Traditions of Gnomekindle
From Istaria Lexica
Mayor Clause knows all about Gnomekindle and why it has been a traditional holiday for gnomes. Talk to him to learn more about this special time of year.
Quest text[edit]
Mayor tells you, So you wish to know more about Gnomekindle, yes? Well, then, you've asked the right gnome. Come closer, and I'll tell you what I know.
Mayor tells you, Gnomekindle celebrates the First Spark of the Gnomes. Our ingenuity and creativity come from Istara herself, you see. Istara is the Goddess of Creation, Mother of Invention, so of course she blessed her chosen children, we gnomes, with the spark of ingenuity.
Even if they know, scholars do not say when this First Spark was granted to Istara's chosen, the gnomes. All we know is that long, long ago, she lit the flame of creativity deep inside the soul of gnomes, and as she lit that spark, she gave a small gift, a tiny metal gear, to this gnome. He looked at the present and said to Istara "Ooo, this is interesting. What does it do?" Istara smiled down at him and said "Many, many wonderful things... why don't you run and find out?"
So, you see, that's been what we tell our children ever since. And why we give presents as well.
Mayor tells you, Oh, the presents? Yes, they are a very important part of Gnomekindle. We give presents to one another, always things that we aren't quite sure what they do yet, to one another just as Istara gave that first gear to the first gnome who felt the spark. And when we do, we always give them the same blessing she gave us. "Why don't you run and find out?"
It is this blessing, you see, that is the reason we gnomes are so creative. Istara gave us the spark of ingenuity at Gnomekindle, but we must encourage one another to find out what our inventions and gadgets can do.
Oh, we've added some things over the years, of course.
Mayor tells you, A few years back, we found that our coin minters weren't able to keep up with making new coin about this time of year, for example. So we made these little tokens out of sand so that we could speed up the process of buying and selling wares at our festivals. Called them Express Checks, we did. Now everyone in Istaria wants some for themselves, so we've gone to calling them Istarian Express Checks. Dolly over yonder has agreed to take these little sand tokens as payment. Saved us loads of time, I tell you.
Mayor tells you, Oh, one more thing before you run off. You're probably wondering about all this white stuff on the ground and trees, aren't you? Well, you see, it's a bit embarassing, really. We gnomes, we knew that a good Winter Festival would require snow. Can't have winter without snow. So we had a special task force who built a snow machine for us, you see. Only problem was that, well, the snow melted faster than the machine could make it. We are in the desert, after all. And, this is the rather embarassing part, they tinkered with it to try and make it create snow faster, but eventually the whole thing just, well, blew up.
So next year we will have real snow. But for now, this here white stuff is sand and a bit of magic to make it stay on the trees. It's actually rather pretty, I think. Don't you?
Well now, I've bent your ear long enough, haven't I? You probably want to get back to celebrating Gnomekindle with the rest of us. You take it and run and find out for yourself what it can do.
Steps[edit]
- Discover the reason for Gnomekindle from Mayor Clause.
- Learn from Mayor Clause why presents are given at Gnomekindle.
- Talk to Mayor Clause about Istaria Express Tokens
- What's with the white stuff on the ground?
