【Halflings】

These diminuitive, soft-stepped folk were once, in times longer than any other race has records the most populous of the demi-humans, even outnumbering humans themselves. Skilled with their hands, halflings vary between being a welcome and valuable addition to a settlement at best, and untrustworthy heisters with a knack for skipping town just before their activities are figured out. It all depends on if their trade is plied with knife and pan or dagger and lockpick. Given their rarity, rumors and stereotypes abound - they don't wear shoes, they eat three, five, or even ten times what a human would before lunch, they live in holes, they are lazy, they are all portly, they are all as delicate as elves. None of it is true, for halflings are nearly as varied in appearance and mannerisms as humans.

Nearly. For the few traits halflings do have in common include their size, their dexterity, their shrewd business sense, and their religion. No dwarf will accept it, and no halfling will brag of it, but there have been more finely-crafted objects d'art, jewelry, woodworks and masterwork arms and armor made by halflings in the past fifty years than by dwarves in the past two centuries. Halfling cooking is legendary, with nobles getting into bidding wars and talent-poaching halfling chefs from each other. Halfling crime is primarily individual - burglaries, muggings, and so on. As any civilized people, criminals are detested.

And yet, two specific crimes are absolutely forbidden by The Painted Maiden, their deity.

The Maiden specifies two commandments that shall be broken by no halfling:

My people shall not hold onto coin of gold, silver, or platinum which exeeds the weight of three oxen for longer than two years.

My people shall not conspire together in groups more than five to pillage riches, magic, or land.

These are referred to as The Two Troubles.

NPC Halflings will absolutely refuse to join or do business with any party that contains five or more other halflings. They will look upon groups of three or four halflings with suspicion, unless they happen to be a pair of married couples - and even then, they will often offer warnings. Halflings nearly always take different professions from their spouses, or will form separate, honestly competing businesses. Many halfling couples would appear to be dysfunctional to other races, given how belligerent they can be to each other - but this is simply a cultural adaptation to avoid running afoul of The Two Troubles. They do not act peculiarly in combat, beyond the fact that halflings, due to their stature, are rarely trained in the fighting arts and refuse to act as soldiers or militiamen.

Player Character halflings are still restricted by The Two Troubles, but these limits should not come up in regular play with any frequency. Halfling adventurers are typically struck by wanderlust outstripping a desire for comfort, a the curiosity and enjoyment of thrills and big scores more than a reliable way to purchase luxury. And in many cases (though, not always!) a desire to be "a benevolent thief", plundering lost ruins and the hoards of monsters and rapscallions, rather than a notorious one causing havoc among populations. A good number are also highly pious, wishing to spread The Maiden's grace.

And a small number are sworn paladins of The Maiden, wearing war paint on their faces as a mark of their service to Her, their duty being to quest for glory, protect the innocent, donate to the needy, and eliminate the sinful Gnomes wherever they lurk.

【Gnomes】

Those halflings that gave into the temptation of The Two Troubles start to rapidly degenerate - both physically and mentally. If recognized before a week has passed, it may be halted and reversed through offloading all wealth and seeking atonement. Halfling priests will readily offer such atonement at any time of day or night, and will accept debt to their (often small) church and a Maiden-given duty as penance. Some halfling adventurers are so because of this duty, scarred by the experience. The first sign is a drastic decrease in weight, their body becoming gaunt seemingly overnight, their eyes becoming sunken. Each day they lose more and more coherence and sanity.

After the fourth day, their jaws elarge. Their noses, ears, and eyes all become bulbous and sensitive to sight, sound and scent. By the sixth, their limbs elongate but their posture becomes hunched and feral, and on the last they gain a hunger for the flesh of intelligent beings. Those that fall, exist for a day and a night in this terrible state, before being whisked away by divine judgement. They are not killed, not destroyed - but removed from society, dismissed to far mountain cavess, dark and tangled forests, or the depths of the earth. There they continue to go mad, and gnomes that have somehow managed to survive for long are almost completely unrecognizeable as living beings. Some believe that the Maiden's commands are divine judgement, some believe them to be a warning and protection against an ancient otherworldly curse on their people. But regardless of the cause, the sight of a gnome is nauseating and distressing to a halfling in much the same way as undeath is. There are rumors of crude, savage gnome villages or nomadic bands in wild places, but how exactly such creatures manage to cooperate is unknown.

There are many gnomes in dark places. Far, far more than there are halflings still left in the world.