Halflings

=Lifespan=

A hundred to a hundred and twenty years.

=Physical Description=

Halflings are the smallest of all the speaking peoples, as any child knows. Most halflings stand at about three feet tall and weigh thirty to thirty-five pounds. Their hair tends to be black and fine, their skin ruddy, their eyes dark. They are not very hairy, the men only able to grow sideburns to just below the ears. The old caravans of Taresani seem to have been isolated from the caravans of Kerlonna for thousands of years, however, and the halflings in Taresani are markedly different from those in Kerlonna, with red hair, blue or grey eyes, and fair skin. Their features are delicate but adult, their ears slightly pointed and angled farther backwards than those of humans. Though they have a reputation for tough feet, this is not an inherited trait: rather, in the warmer climes of Kerlonna, halflings spend as much time as they can without shoes on, leading to the development of thick calluses along the bottom of the foot. Generally, the farther south one goes, the tougher the feet of the halflings. They are wiry and fleet of foot, often with the men of a caravan spending a lazy summer afternoon racing against their Madradh dogs (widely known as among the fleetest hounds in Kerlonna) and sometimes even winning.

=Mental Description=

Halflings are puzzling to outsiders. They are filled with joy at their simplicity; yet they do not seem irked by the trappings of civilisation that other peoples possess. Among themselves they are rambunctious and free-spirited, yet among outsiders they are staid and docile. They value wealth and prosperity, yet property is communal among a caravan. They consider themselves independent from politics and, indeed, certain legal codes, yet amongst themselves Kair ni Dwennai (“knowing the trails”) is the most fundamental and important code. They are also unable to stay in one place for anything longer than a season: any longer, and they first become overly alert, easily offended, and obsessive. As time goes by they become almost impossible to bear because of their excess of energy, finally becoming completely unable to sleep. For this reason, they always must keep moving, without exception, upon the trails and roads and through the woods and plains of Kerlonna. They do not truly understand this constant nomadic desire, but simply follow it to wherever it may take them. They call it Dwennu Suinh (“trail hunger”). Kair ni Dwennai stipulates that around outsiders, the halflings must express “kairnubh,” a complex code that entails “non-familiarity.” Literally, it means “unknowing.” The halflings avoid reliance on outsiders, the Llimhagwir (“rooted”), almost the point of alienating others, because they do not wish to become overly attached to them. Halflings often tell cautionary tales of ancestors who became lovers of gnomes in the saighes, only to be heartbroken when the Dwennu Suinh drew them relentlessly away. Halflings also regard humans with alarm in terms of their “meddlesomeness”: the strong human desire to plough the land, cut down trees, and divert rivers strikes them as something akin to blasphemy, an attitude that one might expect from a people that spends much of its time traversing the wilds. Rarely, if an outsider is so privileged, he will see the halfling society as it exists without kairnubh, with all the practical jokes, sly tricks, and warm familial affection involved. The halflings are also irrepressible optimists, almost to the point of madness to the eyes of the big folk: melancholia among them is simply unknown.

=Alignment=

Halflings are ambiguous, much like humanity. They follow strict laws amongst themselves and are unflinchingly loyal to their families, yet they are highly accepting of change and indifferent towards the customs of outsiders. They are neither violent nor cruel, yet they are unconcerned if some of their numbers become thieves who prey upon outsiders. Thus, most halfling caravans can be considered True Neutral. However, the notable exceptions are the Nheawyrsen (“grass-children”), the pacifist caravans: among them, striking a blow upon “any creature that draws breath from air or water” is punished with no food for the day, and taking a life for any reason leads to lifelong exile from their caravans. The Nheawyrsen also severely disapprove of theft. They can best be described as Neutral Good.

