Gnomification

Information Medical Incident Gnomification Involved Location(s) The Dwelling,Merlin's Magical Hospital Lore Credit(s) ASentientGoose, JustMaxHell, jisunize

Overview

With the migration of magicians worldwide, the spread of new diseases was common alongside the transit of new creatures and ideas. Gnomification was no different, and it originated from the discovery of the underground Gnomic civilisations. Gnomes would begin to invade neatly trimmed gardens of European settlements in the 1600s. Magical communities began to find family members suddenly changing and wearing odd little hats, shrinking, and eventually disappearing from their lives altogether. All that would remain was a small gnome that carried the distinct traits of the family member. To commemorate the lives of these individuals, people began to build structures and set these gnomes to guard their gardens. These Gnomic cities became common in Unmagical gardens, though the gnomes used for these were manufactured. The garden gnome is typically inanimate as opposed to the creature “Gnome” that often plagues the wizarding world. However, these two Gnomic types are related and only differ by animacy. Those plagued by Gnomificus transformicus all have one thing in common that links them to sentient Gnomes: they forgot to de-gnome their gardens.

Process of Infection

Gnomification is a disease transferred to humans through interaction with Gnomes for over 30 days. This contact includes but is not limited to living with a Gnome in one’s house, having over five garden Gnomes in one’s garden, and inviting Gnomes inside one’s house for tea daily. Degnoming one’s garden does not count as extensive enough contact to transfer Gnomificus transformicus, though it is recommended to sanitise thoroughly after the degnoming process; primarily because the Gnome-infested soil is unhygienic. A person between the ages of 14 and 30 will be most prone to this disease, though the oldest recorded case was in a 34-year-old man. After day 30, a person will be infected. When this disease’s symptoms emerge depends on the heat in an area; gnomification will emerge faster in hotter climates and slower in colder ones.

Symptoms

Gnomification symptoms take place over the span of three months. The process is gradual and not painful, though it picks up speed within the last week. The first symptom that a diseased person may experience is with their speech: they begin adding the G’s and N’s to the beginning of words. For example, the word “Hogsworth” would become “gnogsoworth” (pronounced “g-nogsworth”), or the word apple would become “gnapple” (pronounced “g-napple”). These word changes are typically gradual. The virus will begin with the brain before spreading further. The impacts on the brain are by far the easiest to reverse. The physical impacts, however, take powerful transfiguration to undo. 

The first physical symptom begins around week two and consists of hair morphing. The infected will suddenly realise their hair becomes harder and harder to tame. They may have an eternal cowlick that won’t move whatever they do. Eventually, hair begins to grow into a fashion of a gnomic sock hat. Some individuals will have their hair grow upward while others will experience their hair moving to the side. In each instance, the hair will change colour, take on a fabric texture, and tightly knit into a hat. After a few weeks, a person will notice shrinkage, first in their toes before moving to their appendages. Their noses will quickly become snubs, their faces more circular. This process happens gradually until week eight, when it intensifies and the person becomes a gnome. 

Around week five, a person will begin to stare longingly out at their garden and, perhaps, start to build a little city in a pebbly path. Those least apt for gardening will suddenly develop a green thumb. This process is known as “nesting” and serves as the infected’s search for a final resting ground. In particularly dry climates, a person will begin to take shrubbery indoors. Eventually, they will be drawn to rucksack clothing, overalls, and tiny shirts that match their new hat-hair. The upside of this illness is that each gnome can be identified based upon personality, the colour of their garments and the length of their ears. A more patient person will have longer, triangular ears, while someone who is more stubborn has stubby, rounded ears. A person may have more patterns depending on how many personalities they display to different groups of people. A person who displays themselves as witty and sharp-tongued to a court of law will have bright yellow lightning bolts patterning their shirt. However, if they are calm at home, they will have a turquoise garment. These colours widely differ and have been interpreted in Theodore Hokinov’s book Gnomebody Knows: A Guide to Recovering Your Recently Gnomified Loved One, a book that appeared on shelves in 1847, is over 3,000 pages long, and has had 46 addendums and 13 added chapters since its release. It was written to know which Gnome in a garden of a plethora of garden gnomes happened to be a recently gnomified loved one, as the famous cure created by Adelaide Morrison had yet to be invented. The full gnomification rate, in which a transfiguration specialist must be brought in to reverse the process, has recently dipped to 49%. Such cases have dropped from the 1900s 80% gnomification rate. To combat this illness, people around the world began to find “cures” or preventative measures to avoid illness.

