This is the final guide in a series on the most notable groups of people in each culture in my homebrew setting, Evanoch. These guides are perhaps the most important writing I have done here on this site, not for my reader, but for myself. I learned that my Daltoners were not a monolithic evil group. Until I wrote about the Faninites, I didn't understand how their society functioned over time rather than as a snapshot. My dwarves weren't distinct from the classic dwarf in fantasy until I explored how my dwarves could be different. The orcs live based on tradition, and their clan guide allowed me to see different ways of interpreting that tradition. My elves have always mixed progressivism with staunch traditionalism, and their clan guide helped me decide to elevate that tension to a real crisis of public faith in government. My half-elves, true assimilators, didn't have a defined set of cultural values to draw on, so I developed them into a true Chaotic Good group characterized by individuality. And writing about my gnomes helped me to build lore for a society I knew well but hadn't entirely built backstory for yet. I don't know what will come of writing about my halflings, my favorite of my homebrew groups. Here's a little about why:
Elves, orcs, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and half-elves have established cultures in D&D canon, at least in fragmentary form. For all but the halflings, I took inspiration from the original classic and added various amounts of my own imagination. My elves are more artistically inclined that classic elves but are pretty similar. My dwarves didn't depart from traditional dwarves until their article. My gnomes are industrious inventors with a strange sense of humor like D&D canon dictates. My half-elves are facilitators and trailblazers like the tradition suggests. My orcs are tribal like the classic depiction says, even if their culture is actually quite distinct from other depictions. My humans are quite homebrew, dividing humans ideologically and making neither native to the setting. But my halflings are entirely mine. I kept the detail of underground homes as a nod to Tolkien's hobbits, the inspiration for halflings, but have changed everything else. They live in lush rainforests, mastered alchemy, are anarchists and have no formal government, have bizarre parenting traditions, and are generally the most surprising for players to encounter for these reasons. Getting to explore the halflings is something I saved for last so I could enjoy it as a culmination of this series.
One last thing: halflings unconditionally refuse to be formally organized, and family structures don't really exist as known elsewhere, so clans do not truly exist among the halflings like they do elsewhere. Instead, this guide will describe social movements, which represent a similar function for us as DMs--just as the other groups' clans reveal what people care about and what power may lie with particular people, these social movements and some of the people involved in them will serve the same function even though an organization doesn't exist in the same sense. After all, social movements are the closest halflings get to organizing, so it's the next best thing. That said, here are the five most important social movements amongst halflings:
Cooperation
Though halflings resist formal organization, most important tasks in halfling society are performed with the cooperation of groups, from small groups of halflings repairing a leak in a halfling home to medium groups helping a down-on-their-luck neighbor to still larger groups banding together to create a new community space. But this social value was a defining feature of halfling society since the beginning of time; how did it end up a social movement after all this time? In 4240, nearly 500 years ago now, the system of kingdom rule was abolished on the grounds that it caused endless wars and total insulation from the world at large. This caused an influx of migrations out of the former capitals of Mishara, Kruush, Underhar, Vestry, and Curagon. Many of these immigrants formed new settlements, and many tried their luck in the other capitals and the growing cities of Talon Gorge, Torga, Ringsdale, and Finiel. For halflings and those in Curagon especially, this proved to be a different experience than the norm. For most places, the mixing of cultures was a matter of determining which details were different--our leadership picks politicians this way, these are the foods we eat, these are the stories we tell, all slightly varied but recognizable. Halflings, though, lived in a different way entirely. They had no government. Their homes were underground, not different shapes of wooden or stone structure. They lived in an ecosystem that no one save for a few orcish towns could imagine. Mothers raise halflings alone until 10 to 15, then abandon them to learn to fend for themselves. To non-halflings, halflings seemed strange and even sinister, but halflings had to watch as their culture was affected more and more by the cultures around them. The industrious individual figure who dominates so many Evanine cultures grew, the informal organization of the halflings shrank, and by 100 years ago, many halflings outside of Curagon have come to think and behave much like Evanines at large. As a result, halflings in Curagon have made a concerted effort to return cooperation to the high position it once held in their society. Efforts have been made largely through excursions to other nearby towns, mostly halfling, where a large group of halflings descends on a town and systematically helps solve as many problems facing the town as they can over a day or two, explaining that cooperation can work miracles like this whenever it is employed. The tide has begun to turn, and over the 92 years there has been an organized effort to promote cooperation, the areas around Curagon have started to embrace the ideal, and it is no longer uncommon for halflings abroad to spread word on a smaller scale when they can.