=Relations=

Halflings have wandered the trails of Kerlonna since before humans discovered how to smelt bronze. They seem to have developed their principle of kairnubh only a few thousand years ago, and ancient human tales recount “small peoples” that often traded dogs and well-wrought wood for jewellery and food. Due to their nomadism, the halflings would simply leave areas that became violent rather than become embroiled in the strife. Among humans today, halflings frequently trade exquisitely carved woodwork in exchange for those things they cannot make on the trail: worked metal and cut gemstones especially. They travel without fear in the deep wilderness, passing through shadowed elf-woods and across the sweeping hills of the Dustplains. The elves have long been their closest friends, allowing them unlimited passage through their forests and sheltering them when human lands were troubled. Indeed, elves and halflings are so close that many halfling caravans do not even employ kairnubh when they come in contact with an elven village. The saighes welcome their merchants and often hire the young men to do simple maintenance work in the upper air tunnels, and the kindred spirits of gnomes and halflings mean that many gnomes have been able to work past the shield of kairnubh, and in some remarkable instances, gnomes have even been adopted by halfling caravans, leading to strains of gnomish blood in some caravans that regularly visit a saighe. Intense familial loyalty is native to both dwarven and halfling cultures, and the dwarves esteem the strong adherence that halflings maintain towards Kair ni Dwennai, even if the halflings are sometimes put off by the strict dwarven religious codes. Surprisingly, the fierce Duhumor of the Dustplains tolerate halfling caravans passing through their territories, and even treat the Nheawyrsen with superstitious awe. Many a baffled human observer has noted that during the Great Orc-Wars, the Duhumor, at great cost, attacked and destroyed orc raiding parties that were near a caravan of the Nheawyrsen. Due to the lack of any real contact with the Duhumor, however, we can only speculate as to why the Duhumor are so protective of those not of their own race. During their early days in Kerlonna, the kobolds of the southwest thought they could raid the halflings with ease, and that others would not be concerned. The elven reprisals decimated their numbers, and now the kobolds strictly avoid the halflings, warning them away from their dens. The orcs, of course, hate the halflings: during the Great Orc-Wars, more than half of the Nheawyrsen were destroyed, and in Taresani there are only two (or possibly three) caravans of the Grass-Children left, all in Utempe. There appear to be no significant relations between the halflings and the Nyadegtaan.

=Social Structure=

The basic structure of the halfling society is based entirely upon the nuclear family. The first degrees of loyalty that any halfling experiences are to their parents, after which come any other authority. As such, their caravans are naturally led by a democratic consensus of elders. Since a caravan rarely has more than a hundred and twenty-five halflings at most, they are easily governed by a true democracy, bound by the tenets of Kair ni Dwennai. Religion is handled by the Sarnillynur (“wind-speaker”), a woman who is a “sworn virgin” that keeps vows of chastity, shaves her head, and dresses and behaves in a masculine manner. The Sarnillynur blesses newborns, divines fates, and advises the spiritually troubled, and her voice carries a great deal of weight among the caravan. Some caravans have Sarnillynen who are so charismatic that they become the de facto leader of the entire caravan. Part of Kair ni Dwennai stipulates that every other child must leave their birth caravan and marry into another, to “keep the blood clean.” There is no hierarchy between differing caravans in temporal terms, but typical caravans are immensely respectful and courteous towards the Nheawyrsen, often giving them a great variety of gifts should they spend a season at the same site. The Nheawyrsen accept “converts” who, for love of a Nheawyrsur or for spiritual reasons, wish to take on “ni Dhrimoi Wyrsul”, “the surrender of grass” that binds them to absolute pacifism and vegetarianism for the rest of their lives. The Nheawyrsen also follow Kair ni Dwennai, but it is expanded with a subset of laws called Kair ni Wyrsai (“knowing the grass”) that covers the details of their pacifistic vows. Among the Nheawyrsen, children are raised as though they had already taken on ni Dhrimoi Wyrsul, but when they become an adult on their nineteenth birthday, they may formally choose whether they are counted among the Nheawyrsen. If they choose to be exempt from it, they are given supplies and directions to the nearest caravan, and depart without rancour or disappointment: the Nheawyrsen know how hard the burden of harmlessness is to bear in a harsh world, especially since the Orc-Wars. Halflings do not keep slaves, and the Nheawyrsen are known to guide escaped slaves to excellent hiding places in the wild. Crime and punishment are rare, and are decided upon by a gathering of the caravan, usually mediated by the Sarnillynur. If the Sarnillynur is the party either wronged or on trial, the gathering must include a second caravan, mediated by a differing Sarnillynur. There is some specialization in a halfling caravan: some are expert leatherworkers, others are skilled carpenters, yet others are handlers of the Madradh. However, most have a diversity of skills, as the population is not large enough to support high degrees of specialization. If a halfling is imprisoned for a crime by human or dwarven authorities, the reaction will vary: the Nheawyrsen will stay and follow the normal legal procedures unless they find the situation deeply unjust, in which case they will peacefully and secretively break the unfortunate free and flee the area. The Nheadwennen, however, will almost always just break the imprisoned halfling free, guilty or not, and have no qualms about roughing up or even killing guards that seem cruel or violent. Education is managed by the family, with no organised system behind it.

