An abridged story of the life of Dorota

A long time ago, there was a little Gnome. Little is relative. If you were to compare her to a human child of the same age, the child would have been almost the size of a grown-up Gnome. The young Gnome grew up in a most unusual family, especially for Gnomes.

You see, Gnomes are tinkerers at heart. The family she grew up in, tinkered with the heart. They did so through music, story, and magic.

Her Ojciec was a great orator. Her Matka had an amazing voice. With her violin, her Babcia, the most beloved of her family, could make even the toughest Czar weep. Of her Dziadek, little is known. It is said he could not abide by his wife's decision to travel the world and perform and he wanted little to do with his son.

Long before the young Gnome laid eyes on the weathered skin, happy with wrinkles, our story begins. Long before she had earned the name Babcia (Grandmother for those who only speak Common), she was called Dorota.

Dorota grew up during the time when Gnomes were persecuted. They were forced to live in villages of their own, with little contact with the humans in the Steppes. She learned all the things girls were supposed to learn from their Matka. She learned to sew, clean and cook. She could read a little, but barely more than the Good Book on which she was raised. Her Ojciec taught her one thing that was not required of a future house-wife. He taught her to play the violin. He showed her the many ways to elicit emotions from the strings.

By the appropriate age, her Matka had chosen a groom for her. He was from a good family and was to be a Cleric of their faith. It was not long after they wed, that they soon welcomed their only son, Jacek.

For nearly three years, they lived in peace. Then a revolution began. The old Czar had made a few advances towards ending the persectution of Gnomes. His Heir, felt that his father had been lead by lunacy in his late years and started reversing the policies his father had set forth. He soon learned just what Gnomes were capable of if you made them mad. And he had thousands of angry Gnomes to deal with. Some of the more entertaining stories pertain to the booby-trapped carriage that flipped on him... but that is a tale for another time.

For the first time in centuries, Gnomes were free to travel the country. The still young Dorota wanted to travel and play her violin across the nation. The Cleric would have none of that and did not even like her practicing.

So in the dead of night, she took her violin, the clothes on her back, and her young son and went out into the world. They spent most of the first fortnight just sight seeing. They were in awe of the human cities. She would play her violin on street corners to earn bread to feed them.

It wasn't long before a noblewoman heard the violin singing to the city as she passed in her carriage. She offered Dorota and her young son a place to stay and food, if she in return played for her. It was in the service of Lady Katarzyna that Dorota met the traveling Gypsies. They were brought in to assist in the entertainment for a very large fete. The Gypsies had already acquired a few Gnomish players, but were keen to have a few more Gnomish musicians. So with Lady Katarzyna's blessing, Dorota set out with the Gypsies after the fete.

Her son learned to act and speak from the Gypsies and became as great an orator as the best of the humans. Dorota assisted a young mother with the birth of her child, a girl. It was decided then that the girl was meant for Jacek. And thus the family tree grew to include not only Gnomes, but a varied band of Gypsies and eventually the young Gnome, who wide-eyed and eagerly learned to make Czars weep just by drawing horse hair across the strings of her Babcia's violin.