Lightfoot Halflings
Lightfoots are among the most affable and good-natured halflings. They are typically curious about others and very open to sharing about themselves. Altogether these aspects of their personalities kindled fast courtships and friendships with others. These were often brief, for most lightfoots innately feel a sense of wanderlust that compels them to not stay in one place for too long. Though lightfoots are very loyal and such relationships are genuine, some feel the way they so deftly part ways make those friendships disingenuous.
Due to their personalities many races stereotype lightfoots as being fickle and flighty in nature, being unreliable and easily distracted. However, despite the impression they give such races, these halflings are very cunning, opportunistic, and resourceful individuals.
While not exactly greedy, lightfoots do enjoy wealth and respected the power and pleasures it could bring. However, they are careful not to let greed compromise themselves or their society. In addition to information gathering, many halflings become collectors of different objects, ranging from mundane items like books or weapons to more exotic interests such as artifacts and other ancient secrets.
Lightfoots form tight-knit communities, especially in the cities of other races. Many travel in small bands, often switching members when they come across another band, while others travel in clans made up of several extended families. Members of such communities often pack up and collectively move together to locations that offer new or better opportunities. Many of these communities move regularly, embracing a nomadic lifestyle. When communities travel they typically do so in wagons or boats.
Lightfoots adore keeping pets, for the sake of both protection and companionship. They often keep large hounds. Another common animal kept are foxes, who they admired for their stealthiness and cunning.
Lightfoots typically excel in professions related to traveling, such as cartwrighting, handling of pack animals, navigating, and sailing. Those who spend their lives wandering tend to learn many of the skills associated with these tasks along their travels. Some lightfootsare known to take up the profession of a craftsman, entertainer, or merchant.
Lightfoots typically live in warm plains. They are, by nature, wanderers, and so can rarely be found tied down to one place for very long. Typically, lightfoot halfling clans move from one area to another rapidly, staying in one place rarely more than a year or two. There are exceptions to this rule, however, and in spite of their curiosity and adventurousness, some halflings are drawn to their ancestral lands associated with legends passed down among the clans. Others merely settle more permanently in some foreign land, usually human. Still, it cannot truly be said that lightfoot halflings have any land of their own; instead, they call the whole world their home.
Lightfoots are most comfortable living alongside other cultures, even adopting their cultural practices, right down to their deities. Out of all halflings, lightfoots are the most likely to worship gods outside of the halfling pantheon.
Culture
Major language groups and dialects
Lightfoots typically knew how to speak Common and Halfling. Those who spend their lives wandering picked up many regional and widely spread languages. Some even know how to speak Elvish and Goblin. The majority of their sub-race as a whole is literate.
Common Dress code
Unlike their cousins, lightfoots do not have hair-covered feet and they wear shoes or boots.
Ideals
Beauty Ideals
The average lightfoot halfling stand around 3 ft and weighs around 35‒40 pounds. Lightfoots display the same range of skin tones, hair colors, and eye hues as humans. Though they are most frequently seen to have brown or black hair and black, brown, or hazel eyes. Their skin also typically has a ruddy complexion.
Males usually wear their hair short on the sides, often with the top cut into spikey styles or worn swept back, while females rarely allow their hair to grow beyond shoulder length. Intricate braids are worn by both sexes. Facial hair is relatively rare, with men at most sporting long sideburns or the occasional beard, and women sometimes sporting short sideburns. Mustaches are extremely rare. Facial hair is more common in extremely old halflings.
When not adventuring or entertaining others, lightfoots prefer to wear simple, well-made clothing that is comfortable to wear, yet looks attractive, favoring those with bright colors.
Relationship Ideals
Due to their wanderlust nature, lightfoots can often be seen dwelling alongside other races. They are adept at fitting into most communities, including elven, dwarven, human, and gnomish. There they do their best to make themselves seem valuable and welcomed. They are most frequently found living in or around human societies, as the ever-changing nature of that race's societies allows for easy exploitation.
Some lightfoots assimilate into the communities they settle in, partially or wholly adopting the local majority race's beliefs and views about the world. Those who spend their lives wandering often hold an amalgamation of outlooks from the places they have been. But some act antithetical to how one would expect of them, adamantly retaining their distinctive lightfoot point of view as they see it as being what sets them apart from other races and halfling sub-races.
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