First Folklore Cures

The majority of folklore cures anticipate that a person would best be served if they simply avoided having lawns. In cities, Gnomification is at a rate of 3%, so city living has become a popular option for the magical community. Another option is that if a person got rid of their lawn after contracting the disease they would be cured. This led to, in the 1700s, thousands of lawns going up in flames. However, the disease was proven to not disappear. Rather, people were left without lawns to reside in post-Gnomification. Other folklore cures state that a person need not destroy their lawn, but simply never look at it again. Oddly enough, this cure has shown results, as the process of Gnomification drastically slows when a person does not think about or see a garden lawn. Potions and tonics were invented, such as the Smelly Feet Degnomifying Tonic invented in 1928. However, this tonic and a majority of others have been proven to have little impact. In fact, they typically decrease well-being in other ways for the user, such as the largening of limbs and a nauseating smell emitting from the sweat glands of the feet.

Gnomification services were popular in the 1800s to create a memorial for gnomified victims. However, it is important to recognise that these individuals are not deceased; rather, these people have lost the ability to move and enter a dreamlike state until they are transfigured back into a human. People believed these memorials would turn their loved ones back into humans. While it acts as a nice sentiment, it takes a powerful transfiguration specialist to reverse the impacts of Gnomification. The majority of families seek to create comfort for the time being. Thankfully, the magical community provides free transfiguration specialists in healthcare with, at the highest, a two-week delay in treatment.

Preventative Measures

To prevent Gnomificus transformicus, one should always take care to degnome their yards on a monthly to bimonthly basis. Such actions have become a common chore in the wizarding world. There are degnoming services around the world that can be hired to complete this degnoming. This option is well-loved in every part of the wizarding world due to the impact of Gnomification.

Adelaide Morrison & the Creation of a Cure

In 1982, Adelaide Morrison shocked the greater wizarding community with her invention of a Detransfiguration incantation. She invented this process after desperately attempting to reverse her mother back to what she was prior to a dreadful bout of Gnomification. This process included surrounding the impacted individual with bay leaves and took approximately two hours. It is recommended that a person has a photo of the impacted individual, but it is not always necessary. Morrison, for example, was capable of reversing the impacts of Gnomification because she had read the entire book by Theodore Hokinov. Due to her photographic memory, she was able to quickly imagine what a person would look like before their Gnomification. Since that point, she has taught a revolutionising cure to the greater Wizarding community, including her opening of the School for Degnomification in Bristol. There, she galvanised great forces into the Ministry of Magicians and created an entire subdepartment at Merlin’s Magical Hospital. She did so by shocking the crowds through her impactful 1983 speech “The Gnomes in Your Yard”, where she explained how people feel as gnomes. The wizarding world was so deeply moved that this necessary healthcare spread like wildfire. Today, there is a centralised force to teach in Bristol, where magicians worldwide come to learn how to combat the disease. 

Cases

There are thousands of cases worldwide each year, but the most notable ones are listed below:

Switzerland

A case in 2004 impacted a small (and anonymous) mountain community, infecting 128 individuals. Every 13 years, a gnomic migration takes place. Unfortunately, Switzerland was the recipient of said migration and did not have the infrastructure to handle mass-degnoming. Transfiguration specialists were employed worldwide to help. Laws later passed stating that students would be given free schooling if they went to Bristol to learn Degnomification transfiguration.

Brazil

In 1832, Brazilian wizards were hit with Gnomification in Iguape. 1,300 wizards were infected due to the lack of worldwide methodology to prevent Gnomification. Recently, efforts have gone through to degnomify the masses of garden gnomes, to great success.

Italy

In 1983, Pitigliano experienced the Gnomification of 15 civilians. This town, while having a small caseload, was the first place to get detransfigured by Morrison. Every civilian was restored in a timely manner. This case is the first mass case where Degnomifying experts were employed outside of England.

King Frances

King Frances, self-proclaimed king of “That Rock Over on the Shoreline” in Tavira, Portugal, was infected by Gnomification in 1671. His sole garden gnome stands looking over the rock with a crown of porcelain flowers. The wizarding council of Tavira consistently debates the ethics of transforming King Frances back because of his distance based on time and the unlikelihood that he would be able to immerse himself into modern society. Debates are ongoing. Suspiciously, Gnomes (the species) seem to take a liking to this spot and have begun to come to the King for answers. However, as the King cannot talk, they typically sit for 48 hours beside him prior to getting bored and inventing their own resolution.

Trivia

• Players can aid the Weaselby family in degnoming their garden at The Dwelling, preventing an outbreak of Gnomification in the area.
• You can attend a Medical Magic class hosted by the Academics team to learn about Gnomifiation and various other magical diseases and remedies.