Overview
Halflings are the small kin of the green hills. They are not clever, they are not fast, and they are not easily moved. They keep the oldest oaths in the world, and they consider the root-cellar a promise the hill keeps for them.
Habitat
Halflings live in the green hills — their home is Rootcellar Hills, a range of soft, green, rain-fed ground where the root-cellars are deep and the ale is a treaty. They need soft soil for the root-keeping, rain that falls in a pattern they can read, and a hill that does not move. They are settled; a halfling who has left the hill for more than a season is counted as "abroad," and the hill remembers what they owed.
Appearance
A halfling silhouette is a small, round, low-center-of-gravity shape — short-legged, broad-hipped, with a head that sits a little too high on the body, like a hat that has been worn too long. Males stand 86 cm to 97 cm, 41 kg–54 kg, round through the belly and jaw, with a thick brown coat of fine hair over the shoulders and a low, barked voice; females 81 cm to 91 cm, 36 kg–50 kg, leaner and quicker, with a thinner coat and a longer memory. Skin is a warm, sun-freckled cream to a soft wheat, with a network of fine brown freckles across the nose and shoulders that darken in summer. Hair is the crown: a thick, wavy mass from dark chestnut to pale straw, usually worn loose and practical, with the Oath-Keeper's braid worn over the right shoulder as a mark of office. Eyes are pale — a soft hazel to a pale gold — and see well in the half-light of the root-cellar. The head is the tell: the boots are the halfling, not the face. The boots are thick, worn, always clean, and always pointed at something — a halfling who has not pointed their boots at something is a halfling who is about to say something important. Males are rounder and carry more weight in the belly; females are leaner and carry their oaths in the hands. Elders are marked by a full silver head and a back that has stopped curving — an old halfling moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a tree that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: a wool tunic in a deep mossy green or a soft umber, a leather apron for the root-keepers, and the boots — always the boots.
Behavior
Disposition: clannish, honor-bound, shy, patient. In peace, halflings are quiet, watchful, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they will wait. In war they do not fight; they outlast, and the hill outlasts everything. Strangers are either a guest or a debt, and the halfling can tell the difference within one cup. The social unit is the hill-hold, 20–60 strong, led by the Oath-Keeper — the one whose word has never been broken. Two signature quirks: a halfling who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply stop offering ale. And they keep every word that has ever been sworn on the hill, in the root-cellar, written on a strip of bark and hung from the beam.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: none — halflings do not wage war; they endure it. The hill is the weapon; the root-cellar is the defense. Armor: none, by choice — a halfling who wears armor has already decided to leave. Weapons: a heavy walking-stick for the Oath-Keeper, and a short knife for everyone else. War markings: the Oath-Braid, worn by the Oath-Keeper over the right shoulder — a single braid, one knot per oath kept, in dark chestnut or pale straw; the Boot-Point, a deliberate, permanent scuff on the left boot-toe from the day the wearer first swore an oath on the hill, worn as a record; and the Root-Scar, a small, deliberate nick on the right thumb from the first root a halfling ever pulled alone, worn as a mark of the hill. Post-battle: there is no post-battle — the hill simply continues, and the debt is counted.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: oath — halfling magic is the weight of the hill, and it does not need to be cast. Secondaries: wild and divine. Named inborns: Hill-Sense (a halfling can feel the ground's mood the way a sailor feels the wind), Root-Sight (a halfling can read the hill's root-system in the dark, by feel), Oath-Weight (a halfling's kept word is physically heavy — an Oath-Keeper's braid is not light). Signature power: the Hill's Choice — a halfling who has kept every oath on the hill can, once, make the hill choose for them; the hill will move, and the halfling will not know where it put them. Limitation: halfling magic is spent on the hill; a halfling who has spent their hill's choice is a halfling who must leave.
Religion
Halflings keep Korrath, the Fang as their primary god — the wild, the hunt, the survival that is the hill's own law. The hill is Korrath's den, and the halfling is the den's keeper. Brakka, the Unbroken Word is honored at every oath-swearing; the Oath-Keeper speaks to Brakka on the hill's behalf. Priestly class: the Oath-Keeper, who keeps the root-cellar, the ale, and the word — and whose nod is the treaty. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken on the hill, and there is no rite for that one; the hill simply stops remembering the breaker.
Society
Holds of 20–60, led by the Oath-Keeper, rank decided by the oath — whose word has never been broken. The hill is the whole of the law, because the root is the only clock and the oath the only law, and a halfling who has left the hill for more than a season is counted as "abroad," and the abroading is the only kind the ground remembers. No hold follows a keeper, it follows the oath whose word has never been broken, and the following is the whole of the rank, because a halfling does not measure a halfling in the years, it measures it in the word, and a halfling who has kept an oath the hill forgot is the one the cellar calls the oldest. Outsiders are either a guest or a debt, and the debt is the one the hill keeps — the ale is the whole of the warning: a mortal who has drunk the cup is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the whole of the bond. Young are raised in the cellar, where the first word is sworn, and a young halfling who has not pulled a root of their own is not given a boot of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the hill does not hoard the ale — it keeps the word, and the keeping is the whole of the hold, because a word hung from the beam is a word the hill will outlast.
Home
They live in Rootcellar Hills, a range of green hills where the root-cellars are deep and the ale is a treaty.
Relations
Halflings are neighbors to everyone and friends to few, and the fewness is the whole of the treaty — the hill keeps the word and it measures everything in the debt, and the measuring is the whole of the law. The hill does not take sides; it takes debts, and it keeps them. The Dwarfs of Karn Dun, the Deep Delve are the one deep race the hill regards as kin in the ground — a dwarf who has finished a joint the root-cellar forgot is the one the hill calls the oldest, and the regarding is the whole of the courtesy, because the dwarf digs down and the halfling digs deep, and the two are the same dig seen from two hills. The Gnomes of the green are the neighbors the hill regards as the small kin — a gnome who has kept a word the hill forgot is the one the cellar calls the kindred, and the regarding is the whole of the bond. The Humans of the camp regard the hill the way the road regards the stone: with distance, and with the understanding that the distance is the whole of the warning, because a halfling who has kept an oath the race forgot is the one the hill calls the kindred, and a mortal who has broken a cup is the one the ground calls the debt. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the hill takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the cellar keeps the word for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise.
Notable Halflings
- Tigole — halfling rogue of the hill-holds, who learned to point his boots at doors instead of at the horizon.
In the Story
In the current story, the halflings are the root-cellar under the camp — the hill Uaellaen writes about when the word is the only clock. The Forgotten keep their distance at the cellar-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a halfling came up the hill with a word that was not on the beam — a word that is not in the cellar, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the hill keeps its oaths, and the oaths have started to move. Oath-Keeper Bora the Brown is keeping the word, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
You stand on our hill and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our oath's choice for us. The price is a cup. You have one to give, or you are already a debt. — Oath-Keeper Bora the Brown