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Gnomes and Gonks as D&D Characters

A Gnome is a mythological creature: A small, ageless dwarf in European folklore who lives underground and guards treasure. The 16th-century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus popularized the term, describing gnomes as able to move through solid earth like fish in water. They are known as Nisse or Tomte in Scandinavian folklore, where their long beards and pointed caps originates. They were also guardians of the home and farm, and popularized as Garden Gnomes in the 18th century. The modern style of “Gonk” Gnome, used as a home decoration, is essentially all beard with only a nose and large cap–They may get their name from a novelty toy from the 1960’s called a Gonk.

As Fantasy characters in Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs, Gnomes are very popular. They are of small size, generally around 2′ tall. They are surprisingly strong for their size, at least as strong as a full-grown man! Because of their connection to nature, gnomes are often Druids or Rangers, but may be any Class.

A Gonk is a subspecies of Gnome. They are a little shorter in proportion, and covered in fur. Gonks are are a more feral wild version of their taller kin, and live underground in burrows. They have a natural ability to shape-shift, which leads to some remnant animal traits in their appearance. Some Gonks even have tails!

Gnomes wear tall cone-shaped felt caps, and take great pride in them. You can tell a lot about a gnome and his social status by the height of his cap. Caps are often embroidered and ornamented as well. Gnome warriors wear tall pointed helmets, which can also act as dangerous spikes to deter the big stompy feet of Trolls. Gonks also wear caps, and usually wear them pulled down to their nose to protect their sensitive eyes.

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Hand-Painting and Size Options added to my Etsy shop!

Now when you buy one of my Gnome miniatures on Etsy, you can choose between 3 size options, and whether you would like it unpainted, or hand-painted!

  • 28mm (D&D)
  • 10cm (4″), Display
  • 20cm (8″), Garden

There are a lot of different designs available, and I’m always adding more. So whether you are looking for a mini for your Dungeons & Dragons character, or you want to make a badass fairy garden, there is a gnome for you!

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Princess Cottongrass

This is an illustration by John Bauer from a fairytale about Leap the Elk and Little Princess Cottongrass, written by Helge Kjellin and illustrated by John Bauer (1913). I thought it would be a fun project to try to make a sculpture based on this story.

concept sketch

I started with some mesh balloons in ZBrush to block out the basic moose shape. Next I used Dynamesh to merge it together and sculpted the details. I made a ZSphere armature for the princess to give myself a basemesh to sculpt.

After the digital sculpture is finished, I use a resin 3Dprinter to reproduce. Next is a 3 step process of applying a bronze metal coating and acid patina.

This edition is limited to only 20 pieces, and comes with a certificate of authenticity. It is 6″ tall and about 8″ from end to end.

https://zandoria.etsy.com/listing/1685783997

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Art vs Artist 2023

As the year wraps up, I have been thinking about projects that have been on the back burner that I would like to finish. I have been working on freelance projects the past few months, so haven’t had as much time to devote to them…

I also want to start using this blog, instead of social media. I am going to post new work here first, and then share it to social media instead of directly posting it there. I have been following the rise of AI over the past year, and companies like Meta are scraping up every piece of content to train them. It is very disheartening to me.

At long last, I am ready to launch the new version of my Puzzlelock Dungeon 3Dprintable terrain. I have test printed it and am painting it up for photos, and will put it up on Cults3D soon.

Another project that I want to finish is my interpretation of a fairytale about Princess Cottengrass. In it, the young princess goes on an adventure riding on the back of a moose elk named Leap.

This is my concept sketch. Below is a screenshot from ZBrush of a work-in-progress of the moose. This will be a resin sculpture with a bronze finish, for my Etsy shop.

Of course, there will also be more gnomes in 2024

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Paracelsus

In 1566 Paracelsus, a German physician, alchemist and philosopher published a tract On Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders. He categorized the denizens of Faerie, known by many different names in folklore, as different types of elemental beings.

The name of the water people [nymphs] is also undina, and of the air people [sylphs] sylvestries, and of the mountain people [pygmies] gnomi, and of the fire people vulcani rather than salamandri.

On Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders

You know that there are four elements, air, water, earth and fire; and you also know that we, men from Adam, stand and walk in air and are surrounded by it as a fish by water, and can just as little be without it as a fish without water. As the fish has it’s abode in water, where water takes for it the place of the air in which it lives, so air takes for man the place of water,in relation to the fish.

Thus everything has been created in its element, to walk therein. From this example you understand that the undinae have their abode in water, and the water is given to them as to us the air, and just as we are astonished that they should live in water, they are astonished about our being in the air.

The same applies to the gnomi in the mountains: the earth is their air and is their chaos. For everything lives in chaos. That is: everything has its abode in chaos, walks and stands therein. Now the earth is not more than mere chaos to the mountain manikins, for they walk through solid walls, through rocks and stones, like a spirit; this is why these things are all mere chaos to them, that is, nothing…

That amounts to: as little as we are hampered by the air, as little as they are hampered by the mountain, by earth and rocks. And as it is easy for us to walk through air and air cannot stop us, so rocks and cliffs are easy to them. And so, things are all chaos to them which are not chaos to us, for a wall, a partition, stops us so that we cannot go through, but to them it is a chaos. That is why they walk through it; to them it is their air in which they live and walk, as man does in the air that is between heaven and earth. And the coarser the chaos, the more subtle is the creature; and the more subtle the chaos the coarser the creature. The mountain people have a coarse chaos; therefore they must be more subtle; and man has a subtle chaos; therefore, he is all the coarser…

…Know also that two of them, namely the earth manikins and vulcans, are considered spirits and not creatures, being looked on as a mirage only, or as ghosts, You must know, however, that just as they appear, thus they are, flesh and blood like another man, and with that, quick and fast like a spirit, as was told in the beginning.

On Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders

This was and interesting book to read, as the existence of these types of creatures was not in question, just something to be studied. The only existential question seemed to be whether nymphs, sylphs, gnomes,etc. had a soul, like man (He did not think so).

He was writing centuries before the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, frequencies or even ideas of different dimensions and vibrations, but had an insightful way of it relating to the properties of the four elements.