The concerted effort to spread cooperation as a means of accomplishing things began in Curagon from a much smaller-scale effort. One halfling elder, Iris Cartwheel, was personally dissatisfied with a growing trend of halflings who were individualistic in her community. Cartwheel attributed this to a network of problems including outside influence, moral decay, and the naïveté of the youth. She began a campaign to go out of her way to help three such young people per day until things changed. For a while, Cartwheel was regarded as an unfortunate elder who had grown bitter with age, but eventually, things caught on. Cartwheel captured the regard of a few halfling teenagers who carried on her campaign with a more jovial and free-spirited approach; the younger halflings did what Cartwheel could not, which was attract mass approval, and she had done what they could not, which was restore an old tradition to its rightful place. For the first decade of the effort to assist people purely to do it, most practitioners were the young, and it was something of a craze among younger halflings for a number of years. Before long, though, those charmed younger halflings grew up. What little parenting those now-adult halflings offered their children, cooperation was foundational to it, offering a way to survive on your own--by not being truly on your own. Those original young adopters of Cartwheel's personal project are now in the thick of middle age, and most of the generations that have followed them have also stuck to the ideal taught to them by increasing numbers of halflings. To say that Cartwheel single-handedly made this change would be oversimplification. Someone with Cartwheel's philosophy was bound to come along in halfling society--there are reports that suggest similar concepts appeared before and after Cartwheel, for instance. And Cartwheel was too angry to appeal to generally even-keeled halflings, so she never could have done it alone. That is perhaps the greatest beauty of Cartwheel's story: her dream was only realized because those she judged decided to cooperate with her anyway. Whatever the case, the movement remains strong and is pushing beyond halfling lands.
In general, halflings approve of increasing cooperation's role in life. The movement caught on for a reason, and on some level, all halflings alive were either alive to see their society decline with their own ways pushed to the side and its resurgence with the rise of cooperative efforts, or they were alive for the life of the movement to promote cooperation. Only halflings who deliberately live life against the grain truly disapprove of effort to spread cooperation at home and beyond--those that do are more isolationist and would disapprove of any organized effort outside of Curagon on principle. It is worth noting that the comeback of cooperative thinking has led to something of a unification of halflings, who are now proud to go under the banner of a helpful, communal people. Beyond halfling society, there is a fairly uniform in response to such intensive cooperation: confusion followed by acceptance of help. Evanines who encounter a halfling or halflings who go out of their help to help them purely in the name of helping tend to be incredibly grateful. The general consensus around Evanoch is that halflings are incredibly friendly and helpful people, and the evaluation of that is what defines a response to halfling cooperative efforts. More friendly groups tend to simply see this effort as kind and even an effort for serious friendship--among this category are groups like the orcs, the half-elves, the Faninites, and the gnomes. Others are more skeptical of the reason behind these cooperative efforts; elves are generally reserved and cautious about it, while dwarves and Daltoners assume something more sinister is happening and feel their pride has been diminished by the offer of help.
Eliminating Poverty
The halfling economy has not historically revolved around physical currency; most transactions are trades and barters that coins are never involved in. That changed during the migration that followed the end of kingdom rule, when thousands of people offering coins for trade with halflings who had no interest in owning coins, which had no practical value. But time and persistent non-halflings forced change, and Curagon joined the rest of Evanoch in carrying out commerce with minted currency. But as soon as a more market economy took root in Curagon, the problems of market economies appeared with them: poverty, unhousedness, and increasing inequality between people. With the influx of so many social and economic factors all at once, it was hard for halflings to diagnose that money had been the problem until currency was well established in everyday life. In recent generations, there have been some movements to revert to a no-currency economy again, but more popular movements have acknowledged that being part of the broader world means adopting currency, and at the same time, halfling ways can be used to combat the problems of a market economy. There are many methods of fighting back against market economy problems--one of the most popular is collecting funds to be dispersed by trusted members of the community to being suffering from economic problems, and another is the construction of housing for those in need. Through both means, the last thirty years have seen a reduction in poverty and related problems in Curagon, making it one of the most attractive places to live for those struggling, which has in turn created new markets for halfling efforts to combat poverty.
