Halfling

Halflings are small humanoids who are nomadic and family-centered wanderers found throughout the Mainland. They are almost always gregarious and good-natured, though mercurial. They are quick to laugh, to anger, and to forgive. Though they once possessed a homeland and language, both were lost during the Ubrekti Empire. Since that time, the Halflings have lived as wanderers and over-land and river-boat tradesmen with no unifying political organization or permanent settlements but have still spread all the way across the Mainland.

Halflings are not "integrated" into human society in the traditional sense, but are allowed to exist there with relative autonomy under the Concord of the Highways, which allows them free passage, grazing lands, and taxation exemption in exchange for neutrality and non-currency tributes. Both sides, more or less, have lived up to the Concord, and there is minimal animosity between the groups in the modern day, but occasional disputes about land ownership, taxation, or travel rights can occur. In the event of disputes Halflings show their stubbornness and solidarity. A Gold Hand work stoppage request can shut down ports or border crossings. A full Hand request can amount to something closer to a siege.

Halflings are of no Nation, but exist in every Nation and can be found in every major settlement and along every road and waterway larger than a scratch on a map all the way down past the end of civilization to the far South. More so than any of the Human Nations, Halflings still revere Druids with a large plurality of the population practicing a mix of both traditional druid as well as Alexandrian holidays and rituals.

Tribes

Halflings often organize and travel in bands consisting of 1-2 families up to sprawling bands made up of several dozen families. Halflings are rarely seen alone and many work alongside siblings or cousins their entire lives. Frequent festival and Hearthwarmings provide opportunities for individuals to marry or move to different bands and for new bands to be formed and many Halflings will shift between different family groups several times over the course of their lives. Tribal affiliation is based on primary mode of travel and employment and not directly tied to bloodlines. All tribes frequently interact though tend to stay apart in camps while traveling or even among cities like Wydmoor which has large Halfling population. Children born from cross-tribal relationships are common and usually adopt the tribal affiliation of the group they spent the most time with as a child.

Boat Tribes

Boat bands tend to be smaller in size, and make their living as fishers, barge captains, and ferry operators along on the rivers, canals, lakes, and sometimes even on the coast. They are comparatively settled: seasonally migrating ferries or running regular cargo delivery routes up and down the mainland's interior waterways, or among some of the most settled, running inns or taverns. They are renowned brewers and ropemakers and some Halfling hemp is also grown and sold for medicinal and intoxicating purposes. They also make the the stinkiest food.

Road Tribes

Road bands are frequently larger and at their largest can become essentially a roving small village with teams of dog outriders and scouts covering miles-long areas and herders moving hundreds of livestock along with cart loads of merchants and crafters. They are allowed to maintain herds of grazing livestock under the Concord of the Highways, and often set up exotic goods bazaars outside major cities. Some bands simply go the direction the wind takes them, some spend years on long trade circuits, some just maintain small and fast dog-rider groups able to run across nations at high speed at little notice. Some White Hand Road groups (and probably more than a few less scrupulous groups) also operate traveling revivals, faith healers, and religious festival pageants either within larger traveling bands or in small religious groups.

Ghost Tribes

Ghost bands are less a coherent subgroup and more a motley collection of outcasts and weirdos (which, for Halflings, is a high bar). They're known for liking cats more than dogs and generally otherwise being completely incomprehensible. Many groups were formed from refugee bands that originated during the Calamity though some clans claim older formation or outlandish ancestry such as being descended from barbarians the far Ulan or bands that wandered the Scar for untold years. They are extremely loyal to their family and clan, and are willing to do whatever it takes to protect them and are more prone to dig in and defend territory rather than simply relocate like the other tribes.

Hands

The Hand are an ancient set of cross-tribal groups that are tremendously important in Halfling culture and society. Five of the six Hands date back to the breaking of the Wolfen-Khan and the assimilation of the Halflings. According to their own lore, the Hand are the descendants of the Halfling nobility of old, but most non-Hand Halflings greet such claims with extreme skepticism. These societies transcended the old blood and clan lines and helped bring cultural unity to the scattered Halfling bands. Membership in these societies is very selective: perhaps one in ten halflings belong to a Hand. It is also a great honor and members of a Hand are usually respected members of a tribes' leadership. Each Hand has their own criteria and processes for selecting new members.

• Blue Hand - known as thriving grey marketeers and smugglers who often settle in conflict zones and assume control of abandoned infrastructure.
• Green Hand - abandon both road and boat and retreat into isolated wilderness settlements and migratory druid raves. The druid circles of the Green Hand are the other major spiritual leadership of the Halflings along with the Alexandrian faith of the White Hand. The callers of Dogmoots.
• Red Hand - dog riders and harriers and ship captains.
• Gold Hand - the diplomats and long term-planners who keep everyone moving on time. The planners of Carnival circuits and trade routes that may take years to fully circuit. Officially the group in charge of paying the tribute for all halflings under the Concord and keeping all the Nations in compliance.
• White Hand - Halflings dedicated to the Alexandrian Church. While the other Hands have existed since the pre-Ubrekti times, the White Hand only came into existence after the formation of the Church. In the time of the Demi-Pantheon clerics were members of all Hands. Alexandria's Corollary (though actually authored by Steros Merroand in FI times) allowed halflings to take positions in the church without abandoning their tribal affiliations. Not all Halfling clerics are members of White Hand and some members of the White Hand are not clerics but serve the Church in other ways.
• Black Hand - The Black Hand do not operate openly, and are not even spoken of openly by the superstitious. They are said to be a tribe of poisoners, infiltrators, and assassins who act as intelligence network-slash-vigilante assassin guild that lives embedded among the five Hand tribes.

Smaller subgroups such as the Indigo Hand exist just to work the connections between the larger Hands and short-term working groups made of various Hand and local tribal leaders are common, especially in the planning of large festivals and hearthwarmings

Rule Information

5E: There is no halfling language. Instead, halflings may choose one bonus human, demihuman, or monster language. They also receive the standard language of their origin, but few halflings would ever consider themselves a real citizen of any country. Available sub-races are Boat Halflings who tend to be more sedentary and stick to the rivers, canals, and lakes or the Road Halflings who tend to be more nomadic and constantly traveling along the roads and trails between settlements or the peculiar Ghost Halflings.

(Ability scores may be changed per "Customizing Your Origin" from TCE)

• Boat Halfling Stats:
  • +1 Constitution
  • You have advantage on all checks made to swim and to hold your breath.

• Road Halfling Stats: (As PHB Lightfoot)

• Ghost Halfling (As SCAG Ghostwise): may require prior GM approval

Halflings of Note

• Edi - first Hadriarch of New Wydmoor, former adventurer.
• Ratnot Hand - Former Arch-Warden
• Little Dagger - Leader of the Blue Hand in the Bandit Kingdom
• The Rinderherder family