www.mundanewiki.org/gnomon
Talia B
Designer for the Other Worlds Tourism Bureau
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Gnomon
The Alpha and Omega, The Divine Archivist, Keeper of Letters and Numbers, Scribe of the Heavens, Who Knows All That Is Written
Progenitor of Mutan
God of Writing, Mathematics, History, Pottery, Parchment and Papermaking, Inks and Pigments, Recordkeeping, Memory and Time
Concept art by Rukafais
The Alpha and Omega, The Divine Archivist, Keeper of Letters and Numbers, Scribe of the Heavens, Who Knows All That Is Written
Progenitor of Mutan
God of Writing, Mathematics, History, Pottery, Parchment and Papermaking, Inks and Pigments, Recordkeeping, Memory and Time
Concept art by Rukafais
Gnomon is the second of the primordials who joined forces with the gods and their Namer progeny to make Mundus a place worth living in, by giving them a way to pass on what they had learned to future generations: writing. Gnomon is the Alpha and Omega, and every letter in between: the living concepts of literacy and numeracy, who write down the deeds of all in their carefully tended and immaculately organized Celestial Archives and in so doing have become the keeper of time. They bid their followers to learn and pass on all knowledge they can, to preserve the histories of those who would otherwise be forgotten, and to seek both the facts and the truth of all situations...
SUMMARY
Gnomon is the primordial of knowledge, and specifically of quantifiable written knowledge. If your build can benefit from being Mind primary, it can benefit from the boons of Gnomon. Obviously a favorite with Wizards, Enchanters and Warlocks, he also sees surprising utility with Oathsworn and Armsmasters, Scouts and Shamans, and all of the craftsmen classes. A little extra memory capacity never hurt anyone.
Least Boon: All That Is Written
As long as you have done library research on a subject before, this powerful boon grants +3 to knowledge checks having to do with recalling information from that sphere of knowledge. This is more limited than it sounds in a world where there are oral traditions that have never been written down in game, but it allows easy access to a vast amount of technical knowledge, magical theory, and official history. Among other things, this passively increases the amount of information you have about places you've never been but have read about - which can include a number of infamous dungeons. Forewarned about the deadly flame jet traps is forearmed, after all. While never necessary, All That Is Written is always useful.
Valuable Boons
The utility of Like A Book is easy to overlook since it's description draws attention to filling out your bestiary, but it's true value is that once you have sized up a target with this Boon you will always deal additional damage to it, making it extremely valuable for Damage Increment builds. Doubly so when combined with Natural Historian, which applies these benefits across monstrous clades. Written In Stone allows you to extend the lengths of your Boosts and Debilitates, while the almighty Written By The Victors allows you to steal buffs and debuffs cast by the enemy and reapply them to more favorable targets! Perhaps the most powerful Boon earlygame is Erase, which allows you to seal away a troublesome technique.The utility of the raw knowledge abilities - Encyclopedia Omphalica, Runic Mastery, The Written Songs and similar - is handier than it seems and a must for lore completionists, as having that information in context and to hand usually is. The crowning ability of the Gnomic tree is Speed of Thought, which places all purely mental Support actions on a separate cooldown - allowing you to cast two Support Techniques one after the other, a gamechanging if not gamebreaking benefit.
Technique Considerations
The most important decision is whether or not you'll be taking a Copy Technique. Most builds cannot use techniques duplicated from opponents, but a Gnomic build can, with the right Transformation Tension Break, starting at 5th level. Natively, Gnomic techniques have access to the Psychic element, but Gnomics have the unique ability to apply the Elemental Shift ability through Boosts to change the elemental affinity of attacks - which is one reason the Gnomic Wizard is such a classic build. They also have stronger Mind-based spells, including getting that third bolt in an Elfshot Barrage from a single level of Multiple Targets and easy, cheap access to Smart AoE. Simple requirements for damage increment bonuses - from hitting elemental weaknesses and from Like A Book/Natural Historian and, if they can get it, a Feint mean that Gnomics do well with 'poor formula' attack spells - Drains, Debilitates, Saps and Persistent effects - that get half benefit from increasing Attack Damage directly but full benefit from Damage Increments.
DIVINE BEAST - Metatron
Many-winged, many-eyed Metatron is as eldritch and holy an abomination as Glatisant and for the same reasons. It rapidly shifts through a pattern of spells, switching elemental affinities on a set schedule while also benefitting from Speed of Thought. While it's direct attack spells are powerful, even more powerful are the array of buffs and debuffs it has - and, of course, it's ability to copy techniques.
Stay strong, close in to melee, and buff your mobility. Metatron is a glass cannon, and perhaps has the lowest Defense and Health of any of the Divine Beasts; if it's not acting as artillery, it's in serious danger of being overwhelmed in melee. Make sure that it's ability to teleport across the arena won't slow down the close-range hurt. Bring Resistance buffs, Cleanses and - if you can - Written by the Victors to make the support abilities it drops out it's own problem, and the Voice of the Gods will fall under your swords.
LORE NOTES
"One of the more intriguing definitions of 'gnomon' in real life is a timekeeping device - specifically, the triangular blade of a sundial, catching the shadow of the sun. On its own it signifies nothing, but in relation to everything around it, a gnomon informs you of the passage of time. Likewise, Gnomon the god is a god of the measuring of time - not time itself, but the ways in which we can infer and deduce that time exists. They are a god of timekeeping, but not of time; of histories, but not of events; of science, but not of nature. Gnomon is about signifiers, and how they relate to the signified."
- Charlene Durante, interview at MundusCon
Gnomon is the primordial of language, first of speech and then of writing. In this regard he is considered the god of time and it's keeping, and a patron of philosophy and the sciences; they are said to have introduced the concept of writing to the world, and in so doing allow for the keeping of records beyond a Namer's lifetime. It is for this reason that they are said to have sired Mutan - the moon, and the source of calendars and seasons - while Aurora was Io's child.
During the Gygan War, Gnomon aided their children in the Gods with engineering and the creation a weaponry and with the sending of messages; afterwards, they dedicated their heavenly demense to the keeping of records, so that the follies that lead to the war and the successes that ended it could be preserved for not only the Gods but those they created. This is the mythological origin both of history and of Aurora's blessing of the Omphalan Empire, which was responsible for sinking Gyges - or so the legends say. Now, it is said that Gnomon is very busy keeping track of the individual biographies of each inhabitant of Mundus, updating their good books as Mutan brings news of their dreams and deeds and keeping a full accounting of their actions in the Great Heavenly Archives.
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