Halflings

Halflings

Ask any road traveler what to expect when visiting a halfling town, and they’ll usually say the same thing: soft beds (maybe on the small side), strong ale, hearty food, heartwarming song, and rousing dance; ask any spacer the same question about docking in a halfling Hearthstation, and you’ll hear much the same thing, with a bit added on about potentially unfair species taxes and grumbling about the going rate for parts in the repair shop.
Much like the Dwarves, the Halflings of Hearthmund made their leap to the stars without major conflict; but unlike the Dwarves, they didn't do so of their own accord. Given that Halflings in general live long lives and hold personal freedom and community above most other things, there was little rush for those of Hearthmund to escape their idyllic world. Until a Dwarven vessel in dire need of repair crash landed on their world nearly three millennia ago, the Halflings neither knew, nor presumably cared, that there were other intelligent life forms in the galaxy. The discovery of life outside Hearthmund, though, sparked something of a great wanderlust in the little folk: many eagerly followed the Dwarves back out into space to properly meet the other members of the galaxy. Those wandering Halflings learned all about the inner workings of spaceflight, the maws, the stars, and anything they could glean from their starborne cousins, and they brought these wonders back to their home.

Lure of the Coin

Since their introduction to the galactic community, Halflings have carved themselves a modest but indispensable place in the ‘verse. The small folk quickly took to nearly any place they could get new bits and baubles to trade for, new foods to try, and new creatures to meet; similarly, these places took in the Halflings with little trouble, as they were to a man the friendliest and most charitable people that most folks in the ‘verse had met. They were also, as it turned out, incredibly skilled when it came to matters of coin, and displayed a particularly high level of business acumen. Within a hundred years, small groups of halflings had installed themselves at nearly every major port, maw, and space station, acting as money-changers, bankers, and impartial legal representatives. Soon after, the Hearthing Collective had been established, and numerous, hospitable, loyaltyneutral Hearthstations had been set up throughout the explored galaxy. Within a millennium, the Halflings (with the aid of the dwarves and elves) established the Galactic Bank and successfully lobbied to standardize galactic currency. Now, three thousand years after their first introduction to the stars, the halflings control nearly every bank, trading house, auction house, and money-lender in the galaxy, in addition to the Hearthstations sprinkled throughout the Black.
It is whispered in some of the darker corners of the galaxy that the halflings control not only most of the money, but also most of the organized crime. Most of these whisperers vanish without a trace in the days following such a claim, perhaps due to a sudden and extreme desire to go on deep-space exploration.

Comfort and Prosperity

While there are halflings who do strike out on adventures, they are considered rather eccentric; most halflings are content to live their lives privily, unconcerned about the rest of the galaxy’s worries. That said, halflings are often sought out by many spacers as crewmen, cooks, and other non-combatant roles on many ships. The presence of even a single halfling aboard a ship can raise crew morale, not only because they bring the comforts of home with them wherever they go, but also because their fearlessness is infectious: many are the traveler’s tales where a ship was pulled back into the sky by the grit of its captain, the skill of its pilot, and the bravery of its cook.