Halfling: Difference between revisions

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 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 [[Hacart|the stinkiest food]].

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 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.