(Gnome Wars) The Rise of Gnomish Horology and the Red Cap Cults by Mike Lung

Gnome society is an enigma. They generally live a simple bucolic or woodland lifestyle, yet they also are great tinkers and inventors.

 

Depictions of a traditional simple gnomish lifestyle

 

Tinker gnome riding his invention

Gnomes usually live and dress in very traditional ways. The are often very slow to adopt new ideas or material items. Yet at the same time, they can be very progressive as far as accepting other creatures with different backgrounds and ideas. They generally are willing agents in helping and teaching other species and therefore promoting change within those animal societies. In fact, gnomes are often given credit for teaching the animals how to talk and act in a civilized manner.

 

Traditional gnome dress

 

 Gnome teaching animals how to read

The Great Gnome War and the rampant outbreak of the znombie plague decimated the gnome population creating a vacuum for civilized animals to fill. As the war progressed, many animals were called on to serve in the wars. At home, they were also used to support the war effort. This presented an opportunity for animals to take leadership roles in society. Animal doctors, lawyers, clergy, and politicians (positions once held almost exclusively by gnomes) all became much more common in the years proceeding the dual catastrophes. Recently, an animal, Hedgerow Wilson, was elected President.

 

Animal classroom taught be a cat teacher instead of a gnome.

Most gnomes were accepting of this change feeling this was the natural fruition of their own progressive ideas. However, some gnomes rejected this view and still held fast to their insular traditional beliefs. Many of these gnomes believed the world had gone completely crazy, and there was a general feeling that they felt lost with no role in the future. They yearned for a return to the good old prewar days. Others philosophized that the world was like a clock. Like a tooth of a cog, each member of society whether a gnome or an animal had a specific role to play. When everyone did what they were supposed to do, the clock runs smoothly to perfections. However, when the teeth of the cogs are reshaped or changed, or whole cogs are changed, the function of the clock is disrupted. It will no longer function too perfection, or worse yet, if there are too many changes or the changes are too significant, the clock will cease to function at all! It therefore was the duty of all gnomes to make sure that all the teeth and cogs did what they were intended to do. Order and structure hierarchy had to be restored. Those who wish to make or allow these changes to society were an enemy that had to be stopped for the good of all.

 

Animal run society gotten out of hand.  Order had to be restored under Gnomish leadership

Advocates of the philosophy of the world clock were collectively known as Horologists. This philosophy was highly debated by the citizens. Some openly embracing it, others denouncing it, while most paid not real attention to it as they went about their normal lives. While most of this discussion was theoretically, some secret societies of gnomes did start to form to carry out the mission of restoring the clock. While by mostly lawful means, these secret societies did at times cross the line. Likewise, some animals formed their own secret groups in reaction to advocate their own beliefs. While the government fought to suppress the growth of all of these movements, it was not always successful, and the actions of these groups furthered the cracks in society.

 

  

Imaginative depiction of Horologist fixing the World Clock

There were, however, some extreme members of the Horology movement that came to the conclusion that too much change had already occurred. It was impossible to repair the broken cogs of society by normal political or social means. The old clock needed to be discarded, and a new clock needed to be made with a completely new, unbreakable cog system. In other words, these cult-like groups advocated a creation of a new world order. Those members were collectively known as “Red Caps” and would stop at nothing to achieve their purposes. To build their new clock, the consulted long lost or hidden tomes of knowledge. There efforts to obtain these tomes and to advance their goals have no bounds. No animal or progressive gnome was safe from their depredations and their other terrible, deeds.

 

Sample of symbols used various horologist groups. The last two are variations used by Red Cap cultists.

(Notes from the Editor:  Gnomish Historiography is complex, even amongst the keepers of Gnome Lore, The Stout Gnomes.  Much of this article covers the post-Gnome Wars world, which Mike is excellent at with his "Gnömerdammerung" or "Twilight of the Gnomes."  Hist fantastic modelling and conversions have brought many a smile to the Gnome Wars table, but he's also brought about the znombies, the Cult of Urinitas, and has a lot of material for a far darker gnome world.)