Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
“I hate that he said it right.”
— Trap, on the correct pronunciation of "svirfneblin".
The deep gnomes are closest thing the gnome family has to “black sheep.” Many surface dwellers count the deep gnomes along with their evil neighbors, the drow and the duergar, believing them to be little more than dark reflections of the friendly rock gnomes with whom they are more familiar. In fact, the svirfneblin are just as good-hearted as their sunnier kin. However, after centuries of dealing with the everyday perils of living in the Underdark, they have become understandably distrustful of all outsiders.
Compared to their better-known kin, the rock gnomes, the deep gnomes are as gray and lifeless as the subterranean caverns in which they choose to make their homes. They keep to themselves out of fear of outsiders—a fear born from numerous poor experiences with such people. To a deep gnome, the only people you can trust are other deep gnomes from your village, and preferably from your family. All others are best avoided.
With strangers, most deep gnomes are sullen, reserved, and suspicious, almost to a fault. However, when they are alone with their own kind, they are friendly and respectful to each other. Few people from outside a svirfneblin community have ever seen this more pleasant side of the deep gnomes. For their part, the deep gnomes would be horrified to find themselves observed by outsiders, and they find such a person staring at them—or even looking directly at them—quite rude.
Deep gnomes are gnarled and callused folk, with little fat at all on their wiry bodies. Their skin is the color of the rocks among which they live, almost as if they sprang directly from the stones themselves. They have dark gray eyes, tending toward black. Their hair is of a similar color, although it’s only seen on the woman, as the men are entirely bald and beardless.
Dour and cynical, deep gnomes are resigned to their lot in life. They spend their days scratching out a living in the subterranean passages near their home. The males mostly mine for precious gems, while the females—who are rarely seen outside their villages— gather food, care for the children, and keep house. Few aspire to do anything other than live out their lives quietly focusing on doing their jobs the best that they can.
The svirfneblin literally have little or no light in their lives. To avoid detection by others in the Underdark, they often refuse to use fire for cooking or warmth whenever possible. Instead, they rely on their darkvision whenever possible, seeing the world only in black and white. The deep gnomes live and work in the eternal darkness out of their overwhelming love for gems. Most males spend almost their entirely lives trying to chip precious stones out of the earth. They favor rubies most of all.
Outsiders often think of deep gnomes as irredeemably sullen and suspicious. While there is some basis for this, these are the outward results of survival techniques that these gnomes have had to adopt to endure their harsh and unforgiving environment. Sounds of any kind—especially voices—travel in strange ways in the Underdark, and they have a tendency to attract visitors.
In the experience of most deep gnomes, such outsiders have only the worst of intentions, so when a svirfneblin encounters a stranger who is actually friendly, she normally is too suspicious to even consider responding in a like manner. She may eventually warm to a svirfneblin from another town, but even this can take time.
While deep gnome adventurers are rare, some deep gnomes succumb to gnomish curiosity about the world outside the caverns and mine shafts of their daily lives. This is especially true for those deep gnome illusionists who crave to learn more about the nature of their chosen school of magic, but who lack for instruction in the insular villages in which they live. Svirfneblin prospectors are also occasionally encountered in the Underdark far from their homes, questing for promising new veins to mine for their beloved rubies.