Description

Physical description of the ethnic group, including common traits and variations.

Culture

Information about the culture, traditions, and social structure of the ethnic group.

History

A brief history of the ethnic group, significant events, and its evolution over time.

Cherished and guided by gods who value life, home and hearth, halflings gravitate toward bucolic havens where family and community help shape their lives. That said, many halflings possess a brave and adventurous spirit that leads them on journeys of discovery, affording them the chance to explore a bigger world and make new friends along the way. Their size - similar to that of a human child - helps them pass through crowds unnoticed and slip through tight spaces.

Anyone who has spent time around halflings, particularly halfling adventurers, has likely witnessed the storied “luck of the halflings” in action. When a halfling is in mortal danger, an unseen force seems to intervene on the halfling’s behalf. Many halflings believe in the power of luck, and they attribute their unusual gift to one or more of their benevolent gods, including Yondalla, Brandobaris, and Charmalaine. The same gift might contribute to their robust life spans (about 150 years).

Halflings who prefer to live underground are sometimes called strongheart halflings or stouts. Nomadic halflings, as well as those who live among humans and other tall folk, are sometimes called lightfoot halflings or tallfellows.

History

Halflings have always been in Kildar, with a majority of them living in or around Torrica before the Hadar catastrophe. Lots of halflings fled from the city and now they are more spread across the continent. The majority of them now living in or around some of the larger cities such as Brell, Ironhold, Rhyl and Stormhaven..

However, the Hadar catastrophe sadly did take quite a lot of little halfling lives..

Culture

Halfling societies are usually tight knit groups that can be found around the world, usually near or in the settlements of other races. They really value a sense of community, calling eachother ‘halfling’ is a common salute to their close-knit brotherhood.

The halfling culture also has a fondness for passing stories and legends through generations. A lot of care is put into retelling the traditional stories of their ancestors. This care led to halflings being able to effortlessly recall the stories from their childhoods and the halfling folk having access to lore about long-gone cultures or empires that others had long forgotten.

Halflings believe that keeping lore orally rather than through script is superior, because they believe paper to be a fleeting thing that can be incinerated within an instant. Lore and stories, however, live on through the ages.

In addition, Halfling culture bends and curves like a river. If the Halflings feel something of their culture doesn’t work, they adapt. If the Halflings find something in other cultures that they like, they adapt. It is said that the Halflings of ages past are nothing like the current Halflings, with some even speculating that in ages past the Halflings were murderous savages. But those are greatly exaggerated rumors of course.

Faith

Halflings are a spiritual people, but interestingly enough are one of the species that are the most open to the religions of other deities. They worship their own deity, Yondalla, just as much as they worship other gods like the Elf god Corellon or the Orc god Gruumsh. Halflings also try to be respectful toward the customs of these other faiths and cultures, as they adapt them into their own.

Relations

Halflings get along well with almost every other species. They are famously accepting of other cultures, and are known for even seeing the value and merit that the Orc cultures have to bring, especially those that are willing to adapt to the ways of society.

Language

The halfling language, called Luiric, sounds kind of like an ancient Germanic language. It is a language that isn’t spoken by many. Most of the people that are actually fluid in the language are stoutheart halflings, seeing as they are the halflings that have kept to their own culture the most. Most lightfoot halflings have adapted to the cultures of the places where they have settled down and usually speak common and other native languages.

Names

Otherworldly

As they do with any other species, typical halflings get along well with both of the otherworldly species and accept them into their culture and society wholeheartedly.

Stoutheart halflings on the other hand are fine with the idea of Aasimars, but most of them strongly disapprove of Tieflings, as they believe these  people essentially sold their soul to become a partial devil.

Backgrounds

Most halflings have backgrounds such as Entertainer, Hermit and Merchant. Entertainers usually embrace the lore-telling part of their culture and travel around telling ancient halfling tales in the form of song or dance. Where lots of lightfoot halflings also have backgrounds as merchants, mingling among the other folk, selling their goods in large cities all across Kildar. A lot of stoutheart halflings have Hermit backgrounds, as they usually live away from big cities and prefer to live in small groups in the wild.

Classes

Lightfoot halflings usually make great rogues or rangers because of their usual defensive and less direct approach to combat. They also make great bards, traveling around Kildar telling stories and singing songs in the big cities across the country.

Stoutheart halflings also make great rogues or rangers. However, due to their more direct approach to combat, fighters, paladins and clerics are more common among the stoutheart.

Professions

The halflings in the major settlements of Kildar don’t really focus on any specific things in life. Adapting to the needs of the area around them. This is why there aren’t any professions that are really specific to the halfling folk. Although the two professions that keep being dominated by halflings in the cities are bards and merchants, these professions really align with their cultural preferences.

Factions

Because halflings tend to either live in cities dominated by other races or live in isolation, there aren't any large factions made up of only halflings. Small exceptions to this are the story-telling groups that some halflings create. They meet once every week to tell eachother any new stories that they’ve heard of. A large part of the merchants guild does also comprise halflings.

Appearance

Most halflings are half the size of what a normal human would be, they usually have dark hair and eyes and their skin tones have a similar range to that of humans but their skin does generally have a ruddy hue.

Male halflings are incapable of growing true beards, with most of them rocking long sideburns. Halflings usually wear complex hairstyles, with strands of hair woven together and often braided as well. As halflings don’t like bragging about their personal belongings, most of them just wear simple, comfortable clothing.

Lineages

The halfling race has two subraces: Lightfoot and Strongheart, better known as Stoutheart halflings.

Lightfoot halflings are the halflings that live among other folk, they mingle themselves into other cultures, though not in an invasive manner. Sometimes even adopting the other culture’s traditions and religious beliefs. In regards to confrontation, lightfoot halflings tend to choose a defensive and less direct approach. Their tactics in combat usually resemble that of elves, but prioritizing concealing themselves more. They also don’t invest in magic as much, and when they do, they tend to favour spells that offer great mobility.

Stoutheart halflings are the halflings that live a semi-nomadic lifestyle together with other halflings, choosing themselves as company rather than living among other folk. Stoutheart halflings are usually a bit shorter and more stocky than lightfoot halflings. Contrary to the lightfoot halflings, the stouthearts prefer a more direct approach, choosing raw strength and agility over stealth and hesitation. Their tactics in combat resemble that of dwarves more than anything else. Also unlike the lightfoots, they tend to invest more into magic and the use of magical items is much more common in their communities.

Notable members

Does your species’ have any special leaders, or particular heroes that they adore or raise up?

• High priestess Tatiana Diggle of the Halfling church based in Brell. She leads the halfling priests and although there are few of them, she is known for her amazing leadership skills.

• Fulcaire Brownlock, famous among halflings for putting the halfling folk on his back and swatting through the armies of Hadar. The halfling folk still tell his stories to this day. After retiring as a soldier he became a hairdresser based in Arland. Halflings from all across Kildar travel to Arland to get a famous “Fulcaire” haircut.

• Bernard Brownlock, son of Fulcaire, is a renowned adventurer and lived up to his fathers legacy by slaying the mythical lion of the Prowlpeaks, stories of his adventures still run around through the Halfling mouth.

• Anace Lightfood, current leader of the Thieves' Guild.