Kender

Kender (NaN undefineds) were small humanoids who inhabited the world of Krynn and were most known for their curiosity, fearlessness, and ability to always find trouble. They were considered by some sages to be an example of convergent evolution of halflings and were generally accepted as "honorary cousins" by halflings who traveled across the planes.

"I was just keeping it safe. You never know when someone might try to steal it."

- A typical kender response to thievery accusations.

Description
Most kender were similar in appearance to muscled human children. Adult kender males typically reached tall and weighted. Females were slightly smaller in size. It was almost unheard of for a kender to be taller than or to weigh over. They had fair skin which quickly tanned under the summer sun, turning dark brown. At the age of around forty, kender started to develop "wizened" deep crow's feet wrinkles and laugh lines. Their hair gently greyed with age at the temples.

Unlike halflings of the Realms, kender had a more elven appearance with distinctly pointed ears. Kender usually had sandy blonde, light brown, dark brown, copper-red, or red-orange hair, and they kept it long, often braided in a variety of styles or simply worn in ponytails. These small humanoids often decorated their long hair by weaving colorful ribbons, feathers, beads, flowers, and other fanciful things up in it. Among the most common eye colors were pale blue, olive, light brown, and hazel.

Kender usually had high-pitched voices that turned shrill when exercising their impressive ability to taunt others or when angry. With age, their voices only somewhat deepened. Their piping voices allowed them easily imitate bird and mammal calls. Their voices pitched higher when excited and their speech speed increased dramatically.

Abilities
The most notable ability of kender was their complete immunity to magical fear and inability to feel it naturally. Additionally, they were quite hardy when it came to poisons and more likely to avoid negative effects of spells than other races. Their natural short attention span made them much harder to sneak up on or to be surprised by their opponents.

Natural foresters, kender had a much easier time determining directions to the closest town or civilized habitat than other races, even if hopelessly lost in the wilderness.

Because of their magically-created origins and resistance to magic, kender were not known to be able to cast arcane spells.

Personality
Unfamiliar with fear, kender were overconfident and unshakable. They never panicked and were cool and composed even in the face of certain death. Brave and curious, these diminutive humanoids often found themselves in trouble; when peering into every dark corner or encountering unusual monsters. Kender walked into danger while other creatures showed common sense and self-preservation.

Kender did not have armies and rarely faced invading forces as their villages did not have anything worth plundering, but they were relentless defenders. No warlord wanted to take kender as slaves as they were uncontrollable via intimidation and fear. Ironically enough, many kender welcomed occupation thinking it to be great for the economy; the invaders' pockets were always filled with curious items for curious kender to "handle."

Guests of kender villages often found themselves relieved of all possessions within mere hours after arrival and barraged by unending questions, ramblings, and pointless stories. Other races considered kender to be charming, or annoyingly vulgar, extroverted to a fault, friendly, and obnoxious. Despite all that, kender could be easily offended as they were sensitive to indifference or negative remarks.

When they laughed or cried, it appeared as if they experienced the most powerful emotions. Friends were precious to most kender, including members of other races. They took close to heart friends' pain, death, or suffering, or any strife that befell innocents. Kender's extreme and deep emotions often threw them into deepest depressions and emotional turmoil when they witnessed suffering, sometimes lasting up to several months.

Kender saw locked places as a challenge and showed interest in learning how locking mechanisms worked. Once unlocked, they expected that there ought to be something interesting and curious inside. Kender did not understand the concept of stealing the way other species did, and their understanding of property was just as curious. They never stole, however, and instead "handled" stray items found in peoples' pockets. This alleged theft was never done to enrich oneself, however. Most of the time, knickknacks in their pockets were picked up out of curiosity and forgotten to be returned.

Combat
When pressed into combat, kender were literally fearless and fought relentlessly, often relying on natural intuition and improvisation to develop surprisingly effective strategies. The most common defensive strategy among kender was taunting. They were surprisingly good at showering their opponents with verbal abuse and enraging even the most stoic and experienced warriors.

Even though they used many different weapons in combat, kender were naturals with slings and bows. Many preferred the traditional kender weapons - a hoopak: a combination of a quarterstaff and a staff-sling. The weapon was crafted out of hardwood with a forked, slingshot-like end where there was affixed a leather thong pocket to launch bullets at their opponents from afar. The other end of a hoopak was a sharp metallic spike hardened in fire and used in close combat.

