Creatures of the earth who love a warm hearth and pleasant company, strongheart halflings are folks of few enemies and many friends. Stronghearts are sometimes referred to fondly by members of other races as "the good folk," for little upsets stronghearts or corrupts their spirit. To many of them, the greatest fear is to live in a world of poor company and mean intent, where one lacks freedom and the comfort of friendship.
When strongheart halflings settle into a place, they intend to stay. It's not unusual for a dynasty of stronghearts to live in the same place for a few centuries. Strongheart halflings don't develop these homes in seclusion. On the contrary, they do their best to fit into the local community and become an essential part of it. Their viewpoint stresses cooperation above all other traits, and the ability to work well with others is the most valued behavior in their lands.
Pushed from their nests, strongheart halflings typically try to have as many comforts of home with them as possible. Non-stronghearts with a more practical bent can find strongheart travel habits maddening, but their lightfoot cousins typically enjoy the novelty of it—so long as the lightfoots don't have to carry any of the baggage.
While often stereotyped as fat and lazy due to their homebound mindset and obsession with fine food, strongheart halfings are typically quite industrious. Nimble hands, their patient mindset, and their emphasis on quality makes them excellent weavers, potters, wood carvers, basket makers, painters, and farmers.
Strongheart halflings have all the racial traits of stouts in the Player's Handbook. Strongheart halflings are shorter on average than their lightfoot kin, and tend to have rounder faces. They have the skin tones and hair colors of humans, with most having brown hair. Unlike their lightfoot cousins, strongheart halflings often have blond or black hair and blue or green eyes. Males don't grow beards or mustaches, but both males and females can grow sideburns down to mid-cheek, and both genders plait them into long braids.
Culture
The strongheart halflings are, like the ghostwise and lightfoot
hin, native to Luiren. They trace their ancestry back to the same
long-lost days as the other subraces, but unlike their cousins, the
stronghearts elected to remain in their homeland following the
events of the Hin Ghostwar. The legacy of Chand, the strongheart war chieftain who galvanized his tribe against the threat
of the feral ghostwise, lives on today in a nation that both reinforces and defies many of the expectations nonhalflings have
of this race.
History
The history of the strongheart hin is same to the history of Luiren.
Outlook
Prior to the Hin Ghostwar, the stronghearts were, like their
brethren, mostly a nomadic hunter-gatherer people. During the
centuries that followed that terrible conflict, however, the
stronghearts gravitated toward a more agrarian-based lifestyle
centered around permanent communities. But if the communities were stationery, the stronghearts were not, moving from
established community to established community.
This strange duality of nature, consisting of a desire to move
about freely with a liking for permanent structures and settlements, has produced some unusual outlooks among the stronghearts of Luiren. Their viewpoint stresses cooperation above all
other traits, and the ability to work as a team is the most valued
behavior in their land. Cooperation transcends many boundaries
in Luiren, and even strangers of whom the locals are suspicious
can earn themselves considerable credit and tolerance by demonstrating a willingness to cooperate.
STRONGHEART HALFLING CHARACTERS
Stronghearts have relatively more clerics and
martial characters (fighters, rangers, and paladins)
than their lightfoot cousins, but the skilled rogue
is still the most common character class
among strongheart adventurers.
Favored Class: Rogue. Strongheart
halflings can be tricky, clever warriors
or glib negotiators—or both.
Strongheart Halfling Society
The stronghearts have evolved a
unique, semi-nomadic lifestyle, in which
businesses, families, and even entire clans
move freely and independently from
place to place within Luiren. This
fusion of wanderlust and stability is a
source of wonderment and confusion for visitors,
who find it difficult to comprehend how a
society can enjoy such seemingly whimsical
mobility while retaining any viable structure.
For their part, most of the strongheart hin
cannot understand why anyone would want to tie themselves
permanently to any one community or structure for their
entire lives.
Language and Literacy
Strongheart halflings speak Halfling and Common, and many
pick up Shaaran as well. All but the very rare barbarians
are literate.
Strongheart Halfling Magic and Lore
Strongheart halflings invest more magic in their communities
than lightfoot or ghostwise halflings. Stationary magic items
are far more common; strongheart communities have everything from continual flames lighting the town square at night
to city walls that magically repel enemy arrows. Not every village has such wonders, for the stronghearts aren’t profligate in
their spellcasting. But most strongheart spellcasters devote
their efforts to improving the lot of their communities—even
if the spellcasters themselves will be moving on once their work
is done.
Strongheart
Halfling Deities
The scrupulous stronghearts of Luiren take care to honor all the
deities in the halfling pantheon, but their way of life reflects the
influence of certain powers more than others. They do not favor
any deities from other pantheons, and they actively discourage
halflings from venerating the gods and goddesses of other races.
Among all the Faerûnian halfling subraces, Arvoreen enjoys
the strongest worship from the stronghearts of Luiren. While
the Luiren hin venerate all the deities of the halfling pantheon
in their turn, they hold the Vigilant Guardian in very
high regard. His simple dogma has almost become the
de facto motto of the nation: “Vigilance against
attack will protect the community. Prepare an
active defense, drill continuously, and
leave nothing to chance. Put down danger
before allowing it a chance to rear its
head.” Clerics of the Wary Sword are
among the nation’s foremost religious, political, and military leaders;
most of them multiclass as fighters.
Strongheart druids and rangers
frequently venerate Sheela Peryroyl,
the Green Sister, and they encourage
their fellow hin to be mindful of the
need to balance their communities’ expansions with the need to preserve nature.
Most strongheart communities in
Luiren maintain shrines to the Watchful Mother, usually on the edge of the settled area where it borders the wilderness.
Yondalla, the Blessed One, is the most popular
halfling deity after Avoreen among the stronghearts. Many of the subrace who dwell in Luiren
find the dichotomy of her faith—do not welcome violence, but defend the home and community fiercely—
to be reflective of the strongheart outlook. Yondalla reigns
supreme in Luiren whenever matters of family and tradition are
invoked, and her clergy enjoys considerable respect and influence
in the most important national councils.
Strongheart Halfling Equipment
The strongheart hin understand that they must be ready to
defend their homes and nation literally at a moment’s notice.
They cannot know when a hostile creature or enemy force may
launch an attack from the Luirwood or the Toadsquat Mountains. They have learned from bitter experience that it’s best to
be prepared, even when engaged in such mundane activities as
husbandry and traveling. Therefore they have developed such
devices as the wagon shields (see the appendix), which can be
used to bolster defenses even in the most unlikely situations.
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