The Four Immortals of Gnomekind

As the League of Gnomes does their tireless, but incredibly slow development of Gnome Wars and it's campaign world, let's visit my interpretation of a great concept by gnomie Kevin "of the Canadians":  The Four Immortals of Gnomekind. 

The four special characters in Gnome Wars, the Wizard, the Vampire, the Witch, and Santa, each represent a different corner of the gnome world.  Use D&D alignment, the four elements, or the witches of The Wizard of Oz as an example. 

If we're to use D&D alignment, the Wizard (or possibly Wizards) is Lawful Good and is the first modern immortal recorded in history.    Funny thing is, even among the earliest Swiss villages that kept records, every village history notes a magical gnome of great power, living on the outskirts.  It is has never been completely confirmed if there are more than one wizard, if they are underlings of the immortal, or simply a avatar of him. 

Regardless, the Wizard of the village was known to defend the village, educate the younger gnomes, and become final arbiter in the most difficult cases.  The Wizard's word was above law, which included a decree to never go beyond the outskirts of the village.

The Wizard is only the ultimate druid of the village, being able to befriend even the fiercest of creatures, control portions of the weather, and even help with the crops. 

Then Santa (Chaotic Good) arrived.  Boring gnomish philosophers and religionists consider the arrival of Santa as the creation of "Gnome Free Will" while Gnomish Doctors claim he was responsible for instilling "The Wanderlust" in the hearts of gnomekind.  The Wizard had such a hold on the gnomish people, that this effect only lasted for a short time, many gnomes returning to their home villages with horrible tales (possibly implanted by the magic of the Wizard).  Village wizards would again ban travel outside of the villages, sometimes breaking relations off between two villages separated by only a large hill.  At some point (possibly after the appearance of the other two Immortals), an unsteady truce was made between these two beings.  As a gift the Wizard, Santa gave him a large supply of clockwork gnomelings.  Whether this supply is infinite or simply immense, no one knows for sure.

Santa also introduced the tinkering gnomes still love to this day.  Certainly, gnomes were always inventors in some form, but Santa introduced the concepts of clockwork and steam power.

What few gnomes even realize is that Santa is a war-profiteer.  While it is true that he delivers toys to every good gnome girl and gnome boy every year (and a week later for the Russian gnomes), he spends most of the year in his workshop building Weapons of Mass Gnomination, which he sells under various aliases to all the nations of the world.  For him, chaos is truly good.

Legends of the Witch (Chaotic Evil) appeared as the Gnomans expanded into the lands of  the Hungers, Emos, Vandal, and Trespasser tribes.   This being could control and contort the forces of the Ebon Forest and would bribe and deceive the tribes to fight against each other for her own personal gain.  Gnoman legions constantly recorded battles with tribes being led by an acorn wielding demoness with demonic gourds of death! 

The fall of the Gnoman Empire was the pinnacle of the Witch's power, as she took over the Germanic lands and spread her influence in most dark corners of the Gnome World.

It's unsure when the Vampire (Lawful Evil) arrived in the Germanic lands.  While history states the muddled mess of German principalities, duchies, and baronies was formed before the arrival of evil, the opposite was true.  The Witch had "always" been there, but the Vampire(s) slowly consolidated power, forming these small governments in an effort to lessen the witch's influence.  While The Vampire warped tinkering into German industrialization, Santa's gift of free will allowed the Prussian states to fight the vampiric influence and unite the states under the German flag.  The Vampire still holds considerable sway, with War Ministers, noble courts, and kings of industry.  Santa does not push harder, as he profits from the war effort as well.

 

This was heavily expanded upon Kevin's initial work, which involved the Witch stealing an Encyclopedia Britannica, and all the pages scattering across the world, turning Gnomes into the ethnic groups they are.  His theory could explain why the Japanese are so close to aid the Germans at the drop of a hat in HMGS con games.

 

For me, I treat them essentially as Time Lords with multiple avatars.  No more than one of each character should be on the battlefield at a time, but they can appear anywhere in the Gnome World at a moment's time.