#gnomecism

The Gnomec College was a gnomec institution founded by the society that would become the Bvanu people with the ambitious goal of gathering and storing copies of all existent human knowledge in the world, and sharing that knowledge freely. Its creation and destruction were foundational events for the Bvanu, and its Charter is the basis of the central document of their holy text.

The collegiate charter outlined the goals and parameters by which the institution was to procure, store, and share knowledge.

Through a policy known as outgathering, the College sent gnomecir out to all corners of the world on diplomatic missions to learn all they could from any cultures they encountered about any disciplines their hosts were willing to teach them. This included knowledge about all subjects: science, religion, philosophy, history, mathematics, literature, social sciences, magic, agriculture, architecture, and the arts. These gnomecir then returned to the College with what they had learned to compile this knowledge and put it into practice in a process called ingathering. Collegiate gnomecir also performed research on the College’s campus.

With this knowledge, collegiate gnomecir also developed new disciplines of study, including new technologies and even forms of magic, such as mnemonec dreaming.

The Library of the Gnomec College, commonly referred to as the Gnomec Library, was the largest library in recorded history before it was destroyed, dwarfing the size of even the Rosian Imperial Palace. The campus as a whole was large enough to be its own city.

The Gnomec College was destroyed and more than a million members of its society were massacred by the Beindheit, an anti-gnomec extremist group that came to power in the region. This happened during a rare Indigo Moon, and those who escaped the slaughter did so by following the moon’s strange light to safety, leading to the Indigo Moon becoming a symbol of hope and protection for the Bvanu people. The night the Gnomec College was destroyed is remembered by them every Indigo Moon.

Gnomecism is a (often religious, spiritual, or philosophical) commitment to the pursuit of knowledge in all its forms. Gnomec traditions are those built around this pursuit, which devote themselves to seeking out, preserving, sharing, or protecting knowledge. The knowledge they seek may come in the form of anything from wisdom and history to magical or scientific craft.

The name comes from gnomesis, meaning knowledge or wisdom, often carrying the connotation of knowledge that is hidden or hard to uncover. Thus it is equally appropriate to use in reference to both mystical secret knowledge (as is common for Mysteries) and the more grounded fields of advanced academic knowledge.

Adherents are known as gnomecs or gnomecir, meaning “knowledge-seekers”. Critics sometimes derisively refer to them as “gnomes” (a mocking reference to the mythical creature of the same name), but this is considered an impolite pejorative at best, if not a dehumanizing slur due to its frequent use by racists who deny the humanity of the Bvanu people.

Prominent examples of gnomecism include the entire endeavor of the Gnomec College, especially its practice of outgathering & ingathering to collect and store knowledge to teach its students, and the religious tradition of the Bvanu Gnomecir that came after.