Chapter 164: Gnome Pantheon! [Request for Recommendation Votes]
Soren is planning something.
However, while he is plotting certain matters, far away in the Underdark, the Spider Queen has also started to take action.
This evil goddess begins to tighten her colossal web, gradually aiming at the main god of the Elven Pantheon. The fiery rage of revenge has been accumulating in her heart for a long time; she is so eager to take revenge on her former husband, Corellon Larethian, the main god of the elves.
The Saint’s Cataclysm is a stage.
The first to appear on this stage is the human pantheon, as humans are the most numerous and widely distributed across the world.
However, as the Saint’s Cataclysm progresses, deities from other races also begin to emerge. Shortly after the outbreak of the Plague, a pantheon that is not very common but still somewhat present in the Material Plane begins to gradually emerge, and that is the Gnome Pantheon.
Gnomes are popular craftsmen, alchemists, and inventors. Despite their recognized skills, most gnomes prefer to live together in comfortable burrows under the animal-rich hills. Gnomes love animals, beautiful gems, and all kinds of jokes. They have a sense of humor and enjoy puns, jokes, games, and even pranks—the more complexly designed, the better. Fortunately, gnomes invest in their craft skills no less than in their pranks. Gnomes like to ask questions and discover things through personal experience, sometimes becoming reckless. Their curiosity makes them skilled engineers, as they are always looking for new ways to construct things. Sometimes, gnomes design a prank just to see how others will react.
This is a group of mischievous little folks.
Many people mistake them for halflings, but in fact, halflings are much taller than gnomes.
Gnomes are only about one to one point two meters tall, weighing between 40 and 60 pounds, with skin tones ranging from dark brown to wood brown, blond hair, and eyes that vary in shades of blue. Males love well-groomed short beards. Gnomes usually wear garments made of animal hide or earth tones, accented with intricate embroidery or finely crafted jewelry. Gnomes come of age around 40 years old and can live up to 350 years, with some even reaching 500 years.
This is a long-lived race.
Due to their individual strength and height, gnomes are not often seen in many cities.
They prefer to associate with dwarves and halflings and generally get along well. Only a small portion of gnomes venture away from their gathering places to human cities, and those gnomes tend to be quite dangerous. Due to past wars, many humans have never seen a gnome in their lifetime, encountering them only in dwarven or halfling territories.
Dwarves are not fond of human visits, and halflings have further secluded Shire.
Therefore, since the outbreak of the Saint’s Cataclysm, news about gnomes has not been plentiful. Gnomes reside in the densely wooded hills of the southeast. Even though they live underground, gnomes venture outside to breathe fresh air more often than dwarves and enjoy outdoor activities. Gnomes cleverly structure their homes and hide them using illusions, guiding only favored visitors to their bright and warm burrows, while unwanted guests cannot enter at all.
They enjoy using illusions to disguise their homes.
The main god of gnomes is Garishan the Earthcaller, a deity who has gradually grown over time, with a history as long as that of the gnomes themselves.
………………
Grayfeather Hills.
This is one of the gnomes’ territories.
They occupy only a small portion of the Material Plane and seldom leave their land.
However, these gnomes managed to avoid the previous Saint’s Cataclysm, but after the outbreak of the Plague, they still faced significant impacts.
But that is not the most important matter.
A more important issue involves a certain deity, who is Shagorzhin the Earthcaller [the Gnome God of Death and Nature]!
As mentioned earlier, many divine professions have already been divided, with racial divine positions bestowed upon some new deities. After a long period, the gnomes also have their own God of Death, that being Shagorzhin the Earthcaller—a deity residing at the edge of the lower planes of the Underworld, responsible for assisting Klanvor in managing the deceased, while primarily overseeing gnome souls.
This is a deity of medium divine power.
Shagorzhin the Earthcaller governs the divine professions of earth, nature, and the dead, all of which are powerful domains, enabling him to attain medium divine power.
At this moment, near a gnome village in the Grayfeather Hills, countless undead surround it. Gnomes do not have many large cities; their settlements are fairly dispersed, and most of the gods’ temples are at the level of small shrines. This village worships Shagorzhin the Earthcaller, the gnomes’ God of Death and Nature.
In the darkness.
A pair of defiant eyes observes everything.
These revived undead surround the area, and unlike other undead, they are directly controlled by a powerful demigod lich.
“Power of death!”
Sherek silently watches the village ahead and says solemnly, “Destroy this place! I want to seize the power within the temple!”
“Yes, Master.” The demigod lich nods and withdraws.
Soon, the undead launch a frenzied assault. Without any support, the gnomes before them suffer successive defeats, and soon hundreds are killed. The fall of the entire village is merely a matter of time.
About half an hour later.
This gnome village was captured, and all the gnomes were killed and revived as undead.
Sherek’s figure appears behind the undead, far more powerful than when he first broke free from his seals, now possessing at least the strength of a lesser divine power. He approaches the temple of the village and then enters the temple alone. Soon, the radiance upon the temple gradually dims, and the power of death begins to fade, as if being consumed by some presence.
There are only two temples in the entire village.
One is dedicated to Barivan the Shadow Cloak [the Gnome God of Spies], and the other is dedicated to Shagorzhin the Earthcaller [the Gnome God of Death and Nature].
“Master.”
Just as Sherek exits the temple, a hazy phantom materializes—upgraded to an assassin, the most terrifying type of assassin with the ability of [Permanent Invisibility]. They are promoted by deities who possess the divine profession of [Murder], granting them the special ability of permanent invisibility. They were once core members of Sherek’s church.
The assassin silently approaches and kneels, saying, “We have found the trace of Barivan the Shadow Cloak.”
“However.”
“We also discovered the trace of Gerydor the Iron Hand [the Gnome God of War]. It seems they have appeared together near the Grayfeather Hills for some reason.”
Sherek turns his head with a mocking smile and says, “The gnome God of War?”
“So it turns out the gnomes even have a war god.”
“Continue to monitor their movements. Once my power recovers a bit, we will eliminate them all!”
By normal reasoning, Sherek’s target should not be the Gnome Pantheon but rather the human God of Death Pantheon.
However, Sherek, who controls the divine profession of [Conspiracy], inexplicably feels a sense of unease whenever he locks his target on the human pantheon, as if he is falling into a conspiracy. Ultimately, he decides to follow the intuition of his divine profession. Though Sherek is crazy, he is not foolish; his intuition tells him that if he focuses on the human pantheon, he may fall into a conspiracy. Thus, Sherek uses this outbreak of the Plague to secretly control some liches, shifting his target to a rather inconspicuous race: the gnomes living in the southeastern hills.
A pantheon that is not very powerful but has at least three deities as targets.
What’s more important is!
So far, the gnome main god Garishan has not shown himself. Sherek suspects that this main god is still stubbornly resisting in his divine kingdom, unwilling to come down. If a deity of strong divine power insists on resisting, they can endure until the last wave of impact from the Saint’s Cataclysm before falling to the mortal realm, but doing so expends even more divine power during the fall.
The longer one withstands, the weaker they become when they fall to the mortal realm!
………………
(PS: I still remember a certain book friend’s ID “Floating Tower Update Quickly” from the last time in “Unbeaten Legend”. Today, the game is starting testing; after finishing this chapter, I’ll go into the game to see if there are similar IDs.) (To be continued ~^~)
