Weirdlet
2008-12-28, 12:00 AM
Hey, all. I'm a pre-newb DM (have yet to actually run a game, but I like toying with the idea in my spare time) and I've been working on a setting of my own, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the halflings in my world.
I've got a vaguely Roman-with-a-touch-of-Imperial-China empire of humans over a patchwork European continent fast-forwarded to loosely medieval times (Imperial Knights, nobles sending representatives to the Senate to advise the Emperor, while the Church of the Circle attempts to encompass all local gods while raising the Emperor to mildly divine status), while their fallen rival Akyos is slightly Egyptian/1001 Nights-esque. The dwarves are mostly secretive and dour with exception of a dissident group that's led by a sort of Henry VIII-ish king looking to colonize and make contact with the humans, while orcs have a range from hardcore traditionalist barbarian hunter-gatherers to slightly-less-barbarous (they build forts and stay mostly in one place, at least) mercenary clans and civilized members of the Alucian (Human Empire)legions, as Roman-esque plebians. Elves as humans know them are amnesiac outcasts (or descendants of same) from Underhill, where the much scarier Fae live, and have patched together a little of their culture and copied more of it from ancient pre-Alucian relics. Some of the elvish enclaves are entirely secretive with only tentative contact with outsiders, some are integrated into the human cultures, and one runs a large and vaguely circus-like 'faerie' court, figuring if they can't remember what they were, they may as well make it up as extravagantly as possible. I've at least got vague ideas of different cultures and/or analogues I can beg, borrow or steal details from for most of my races and kingdoms.
Halflings, I've got an idea of where they're from but not what exactly they are. There's a bay at the southern edge of the continent cradled between high cliffs, wherein I know there's a place called the Floating City- there's a small island in there somewhere, but a lot of living, business and cultivation happens on the boats, anywhere from the tiny fishing boats to the huge floating mansions. I figure halflings are really good sailors and come from the Halfling Isles (creative, I know- when I have a better idea of their culture I'll get a better name for it) that stand a good ways out from the rest of the continent with the Floating City as their big intermingling trade-city.
Can I get any suggestions on what to make of their culture? Just another psuedo-European group, only shorter, doesn't really work for me. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I've got a vaguely Roman-with-a-touch-of-Imperial-China empire of humans over a patchwork European continent fast-forwarded to loosely medieval times (Imperial Knights, nobles sending representatives to the Senate to advise the Emperor, while the Church of the Circle attempts to encompass all local gods while raising the Emperor to mildly divine status), while their fallen rival Akyos is slightly Egyptian/1001 Nights-esque. The dwarves are mostly secretive and dour with exception of a dissident group that's led by a sort of Henry VIII-ish king looking to colonize and make contact with the humans, while orcs have a range from hardcore traditionalist barbarian hunter-gatherers to slightly-less-barbarous (they build forts and stay mostly in one place, at least) mercenary clans and civilized members of the Alucian (Human Empire)legions, as Roman-esque plebians. Elves as humans know them are amnesiac outcasts (or descendants of same) from Underhill, where the much scarier Fae live, and have patched together a little of their culture and copied more of it from ancient pre-Alucian relics. Some of the elvish enclaves are entirely secretive with only tentative contact with outsiders, some are integrated into the human cultures, and one runs a large and vaguely circus-like 'faerie' court, figuring if they can't remember what they were, they may as well make it up as extravagantly as possible. I've at least got vague ideas of different cultures and/or analogues I can beg, borrow or steal details from for most of my races and kingdoms.
Halflings, I've got an idea of where they're from but not what exactly they are. There's a bay at the southern edge of the continent cradled between high cliffs, wherein I know there's a place called the Floating City- there's a small island in there somewhere, but a lot of living, business and cultivation happens on the boats, anywhere from the tiny fishing boats to the huge floating mansions. I figure halflings are really good sailors and come from the Halfling Isles (creative, I know- when I have a better idea of their culture I'll get a better name for it) that stand a good ways out from the rest of the continent with the Floating City as their big intermingling trade-city.
Can I get any suggestions on what to make of their culture? Just another psuedo-European group, only shorter, doesn't really work for me. Any help is greatly appreciated.