Halflings of Prace, Henjal, & the Crown

RECTON NOTE: This posts revises and replaces "Halflings of Monvesia."  Much of the lore of Halflings has been updated.

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Language Analog: Basque
Inspiration:  Hobbits from the Tolkien Legendarium, Kender from Dragonlance (vaguely)

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Tainted Counterpart: none
Temperamental Association: Altruism

Names:  See Basque Names.

The first halflings were encountered in Prace over 100 years ago.  Based on their susceptibility to nipweed, it was assumed that they were distantly related to rakasta.  This assumption would later lead to a belief that halflings were un-tainted boggarts--a goblin-like creature often found associating with gnolls.  If this were the case, then halflings would have been the only species to have cured themselves from the Taint--after separating from their tainted parent race.  Experiments on this possibility, howevever, proved fruitless.

RETCON NOTE:  Boggarts are nothing more than juvenile gnolls.

Gazetteer: Dragon Island

Orbimond is the Material Plane of the Monvesia campaign setting.  Its northern hemisphere is dominated by a single continent.  Both the vanara and the elves call this landmass Dragon Island, in reference to the ancient beings that were once the dominant life form:  Tirakantivu in the vanaran language, or Lohikäärmettä in the elvish.

Dragon Island is divided by natural features into three sub-continents:  Prace, Raviq, and Henjal.  Each of these embodies a classic adventure setting of fantasy gaming.  Prace is home to quasi-European cultures and quintessential gaming races (human, elf, dwarf, etc.).  Raviq is home to desert civilizations built along fertile rivers, a style of play sometimes called "Arabian adventures."  In Henjal, honor, powers of the mind, and the art of hand-to-hand combat are central to its cultures, mimicking the "Oriental adventures" of past editions.

Polar projection of Orbimond, showing
Dragon Island in the northern hemisphere.

Other Races in Monvesia?

This post supersedes a portion of "Other Non-Humans of Monvesia."

Part of what makes a campaign setting unique is not only what races are included in the setting, but also which races are excluded.  Several new race options have been introduced in sourcebooks and "Unearthed Arcana" articles.  Some races, either common to most D&D worlds, or unique to some, may not have a place in Monvesia.

I had introduced a rating system for aversion in "Creatures NOT of Monvesia," so will use that again here.  Some of these races may be considered for inclusion in the setting in the furture, should there be a need for it.