Heblin
Nimble and Stalwart Wagoneers
"Cheering and singing could be heard for miles across the open plains where the Oakwagon caravan set up for the night. More than thirty wagons were arranged as a protective barricade that surounded our blazing fires. Portable grills were set up and used to cook small game animals and vegetables while we all drank and talked. We were celebrating with guests, a troupe of human explorers who have been away from thier homes too long.""While the guests regailed us with tales of their travels they would occassionally glace into the darkness where predators lurked in the shadows outside camp, watching and patiently waiting for any prey foolish enough to wander away from the safety of the wagons."
Knee-high to most humans and twice as scrappy, heblin survive in a world full of larger creatures by either avoiding notice or making friends with bigger, tougher folk. They usually present themselves as either harmless or useful, and so have managed to survive without lands or settlements of their own. They do not have their own governemnt but happily participate in those of larger folk.
Heblin are most concerned with basic needs and simple pleasures. They have little use for ostentation unless given a specific motivation. Even wealthy heblin are more likely to hoard and hide their treasures somewhere well protected rather than present them publicly. They have a knack for finding the most straightforward solution to a problem, and have little patience for dithering.
With a robust oral storytelling tradition, most heblin love words and names. Often, words communicate greater concepts than a simple sentence in Cadence ever could, for example the heblin language has nearly two dozen words for 'water' that denote much more than just the liquid itself - you can use one word to describe water from a river, and another to warn that the water in a pot is very hot. This leads those who don't speak the heblin language to often misunderstand the intended meaning when heblin speak, even in Cadence as the heblin will frequently think the words have more depth and sometime forget descriptors when speaking in other languages.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Heblin are inclined to be lithe and neither women nor men have much body hair beyond their heads and pubic regions. Men often favour trim and tidy beards that match the fashion of the dominant surrounding culture but left on their own or with no desire to conform to the society around them, they'll usually keep their faces clean shaven. Heblin skin ranges from dark brown to tan, often with pinkish undertones, and their hair is most commonly a shade of brown and all manner of coarse, curly, wavy, or coily. They often have brown or hazel eyes but green and blue are possible, just uncommon.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Heblin have a proud tradition as wanderers and nomads. Their caravans usually consist of 3-5 families and anywhere from 2-18 wagons that carry their people and longterm supplies. This stems from an ancient prophecy by one of their now-revered fortune tellers who saw a mountain-side plateau held in the palm of an eight-fingered hand. Knowing that the heblin species needed to find this place, her tribe set out in search of it, building wagons and learning how to deal with the dangers of a nomadic lifestyle.
The main exception to this is Oakwagon, the former caravan that settled in Etude due to life-threatening circumstance. Most heblin essentially shun those from the Oakwagon district and barely consider them to be heblin any more.
Lifespan
200 years
Average Height
1'6"-2'6"
Average Weight
20-40lbs.
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
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