Most kender disliked wearing heavy armor in battle, and most wore leather and padded armor sets, with studded leather and ring mail being rare exceptions, often taken off after a short period of time.

Society
The family unit was the heart of kender society. A typical kender family consisted of a pair of parents and their kids. Children stayed with their parents until they started experiencing wanderlust in their 20s. This compulsion, fueled by their naturally curious minds, often kept them on the road, adventuring and absorbing experiences until they reached their 50s or 60s. This was when kender reached the period of their lives called "rooting," another compulsion, but now it drove kender to settle, pair up, and procreate (although some never did). One or two children was the typical number for the kender of Krynn. A new offspring was never conceived until the older child was gone from the family nest. This cycle of wanderlust and rooting spread kender societies through the entirety of their native world.

Kender were a democratic society that bordered on anarchy. Each kender had value and was allowed to do almost anything they wanted, and no kender forced their views onto others. Their communities had almost no laws nor official governments, as kender were never malicious nor evil. They were ready to work together for the good of their society and needed little encouragement to do so.

Their open-minded nature led kender communities to have tried multiple types of governments, but they never stuck. Kender were open to the idea of new governments and were willing to give something new a try. The same point of view spread on the leadership position in the kender communities. A single leader was followed only as long as kender were entertained. Often enough, such leadership roles lasted for several days only.

They held aged kin in deep respect as it was not that common for kender to survive through their wanderlust age.

Culture
Kender tended to have single-family homes that often had only one room, furnished with comfort in mind, flush with cushions and wooden furniture. The inhabitants themselves handcrafted many decorative and practical items within their homes as kender were prone to creative tinkering. Interestingly enough, their homes never had locks inside.

Kender clothing varied greatly, but in general, one would more likely see colorfully garmented kender than not. A particular favorite was dyed and softened leather, decorated with patterns and designs. Kender outfits always had numerous pockets and pouches, filled to the brim with a wide selection of miscellany. It could include bird feathers, creature teeth, materials, tinker toys, strings, rings, chains, handkerchiefs, various small tools, curious pebbles, and twigs, exotic coins, jerky, or even a small pet animal. Most of these items were often liberated from their rightful owners by these hyperactive and curious small humanoids.

Kender were often good cooks and consumed anything edible, treating food with the same curiosity they exhibited towards every other aspect of life. Some of the culinary creations unique to kender were: dew drink - a golden honey-flavored herbal alcoholic beverage; kender pak - a type of sweetbread baked out of six grains, caramel, and cinnamon.

Pets were popular among kender, from ordinary cats, dogs, and birds, to strange worms, beetles, and toads, and to more unique and rare creatures.

Kender Names
Kender had two names. They had a name given at birth as well as a "chosen" name. The "chosen" kender names were more descriptive of their personalities or exploits, etc. These names could be self-given or nicknames given by others. It was not uncommon for a kender to try and appropriate the name of some famous person just to inherit their reputation. There were cases where entire kender adventuring groups all used the same chosen name.

Religion
Some kender believed that in the afterlife evil beings were damned to be bored for eternity. Unlike many other intelligent species, kender did not fear death and considered it the start of a new, grand adventure. Generally, they respected and recognized all deities to avoid hurting the gods' feeling, but worshiped Branchala, Chislev, Mishakal, Gilean, and Fizban the Fabulous of Krynnspace.

History
In the late 14 century DR, it was widely believed that bags of holding on Toril originated from the kender folk of the world of Krynn. One folktale encountered on the Sword Coast told a story of an enterprising kender who built an entire utopian village inside a powerful bag of holding. It was believed that that community still flourished in the 14 century DR.

Notable Kender

 * Emilo Haversack: a kender from Krynn who joined Finder's Gang in 1368 DR on an adventure across the Planes.
 * Gaeadrelle Goldring, a half-kender from Krynn who traveled with Teldin Moore from the Rock of Bral to Herdspace.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Tymora's Luck • The Maelstrom's Eye • The Ultimate Helm
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter Nights series
 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards &bull; Spellfire: Master the Magic
 * AD&D Trading Cards &bull; Spellfire: Master the Magic