Gnome Child

About

Gnome Child is a type of non-player character featured in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying video game Runescape that has gained notoriety for its tendencies to respond with bizarre and philosophical quotes when approached by the player.

Origin

On December 12th, 2002, Runescape was updated with several new features, maps and non-player characters (NPCs), most notably a group of youthful gnomes who could be found in the Tree Gnome Stronghold.

Spread

On June 6th, 2008, an entry for "Gnome Child" was created on the Runescape Wiki.^[1] The character did not gain a significant following online until July 2014, when discussions of the character began surfacing on the /r/2007scape subreddit. On July 21st, 2014, Redditor helofrand posted a screenshot of a Gnome Child's portrait titled "I love gnomes" to /r/2007scape^[3] (shown below, left). On July 25th, Redditor Cheesydude submitted a photoshopped image of a Runescape avatar wearing a Gnome Child mask and hat to /r/2007scape,^[2] where it gained over 450 votes (90% upvoted) in the first month (shown below, right).

The origin of the infamous gnome face can be traced back to the early Oldschool Runescape General threads on 4chan's /vg/ board, also known as /rs07g/. On June 21st, 2013, a player by the name of rsmv2you (now known simply as "Rsmv") posted a screenshot of the gnome child's dialogue with the message "Gnomes are horrible parents". Another player, Urotsuki, saw that the frame of animation the gnome's face was on looked funny, and quickly cropped the face, resized it so that the height was 4000 pixels, and replied to the post with it. It was later posted again on /vg/ and other boards as a reaction image similar to this meme.^[11][12][13]

Also on July 25th, Redditors began posting images of quotes attributed to Gnome Child to /r/2007scape and /r/runescape (shown below).^[7][8][9]

Meanwhile, YouTuber Flopske uploaded a video titled "Gnome Child," featuring Runescape gameplay footage in which Gnome Child discusses the existence of God before being attacked and killed (shown below). On July 26th, Runescape Forums^[5] member Kirtinaa submitted a thread hailing Gnome Child as the "new overlord."

Notable Examples

Slayer

In December 2013, an audio clip of the kill streak announcer from the Halo video game series saying the phrase "slayer" accompanied by a thumbnail of a Gnome Child in the style of Tony Kornheiser's 'Why' (shown below) by user Mirakurutaimu began circulating on Tumblr.^[6]