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Recent History
Halflings are a quick-witted, resourceful and humble bunch, inquisitive, often courageous and far tougher than one would expect. They have largely remained out of the limelight, slowly spreading out across the world's more populated areas to live lives of comfort and peace. 
 
General Description
Halflings are short stocky humanoids with brownish hair and hazel eyes; older males also often have beards, though Halflings can never grow them to more than an couple of inches in length at the very most. Their hair is generally worn short on the males, though females do tend to prefer long hair. Their most defining traits are their limbs though. Unlike Dwarves, which have noticeably short legs in proportion to their body size, Halflings have legs that are in proportion with everything else, but have slightly oversized feet with thick curly hair covering the tops and thick calloused soles. 
 
Language
The traditional Halfling language of Luiric is rarely spoken anymore, having been largely supplanted by Common even in the Halflings’ native lands. Those few that still can speak what the Halflings usually refer to as “the Old Tongue” often have little practical use for it unless they want to go around reading ancient Halfling books, which considering how little life in the Shires has changed over the years is largely pointless. 
 
Culture
Halflings within the Shires live a peaceful, bucolic life of fishing, farming, hunting and snaring and generally living in contentment. The Troll Empire also has large populations of Halflings scattered across it, as do Bēti and Ja’Pa, where they generally live fruitful and highly social existences. 
The values of the Halflings do not really change in between them though. Be kind, be courageous, be friendly, be humble. That being said, not all of them are this moral and the Thieves Guild and various assassin guilds have a good number of Halflings amongst their ranks, where their small size very much comes in handy. Family is hugely important to them as a race, and as such Halfling families are usually greatly extended. Even Halflings living as far afield as Ska'Kil will be in frequent contact with some relative or other back in the Shires. Halfling society is monogamous and they are particularly fond of certain activities which result in a large number of children (though families where one parent is of another race tend to have less for various reasons.) Like other Blood of Leànnan races they love good food, good alcohol and good company, and this combined with their naturally helpful nature often leads them to working in bars and breweries outside of the Shires, though they are willing to do any job they are able to. 
Their inquisitive nature can also result in wanderlust and a wish to see the world, which is why some of them decide to become adventurers, explorers and the like. Most however merely wish to live a peaceful, homely life, but are far from afraid to defend themselves or their families and friends if they have to. 
 
Seeing The Best
Halflings, being the amicable, humble race they are, can be overly trusting and over-optimistic. This can be unhelpful or even harmful as they will automatically see the best in everyone and jump first to trying to talk their way out of a confrontation, even if it’s obvious that it isn’t going to work.
 
Home Sweet Home
Lacking territorial ambitions like any of the surrounding races, coupled with the Halfling Shires’ political neutrality, has meant that the Halflings’ ancestral villages have largely been left alone, with the only major changes being the occasional migrant, which isn't really a bother to the Halflings thanks to their naturally hospitable nature, assuming the newcomer doesn't cause trouble and pulls their weight for the community. Halfling villages are often quaint and serene, a small clump of cottages, hovels and sometimes houseboats which traditionally the entire village helps to build, usually around a square with a sign, a pub and a small church or Leànnite shrine. 
 
Lucky
Halflings are famous for being quite a fortunate race. Whether by coincidence, timing, logic or just sheer force of personality, they as a race seem to have a knack for getting themselves and their friends out of tricky situations. This doesn't always work obviously, but the seemingly higher likelihood that it could turn out well for them in the long run is enough for a lot of these plucky little people to go ahead with actions they wouldn’t otherwise.
 
Connoisseurs
One of the most famous traits of the Halfling people is their love and admiration of fine cooking. As such, one of the most hallowed groups within the Halfling people and Oerth's cooking community as a whole is the Order of the Gourmet, a group of retired Halfling adventurers and heroes whose membership are entitled to free meals at any public eating establishment they find themselves at. As such, their members are widely regarded as Oerth's most respected connoisseurs and food critics, which is what many of the Order have as their post-adventuring careers. To be given their blessing is considered the highest honour in innkeeping. However it should be noted that they are still retired adventurers and, on top of that, Knights, so they are powerful warriors in their own right and not to be trifled with. 

Character Creation Stat Block

+2 Cha, +1 Dex, -1 Wis, -2 Str

Default Languages: Common, Elven, Liuric (optional) 

Small: +1 AC, -4 to Special Attacks, +4 to Hide, x½ Carrying Capacity

Brave: You have advantage on saving throws against being frightened.

Lucky: When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, reroll the die and use the second result.

Nimble: You can move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours.

Naturally Stealthy: You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

Stout Resilience: You gave resistance to Poison damage, as well as advantage on saves against being poisoned.

Natural Diplomat: You have advantage on all Cha rolls to attempt to avoid a combat encounter.

Food Expert: You have advantage when making rolls to forage for food.