Gnomes

“Have you heard of the ‘tragedy’ of Gribith-Fith and the Gnomes?” - Elvish Indoctrination Guide Vol.4 Gnomes, a lesser-known (like almost nobody knows about them) species often trodden-on by elves were originally from the Gribith-Fith star system and experimented with the theory of combining magic with mechanical things. The Elves very much took interest in this, and managed to capture a handful of unfortunate scientists. Said scientists were treated like the CGI team at every Hollywood movie and were forced to labor in inhumane conditions, with little to no coffee (which was illegal, amendment established late-second-age in elven states dictates that at least one cup per individual daily is standard for research teams) and unreasonable lunch breaks. These scientists were not given credit for their work, but did manage to secure some rights in [insert year here], after the Third Revolution (nobody knows what the other two were) managed to sway the higher-ups into granting some things.

Other gnomes back on Gribith-Fith-II did pretty well for a while- until the elves found out about Costco- buy in bulk. So they snatched up a few more. This time they made sure the gnomes got wages. The gnomes formed a union. The elves didn’t like that, and tried to convince them not to with a corporate pizza party. The gnomes weren’t entirely sure what pizza was since I don’t think anyone invented it yet so they formed a union anyway. The elves gave up and started laying people off.

Ahem. Killing them.

With pioneering Techom STARBIT (dual-firing Torus-storm planar travel processing units, device starts at about 350,000 EP [MSRP]- Copyright Techom, COIM-patent) technology, the elves managed to modify the star’s properties, increasing magnitude and frequency of solar flares. Afterwards, they stood back and watched those lovely, lovely fireworks. Elves like to call it “Fourth of Numinäct” and celebrate with champagne. At least the higher-ups. Almost nobody knows about this except for certain powerful elvish figures and some rather crispy gnomes. The off-worlders just came back and found the system in pretty bad shape.

The best part? Almost nobody really knew this happened. Or that gnomes existed. These guys are lesser-known, and people just assumed that Gnomes are mythical creatures. They’re prevalent in fairy tales as “tiny little dudes who live on stars”, which the elves confirmed was not true. With physical evidence. There’s an art piece named “crispy gnom uehehehee” somewhere in the Orlaxian History Biannual Art Gallery.

(Note that Gib is just shortened Gribith-Fith)

(Note 2.0 that gnomes still exist, they’re just kinda rare)