Gnomes are master alchemists, but their higher calling in life seems to be as engineers, or so most gnomes would tell you. The urge to build a complicated contraption can be maddening, as anyone who's lived with a gnome long enough can attest. This creative desire has pushed gnomes into the role of inventor and innovator in the Empire and elsewhere… and made living near a gnomish inventor less desirable than living next to the entrance to an open sewer. (The inventor's house is far more likely to explode, for one thing.)

On the side of good, there are tales of a gnomish artisan by the name of Avaretti, one of the few gnomes obsessed with perfection in design who turns out miraculous weapons of war for the empire, as well as some of the greatest examples of art and technology available in these times.

Gnomes have attempted to make running water functional in major cities, but due to several complications with the system, the attempt was abandoned, and the half-finished system now leaks everywhere in what is now the 'poor' side of town.

Gnomish alchemy is noted for being particularly volatile, and it is considered highly unwise to overheat a gnomish potion, just in case.

One of the neighboring nations to the empire, the Zyxxnarf Mountains, is home to a collective of gnomes who call themselves the Artificers. They specialize in two things - constructing clockwork automatons and defending their territory with extreme violence. Attempts by the Empire to invite them to join have met with little success, and the gnomes and their automatons are avoided by most sensible people, as with many things involving gnomes.