About 75 years ago, the gnomish clan heads set out to take strategic
 positions in the northeastern foothills and rocky outcroppings of the 
Eastern Mountains and the Dragonspine. Once there, they quickly - and 
unsurprisingly, to most who followed politics - announced a sovereign 
Gnomish nation, while recognising its eternal and unseverable ties with 
the Church and the rest of the Western Kingdom. There was little resistance 
to the idea, as the two nations have - for as long as they've existed - 
freely traded troops, technology, and information. Gnomish recon troops 
and cannon crews, for example, regularly go into battle alingside Royal 
Cavalary units. Gnomish engineers are routinely found working in Throne, 
passing on gnomish tech to humans (who sometimes refine it, but usually 
just abuse it). The clan leaders of the gnomish holdings also claim to
have opened communications with the dwarves of stonehold, and trade with
them on a limited basis. Attempts to communicate with Stonehold through 
the clan leaders, however, have failed. Their capitol city, Breech, is 
the largest of only a few gnomish cities in the holdings. It lies on top 
of an ancient inactive volcano, and entrances to the underdark. Citizens 
of the western kingdom are allowed to come and go as they please, but 
half-orcs and elvish types are held in some suspicion.