Sprigg The Shrewd
Sprigg Nodolli, also known as "Sprigg The Shrewd, Sprigg The Slippery, Sprigg The Slick, Etc" is a significant figure in popular Gnomish folklore dating from the mid to late Age of Demigods and onward.
One of many trickster warrior like figures in folklore and history but distinctive in his strong following among the Free Gnomes native to the Scar region where he is especially honored by the large clan of Free Gnomes who claim him as their founder and his unorthodox liturgical place as a Paragon in Gnomish Alexandrian spiritual thought.
Sprigg Nodolli is according to lore the son of a mortal Gnomish bandit leader named Gretnannah Nurue and her lover Alandradar of the Demi-Pantheon, who depending on what version of the story is being told is disguised as either her hostage or her manservant or a brown talking goose..
His adventures generally act as fables that speak to the Gnomish traditional values of self-reliance,unity, subtlety, intelligence, using stealth and trickery to defeat or stymie a physically superior foe. Humor as a sustaining force in times of adversity and mockery of a foe as a weapon, Shunning title, vanity and pretense…..
However many tales of Sprigg’s adventures can also be extremely bawdy, lewd and pronouncedly violent, which is not surprising in that while today “outsides of Hakan” the figure’s exploits are primarily told as adventure stories to rouse children, earlier versions of these tales are far less sanitized than later translations and were originally meant to amuse while teaching harsh lessons about life in the Scar and by extension the world.
These tales fall generally into four main categories.
1.The oral stories and traditions of the Free Gnomes of the Scar. First recorded references circa 926 bl
2.The works of celebrated Dwarven author Kraese Korvel. Circa -302FL
3.The modern Hakani reclamation theater movement-1470 Fl
4.Clan Spriggan claims and expeditions and Urban Spriggan subculture. See Spriggan
Differences between versions
Early Free Gnome stories from the Scar.
In these stories, Sprigg is usually cast as the wandering freebooter seeking his fortune ever eager to see what’s just around the next bend, seeking mirth, meat, mead and a lover’s company under warm hides. While he at times serves a higher cause or his actions result in a greater good, usually that is in spite of his efforts or besides his original intentions.
In these tales Sprigg is pitted against the Servitor tribes, dangerous beasts, bloodthirsty bandits and river pirates and a wide variety of myriad threats from giant toads and/or toad-like beings of a demonic nature or Toad worshipping cults.. The hyperfixation of threats from toads of unusual size or supernaturally bewitched toad-like creatures is a common thread found in multiple stories from this period.
Sprigg, while crafty and cunning, is a sturdy warrior, often using what is around him to his advantage and ruthlessly so as his enemies are given no quarter. In these stories his magical Pickaxe Ir Kaebonu is simply a finely crafted weapon with the enchantment to never break. This as well as his growing list of purported magical abilities are modest and far between. Instead his skill at arms and crafty tactics often are what win the day.
In these stories we also see the first appearances of recurring figures like Bella Basalta a Gnomish woman of vague high station and frequent early love interest as well as the Duergar Uthur Urdunnir Sprigg’s most consistent antagonist however in these early stories Urdunnir is less of the blood enemy as he is later presented in written works.
More so early presentations of Uthur are more of that of a rival and often a foil. The pair are often erstwhile or reluctant allies or competitors for the same prize just as often as at odds in these iterations.
The Works of Kraese Korvel
Most non Hakani, especially Non-Dwarves who know anything of the tales of Sprigg Nodolli past having heard the name in passing, know so from the prolific works of famed Dwarves author and scholar Kraese Korvel who launched and produced the largest body of scholastic work into researching and recording as much of folklore and documentation into the historical evidence of the existence of Sprigg Nodolli even enacted. This included a massive translation of the various oral stories combined with a detailed historical analysis into a unified collection of stories published by Korvel and became moderately popular children’s literature among the educated in Gildenhome.
In these stories Sprigg is often more of a comic figure not intentionally seeking out adventure and certainly not heroism. Most early stories often began with Spigg seeking to avoid a day's labor or some manual chore and engaging in some sort of increasingly elaborate scheme that was not only rarely successful but in the end more labor than simply doing the work originally required. In these tales Spirgg’s wit and humor are emphasized and while he is still adept at the art of fighting he tends to rely even more on trickery, the low intelligence of his servitor enemies and criminal foes and the increasingly powerful Ir Kaebonu artifact, which now can not only supernaturally sharp and unbreakable but can also, sense direction underground and detect gems and precious metals but also can summon and control badgers and burrowing animals and bind them to his will.
