Gnomes

Gnomes keep the least contact with humans. 1500 years ago they had zero contact, and used their magic to keep from sight whenever possible. However at that time an incredibly amiable dwarf named Devlin was travelling the lands. For a time he made a living putting humans in a magic sleep and carrying them under the Gnome Mountains as a means of fast transit. However he found the whole secrecy matter cumbersome and made a heroic effort to introduce the two races for the first time. This was a magical milestone in the history of Gorum and the city of Pred was renamed after him. Trade in the newly renamed city of Devlin exploded and a mass trade route was established under the Gnome Mountains between Devlin and Cherie. The powerful Merchant families of T'Tinna gave their wealth to the gnomes for many magical secrets. In fact Humans traveled from all across Gorum to trade with the gnomes, leading to an age of magical enlightenment.

Gnome Magic is slightly different. They can only cast one two different spells as a spell like ability 1/day. Speak with animals or invisibilty (working only against humans).

Gnomes will trade with humans and some life among them but yes most of them keep to their underground secrets and the trade routes do not grand access to the underground gnomes cities, just the other side of the mountains, the trade city of Cherie

Despite multiple attempts, human nobility has no contact with gnomish rulers, beyond trade the gnomes kings have little interesting in engaging in human affairs, wars, and alliances

Elves, Dwarves and Halflings have more engaged contact with gnomes, but only a few humans have seen the sparkling clockwork cities under the mountains, and only with good reason

900 years ago

900 years ago was roughly the age of great war of Munstrian Hostility. This war shaped the current political map. Scholars state that the city of Munst under the rule of King Peredor quickly united the northern city-states through conquest and alliance. After initial expansion all the major cities north of the Gnome Mountains payed tribute to Munst. Munstria then entered into aggression with the dwarves for their iron mines, and began a massive siege against the then magical capitol of Gorum, T'tinna. T'tinna's powerful mage families held against the siege for many years while political reaction was brewing in the southeast. The major city of Seranol arranged for a secret emergency gathering of leaders on one of the Ense Isles. Initially Seranol's diplomats only gained the support of nearby cities. However the eventual razing of T'tinna concerned many, especially the elves of Lalec who quickly saw to the formation of the Kerrichian Union. Named after the alleged location of the monumental signing of the Edecti Empiri, which established a general/emperor to lead the many warriors of Gorum minor against the Munstrian army. After dedicating the majority of its forces to the bloody front south of T'tinna's ruins, Munstria soon lost much ground against the Dwarves, and facing the impending loss of the precious trade city of Zeema, agreed to end the war. Lines were drawn. The Dwarves kept their newly conquered lands and decided to settle these lands. The human cities of middle gorum found much common ground in the war and formed the nation of Seranol, named after their decided capitol city. The Emporer's Army quickly turned its attention to the uphill battle of peacekeeping in Gorum minor, and has been an institution of relative balance ever since.

Gorum minor is the large landmass southeast of middle gorum. It shares the planets equator with the massive Cradled Jungle and has the richest farmlands and forests. The subcontinent is populated with roughly 35 small nations. There is always some small land-grab wars between several of these minor nations, but the powerful Kerrichian Union unites them to a large enough extent. The extent being to keep Munstria in check. The Cradled Jungle is magically massive. Its always been left alone by humanoids, the exception being orcs. Orcs have settled much of the northwest jungle and have established massive trade routes all across the north jungle, if only so these Orc pioneers could stay in good supply of magical ash. The Cradled jungle has two massive mountains in its southeast called the Dragon Peaks. They are host to all manor of winged lizards. Occasionally these beast fly as far east as the Ense Isles for a meal. The Ense Isles are populated by a seafaring people are dragonslayers and are loyal to their big brother Kerrich. These Islands are ruled by merchant elite, and are somewhat lawless, although the trade winds of the warmer waters afford for expensive security. As such a mercenary can always find work in Ense Isles and Kerrich. The nations of the Kerrichian union elect an emperor who commands the unions army. Since the War of Munstrian Hostility, this army has been solely used to counter any nation within the union seeking to conquer too many of their neighbors, but these nations skirmish for the lush fields and forests all the same. The Massive Island of Jubilee has rolling green hills and fields and jagged cliffs. Jubilee contains Gourms only permanent Halfing settlements. The island is a relatively happy, peaceful place, attributed to its low human population. Halfings typically are nomadic throughout Gorum and only few of them believe the legend that Jubilee is their ancestral home ground.

Welcome to Gourm. This is a magic continent featuring all the major pathfinder classes and races. I've divided humanity into 3 major ethnic groups. Northern Humans are tall blonde and hairy like Norsemen. The middle ethnic group are also of a white complexion but feature more brown and black hair, also are noticeably shorter and thinner than their northern counterparts. Humans from the southeast minor continent have a light brown complexion and dark hair, (occasionally red in freak occurrences). Standard Dwarves hail from the the northeast mountains, and a new breed of dwarves is quickly emerging in the adjacent flatlands. These landdwarves have mutated a great deal after only 4 generations of living outside the deep. They are still short and burly, but have smooth white skin. Their hair is also softer, and in rare cases even thinner (but they still grow it out obsessively). The major barbarian civilizations are Ratmen, Orcs, and Goblins!! Ratmen are the most interesting and the least like their vanilla D&D counterparts. They strictly inhabit the southern tip of Gorum. Both Orcs and Goblins inhabit the wastelands. These are dust desserts where the sand has mixed with magic ash over the ages creating a sickly soil. Goblins have learned to grow strange weeds in this soil, while the Orc Shamans drink the Ashy Ocean's water directly to gain a poisonous hazy high, with spell-casting effects. Gnomes live beneath the incredibly steep, dense, and hostile mountain range separating north and middle Gorum. Gnomes, like normal Dwarves, keep considerable social and political chasms between themselves and "live-fast-and-die-young-humans". Elves hail from another major continent, Farum. Travel between the two is across the Majai ocean. Humans cannot live long enough to justify the trip. The winds of the Majai Ocean are sentient and cruel. The longer your intended journey, the stiller the winds and waters. Intentional trips between the continents takes over 15 years. Despite this Elves have always pilgrimaged to Gorum, in fact the oldest Gorum historians are the first Elves to arrive many thousands of years ago. However most elves also take the journey home after a few hundred years, as is their custom. The rare exceptions started small settlements on the massive island of Jubilee and the small but almost entirely Elven island of Lalec (The island northmost in the huge 'fjorde').