About 260 years ago, economic struggles were impacting one neighborhood of Curagon more severely than others, due largely in part to a banker who had established himself in their part of the city. Members of the neighborhood rose together and ran the banker out of the neighborhood, but the economic problems persisted after the banker's disappearance. The neighborhood came together, pooled all the coins they had, and bought things with the common fund as need, stressing responsible and considerate use of the fund. Within a few months, the neighborhood had recovered. Word spread of the humble neighborhood's recovery, and the fund pooling spread to other neighborhoods. Today, nearly half of halfling neighborhoods in Curagon have adopted similar fund-sharing systems, and similar systems also frequently exist on smaller scales. Largely, the halflings of Curagon and the neighboring mostly-halfling towns have recovered from the economic depression caused by introducing currency, and they have managed to do so without cutting themselves off from the world. While the elimination of poverty entirely in Curagon remains undone, especially in new immigrant areas, progress has been notable, and results in halfling lands outside Curagon have been impressive.
Some halflings have fully assimilated to a free market way of life, and to them, the efforts to eliminate poverty are sweet and quaint but ultimately misguided--being entitled to what you earn is a more appealing ethic than a more community-based ideal. But by and large, most halflings do wholeheartedly believe in eliminating poverty in a complete sense. For a large number of halflings, stories about the paradise of Curagon, where plenty was everywhere, took place in their grandparents' lifetimes, and restoring that balance is extremely possible. Outside of halfling circles, the very idea of eliminating poverty is foreign at first and baffling after. Gnomes do believe that equality should be strived for, but they believe strongly in earning for oneself. Half-elves believe all should be free to be happy, but inherent sacrifice to achieve it is not freedom. Elves are impressed by the ambition of the goal but believe it impractical to commit so much effort to staying afloat instead of doing something more far-reaching. Orcs do not meaningfully know poverty, and unlike the halflings, they were largely unperturbed by immigration after the end of the kingdoms, and so they lack context to understanding the halfling position. Dwarves find most things about the movement objectionable, but nothing is to them more objectionable than the assumption that poverty is not a punishment for wrongdoing, something that should be left to the gods. Faninites agree with the idea of bringing a community to support one another, and do largely believe the halflings are right to commit to this movement. Daltoners believe that halflings are soft and weak for caring what comes of strangers.
Social Equality
So much in halfling society is about social equality. Coming together without hierarchy is about social equality. Ending the mechanisms that make us unequal is about social equality. In a perverse way, the halfling tendency to abandon children at adolescence is about social equality too, granting the child full access to adulthood sooner than any other group allows. But social equality suffered too when new settlers came after the end of the kingdoms. The new people arriving in halfling lands everyday had ideas about being in charge, ideas of social ranking, and ideas on one's place in society--all of which clashed with the halflings. Like so much else, halfling culture made space for what the new people brought, and soon the more vocal people in community meetings were held as leaders. The size and shape of one's home, formerly judged simply as what one needed and preferred, was now a status symbol, as was one's profession. Formerly respected members of the community became diminished because outsiders judged their professions. There was upheaval constantly for the first 150 years after the end of the kingdoms before a social movement emerged that fought back. About 350 years ago, communities began pushing back. Whereas many halfling efforts were united by neighborhood, this movement revolved around status symbols themselves--the wealthy, the socially respected, those with "dignified" professions spoke out publicly about the importance of the poor, the strange, and those whose jobs are vital if unglamorous. Some of these demonstrations were punctuated by the speaker announcing their resignation from that aspect of life (by dispensing money, admitting unflattering things, or quitting one's job) to pursue a life truer to halfling values. Certainly, the intensity of these displays is enough to capture the public's attention. The efforts are still ongoing, but the conversations and demonstrations seem to have led to an increase in old halfling ways, most noticeably a shift from more modernized work to more traditional halfling work like alchemy, clerichood, foraging, and botany.
