Gnomes, the Fey, and a low-magic world with no planes.

[Draconi Redfir]

Okay so long and short of it, i'm on-again off-again working on a low-magic setting, some spells will be cut, wizards don't exist, dragon's aren't smart, there's only one god, and the only known planes are his realm and the prime material / main world / whatever you want to call it. If there are any others, i haven't figured them out yet.

this does bring me to a crossroads when it comes to Gnomes though. Being Fey creatures, they're innately magical, something that is intended to be pretty / fairly rare in this setting, and Fey are often connected to the feywild / some non-material plane. So i'm just kinda stuck, Should Gnomes be in this setting?

On one hand, i've got all the other races kind of set up into evolutionary families of three, Humans, Elves and Orcs are close relatives, Goblins, Hobgoblins and Bugbears are closely related, and if i didn't include Gnomes, then Dwarves and Halflings would be in a cluster of two rather then the apparent pattern of Three. It's not the end of the world, but it would be nice to keep the pattern going. I'd also hate to turn down someone wanting to play one specific core race if all the others exist as well.

On the OTHER hand, i don't really know if Gnomes or the Fey would really... fit? in the world? Like what are Fey really? Everything i know suggests they are very magical and very extra-planar, something that doesn't apply to most things in this setting. Is it even possible for Fey to exist as a concept without them? Could they just be mysterious cryptids? or are they too intertwined with their magic to exist without it? Given the various magical racial spells, abilities, and traits that Gnomes have, i'm not sure if i COULD have them around in this setting without feeling like they're breaking the rules altogether.

on the GRIPPING hand, i could always say they were around a long time ago, or just come from a different location in the world that was over-saturated with magic? Maybe some kind of valley where a powerful artifact got damaged and started leaking it's magic into the valley or something. a sort of fake-feywild or something idk.

what really defines the Fey? do you think Gnomes could find a place to fit in in a world where only those who are born with magic are able to wield it, and those born with it are intended to be exceptionally rare?

[Altair_the_Vexed]

It's really up to you whether you want gnomes to fit in your setting. Personally, if there's something I don't much like about any game's system, setting assumptions or whatever, I just leave it out. I grew up with the older version of D&D (the 80s Red Box set), which prominently told me to do that, and it's stuck with me.

Also, full disclosure: I've never been keen on gnomes as a playable race - they seem too silly to me, really, they're tied up to childish stories and Victorian era fairy tales, rather than the grungy folk tales and myths where you find brownies, puka, dawrves and the like.

All that aside - I do like your idea of a magically strong location being the place where gnomes come from. Maybe some other fey-like creatures come from there too.

On that note, maybe you could have a whole history whereby there was magic once, but the wars between the magic users have left scars and zones of fall out dotted about the setting - and left the setting mainly devoid of magic. Or at least, devoid of magic that is under anyone's control. That would let you have some magical effects, monsters, objects, locations, but keep your setting ultimately low fantasy.

[Fire Tarrasque]

Suggestion: Go halfway. Remove Forest Gnomes, but keep Rock Gnomes. Rock Gnomes are distinctly less magical than their hippy, druidy kin, and our go to place for high technology anything!

[Draconi Redfir]

On that note, maybe you could have a whole history whereby there was magic once, but the wars between the magic users have left scars and zones of fall out dotted about the setting - and left the setting mainly devoid of magic. Or at least, devoid of magic that is under anyone's control. That would let you have some magical effects, monsters, objects, locations, but keep your setting ultimately low fantasy.

the idea i got so far is that Magic is like a fine wine, the older it gets the more powerful it is. Magic is low through the whole world because the one god that watches it all is dying and not able to keep things running very smoothly.

still unsure if there was an abundance of magic a long time ago or not, but the valley could just be very, very old to explain the abundance of magic. Maybe it's so strong there that standing in there for too long would tear most people apart other then fey, thus explaining why it hasn't been exploited.

Suggestion: Go halfway. Remove Forest Gnomes, but keep Rock Gnomes. Rock Gnomes are distinctly less magical than their hippy, druidy kin, and our go to place for high technology anything!

... that could actually work. this setting IS industrial revolution / steampunk-ish. Not seeing anything about rock-gnomes on the SRD though, ohhh are they not a pathfinder thing?

[Fire Tarrasque]

No???
What edition are you using? I know Rock Gnomes (or at least Mountain gnomes) are in the 5th and 2nd AD&D PHs, and Gnomes aren't in the 4th edition PH, so are you using 3.5? They aren't a Pathfinder thing though. They might be called Mountain Gnomes instead.

[Bohandas]

I don't think gnomes are officially fey. In 3.5e at least they're humanoid type, as are elves. And even in RL folklore they were ttadtionally more closely related to elementals than fairies

[Draconi Redfir]

No???
What edition are you using? I know Rock Gnomes (or at least Mountain gnomes) are in the 5th and 2nd AD&D PHs, and Gnomes aren't in the 4th edition PH, so are you using 3.5? They aren't a Pathfinder thing though. They might be called Mountain Gnomes instead.

i'm using pathfinder, and unfortunately their gnomes seem very fey-like, and don't seem to have any alternatives. will check on mountain gnomes, not sure though.