To an anathem gnome, family is just a source of exploitable labor or test subjects. They grow up abused and rejected, raised by anyone who thinks they can benefit from doing so. They come of age when they break free, usually through some device or machine they have designed and built in secret. Courtship is usually mutually beneficial opportunities for escape, advancement, or invention, and it rarely lasts long. Once an anathem gnome escapes their cruel upbringings, they often sell themselves as indentured servants to schools run by the powerful among them.

Anathem gnomes live in cruel societies where the strong exploit the weak, where profit and violence take precedence to anything else. The most powerful and talented gnomes become war engineers, designers of prison camps, tools of torture, or experts in murder and criminal enterprises. They often work for other nations and countries as specialists.

Governing anathem gnome society is a strict hierarchy of powerful oligarchs who run their society like a mafia organization. They have enforcers, but no judges. They have crime bosses, but no rules except their basic rules and the treaties they keep their society from all out war (if such is the case). Most anathem gnomes belong to one of the major oligarchal organizations, called cabals.