Hearth Orlan

The Orlan are a mischievous and easily distracted kind. They have a penchant for collecting baubles and other knick-knacks with a threat of gleam. They have an innate desire to organise their collections, and as such, they’re often employed by merchants and craftspeople to maintain their funds or as excavators to point towards the richest mineral veins.

Culture

Appearance

At four feet tall, they stand slightly shorter than Dwarves. Hair covers their body, as well as their ears, and even their faces aren’t safe from slight fuzziness. There are three notable variations of Orlan. The Hearth Orlan, the Wild Orlan and Grim Orlan (otherwise known as Goblins). Between themselves and the Wild Orlan, Hearth Orlan have a thinner coat of fur and are less hirsute. They're also the tallest of the three.
Hearth Orlan believe they are safest via assimilation of other cultures. They tend to imitate the dominant culture. In human settlements, this means that Orlan dress in similar fashion styles as an upper-class nobility, albeit with cheaper fabrics.

Society

Orlan are born differently from the other folc: a male Orlan impregnates multiple women, and each, in turn, spawns a litter. A young Orlan has numerous mothers and a single father. Despite the number of parents, the young Orlan might not experience any personal love and affection, always competing with the siblings. This is, of course, dependent on the size of the litter. Their early world is that of stuffed houses, filled to the brim with knick-knacks. These litters bring with them an insidious problem: diseases. It's easy for a Hearth Orlan to contract diseases from each other. The survival rate of a single litter is 67 per cent (this rate is lower for Wild and Grim Orlan).
Hearth Orlan live in what they call Homesteads. Burrows in city outskirts and slums where these large families carve out a living. It's not uncommon for a healthy, young Orlan to set out for himself, joining adventurers to experience a less stagnant life or to be less invisible to the folc around them. These adventuring Orlan are considered troublemakers by those that settled. Those that remain in cities tend to involve themselves with local businesses; some banks are controlled by Orlan.
Hearth Orlan make themselves valuable and welcome, regardless of their pursuits. Their smaller stature helps them stay out of unwanted attention. Clever Orlan have managed to manoeuvre themselves in the upper echelons of Mondevellian nobility, or out of the clutches of a hungry troll. Despite their affable nature, Elves and many Arokh still consider Orlan as mere servants. Perhaps they veer towards human settlements due to the human aversion of slavery and the opportunities they provide.