Lightfoot halfling

Lightfoot halflings were the most common type of halflings seen in the world, in large part due to their famous wanderlust, which set them apart from the relatively sedentary ghostwise and strongheart halflings. Lightfoots were most comfortable living alongside other cultures, even adopting their cultural practices, right down to their deities.

Description
The average lightfoot halfling stood around and weighed around. Lightfoots displayed the same range of skin tones, hair colors, and eye hues as humans. Though they were most frequently seen to have brown or black hair and black, brown, or hazel eyes. Their skin also typically had a ruddy complexion.

Males usually wore their hair short on the sides, often with a mullet or bowl cut, while females rarely allowed their hair to grow beyond shoulder length. Facial hair was relatively rare, with men at most sporting long sideburns or the occasional beard,  and women sometimes sporting short sideburns. Mustaches were extremely rare. Facial hair was more common in extremely old halflings. When not adventuring or entertaining others, lightfoots preferred to wear simple, well-made clothing that was comfortable to wear, yet looked attractive, favoring those with bright colors.

Personality
"Lightfoot, light hearted. Strongheart, strong footing."

- Common saying in the Realms.

Lightfoots were among the most affable and good-natured halflings. They were typically curious about others and very open to sharing about themselves. Altogether these aspects of their personalities kindled fast courtships and friendships with others. These were often brief, for most lightfoots innately felt a sense of wanderlust that compelled them to not stay in one place for too long. Though lightfoots were very loyal and such relationships were genuine, some felt the way they so deftly parted ways made those friendships disingenuous.

Due to their personalities many races stereotyped lightfoots as being fickle and flighty in nature, being unreliable and easily distracted. However, despite the impression they gave such races, these halflings were very cunning, opportunistic, and resourceful individuals.

While not exactly greedy, halflings did enjoy wealth and respected the power and pleasures it could bring. However, they were careful not to let greed compromise themselves or their society. In addition to information gathering, many halflings became collectors of different objects, ranging from mundane items like books or weapons to more exotic interests such as artifacts and other ancient secrets.

Spellcasting
Lightfoot societies did not invest in magic nearly as much as strongheart halflings, but there were still many spellcasters among them. In terms of spells, lightfoots tended to favor those that offered great mobility &mdash; expeditious retreat, fly, and haste to name a few &mdash; or those that weakened their foes. Evard's black tentacles and a variety of spells with polymorph-effects were also common among their spellcasters.

Lightfoots that specialized in travel-based magic became known as Hin Wandermages. In addition to those previously listed travel spells, Hin Wandermages typically knew the following &mdash; air walk, endurance, ethereal jaunt, etherealness, find the path, freedom of movement, gate, mount, open/close, phantom steed, plane shift, refuge, shadow walk, teleport, teleport without error, teleportation circle, transport via plants, water breathing, wind walk, and word of recall.



Combat
Lightfoots preferred to fight defensively and were skilled in the art of stealth. Their tactics were similar to elves, though they emphasized being concealed and taking cover more than mobility, taking shots at their foes from afar.

Due to their skill-sets, this sub-race of halflings were often bards, rogues, warslinger snipers, and rangers, though the profession of fighter was equally encouraged and some even took to being adventuring druids.

Warslinger snipers were typically the first line of defense for their communities, while those who up the life of a ranger were known to protect and act as guides for traveling bands of halflings in the Sword Coast and elsewhere.

Equipment
Lightfoots often wore studded leather armor. They typically fought with longswords as well as light crossbows, shortbows, and slings of masterwork quality. They often fired skiprocks from their slings, though were just as likely to toss them by hand. Due to their size, there were many weapons that lightfoots could not wield effectively.

In terms of magic items, a lightfoot could often be found in possession of a bag of holding, a carpet of flying, Heward's handy haversack, hornblades, and the bird-variation of Quaal's feather token.

Tallfellows
The tactics and weaponry of tallfellows were largely similar to those of other lightfoots. However, they were also known to fight with spears, and small lances. With these weapons they favored taking porcupine-like formations.

Tallfellows also tended to take up the life of a fighter or rogue, as well as that of a forester. They often served in armies as light lancers or horseback archers, typically mounted atop ponies or very rarely dire wolves.

History
Most lightfoot halflings in the Realms could trace their lineage back to a tribe that ruled a great kingdom in the land of Luiren.

In -62 DR, the war chief of a lightfoot tribe in the Luiren forest of Lluirwood allied with a strongheart hunter named Chad against the land's local ghostwise. This culminated in the Hin Ghostwars. Many within the tribe were horrified by the actions taken by Chad and his fellow stronghearts during this conflict. Thus, following the Hin Ghostwars the members of this tribe and a majority of Luiren's lightfoot population emigrated all across the North, Northwest, and Northeastern reaches of Faerûn. Some scholars speculated that they were unable to find a specific area to call their new homeland, over time culminating in their race's penchant for wandering. However, a few lightfoots chose to remain in Luiren and cleared the land for farming.

In 1371 DR, sages studying the halfling diaspora in Calimshan speculated that tallfellows had traces of elven ancestry. In evidence of their theory, they cited old elven records from Wealdath. These told of runaway halfling slaves from the Calim Empire who took refuge in the Darthiir Wood and merged with the elven communities there-in for several generations before eventually leaving to found their own.

In 1372 DR, a group of lightfoots living in the Underdark city of Deepburrow allied with gold dwarf spelunkers to map out an underground passage between the city and the Great Rift.

Varieties
Tallfellow halflings were lightfoots native to the planet of Oerth and Greyspace.

The builds of tallfellows was rather rare among halfling races, as well as other lightfoots. They had light bones, slimmer bodies, as well as fairer complexions and hair. They also typically were taller, growing to heights of. Their feet were covered in sparse, fine hairs.

