The Gnawers are one of two sentient, non-human species living in Northern Eufaula, the frontier region where My Time at Evershine is set. Nearly everything known about them comes from a single official lore post published in January 2025: an in-world field report on the region's sentient creatures, written by a Professor Goodall and addressed to Director Gaudi of the North Development Plan. The game is unreleased, so all of this is pre-release worldbuilding that could still change before launch.
According to the report, the low human population in Northern Eufaula allowed two sentient species to grow to sizeable numbers over the previous thirty years. Goodall's account draws on five years of expeditions into the area, and it splits sharply in tone: the Gnawers come across as odd but reasonable neighbors, while the Apricrocs are treated as a standing threat.
The Gnawer Cartel
Gnawer society is organized and industrious. They call themselves the Gnawer Cartel, and they answer to a single leader, the Tycoognawer. The report describes a clear working hierarchy beneath that office:
Tycoognawer: leader of the Gnawer Cartel
Taskgnawers: assign and direct the daily work teams
Workgnawers: harvest wood and handle production
Plangnawers: travel around planting trees so the Cartel's logging stays sustainable
Goodall singles out one daily ritual. Every morning the Tycoognawer leads the Workgnawers through group exercises set to a musical rhythm, a process the professor calls fascinating and credits with visibly raising morale. When the exercise ends, the Workgnawers are split into teams under Taskgnawers and sent out to harvest wood for the day.
Origins
Humans first ran into the Gnawers roughly one hundred twenty years before the game's present day, during the period the setting calls the Age of Darkness. They could already speak the human language at that first contact, which has led in-world experts to believe the species was developed in a laboratory before the Day of Calamity, the catastrophe that destroyed civilization 330 years before the events of the game. The report offers nothing firmer than that, and no official post has expanded on the question since.
Trade
Whatever their origin, the Gnawers wasted no time becoming merchants. Per the report, they initiated trade with humans right away, mostly in wood-related products, and the arrangement has continued ever since. The Gnawer Cartel sells wood products to Ethean, Alliance, and Duvosian traders alike, taking food and luxury goods such as salt and sugar in return. Trading with all three powers at once is a striking position in a region defined by the standoff between the Alliance and the Duvos Empire; the wider political picture is covered on the World Setting and Factions page.
Temperament
Gnawers live in camps in the forested parts of the region. They are not an aggressive species unless threatened, and although they can speak the human language, they are usually very quiet and prefer to be left alone. Goodall's conclusion is plain: the Gnawers can be reasoned with and treated with respect, so long as they are not provoked into aggression toward settlers.
Role in the game
No official post has shown how the Gnawers work mechanically. There are no confirmed Gnawer quests, vendors, or combat encounters in any public material, and the closed alpha playtest runs under a non-disclosure agreement, so nothing can be verified from that side either. What the report does establish is intent: it is framed as a briefing for the North Development Plan, the same Alliance program that sends the player to govern Settlement 2. Settlers and Gnawers are clearly expected to deal with each other once the Governor arrives; whether that means trade, friction, or something stranger is unconfirmed until Pathea Games says more.