Secret League of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes
The Secret League of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes was a mysterious organisation made up of red-bearded Gnomes. They were seemingly active primarily in the Prime Universe but capable of interdimensional travel, with the mysterious Gnome Place as their base.
Nature
The Secret League's membership comprised Gnomes of many different types, from Troll-like ones to animated plastic garden gnomes; indeed, over time, the Secret League began to accept the membership of other Little People such as Leprechauns, Lutins and Gnatlings, provided they were sufficiently gnome-like and agreed to bear red beards. When the Nome King of Oz, whose beard was white, joined the League, he dyed the tips of his beard red, which seemed to suffice. (PROSE: The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere)
Although the Secret League's name resembled that of a Strangely-Colored Secret Society, the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids's Fact File on the Societies suggested that as far as the Cupids knew, the Gnomes had no connection to the other such Societies. The File stated that the Gnomes “[kept] popping up everywhere” and that they were “utterly inexplicable. And weird”. (PROSE: The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies) All members of the Secret League, including ones who weren't technically Gnomes to start with but other kinds of Little People, became imbued with the magical characteristics of Gnomes as a result of their membership; this meant that they had a deadly weakness to eggs, but couldn't be killed by any other means. (PROSE: The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere)
History
Doctor Sigma once displayed images of such a Gnome, who was bemused at the sight of an entrance to the Time Sewers, as part of a lecture on Multiversal theory. He also cited “all the Gnomes” as one of the interesting quirks of the Multiverse which he was sorry he didn't find the time to elucidate during the lecture. (COMIC: The Beginner's Guide to Multiversal Theory)
An Orange-Bearded Gnome was among the inmates at the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries' Research Laboratory 6. He participated in the breakout orchestrated by Pessimist-242 and a Green Gorilla, doing his part by helping to dispose of the fourth guard via whacking him with an enormous hammer he had pulled out from behind his back. (PROSE: Pessimist and the Dromedaries)
A group of representatives of the Secret League of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes were among the guests in the lobby of Hilbert's, the Interdimensional Hotel, when Wendy VII first visited it. (PROSE: The Grand Multiverse Hotel) In December 2021, Prime Universe time, the “Gnome Place” was among the interdimensional hubs where Century Smith and Briar ended up running into malevolent cyborgs fighting over the title of Supreme Cyborg.
The Secret League also appeared to be among the groups who bid for the venom of the Wyrm of Loki when the Prime Universe's Sigyn decided to auction it off. Like the other bidders, the Gnome representative dissipated like smoke, sent back to his dimension, after Tero Trollgarsson rendered the auction moot by drinking all the venom, leading Sigyn to interrupt the spell she was using to summon them all. (PROSE: The Winter Quests)
At some point, the Secret League opened membership to other members of the Little People than strictly-defined Gnomes, such as Leprechauns, Lutins, and Gnatlings, with the Lurigadawne of Tipperary, from Dimension 77, notably joining. This proved controversial. Around this time, Jenny Everywhere accidentally crashed a meeting of the League at the Gnome Place while looking for the Lurigadawne. The Nome King was suspicious of her, thinking she might be some kind of spy trying to find out the nature of the League's “secret plans”. She was followed by the Mad Marquess, who engaged the Lurigadawne in combat while many of the Gnomes fled the conference room. The remainder were routed when Jenny started threatening to throw eggs at them, even collecting a royal chicken of Camelot especially bred by Merlin in order to threaten the Nome King with eggs powerful enough to be a match for him, which were sufficient to send him packing. (PROSE: The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere)
