Halflings

Halflings

Halflings. Are. INSANE.

Like the Gnomes, these tiny creatures are the descendants of Dwarves caught outside their delvings before the fallout from the First God War had settled. Unlike the Gnomes, the halflings' ancestors had neither the tools nor the leadership to find or dig shelters to protect themselves. Like the Warigons, they were caught out in the open and exposed, surviving as best they could. This caused each successive generation afterward to degenerate bit by bit. Unlike the Warigons, these lost children managed to hang onto a vestige of their Dwarvish heritage and found refuge near the rivers and woodlands.

Whereas Dwarves stand at an average of 4 to 4 feet six inches tall, halflings, true to their name, average half that. They are also significantly less muscular, their proportions more akin to Elves and Humans. Females stand about two or three inches shorter than males and have no facial hair, while males typically grow fringes along the jawline.

It is their mentality that makes halflings stand out, however. Retaining the creativeness of the Dwarves, they have lost the "if it ain't broke don't fix it." attitude. Given the chance, a halfling will disassemble any machine more complex than a wheelbarrow and try to rebuild it with any improvements they can imagine. Then again, they've managed even to improve on the wheelbarrow. While this has benefitted them in surviving the war's aftermath, it left them with a second mental issue. All halflings, if given sufficient personal power and authority will develop some level of megalomania or, at the very least, an inferiority complex.

This is quite unfortunate, as the halflings were the first peoples known to have developed steam power, but they still felt they had to prove something to everyone else and thus war born the Halfling Civil War. This war quickly dragged the Gnomes into the conflict, which caused the Elves to get involved. Seeing all his enemies fighting one another, the Great Devil Zanza took the opportunity to regain territory, sparking off the Second God War.

Smooth move, halflings. Jerks.

Since the conclusion of the Second God War, Halflings have never been permitted to form large communities, always being integrated into cities and towns of the other races. Normally friendly and sociable before their insanity sets in, the halflings have found this an agreeable situation. So far.