Mount Aluminum

At a glance

 * Location: Usually found floating in the Frozen Ocean.
 * Government: Level-based Republic
 * Magic: Anti-magic field envelops Mount Aluminum; gnomes disbelieve magic's existence.
 * Economy: Pseudo-Communistic with overtones of corruption

Mount Aluminum is sort-of a country, kind-of a place, and it's own capital. It is the constructed home of the largest population of gnomes in Sert. Even the very name, aluminum, comes from the main material it is constructed from, and while no other race has access to said material, none dare to ask. Mount Aluminum is a place often mentioned in either very tall tales or horror stories, as the sorts of things that happen there are beyond the understanding of any outsider.

While the rest of the world of Sert moves along in the more typical fantasy level of technology, the gnomes of Mount Aluminum have almost moved to the Atomic Age... or beyond. The primary limiting factor of their technology, though, is that they never stop to perfect it. Rather, they quickly build on the prototypes of one technology to leap into another, "improved" technology before the first has had the kinks and bugs worked out. Resultingly, many different levels of technology are employed together in Mount Aluminum, and almost all of them are unstable. The seemingly spastic construction of the "mountain" necessitates a hired guide, if one expects to live long on the inside. The floor is littered with "X's" for testing purposes of various prototype machines, and one never knows what to expect when a door is opened or a lever is pulled.

Even worse, the gnomes of Mount Aluminum have long lived under the constant belief that magic doesn't REALLY exist and can be explained away logically. Out in the world, they are often forced to admit they are wrong, but the belief is so strong in Mount Aluminum that the entire "mountain" is blanketed in an antimagic field. All these factors, when added together, generally cause most travellers or passing ships to give as wide a berth to the gnomes of Mount Aluminum as possible.

Back to TOMAGOMB or Sert.