The Five Colour Kingdom

The Five Colour Kingdom is so named after the prevailing hues to be found in the caverns: white for diamond; purple for amethyst; blue for sapphire; red for ruby and green for emerald. There are countless other colours, but those are the most common. These colours have been taken as house colours of the five dominant noble families of gnomes that dwell in the kingdom. Each noble house has tremendous political and military power, and each rules a number of cities and towns within the kingdom as their personal dominion. Noble gnomes take the house colour as their forename so Emerald Pybglan Rumblehome would be a noble from House Emerald. The king comes from one of the five noble families; on his death the crown moves to a representative of one of the other families in strict rotation - diamond to amethyst to sapphire to ruby to emerald. The current ruler is King Amethyst Normungen Jarrawedge. He came to the throne but recently (in gnome terms) and is expected to rule for at least the next sixty or seventy years. His rightful title is "The King in Amethyst". The king is aided in his governance by the Council of Colours. A five-gnome cabinet that has a single representative of each of the five noble families on it.

There are many hundreds of communities of rock gnomes living in the Kingdom, although the population is nowhere near the numbers found in the Pits of Walhoon. Some settlements have been constructed on the surface to facilitate trade with the Auld Kingdom and the other countries that border the Central Sea. The surface of the island is tropical with many miles of rain forest. Because the gnomes have little use of the surface lands, it is mostly unspoiled and given over to nature. The gnomes have laboured to create and maintain roads through the kingdom, but they only tend to work on them at night. There are a few human and dwarven settlements in the area, but they are only there on the sufferance of the gnomes. The gnomes frown upon anyone taking advantage of their hospitality and they have the magic and the force of arms to drive all but the most powerful from their shores.

Almost all gnomes in the kingdom are employed in mining the caverns, and it is said that three quarters of all Urova's precious gems originate from this place. Strangely, although the gnomes have been mining the caverns since before recorded history there seems to be no shortage of gems coming to the surface. Some point to an unnatural alliance with gem dragons as the reason for this, others that the caverns of the kingdom are in fact gateways to another plane where nothing but gems exist.

The gnomes of the Five Colour Kingdom are currently on good terms with all their civilised neighbours. The dwarves, although unhappy that they don't own the caverns themselves, are willing to trade with their diminutive allies. Humans too, are able to trade with the gnomes for precious gems and the fine jewellery that the kingdom produces.

The gnomes are merchants more than anything else, which has led to the creation of a large merchant marine fleet based in the north-eastern port of Vadiz. Strange as it may sound, the gnomes probably have the best and most advanced navy in Urova; but they only use it for peaceful purposes, of course.