such a way through, despite centuries of searching. The dangers of the mountains multiply the farther one descends from the surface. The caverns beneath the Sunrise mountains are filled with horrible creatures, including nagas, chimeras, and things unspeakably worse.

The patrols along this edge of Thay are not as alert as those of the nation’s other borders. The denizens of the mountains rarely descend the Surague Escarpment to attack, and the idea of invading force coming through the mountains is preposterous. Border patrol here is considered one of the dullest and most miserable jobs a soldier can get, so it often draws the less ambitious of Thay’s defenders. No one ever became a tharchion on such duty, after all.

Raumathar

Raumathar was a great eastern empire that once included the lands that became Rashemen and Thay. Its people were known to be powerful battle-wizards, and their art of fighting is still known by some.

History

Raumathar was established by the Raumviran people in -900 DR, setting their capital as Winterkeep. In -623 DR, Raumathar surprised its neighbour Narfell by attacking them while they were being beaten in a war with Mulhorand, beginning the first of many wars with the Nar people.

In -160 DR, the last of these wars began. Known as The Great Conflagration, it culminated in the ruination of both empires a decade later.

The surviving Raumvirans were then pushed westward by the Suren people.

A Brief History

The great empires of Narfell and Raumathar were warlike nations that coalesced out of the migrating northern tribes that were paid to fight as mercinaries in the Orcgate Wars. They had weapons of iron (unlike the Mulhorandis’ bronze ones) and soon developed powerful magic of their own. They quickly subdued large tracts of land, replacing the Mulhorandi culture with their own.[1]

With the Great Glacier at that time enveloping all of Vaasa and Damara in the west, covering Icelace Lake and the Teardrops, and reaching to the Icerim Mountains in the east [2], the northward-migrating tribes found themselves limited in their choices; both further westward and further northward travel was denied to them.

It was at this time that the tribes, united in their desire to find a new homeland, splintered. Rauthok, a charismatic and intelligent man who had studied much of the Mulhorandi arts, persuaded many of the tribes to follow him east across the great lake (Lake Ashane), where he promised open land and warmer climes (which he knew from studying Mulhorandi maps of the area). The other tribes, still following their shamans and demonologists, opted to stay where they were, attacking and enslaving many of their new neighbors (the natives of the Great Dale).

The Narfellians quickly became the dominant power in the area, as their mounted horsemen easily defeated their enemies (it has been speculated that the Narfellians, if not the Raumatharans, originate in the same southern area as the ancient Arkaiuns of Dambrath. The similar horse strains would seem to support this theory).[3] After conquering the areas known today as Narfell, the Great Dale, and Ashanath, they followed their former allies eastward, pushing the Raumans (as the eastern tribes were now calling themselves) before them, and conquering huge swathes of the northern steppes.[4]

At the Battle of Riualyn, the Rauman finally defeated the Narfellian horsemen. The Rauman battlemages took center stage, as their magics proved the deciding factor. Riualyn was a turning point in the history of the Rauman, as they drove the Narfellians back across the Ashane and established the mages as the ruling class (up till this point in history, Rauman mages were mostly practicing tattoo- and rune-magic, which are limited in both power and effectiveness. It is unknown just how they gained their mastery of more conventional magic – especially the schools of invocation/evocation and conjuration/summoning – but many scholars speculate that their knowledge came from the northernmost ruins of the Imaskari, in the area of Priador).[5]

After Riualyn, the Rauman soon capitalized on their success, establishing the Raumathar Empire. This nation drove into the Endless Wastes, eventually extending as far as Sossal in the north and the Lake of Mists in the south.[6] Their battlemages proved an even match for the Narfellian horsemen and demonologists, and the two powers settled into an uneasy period of empire. Although separated by several natural barriers (including the Great Glacier, the Ashane, and the Priador), the two empires clashed continually in border skirmishes and raids.

The two early empires had a great effect on other peoples, besides themselves. Many of the natives of the Great Dale, long a subject people of the Narfellians, migrated west across the Easting Reach where they fought the teeming goblin hordes in the mountains, and later formed the peoples of Impiltur and the Vast (many sages believe that a later wave of these peoples, fleeing the imminent destruction of the two empires,crossed over the Dragon Reach and became the ancestors of the Dalesmen).[7] In Raumathar, raids by the various nomad tribes of the steppes were a constant problem (In later years, the Suren, in particular, were a problem. Pushed out of Kara-Tur by the Kao, the Suren expanded to the west and for years harried the eastern border of Raumathar. When the final war between Narfell and Ramathar occured, the Suren drove the Raumatharans from the steppe. Continuing their advance, the barbarian horde even overwhelmed most of modern Narfell before it was stopped).[8] However, relations and trade with the Sossarim to the north and the dwarves of the easternly Firepeaks were more relaxed. In fact, the Raumatharans had such a good relationship with the dwarves of the Firepeaks that the stout folk were often seen in the cities and towns of the Empire, and many of them fought in the army of Raumathar [9] (including the company led by Theodo Greataxe, famed in legend as the ghosts of Dead Dwarf Bridge).[10]

Perhaps the greatest effect the two empires had on a people was that of the nation of Rashemen. This region, caught between the two powers, spent many years as disputed ground. Armies of both lands marched and retreated through Rashemen, and the native Rashemi themselves developed a warrior culture while fighting one or the other of the two warring states. Years after the collapse of both Narfell and Raumathar, the Rashemi united to form a new nation with the assistance of the mysterious witches.[11]

At thier height, both empires had many wondrous achievements, especially in regards to architecture. Most traces of Narfellian buildings are lost today, but several Raumatharan ruins still exist today. [12] (that these sites happened to survive would seem to point to the Raumathari as prodigious builders, given the extent of the devastation that affected the Wastes).