The movement for social equality is relatively new, having only begun around 4400, but only because there was no concept of social inequality to measure it against, nor a threat against social equality. But as discussed in the movements above, the dissolution of kingdoms and the mingling of Evanines afterward caused serious changes. New dwellers of Curagon brought with them notions of social importance which bumped up against halfling tradition, but the testimony of those who received social prestige was very convincing to many halflings, who wished for similar status. Soon, new Curagoners and established halflings alike were judging the world through a lens of social status, turning their backs on some members of their communities who had been treated as equals before the arrival of foreign ideas. Rather quickly, halflings realized this and began to fight back. One common method of publicly pushing for social equality has been to hold structured dialogues in public spaces--these discussions about the role of the individual and the group and what it means to have value and importance, always coming back to the individual as part of a whole in which all parts matter. These efforts have had some serious results in some places--nearly one-third of all neighborhoods in Curagon as well as several of the larger cities around Curagon, especially Dijum, Phinol, and Warlor, which are all downriver of Curagon. In these places, the efforts of common halflings to restore social equality to halfling lands is a movement that spans halflings who remember the old ways, halflings who have heard of the old ways and want them back, and even some non-halflings who have heard people talking about social equality and been hooked. There is even rumor that halflings who have left halfling lands have brought the cause of social equality with them, and settlements like the elven city Hasphatal to the north, the orcish city Siklen to the west, and the dwarven city of Virton to the southeast have begun to bear conversations about social equality in earnest.
There is some matter of division among halflings on this conversation. As mentioned above, about one-third of Curagon neighborhoods as well as Dijum, Phinol, and Warlor are pretty wholeheartedly in support of the movement for social equality. For these halflings, it's a matter of tradition, justice, and basic common sense. Some halflings, about one-third of Curagon's neighborhoods as well as the city of Fygg are more internally divided, with many supporting social equality and some opting for the newer ways. Other halflings still, about one-third of Curagon's neighborhoods and the city of Nopirock are staunchly for the dominant ways outside of halfling lands, arguing that some roles in society truly are more valuable than others, which they also count as a matter of common sense. Outside of halflings, the notion of social equality is radical and divisive. Some Faninites, gnomes, and orcs can generally understand and support the concept, but they struggle to part with prized elevated roles like parent, community leader, or wise woman, respectively. Other groups find the idea more intellectually interesting if not necessarily applicable in a practical sense, such as the elves and half-elves. More conservative groups like the dwarves and Daltoners struggle to see the point of such a concept, as status is what keeps members of their societies striving to contribute to society (something that halflings see as having inherent value).
Privacy
Notions of privacy exist in different forms in different societies. Daltoners view privacy as the desire of those with something to hide. Faninites see privacy as something that enables inner dialogue. For dwarves, privacy is compartmentalized by who something is private from. Orcs consider privacy an element of spirituality. Elves see privacy as the division between private and public selves. For half-elves, privacy is simply the opposite of being surrounded. Gnomes look at privacy as something related to the home. But for halflings, privacy is the default condition of life. True, those in halfling lands sometimes go to experts in their community for help, but most of life is lived alone for halflings. During the brief parenting children receive, they are still left to themselves as often as possible. Halflings work alone in all cases where it is possible. Most residents of halfling lands simply forage for food or trade with a forager--there is so much plenty in the halfling rainforests that meals can be constructed simply by walking into the forest and coming back with ripe, delicious foods, and even this is nearly always undertaken alone. Spending time with others is something of a special occasion for halflings, who spend most of their time tending to their needs, helping their community, and attending to hobbies (creative arts are especially popular). So as with the above movements, privacy was confronted by the specter of frequent public life when new culture came to halfling lands. Almost immediately after new residents of Curagon and other halfling settlements arrived, there began a push towards increased privacy compared to what people were bringing to halfling lands. This movement includes more antagonism than the others, as many halflings felt that their privacy was being impeded on and wanted to immediately rectify the situation. Halflings quickly banded together to try to fight the tide of change, but their demands seemed more like crankiness than a defense of a way of life to new residents of halfling lands. The result was less a promoted social ideal and more a withdrawal from public life. Today in Curagon and other halfling cities, it is not uncommon for foreign quarters to have vibrant social scenes while halfling neighborhoods are incredibly quiet.