Some described the appearance of tallfellows as being very elven-like. Some sages on Toril, who studied those in Calimshan, speculated that they had traces of elven ancestry. In addition, tallfellows were more perceptive than other lightfoots, in a similar manner to elves, though less athletic. They also had shorter lifespans, averaging 180 years.

Tallfellows tended to wear their hair long, sometimes with small, brightly colored caps. They generally shunned footwear and tended to wear clothes in shades of yellow, brown, green, or tan, feeling such colors allowed them to better hide in their woodland homes. They developed several vibrant shades of green through the use of unique dyes.

Society
Lightfoots formed tight-knit communities, especially in the cities of other races. Some traveled in small bands, often switching members when they come across another band, while others traveled in clans made up of several extended families. Members of such communities often packed up and collectively moved together to locations that offered new or better opportunities. Some communities just moved regularly, embracing a nomadic lifestyle. When communities traveled they typically did so in wagons or boats.

Lightfoots adored keeping pets, for the sake of both protection and companionship. They often kept some form of large hound. Another common animal kept were foxes, who they admired for their stealthiness and cunning.

Lightfoots typically excelled in professions related to traveling, such as cartwrighting, handling of pack animals, navigating, and sailing. Those who who spent their lives wandering tended to learn many of the skills associated with these tasks along their travels. Some lightfoots were known to take up the profession of a craftsman, entertainer, or merchant.

Much like their kin, tallfellows tended to be entertainers (musicians) or craftsmen, engaging in jobs such as carving and pipesmithing. But they were particularly renowned for being skilled carpenters. Other tallfellows were known to work as cheese-makers, dairy farmers, hunters, loggers, scouts, sheperds, and stablemen. They tended to be better skilled at farming than stout halflings.

Diet
Much like other halflings, lightfoots and tallfellows were an omnivorous people. They loved breads, fruits, vegetables, and the occasional pheasant. They were very skilled at foraging, often gathering berries, nuts, roots, and wild grain more deftly than other races.

Lairs
Tallfellows typically lived above-ground in spacious, wooden houses with many windows. though some lived in hollowed out trees. Like many halflings, they tended to keep their windows open in order to allow for fresh air. Tallfellow homes were often constructed in such a way to take advantage of areas where gentle breezes were common. They also typically had cellars for storage that they would relax in during hot summer days.

Homelands
Lightfoots typically lived in warm plains. They were, by nature, wanderers, and so could rarely be found tied down to one place for very long. Typically, lightfoot halfling clans moved from one area to another rapidly, staying in one place rarely more than a year or two. There were exceptions to this rule, however, and in spite of their curiosity and adventurousness, some halflings were drawn to their ancestral homeland of Luiren before its destruction. Others merely settled more permanently in some foreign land, usually human. Still, it could not truly be said that lightfoot halflings had any land of their own; instead, they called the whole world their home.

In terms of regions, lightfoot halflings were often found in the lands of Chessenta, Chondath, Damara, the Sword Coast North, Halruaa, and the Western Heartlands. They were also the only sub-race of halfling to live in the Unapproachable East.

Tallfellows commonly inhabited temperate forests or hills. On Toril they were known to be found in Cormanthor, High Forest, Silverymoon, Waterdeep, Calimshan, and a fertile stretch of land in southern Damara known as the Halfling Downs.

Languages
Lightfoots typically knew how to speak Common and Halfling. Those who spent their lives wandering picked up many regional and widely spread languages. Some even knew how to speak Elvish and Goblin. The majority of their sub-race as a whole were literate.

In addition to knowing Common and the Halfling language, it was very common for tallfellows to know Elvish. Many tallfellows also knew how to speak the languages of fey and fey-related creatures, including brownies, pixies, satyrs, sprites, centaurs, and dryads.

Religions
Like other halflings, the patron deity of lightfoots was the goddess Yondalla. Her faith was popular among both sedentary and nomadic lightfoots. The latter also tended to favor the halfling god Brandobaris, as they considered his outlook on life to be realistic and good-humored. Cyrrollalee was widely popular in later generations, taking to her promises of a new homeland and greater respect from other races.

Out of all halflings, lightfoots were the most likely to worship gods outside of the halfling pantheon.

Tallfellows typically worshiped the halfing deities Arvoreen, Brandobaris, Cyrrollalee, Sheela Peryroyl, Urogalan, and Yondalla. Others were known to sometimes pay homage to individual deities of the Seldarine pantheon, such as those who lived in or near elven woods &mdash; they paid homage to Rillifane Rallathil.

Relationships
Due to their wanderlust nature, lightfoots could often be seen dwelling alongside other races. They were adept at fitting into most communities, including elven, dwarven, human, and gnomish. There they did their best to make themselves seem valuable and welcomed. They were most frequently found living in or around human societies, as the ever-changing nature of that race's societies allowed for easy exploitation.

Some lightfoots assimilated into the communities they settled in, partially or wholly adopting the local majority race's beliefs and views about the world. Those who spent their lives wandering often held an amalgamation of outlooks from the places they had been. But some acted antithetical to how one would expect of them, adamantly retaining their distinctive lightfoot point of view as they saw it as being what set them apart from other races and halfling sub-races.

Tallfellows particularly had very friendly relationships with elves on Oerth and elsewhere, greatly enjoying their company. Their attitude towards dark elves was generally neutral. Some tallfellows could even be found living in elven communities, or in villages close to them that engaged in active trade, while others lived close to humans. In at least one kingdom on Oerth, they even lived peacefully alongside stone giants.

Notable Lightfoots

 * Sengal, a feral lightfoot druid of Malar afflicted with the condition of werewolf lycanthropy.