Halfling

Halflings are a short hume kin about half the height of humans, thus often confused with human children. They have higher body fat ratios and are characterized by their large, furry feet and squarish pointed ears. Other races also remark on the redness of their cheeks regardless of their skin color. Due to the toughness of their feet, they do not wear shoes. Their feet are padded to allow silent treading and they are quite skilled at moving undetected otherwise. They also have an earth sense, connecting to the soil and plants through their feet on the ground. Were a halfling to wear shoes, they would sacrifice their prowling advantage and break their earth connection.
Halflings have fast metabolisms, despite their typical portliness, and eat six meals a day: breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, dinner, wirt / afternoon bread, supper. As a result, they are fond of cooking and reputed for being quite good at it.
Life span is 90 on average, but 100 is rather common. The oldest halflings get to about 130. Halflings reach sexual maturity at 33 and marry much in the fashion of their human neighbors.
==Appearance==
Halfling.png
==Warfare==
Due to their diminuative size, halflings avoid open combat with larger sapient creatures at all costs (and don't take to hunting large game and monsters like humes do). They instead hit and run, ambush, and assassinate. They employ espionage, intrigue, and outthinking their opponent rather than taking them on head-to-head. They are profoundly versed in backstabbing and sneaking up on their enemies (albeit without the machiavellian maneuverings humans excel at). Overall they are much more content and less warlike than their human or dwarvish cousins, affecting situations pressing on their humble society behind the scenes and with a polite smile in broad daylight, on the open road. The merchant caravans that travel across Odenna are skilled at disappearing from the road before you meet them. Occaisionally a caravan will not have the time to get their wagons off the road and under the cover of brush, so the traveler will find an abandoned wagon dangling with amulets and warning symbols. But if they so much as reach for the goods, the halflings will be at their crossbows or on the passerby's back with the fury of a cornered animal. "Abandoned" halfling wagons are regarded with such caution that even those long left behind are left packed with their treasures, in fear the little people are still waiting for their vengence (and indeed their ghosts may be).
When they have to fight those larger than them, halflings use (what are to them) swords, glaives for swinging back and forth, and maces for smashing greaves. They wear helmets with extra padding because their heads are such an easy target (boppin hobs is in fact a term used by Gretch men-at-arms). In addition to coats of mail, halflings always cover themselves with shields and are quick to deflect and parry, not just block. Much as the deft peasant with a quarterstaff can fend off the knight, a halfling not unacquianted with a tussle can move a giant's weapon one direction and themselves the other well enough to survive the fight.
Halflings will swarm and ambush in groups to outnumber their targets, utilizing their extensive family relationships to muster forces for a surprise sortie. The most ambitious of them also leverage their wealth and merchent status to employee larger people to whomp their oppnents for them. The halfling of any standing who convinces a giant to act on his behalf will terrorize the whole countryside and have every last hob under their thumb.
==Behavior==
Halflings stick together closely with their kin, building households out of extensive family and social relationships. Their strength for survival is in numbers. When traveling as merchants they make their way in caravans, bringing with them more people than, say, a human merchant would. Yet each of the traveling members finds a way to contribute and earn money and supplies for the group. Living in large families, halflings tend to be inclined to be more free an open with their neighbors and companions, which can be perceived as rude or intrusive.
In a synthesis of their cultural strength for cooking and their need to be indirect in defending themselves, halflings have developed a robust culture of alchemy, particularly in the mixing of poisons. They are sought after as either cooks, alchemists, or both, though the may lack the latest in technical developments. In their collecting of mathom they have learned much local lore not seen as important by many elves and know the particularities of the items they gather.
==History==
Being exquisite at untiringly working the ground and coaxing it to yield plentifully, halflings are employeed, enfiefed, or enslaved all across northern Odenna for agricultural work. Though they may take frequent rests, especially for their six daily meals, halflings thoroughly enjoy the earth they work so much that they do not go weary of it, these breaks provided. They work sun up to sun down every day of the week, except to stop for week-long feasts, most of which happen when there is not work in the fields to be had. A halfling might even be found working his garden by latern light if the sun's gone down and there is more he desires from the ground.
==Sources==
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zu606nnV2mENbp9o306FsKjILD_chngnAMZzj5Ws3Sw/edit
Category:Gretchland
Category:Odenna
Category:Tanus
Category:Plant
Category:Kins