The stepping away from the social world brought to halfling lands was not without social consequence. Within a few years of the arrivals to halfling lands beginning, privacy-focused halflings began to connect non-halflings with attacks on privacy. This developed into a racist stereotype of non-halflings being boisterous, rude, and invasive; non-halflings in halfling lands started to see halflings as snobby, close-minded, and weird. Over the course of generations, this led to a deep divide between halflings and new residents. However, with the advent of social equality and cooperation being major focuses in halfling society, must of the racist sentiment that developed has been corrected on the halfling side, but non-halflings in halfling lands are still largely under the impression that their hosts don't want them there. The newest efforts for privacy have addressed this issue: some halflings have begun to approach their non-halfling neighbors and address the stereotype before describing the halfling value of privacy. This effort, while still in its early stages, has seen marked success in bringing together communities in halfling lands. Nowhere has this been more evident than the foreign quarter of Curagon--the neighborhoods to the south and northwest of the foreign quarter, populated by largely traditionalist halflings who have engaged in some diplomacy about their cause, have succeeded in not only improving relations with their neighbors in the foreign quarter, but some neighborhoods have instituted a schedule where some days feature halfling privacy and other feature more public life, the communities coming together to honor each other's cultures. Some halfling advocates of privacy say this isn't enough, and some halfling communities remain isolationist to combat the tide of change, and no issue is as controversial in terms of solution exists in halfling society.
As stated above, impressions of the privacy movement are complicated for halflings. Essentially all halflings agree on the value of privacy, that it should be fought for, and that it could enlighten other groups, but what to do about the current situation is more complicated. Advocacy for strict privacy like traditional halfling life offered is popular, with 35% of halflings supporting it. Outright assimilation is relatively unpopular, with only 10% of halflings believing in it. The biggest portion of halflings support some middle path, with 55% of halflings falling somewhere in the middle. But even there, what that middle ground is is up for debate--from measures like Curagon neighborhoods' schedule for privacy to efforts to convince others of the value of halfling tradition to creating formal rule only to mandate privacy, there is little for the middle pathers to agree on. Outside of halfling society, this privacy movement is supported only by a select few. Some elves and half-elves believe the halfling way of life could have value if moderated. Faninites and orcs associate privacy with spirituality and can understand a desire to spread that to other things, though actually doing so is a step largely untaken. Gnomes, who participate in public life more than any other group, fundamentally do not appreciate the subtleties of the halfling position. Dwarves find the halfling effort to promote privacy irritating and aggressive, and Daltoners regard the halfling desire for privacy as evidence that they cannot be trusted.
Redefined Parenthood
While all of the above social movements have been halflings bringing their traditions to bear in the modern world, this social movement is quite the opposite: non-halfling notions of what parenthood should be have left an impression on some halflings, who have taken to promoting a new halfling model of parenthood which is much closer to other groups' methods. But notably, the new halfling model of parenthood, referred to colloquially as "New Parenting," does not simply adopt the childrearing habits of another culture; New Parenting is a combination of all manner of details of childcare from each group in Evanoch. From the Daltoners, New Parenting adopts the teaching of diligence and politeness, which is notably given that a surly temper had historically been ascribed to a bad disposition and lack of industry was thought to be a personal preference, but halflings note that societies function better with diligence and politeness. Faninite parenting lends a kind of protectiveness (absent in the hands-off approach of traditional halflings) and a joyfulness about getting to be a parent, something not all halflings feel themselves at all times, but they agree that children knowing they create happiness is important for development. From the dwarves, New Parenting takes familial pride, which is new to halflings, and a willingness to teach one's trade to one's children. Orcish tradition gives New Parenting a certain seriousness about the duty of parenthood, and it also lends a kind of awe of the child, stressing how unknowable and complex the child's inner world is--this idea has been especially appealing to halflings. The elves' parenting style gives New Parenting a cautiousness about having children, which tempers the eagerness many practitioners of New Parenting feel; it also provides the habit of speaking to a child as though they are an adult, which puts many would-be halfling parents at ease. Half-elven parenting provides the option of adoption, which actively works to take in the customarily abandoned children in halfling lands, perhaps the cause of the most active change amidst the movement, and building a parent-child relationship on trust is also a large focus of New Parenting. The gnomes' parenting brings an allowance for the child to discover the world through their own experiences (a more guided version of the more removed halfling style) as well as focusing on being a provider for the family--ensuring the child's needs are met is a primary task. And New Parenting is not without halfling influence: as in halfling society, the mother remains the primary head of the family (influence from other parenting styles is making the father's presence in parenting more common), and an intense focus on teaching the practicalities of life, especially useful skills for surviving and succeeding at a trade. Taken as a whole, New Parenting is easily the most progressive parenting style in Evanoch, and it has quickly spread via word of mouth to every corner of the continent, from Mishara to Dozain to Torga to Kruush and every point in between.
