Barag-Bromel

In ancient times, before the First Incursion of
Kaos, there were three races of the stout folk. The Ædar were created by
Fergus, god of craftsmen, for the forging of iron and working of stone. He
created a smaller, nimbler race called Rock Gnomes for the cutting of gems and
the smelting of precious metals. Finally, he created the learned Derro for the
weaving of magic into the material works of the other races.

But
the stout folk had been cursed with a greed for the very reasons of their creation.
And while the Ædar burrowed for iron and hard-metal ores and the Rock Gnomes
for their gems and precious metals, the Derro sought eldritch power, which
could not be easily found beneath the earth. And so they dug in vain, deeper
and deeper into the earth. Then, one fateful day, the found exactly what they
were looking for... and it looked back at them.

Driven
mad by the arcane and demonic forces they discovered deep below the mountains,
and driven to evil acts by the whispers in the dark, the Derro ascended from
the depths. They first sought to corrupt their smaller, physically-weaker
cousins. Tempting the Rock Gnomes with stories of gems and gold, they lured
them into the depths, where they too were introduced to the denizens below.

The
Rock Gnomes reacted much differently than the Derro, however. Rather than
revering and embracing the madness, the Rock Gnomes fled from it. And in their
fear, the magical energies twisted their bodies and corrupted their forms.
Horrified by what they had become, the creatures fled from the tunnels of the
stout folk onto the plains of the humans... and over time, their minds fell to
the darkness of the depths and they truly lost who they were, and the race of
goblins was born.

Millennia
later, an Ædar cleric of Fergus named Brom -- a member of the Blackbriar
Company -- discovered the secret history of the Gnomes after freeing a tribe of
goblins who had begun to turn from their evil ways from their ogre overlords.
Brom and company later discovered a series of long-forgotten dwarven tunnels
and an ancient forge-temple of Fergus. After clearing out the Derro and their
demonic masters, the company sent for the goblin tribe they had freed but were
surprised to receive not a few dozen goblins in response, but over a thousand!

Word
had spread of the company's willingness to help the enslaved goblins, and
especially of the power and wisdom of Brom, cleric of Fergus. As the story
spread, some goblins had begun to turn away from their tribes and move towards
worship of Fergus themselves... a small part of a larger plan put into motion
by the forge god himself. When these strange goblins arrived in the once-lost
forge-temple, Brom was inspired to perform an ancient rite in the name of
Fergus... a ritual that restored the assembled goblins to their ancient gnomish
forms.

Slowly
losing the memory of their lives as goblins, these reborn Rock Gnomes settled
into the ancient tunnels to protect the forge-temple that restored their lives.
They named their new settlement Bromel in honor of the Ædar that delievered
them from their "imprisonment." As the race grew in number, they
spread out through the tunnels, founding other settlements such as Opal in the
north and Beryl to the south. Nevertheless, the gnomish population remains
small compared to most of the allied races, and they remain an uncommon sight
outside of the northern reaches of Ceilar.

Of
all the civilized nations of Ceilar, the cities of Barag-Bromel (BAHR ahg BROM
el) are perhaps the most homogenous. Aside from some Ædar, very few non-gnomes
call Barag-Bromel their permanent home. That is not to say that Rock Gnomes are
xenophobic -- in fact, they get along with pretty much anyone -- it's just that
the location doesn't much appeal to the surface races... and living among a race
as quirky as the Rock Gnomes can require can a special degree of patience.

Despite
that, however, Barag-Bromel finds itself with an abundance of allies. Thanks to
their inclusion in the Alliance of Stone, the Gnome race found a lot of
built-in allies in the humans, halflings, and Sidh of the world. Through the
centuries, they have proven their value in commerce and conflicts, and have
established themselves as equals in the eyes of the surface races. Those
alliances remain strong, despite the retreat of their Ædar cousins, as the
Gnomes are fast to forgive and forget and truly suffered very little
consequence of the fallen archangel's war during the Third Incursion of Kaos.

The Gnomes also inherited some enemies
in addition to those they brought back with them from their cursed state. The
Derro remain a constant thorn in the side of the Gnomes, and some fragment of
racial memory between the goblins and the Gnomes has provoked many conflicts
between those two races. In addition to those, Barag-Bromel has assisted both
humans and dwarves in a number of conflicts, making enemies of the Imperial Rakasta,
the orcs, and most recently the gnolls and trolls of the Gnollwood.