Birth Pets
Prior to the birth of a child, gnome parents select what they believe will be an appropriate childhood pet. The pet, itself a newborn, is given to the child at birth. This bonds them for the life of the pet.
Gnome babies learn to speak the language of their birth pet in much the same way as twins are said to share a special language. However, this bond does not survive childhood. As a gnome child ages and gains mastery of the gnome language, communication on this empathetic level becomes exhausting. Adult gnomes can communicate with such an animal for only a few minutes a day.
The death of a birth pet is a rite of passage for gnome children. This is usually a gnome child's first experience with death.
Read more about this topic: Gnome (Dungeons & Dragons)
Famous quotes containing the words birth and/or pets:
“But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.”
—Sophocles (497–406/5 B.C.)
“We died like aunts of pets or foreigners.”
—Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)