This effort, which is incredibly recent, beginning in the current year of 4720, and it began with two individuals. Curagon native Heather Lightblossom, an apothecary who had relocated to Torga, and her adoptive daughter Aurora, a Daltoner spellcaster, operate apothecary shops in Torga and Talon Gorge with a large shipping network to sell surplus potions in bulk. When Aurora learned that her mother had been abandoned by own her mother at an early age, the shock and Lightblossom's weary acceptance of the fact struck Aurora sourly. The two traveled to Curagon and soaked up the culture, Lightblossom with nostalgia and Aurora with wonder. Ultimately, the two agreed that a more positive method of parenting was easily possible and quite necessary, and they set to brainstorming--before long, with some investigation and soul-searching, they began to tell people in Curagon about what was soon dubbed New Parenting by those who heard about it. Lightblossom and Aurora spread word as much as two people could do alone, and already, word was spreading beyond them. Soon, all of Curagon had heard of New Parenting, then then all halfling lands, and then reports of New Parenting being discussed at community meetings in places as distant as Vestry, Finiel, and Mishara. They continued their efforts in Torga and Talon Gorge, where their shops were located, and word of mouth carried it further. As things stand today, New Parenting is a phenomenon that has swept Evanoch and become a serious topic of conversation across the continent. Unlike many social movements, New Parenting has largely promoted itself, and it has been widely applied beyond its original intention.
Perceptions of New Parenting are complicated. Some halflings, about 40%, wholeheartedly agree with the premise and implementation of New Parenting. Others, about 30%, are stubborn adherents to traditional halfling parenting, often arguing that foreign influence will strip halflings of all traditions. The remaining 30% are somewhere in the middle--some incorporate a few elements of New Parenting into their lives, others borrow and change ideas from New Parenting to fit their taste, and still others believe that the halfling traditional parenting should be reformed but kept largely intact. Outside of halflings, there is still little consensus. Because New Parenting borrows from every culture, something about it appeals to basically everyone. But the things that are borrowed from other cultures perturb some people, and since New Parenting is not one wholesale cultural idea, many observers simply don't connect with enough of New Parenting to fully support it. At the same time, many people approve of most of New Parenting but get hung up on a few details (usually adopted from a rival group). Most adopters of New Parenting are Faninites, half-elves, and gnomes, whose ideas are not deviated from in extreme ways, and all while offering new perspective to open-minded cultures. Some support, usually in the form of partial adoption of New Parenting, comes from elves and orcs who are more progressively minded. Very few Daltoners and dwarves adopt New Parenting (though it is not unheard of, especially in smaller dwarven and Daltoner settlements), and the gentleness and lack of control and utility that makes up New Parenting is too much of a culture clash to cross boundaries.
And there you have it--the final entry in the clan guide series. I have to say--the first few social movements came easily since I know my halflings well, but getting into things that would be more controversial in the second part of this guide was where things got challenging. But that's been one of the beauties of this series: finding something to complicate my groups. I've long thought of the halfling method of abandoning one's child as fairly set in stone. It's an interesting detail that characterizes halflings well with just one fact, and that's the kind of thing that helps make a world feel real. But it was so interesting to my wife that she set out to change it--she plays Aurora, and I got to watch her make my halflings even more exciting and enjoyable. But by and large, I think this was a beautiful guide to end the series on. These halfling social movements are not organizations of people like the other entries in the series, but they reveal a lot about who the halflings are, what they stand for, and what choices they make. And that's ultimately the goal of most any writing about your homebrew setting: you're trying to understand it better than you did before. To those who have read all of this series--thank you. I hope you found some valuable ideas to consider when it comes to worldbuilding.
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