=Culture=

Halfling culture, curiously, is as open to new ideas, art forms, and instruments as that of humans, yet its basic structure is remarkably tenacious, having endured in its present form for at least the last three thousand years. Native to halfling music is a rich variety of woodwinds present in no other culture in Kerlonna, including instruments with two reeds at the entrance, apparently carried by the southern halflings when they entered Kerlonna from the White Thirst millennia ago. Halfling art is bright and colourful, reflecting the irrepressible joy and optimism which lies just beneath their emotional surface of kairnubh. For example, their tents are painted with intricate floral patterns, different sequences of patterns indicating different caravans. During festivals, they use a type of paint upon the Madradh dogs, creating abstract, pale patterns along the dog’s back and forelegs. They are outstanding carvers and carpenters, and each halfling wears an identifying pendant called a paemh. The paemh is carved from hardwood in an elongated teardrop shaped, with a hole drilled at the top through which a simple rope is threaded. After being carved, it is heavily lacquered, which greatly delays any form of decay. Before lacquering, the paemh is carefully carved with signs that mark caravan and family, such that if a halfling should ever move to a differing caravan, they will carry with them a tangible reminder of their origins. More soberly, sometimes long-dead halfling bodies are identified by their paemh. Halfling food is hunted and gathered, except for the occasional bread, beef, and orchard fruits which they purchase at a human settlement, or the more exotic subterranean cuisine to be had at a saighe. A substantial portion of the food they purchase at a human town is not for themselves, however, but for the Madradh. Excess meat from a hunt or meat purchased at the town is dried and carefully cured with certain herbs, such that although the Madradh might prefer raw meat, this jerky (shinaier) is happily consumed by the animals. The Madradh themselves occupy a vital role in halfling culture. No hoofed creature suffices for halfling purposes: even a runty donkey is too large for them to ride. The Madradh, however, possess the perfect size, being large, athletic hounds weighing around one hundred and forty to one hundred and sixty pounds. The Madradh are considered family members and are given names. Indeed, during the Great Orc-Wars, some among the halflings trained their Madradh for battle and paid for specially-fitted armour to protect the heads and chest of their steeds. In temperament the Madradh are good-humoured and patient, slow to anger and quick to sleep. However, should a halfling with which they are familiar be threatened, they become terrifyingly violent, known to leap at attacking men and rip out the throat. They vary widely in coloration and hair texture, as the halflings do not breed for such traits: they breed for health, speed, and intelligence. Often, if the parents must leave their children, they will leave the child by a Madradh, which will vigilantly protect the child for days, if necessary. Some Madradh are not specifically ridden by the halflings, but carry the necessary gear for the caravan: folded tents, preserved food, and tools, most often. For centuries, the halflings have flatly refused to even discuss the trade of Madradh with other races: they treasure the dogs beyond any offers of money or riches. If they make a gift of a Madradh to an outsider (always a sterile male), they are marking that outsider as, spiritually, a halfling himself: it is the highest honour they can bestow on any non-halfling, beyond any celebration or title.

