Halflings
The first halfling to step foot in the Dycides came from the people who eventually conquered the Ethium region. As voyagers from the far flung horizon, they saw a well grown nation, active ideals of commerce and trade and got their big hairy foot in the door. According to old Traderfolk Halflings their negotiations were accepted then and there, and they got off the ships, while everyone else were sent South to the dragon infested lands to conquer. History implies otherwise, that as the trade routes that eventually connected the pre-Ethium southern deserts were first walked by the resilient Halfling Wayfinders trying to find a connecting path to the far northern lands of plenty. As trade begun to flow many Traderfolk and Wayfinders emigrated to the Dycides to find a new future among a new group of bigfolk.
The halflings that now populate the Dycides come in three varieties. The independent and constantly travelling Wayfinders, are invested in plotting and establishing every border, and pacing every step of the Dycides. Driven by the wild places, they still congregate together on occasion to exchange maps, help define the holdings of the rich, and bring more effienct routes to their silver tongued cousins. The Traderfolk, though also on a near endless trek, prefer the surroundings of family and well travel passages where they can negotiate their way into success. Ironically, they took the name Traderfolk in reverence to the Grippli Riverfolk. Traderfolk who not born swimmers realized they had no chance cornering that market, as they reached out to corner as many others that they could.
The sad truth for many of these people, by being on the road constantly it leaves them vulnerable to abduction and potential enslavement. Many members of their kind have been dragged to the Iron Grasp to work in mithril mines for what remains of their exhausted and shortened lives. Over generations of breeding and perhaps some deep dark magic, the Shadowstitched arose. Twisted and cruel, the Shadowstitched have been bred to have creepily doll like bodies, and use them to infiltrate the rest of the Dycides and abduct children and families to join the dwarven slave ranks. Often distrusted for good reasons, some few have escaped the influence of their Dwarven oppressors but none have broken free of a mind filled with sadistic desire.
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