He also has a larger cast of recurring allies, love interests and foes. While Bella Basalta fades as a love interest as now in the stories Sprigg has many paramores.
It is very notable that Uthur Urdunnir by this time has emerged into a pure villain and unredeemable antagonist, who frequently is foiled in his schemes via his own greed and Sprigg’s superior wit.
This plays into the modern popular notion promoted by the mercenary Gnomes of Clan Spriggan as self identified blood enemies of the Duergar race. It is one of the few points of overlap they have with the works of Korvel which on the whole they find exploitative, patronizing and offensive.
Korvel had by the time of his death amassed a large trove of alleged artifacts related to or attributed to the historical Sprigg Nodolli. However few Dwarven historical scholars give credence to these findings instead labeling Sprigg Nodolli a being of pure folklore combined with several different mythological and historical figures. Despite this Korvel’s work of researching and recording and translations of these myths was lauded in Dwarven literary academic circles for the comprehensive view of Gnomish culture it illuminates.
The modern Hakani reclamation theater movement
Following the end of the Gnomish Civil War and the Gilden-Gnomish War in the early 1400’s the urban center of Hakan City received an influx of Free Gnome refugees and expatriots from the Scar region many of whom remained and did not return to the Scar as the Spriggans and others had done.
These new arrivals brought their customs, music, songs and traditions with them bringing to the more culturally assimilated Hakani Gnomes “new” stories they had not known of about their own national hero.
As these City Gnomes had been more exposed to the Korvel narrative all their lives as well as in print, this was all very fresh and new to them and in the high spirits after the war sparked a new cultural boom in interest in the folklore and stories of Sprigg Nodolli and a call to reclaim the hero from his own vassalage under the works of Korvel.
As such in the decades since the Gnomish Civil War and the Gilden-Gnomish War there have been numerous theatrical productions seeking to perform stories about the life and exploits of Sprigg Nodolli placing a premium on presentations from an authentic Gnomish cultural lens.
This movement has received significant push back from Dwarven patrons who condemn the movement as politically motivated revisionism.
Clan Spriggan claims and expeditions and Urban Spriggan subculture. See Spriggan
‘’’The Spriggan accounting of Sprigg the Shrewd’’’
It is said that he was born at high noon on the third day of the Festival of Rebirth and was visited by three ladies/lord/s of the feywild “various according to region”. Each with something for the newboard Sprigg. one who blessed the Half mortal child, one who cursed the Son of careless Demi God and one who lay a geas on this First son of all the Gnomes.
As a result according to Clan Spriggan not only is Sprigg Nodolli virtually immortal but still lives to this day wandering the world anonymously still having adventures and quietly watching over his fellow Gnomes from afar.
From then he has several epic length poems and a number of differing sagas to his name among the various bands within Clan Spriggan. However their presentation again differs from the other presentations among the Hakani and the Dwarves in that among the Spriggans themselves they see their founder as assertive. pugnacious, anti-social, blunt. not suffering fools and bypassing the illusion of civilization to get to the point. sardonic.braggart, gruff, hedonistic.more tactically deceptive than a trickster, per say…
Most of their stories with Sprigg involve deep and long term stories that branch off into other stories with other characters who themselves are connected back to Sprigg himself.
Clan Spriggan’s sages have the most exhaustive collection of Sprigg Nodolli related artifacts, scrolls and memorized oral stories and relics other than the Korvel estate of course.
Their collection of his story and exploits is by far the longest and most detailed and curated of all. It’s also the most divergent.
Little heard of for centuries outside of Hakan or the Scar, these “Spriggans” struggled to live out a hunter gatherer/trapper/raider like existence in the caverns of the desolate badlands known as the SCAR. A bleak and hostile landscape teeming with servitor tribes and reavers, bandits and hostile beasts of various types.
It was here that the Clan not only found their fortunes but in time, thrived due to their secret inheritance from their founder.