=Location=

A camp of the Nheadwennen is made up of tents pitched in circles about campfires. They will search for a glade or meadow in which to rest earlier in the day, with lightly burdened Madradh-riders ranging far ahead of the main body of the caravan. When upon the trails, they do not confine themselves to the roads, but often range deep into the wilderness, where humans cannot easily follow. It is rumoured that there are halfling caravans within the wild reaches of the Heiśêglu and Àŋerwoî Forests who have never even seen the world beyond. Halfling caravans keep to a cycle, returning to similar landmarks every few years, or perhaps as often as each of a particular season. If a caravan should come by a human town, they will settle in a nearby field which they have permission to rest in, rather than enter the town itself. They loathe going by water and are not watermen: even during the great migrations in millennia past, when halfling tribes came in their thousands from the White Thirst, none dared the crossing of the sea between Kerlonna and Taresani. Often halflings on a boat or ship of any sort must fight a great, overwhelming seasickness and fear of the waters. It does not, however, seem to be similar to the terror of the sky that dwarves experience: if a halfling spends enough time upon the water, he will come to tolerate it, and perhaps even love it. Their tents are well-wrought of thick fabric, which they will pay a wizard to enchant for impermeability once they have finished painting it. Within a tent, the family sleeps in a circle around an easily transported low wooden table, the parents on slightly higher cushioning than the children. At night, a guard is set about the camp by the Madradh, who can smell any intruder, particularly one who might be invisible. When a gathering is needed, a space is cleared where the elders will be slightly elevated above the community, less as a symbol of authority and more to cast the voices of aging halflings across a greater distance. When setting up camp for a full season, the halflings will dig trenches around the camp to construct a palisade, and organise the camp so that there are avenues between the different clusters of tents.

=Religion=

The halflings wander without cease across a world of unbelievable vastness compared to their slight form. Though they have many myths, they do not worship gods. Not that they are ravening egoists, as the orcs are. Rather, they feel that the gods are “too settled” for them. A god who is confined to one place, far from the world? How dull! Instead, they revere nature spirits of rock and tree, as the elves do, as well as something greater that they call Banni. The word is complex and difficult to translate, but it is best rendered as “breath.” The halflings see the world as one of breath, of balancing opposites between inhalation and exhalation: life cannot exist without both working in harmony. Breath filters throughout the entire body, experiencing each corner of the form before escaping once more, to rejoin with the immeasurable expansiveness of the winds. They see a virtuous life as one that expresses Banni: un-self-consciously spreading about, seeing the world from all possible angles and positions, as a natural force. Banni is not precisely a philosophical ideal as humans would understand it, for it is not a position. It is the union of all positions. Halflings see words as a “binding” of breath: necessary, perhaps, for daily life, but spiritually inexpressive. One can see this in their holy Kayudwennen, the Hymn-of-Trails: all halflings know it, and recite it as they set out upon the trail. It is a wordless song, and strange to human ears for its long pauses, for the halflings consider not merely the exhalation of the singing to be important, but the soft rush of the inhalation as well. The Nheawyrsen are considered the most “learned in Banni” of the halflings, and a Nheadwennur regards a Nheawyrsur as his spiritual mentor and superior. Ni Dhrimoi Wyrsul entails “becoming like the grass in the wind.” The Nheawyrsen do not consider themselves as Banni, but rather those affected by Banni. They consider the highest virtue to be “as the grass, which is shaken and bent by the direst wind, only to gently return again from the earth.” Their pacifism is not the centre of their beliefs, but rather the expression of this deeper belief of “being shaken by the wind”. Some philosophers have criticised ni Dhrimoi Wyrsul as a teaching of indolence, but this is not the case. Rather, the Surrender of Grass is an active force for the Nheawyrsen, the power and endurance that roots the grass in the soil and allows it to resurrect itself, even when devoured by fire. There is a sharp difference between passivity and indifference, as the Nheawyrsen see it. Anyone can be indifferent, but true passivity takes much strength and self-mastery, for it entails a great deal of suffering, at least at first. The halflings also see a virtue in “ni Surdai Kairnubhul”, the mind of unknowing. Ni Surdai Kairnubhul is not the same as mere ignorance or stupidity, but is rather a clear, radiant state of awareness without concepts, judgements, or personality. They consider it the primordial mind, or “the Contemplations of Banni.” Ni Surdai Kairnubhul is glimpsed often in states of deep peace and absorption, but truly apprehending it is a rare thing indeed. One who apprehends ni Surdai Kairnubhul is called a sathugwir, “blessed one.” The sathugwen are very few in number, with no specific teachings to each of them: arriving at the non-attainment of ni Surdai Kairnubhul is so rare, and so holy, that the sathugwen almost never meet one another. Why would they? In the mind of unknowing, one need not say anything to another who has embraced it as well. Most of the sathugwen are found among the Nheawyrsen. The Sarnillynur is typically one “practicing for the understanding of ni Surdai Kairnubhul.” Birth and death ceremonies are overseen by the Sarnillynur, who whispers secret sayings of love, reconciliation, and wisdom to the newborn or corpse. Weddings are typically done less formally, in a particularly sacred location in a forest or by a body of water, and the new spouses will spend some time invoking the favour of benevolent local spirits.

