Halfling

Halflings are the smallest race, about half the size of Humans, and like Humans may be rather slim or prone to too much relaxation. They generally have fair to ruddy skin and eyes and hair in a variety of browns with pointed ears. Typically their hair is held in a topknot which is a source of pride.

Traditionally Halflings tend to keep to themselves but do not go out of their way to avoid the other races. They just seem to have placed themselves where Humans, Dwarves and Elves don’t go or don’t care to be.

Halflings usually live in “holes” in hilly spots or low houses in light woods. When they want to, or the need arises, Halflings are a fairly quick and spry race.

Halflings are intensely curious, rambling and speaking very quickly when excited. They are masters at the art of insulting people.

Race Overview #

Sub-races #

Player characters who pick to play a halfling is considered a ‘common’ halfling. There are three sub-races:

• Common [all PCs are of this sub-race]
• Broken Halflings
• Wastelander Halflings

Common

Common halflings are the original halfling race.

Typically standing around three feet in height, common halflings are the smallest of the four humanoid races and are sometimes mistaken for human or elven children at a distance. Halflings have fair to ruddy skin, as well as black, brown, or red hair. Males tend to wear their hair short, and seldom bear facial hair, whilst females usually opt for longer hairstyles. Many halflings go unshod, and most of the rest tend to wear open-toed sandals unless the work dictates stronger footwear.

History teaches that while halflings were created by Icesi to work the fields and help supply the foodstuffs required by a growing world, such a destiny bored the majority of the race and they eventually turned to tinkering and technology. Today, while many common halflings do own or otherwise manage their own farms, many also prefer to dwell within smaller settlements and invent gadgets that help make life easier or more intriguing. Common halflings are typically polite and good-tempered, dexterous and hard-working, equally adept with a scythe as a small toolset, and they dominate the country of Beren, their presumed homeland.

Broken

While most halflings are honest and apply their great dexterity and creative minds toward gardening or gadgets, there is a splinter sub-race that long ago chose a darker path, and has mastered the arts of thievery, deception and assassination. These “broken” halflings are nearly perfect in body and mind, but their souls have been corrupted and they can only behave in the most selfish of ways. Broken halflings lead very secret lives, either masquerading as common halflings (and fooling those around them) or living in the shadows where they can go unnoticed for years. Because of their utter self-centeredness, broken halflings can’t dwell amongst others of their own kind (even in marriage), and so are virtually never encountered in numbers.

Wastelander

One of the more recent sub-races to inhabit Arcadia, these hardy and especially hard-working halflings immigrated to the territory of Athronion shortly after it was obliterated by the armies of Icesi and Ilkor nearly five centuries ago. At that time, the lands were rendered nearly sterile after several cataclysmic battles, and the colonizing halflings attempted the impossible by trying to restore the lands back to health. Several generations later, the halflings did manage to return vegetation to the countryside, but at a physical cost—the poisoned soil genetically altered the immigrants and slowly transformed them into wastelanders. Today, the sub-race appears smaller and more muscular than their common halfling cousins, and most bear large scars from dozens of spontaneous wounds that afflict the sub-race at various times throughout their lives. Despite the affliction, most wastelanders are proud of their heritage and consider their physical condition a small price to pay for having restored the lands of Athronion back to health.

Bloodlines #

The ancestry bloodlines of halflings are known as Folknames.

There are 5 different folknames throughout the lands of Arcadia:

• Folkname Underpetal
• Folkname Hempfoot
• Folkname Fallohide
• Folkname Proudfoot
• Folkname Brandytoes

Folkname Underpetal

Born of the chaos and deception that was the reign of Ilkor, the Underpetals are descendants of those halflings that chose the path of sin and darkness. Skilled thieves and assassins, the Underpetals were ultimately defeated and forced into hiding along with all of Ilkor’s other minions, and have been on the defensive ever since. While members of the Underpetals generally remain secret and shunned, individuals remain powerful and are often the cause of local rebellion and dissent. Interestingly enough, virtually all members of the Underpetals feel an intense competition with one another, and after adolescence go on to lead solitary lives, even in marriage.

Folkname Hempfoot

Descendants of the Hempfoots are easily the oldest of the halfling folknames, their lineage going back thousands and thousands of years. Those born into the Hempfoots are inherent farmers, able to grow just about anything in any location and bred to work long hours in the fields to feed the growing populations of Arcadia. Members of the Hempfoots are always jovial and good-natured, able to make friends with just about anyone and often sought for their encouragement and wisdom. Because of their close ties to the earth and knowledge of foodstuffs, Hempfoot individuals can nearly always derive sustenance in any location and stave off starvation even in the leanest of times.

Folkname Fallohide

A relatively new splinter bloodline of the Hempfoots, the halflings of Fallohide can almost be considered martyrs, having willingly sacrificed their physical health over the centuries in return for an almost magical ability to restore the earth and grow things in places considered sterile. Unfortunately for these halflings, descendants are being born with more and more ailments, some of whom appear horribly burned or disfigured over time (and with such physical ugliness comes intolerance and mistrust by those who misunderstand). Despite such discrimination, it is said that a hero of the Fallohides will one day be born with the ability to heal with a touch and even return the halfling race to immortality.

Folkname Proudfoot

Long before the coming Ilkor and the near destruction of Arcadia, a bloodline of halflings grew bored with their farming existence and turned their attention to tinkering, developing small but convenient gadgets that occupied the mind or made life easier in some way. Over the centuries, members of the Proudfoots gave up on agriculture altogether and migrated to various settlements, where they opened their own businesses to sell, repair and otherwise distribute their small wonders of technology. Those of the Proudfoots are very proud of their abilities and heritage, and are often trying to out-compete one another (although such halflings always remain respectful of one another as well). Halflings of the Proudfoots are especially good in the repair and upkeep of armor, and can keep simple armors from deteriorating almost indefinitely.

Folkname Brandytoes

While many halflings are farmers and others are tinkerers, those of the Brandytoes are gypsies and wanderers, incapable of settling down for extended periods and obsessed with seeing (and documenting) as much of Arcadia as possible. Such halflings enjoy a reputation for their general knowledge and information, and members of the Brandytoes are found in many taverns, courts and places of higher learning throughout the world (although, again, they never remain long within a single location). Strangely, as many Brandytoes halflings near the end of their lives, they tend to shy away from sharing their knowledge, preferring instead to be buried with their extensive journals. Hence, tombs of the Brandytoes often contain lost information and lore, loot more precious than any physical treasure.

Naming Conventions #

Similar to humans, halflings also have a firstname and a lastname.

Halflings love simple and short firstnames while their lastnames are often two words strung together, often linked to the land and nature, last names such as ‘Hilltopple’, ‘Goodbarrel’, ‘Millbridge’ and ‘Weatherbee’.

Halfling names are given to them by their parents. At the point of marriage the female halfling takes on the last name of her husband.

Shown below are the various structures to a halfling name:

• Short Name: Bill
• Long Name: Bill Hilltopple
• Full Name: Bill Hilltopple of Underpetal

Example Names #

Male Names	Female Names
Andwise	Angelica
Bill	Belladonna
Bungo	Carissa
Drogo	Daisy
Dudo	Gilly
Fosco	Hilda
Hob	Merla
Peregrin	Primula

Symbol #