Eventually, Narfell and Raumathar escalated their border skirmishes into all-out war with each other. It was a bitter and bloody struggle, full of the tales of great heroes: Rauthok, Jesthren, Halduplac, and many others whose names are lost to the sands of time.[13] The two empires held one final cataclysmic battle and destroyed each other utterly. Netherworld fiends fought against dragons, cities were burned, and in the end, Narfell and Raumathar were no more.[14]

Many contemporary historians are quick to judge Narfell the “victor” in the war, for the land of Narfell still exists today as do its’ people (albeit in a more primitive form), whereas “Boundless Raumathar” today has been blasted into the barren, forboding land of the Endless Wastes. However, it should be pointed out that descendants of the Raumatharai, the Raumvira, do live on; a stocky, thick-bearded race that lives around the shores of the Lake of Mists (especially in the city of Almorel), these people trace their ancestry back to the fall of the Raumathar empire (although the nomads who surround the Lake of Mists have had their effect, too).[15] As well, the Rashemi people exhibit these physical traits, much more so than those of the Nar peoples.

The horsemen of Raumathar were vassals of Imaskar for a lengthy period and to describe them as “nomadic, hunter-gatherers” is incorrect. To give you both a fantasy and real world touchstone, they were more “Rohan” than they were “Sioux”.

In terms of magic use, the Raumathari were not big creators of magic items, but enthusiastic magpies, stripping Imaskari outposts and settlements of much of their useful magic and sending expeditions into present-day Murghom and a few even into Raurin itself seeking even more.

Sorcery was “in the blood” as it were, and it is thought that the clans and tribes that were given leadership positions under the aegis of the Imaskari were chosen for this talent. The origins of this magical legacy is thought to be the great dragon kingdoms of millennia past, and there is evidence in some still-existing draconic artifacts [in the archeological, not magical sense] of at least one dragon kingdom in the area where humans were slaves to draconic rulers. The most notable of these is Gaerthalin’s Skull in the Spiderhaunt Peaks, named for the human explorer who first brought word of it to the lands of the Inner Sea in the early 1300s DR, but known to locals for centuries as Argartarl, the “Dragonhead” in a local tongue.

Gaerthalin’s Skull is the petrified skull of a great copper wyrm, etched with draconic runes and seemingly a record of a now lost dragon kingdom that existed in the region before the Crown Wars. The remaining runes – for the elements have erased much of its surface – do not name the dragon ruler of this land (thought by some to be ‘Kerlathar’ and others ‘Dyarlintul’ – both names are found on the skull, but without context) but a section gives details of his servants and the rare gift of magic that was sometimes granted by the ingesting of some of his blood.

In the time of Raumathar’s conflict with Narfell, there were two “watershed” moments that created and contributed to the legend of their storied “battlemages”.

I note that “battlemage” is a clumsy term, first fostered by the scholar Galros of Candlekeep, whose field of study was the lands east of the Inner Sea. Galros was a painstaking and thorough archeologist, but his linguistic expertise was less than stellar. He derived the term “battlemage” from the word “tarannaerl”, which was one of the Raumathari terms for its warriors. While “tar” was indeed “battle” in the Raumathari tongue, and “naer” was a word for “user of magic”, the term in fact is better translated as “magically enspelled (naerl) battle champion (taran)” and was used specifically for the elite warriors handpicked and trained to infiltrate Nar strongholds and shatter their wards and bindings so as to unleash demonic servitors on their erstwhile masters. It is known that a team of tarannaerl managed to gain entrance into the Citadel Of Conjurers in the last days of the Great Conflagration, undoing many of the spell wards there and making the place untenable for humans thereby robbing the Nar of a last great bastion in which to make a final stand.

The first watershed moment was the accession of Vayloss as Arkhan of Raumathar in -605 DR. Vayloss was a powerful sorcerer and the first to actively harness this talent in his people. He established “elanaer”, which were the Raumathari equivalent of wizard schools where sorcerous talent was identified in the young and fostered and refined. Over time, the “elanaer” divided along elemental school lines, creating four separate groupings devoted to fire, earth, air and water respectively. The “elanaer” were responsible for training mages for battle and created a cadre of spellcasters who were fit and ready for military service in times of war.

The second watershed moment was in the reign of Tallos II, when an Imaskari trove of construct magic and spell lore was discovered in the Shalhoond. Thought to be the work of a cabal of wizards led by the Artificer Wardde, this gift of magic was embraced by the Raumathari and for the first time in their history, the organised study of magic was promoted. The wizard class flourished and grew in this period throughout the kingdom and much in the way of resources was devoted to this specialised area of wizardry. The construct army that were built in the reign of Tallos IV only just failed to give Raumathar victory in the Great Conflagration, when it was unleashed upon the armies of Narfell.

Garl Glittergold

Gnome Pantheon

The Joker, the Watchful Protector the Priceless Gem, the Sparkling Wit

Symbol: Gold nugget

Home Plane: Dothion in the Golden Hills (Glitterhome)

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Portfolio: Protection, humor, trickery, gem cutting, finesmithing and lapidary, the gnome race

Worshipers: Adventurers, bards, defending soldiers, gemcutters, gnomes, illusionists, jewelers miners, rogues, smiths

Cleric Alignments: NG, CG, CN

Domains: Trickery

Favored Weapon: “Arumdina” (battleaxe)

ALLIES: Brandobaris, Clangeddin Silverbeard, Corellon Larethian, Cyrrollalee, Dumathoin, Erevan Ilesere, Gorm Gulthyn, Grumbar, Moradin, Tymora, Vergadain, Yondalla, the Gnome Pantheon (except Urdlen)

FOES: Abbathor, Gaknulak, Kuraulyek, Kurtulmak, Urdlen, the goblinkin pantheons

Hertfords Rumbles