=Language= There are two levels of language in the society of the Nheadwennen. The primary level, or “wind-tongue,” is the vastly diverse panoply of languages spoken across the breadth of Kerlonna by the different caravans. The secondary level, or “ground-tongue,” is the ancient language of religious ritual, poetry, and inter-caravan communication. The wind-tongues are so diverse that a halfling from Ishkula would not merely find the language of an Idroslekhi halfling queer, he would find it utterly foreign. There are four major language families in Kerlonna, three originating with the southern halflings who came from the White Thirst, and one spoken by the pale halflings of Taresani (compare to the diversity of dialects found between the Janhlira and Marnic languages, which belong to one language family). A single halfling wind-tongue can even vary noticeably between caravans, which often develop their own specific vocabulary. All halflings also speak the ground-tongue, Danrethui, which seems to be unrelated to any of the wind-tongues. The halflings believe that Danrethui is the first language of their race from which all others evolved over the millennia. The ground-tongue, astonishingly, retains identical pronunciation from Idroslekh to Taresani, and a few scattered reports testify that the halflings of the Dahlimi Steppes also speak Danrethui so perfectly that Kerlonnic halflings experience no trouble communicating with steppe-halflings. The terms used here are all derived from Danrethui, which the Nheadwennen do not object to teaching outsiders. The halflings are nearly all illiterate, and those that aren’t usually are only literate in the elven script. The languages of halflings that venture near the saighes are often coloured by the gnomish language, and similarly with those near elven forests and Ghiñêsraf. Elves and gnomes tend to be able to convince the Nheadwennen to drop the barrier of kairnubh, on occasion. However, the halflings lack such familiarity with humans, and thus tend not to have a similar linguistic exchange with the human peoples of Kerlonna.

=Classes=

Barbarians are rare among most of the Nheadwennen and unheard of among the Nheawyrsen. However, some of the halfling caravans in northern Paakirjä, along the borders of Hentölla, have become grim over the years of interminable war against the orcs, and the warriors of their number use a wild rage like that of their enemies when defending their caravans. Bards are common enough, both singing in their respective wind-tongue and reciting poetry in the ground-tongue. Many deeply admire elven music and become students to the elven qùšña. Clerics are comprised purely of the Sarnillynen, and it is unusual that they should become adventurers. If they do, it is often out of a deeply private religious sense of mission, and enough to cause significant controversy within the local caravans. Druids are as rare as they are among humans, for few halflings are willing to break the close bonds of their familial life. Those that do become druids are deeply respected by the caravans, and perhaps objects of veneration. Fighters were unusual among the halflings until the Great Orc-Wars, whereupon the Nheadwennen relearned the art of war to protect themselves against the orcish onslaught. Now they are fairly common among most caravans, and extremely common in those caravans that range near orcish territory in the north. Paladins are uncommon because the Lawful bent of the paladin is somewhat conflicting with the basic urge of ni Dwennu Suinh. In addition, the halflings do not revere the paladins as human cultures often do. Rangers are those halflings that range far ahead of the caravan, tracing the trails of game and checking to see if any hostile creatures wander nearby. They are the most often seen as adventurers, for they are typically of a Chaotic bent and do not feel as beholden to their families as other halflings may. Rogues are exceedingly common, for the halflings are a slight, subtle people that easily go unnoticed, which is to their own benefit. They do not object to lightening the purses of non-halflings if the money can be used to help their people, and they smile upon wit and cleverness. Warlocks are rare and feared by the halflings, for their corruption often drives them to act fiercely upon the world, in defiance of Banni. Warlords are those that lead the caravans in times of struggle, often warriors whose charisma is strong enough even to pierce the boundaries of kairnubh towards non-halflings. Wizards are extraordinarily rare among the halflings, as ni Dwennu Suinh too often draws them away, preventing their ability to devote much time to arcane study.