One of the few places where the lore of the Spriggans and the work of Dwarven scholar Korval overlap is in the blood feud that develops between the Spriggans specifically and the mythical Duergar. However in the case of Korval the conflict is mainly cast as a simplistic conflict of good vs evil almost mimicking the Goodly and Servitor dynamic and competition for scarce resources. Where the hardy Gnomes carve out a life for themselves in an unforgiving wilderness, cast as heroic pioneers and the Duergar as a hidden evil of the Scar. Living ghosts seeking to keep their claim on these haunted lands.
Korval’s critics especially among the Gnomish modern Hakani reclamation theater movement would interpret the Duergar in these stories as symbolic and representative of the Dwarven culpability in the Peace of Three Kingdoms and as a “At that time” safe stand-in for Gnomish criticism of Dwarven rule and Dwarven culture as a whole.
Clan Spriggan on the other hand, traces back this “blood feud” to Sprigg Nodolli and the Duergar rogue Uthur Urdunnir .
‘’’Sprigg and Uthur’’’
According to the Spriggans and in divergence of other core sources, Uthur and Sprigg in many of their stories were once friends or partners of a sort or at least allies. As neither had any love for the Duergar’s cousins the Dwarves. They and their kinfolk would at times cooperate in order to survive the harsh realm they were forced to live in.. One above ground, one deep below.
How the story begins varies but it ultimately truly begins when Sprigg is either hired/coerced/enslaved/convinced/inspired by Uthur and his band of five cousins. Uthur and his cousins are interested in a map that has fallen into Sprigg’s position that allegedly leads to the den of Uvecknyaha, the rumored progenitor and “Grandmother of all Mountain Giants” deep in her eons-long slumber underneath the Scar.
Uthur told Sprigg that there was great power there, power enough for both of their peoples to prosper and no longer be subject to the oppression of the larger races because they would have the power to be giants themselves. As Sprigg had the map and the map directions and key were in gnomish they needed him but the the den of Uvecknyaha was located deep underground in the ruins of the Mountainhome of the Ancient Dwarves. Uthur knew the language and was familiar with the traps one might encounter within.
This journey into the ancient underkingdoms of the Dwarves, deep underground, is the first of a 68 part story collectively called The Blilldopolix and is considered the cornerstone and crown jewel of Clan Spriggan’s complex and multi layered performance storytelling tradition. .
After facing and surviving an absurd amount of challenges and various threats that the band of Seven,now only Four , Sprigg, Uthur,Zamsus and Gill finally come upon the tomb of the massive sleeping giantess. The entire massive cavern was all aglow in a faint green light from glowing glyphs and runes carved in the walls from the clawed hand of the giantess herself. They gently in pairs massage upon her mammaries in order to catch her mothers milk into their empty large wineskins. It was said that the mere tiniest of sips would be enough to give any of them the powers of a giant. Enough for every Gnome in the Scar and almost every Duergar below it…
The band of four managed to fill all of the wineskins to their limits but alas they were not out of danger nor were they alone. For Uthur’s other kinfolks had indeed answered his call after all. They simply had followed behind the Gnome and in his wake avoided all of the dangers. Uthur and his kin proceed to take from Sprigg the wineskins he held for his own people and kept it all for themselves and from it gave their people the power to increase their size triple fold. This is how the Duergar gained their legendary power. The perfidious Dwarfkin abandoned Sprigg leaving him behind in the tunnels below to his own fate by the corpse of the fallen giantess.
But Sprigg was clever and was of sharp mind and in the dark he saw the faintly runes carved around the chamber and in the years to come was able to understand them and their power. And that the power of giants was not in mere stature but the power of their runes, sacred words of creation, the building blocks of all things, the power to name and know, this was the true power of size and scale, the true power to become a giant.
And so Spigg, slowly, very slowly, learned the power of rune magic, the magic claimed by the ancient giants themselves and then traveled across the Scar sharing his knowledge with his kin both close and extended and thus how Clan Spriggan also gained the power to grow in size as well as other acts of sorcery via the power of ancient runes and glyphs .
It must be noted that the veracity of this story is, naturally doubted in many circles Clan Spriggan’s knowledge and skill in Rune Magic is not in dispute.