Been there and done that: a halfling’s creation

Today’s is s topic that has had me baffled for a while: halflings.

This race is probably best known by its other name — the hobbit.

Since the race was made an immortal part of pop culture through Tolkien’s writing, they have always had a quirky relationship with roleplaying games.

Fantasy fans expect them to exist, but not as Tolkien knock-offs.

This has led to much discussion about what makes this race in the general world of Dungeons and Dragons. Check out this article by Jon Schindehette at wizards.com/dnd.

My attempts to look up where the term “halfling” originated on online dictionarys, the Encyclopedia Britanica and others, turned up little.

And, holy hells — I’ll leave you to check out Urban Dictionary.

She is pretty hot as a ginger.

In terms of the race’s presentation in Dungeon and Dragon’s history, there are only two that stand out to me as really effect at presenting halflings with new spins: the kender in Dragonlance and the halflings in Dark Sun.

Tracy Hickman’s and Margaret Weis’s Tasselhoff Burrfoot and the other pick-pocketing kender where my first introduction to non-Tolkien halflings that were active in their world rather than passive, much more different than the homely hobbits. The race event saw an interesting change following the Chaos War and rise of the Dragon Overlords and the Afflicted.

Then, the Athasian halfings are the quintessential jungle pygmies, complete with the Victorian Era’s fears of cannibalism.They even have neat/weird tie-in for the world’s history and devastation, as revealed in Troy Denning’s series. This another perfect example of a twist, unless someone can point to a history of Middle Earth where hobbits engaged in this practice.

Even Eberron’s halflings at least have twist as being natives of the svannah-like Talenta Plains.

Plus, they have dinosaurs.

For me, though, these depictions complicate matters because these archetypes cover so much territory. But, hopefully, I have a bit of an unintentional saving grace — remember the Seven Sisters?

I had mentioned, somewhat off-hand, that halflings were one of the few races who openly worshiped the Sisters. So that forced me to think about what kind of race would see these goddesses as the best fit for their lifestyles and culture. This led me back to 3.5 E’s Races of the Wild, which portrays them as wandering family units.

So, I think I’m going to take that particular facet and make it the key conceit for the race in Kalanesia.

In a world fractured by the Bloodrift War, not all communities are within quick or easy access of the city states like Waystrand or Exeline, so halflings provide necessary services for trade, entertainment and excitement to the townsfolk. Though halflings are a known source of the occasional card swindling or pick-pocketing, they aren’t excessive because they also recieve the gold, goods and services that only a stable community can provide, like blacksmithing and grain. Thus, it is a symbiotic relationship between the communities and the wandering halfling clans.

That they have no permanent home says a lot about the halflings — they are adventurous, adaptable and necessarily shrewd and charismatic. They are naturally gregarious and often find themselves becoming the spokenperson for a group when with others of different races. Along with this, they tend to know a lot about the social workings of the communities they frequent.

So does anyone have thoughts? Are there any other unique twists on this races that I should check out? Feel free to leave me a comment if you have a thought.