Why Most Halflings Are Homebodies (CBGH)

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Almost all halflings suffer to some degree from feelings which resembles the condition humans call agoraphobia—a fear of unknown or open places. It's not that halflings are literally afraid, merely that they become very uncomfortable whenever they're too far away from their villages and burrows or in unfamiliar places. Whether this is one of Yondalla's 'gifts,' designed to keep them close to home and hearth, or a holdover from the Bad Old Days when enemies lurked behind every tree and bush, none can say. But it has been observed that the symptoms increase with age—halfling children freely range far and wide, while the very old rarely step outside their burrows. Not that the halflings see this as a bad thing: to them, it's simply the way things are and ought to be—youth is the time to gadabout, age the time for rest and reflection.