Common Ethnic Traits:

• Suggested Naming Conventions: Halfling Names

• Hair Color: Generally light brown.

• Eye Colors: Green, Brown, Yellow, and all sorts of primary colors!

• Complexion: Fair

• Height Average: Males: 3 ft 2 in–3 ft 8 in | Females: 3 ft 0 in–3 ft 6 in

• Ears: Furry ears on the side of the head. If shaved of the fur, they would resemble halfling ears.

• Carpenters: Where as most dwarves prefer the craft of stone or metal working, Root Dwarves have a strong tradition in carpentry. They're beings of the forest, not unlike the wood elves. And their affinity with small woodland creatures is perhaps stronger than the latter race.

• Earthen Magic: Root Dwarves prefer a sturdy axe just as much as any dwarf, but they retain a magical affinity which has been lost by many dwarven lineages. Wood elves make good druids, enchanters, and illusionists... Almost as if they were more a fairy race than a dwarven race.


Synopsis:

Since the days of the Shiori Empire, the peoples of southern Estellon have long held myths about the little people in the forests. They were an industrious and inventive race, though one that lived in the balance of nature. Expert carpenters, and sly tricksters who stole the secret of magic from the light elves in the ancient eras. The Shiori believed little people were a mere fairy race who dwelled in the forests of Nylathnore. Akin to creatures like nymphs, fauns, and the wood elves, the Shiori scholars described the "Little People" as an immortal race of children who knew eternal life and had the ability to shapeshift into animals and turn invisible at will. However, just like wood elves, the Shiori scholars would turn out to be wrong about them. And these inaccuracies would carry on through the collapse of the Shiroi Empire, as their myths were watered down and became fairytales. Any attempt to find the little people would turn up nothing. That was at least until about 200 years ago, when a company of Treventian explorers and researchers entered Nylathnore, to study the fae. After one of their band saved a faery dragon from sprigans, the faery dragon presented the Ramacci humans with a rare opportunity in those days. A chance to speak with the wood elves who had been trailing them undetected from the moment they stepped foot into the woodland. This was, at the time, a magical experience in and of itself. And the account of their conversations would clear up many of the myths and misconceptions the modern Ramacci once held about the beings of Nylathnore. But while the two races continued to swap stories with one another, the subject of the little people finally came up. And the wood elves would go on to correct them, and inform them about the Root Dwarves, and where they could be found. In actuality, however, Root Dwarves didn't want to be found. After all, if anything were true of their ancient accounts, it was that they had in fact stollen knowledge from the light elves. Allegedly, it was in a time even before humans stepped foot in the world.

​

At first glance, most don’t recognize they are looking at a dwarven race. They lack the signature proportionately large dwarven nose, stand smaller than most dwarves, at a similar size of a human child, and have furry, animalistic ears and bushy tales. Indeed, the Root Dwarves appear more like a type of goblin or pooka than dwarf. And upon seeing them for themselves, they had that very thought in mind. Root Dwarves are perhaps the strangest dwarven race. They have a nearly fae like connection to the forests, much like the wood elves, and they make their living in the trees, in large enclaves which use complicated systems of rope bridges, ziplines, and mechanical wooden elevators to get around. Every bit as isolationist as their stone dwarf cousins were, the root dwarves want nothing more than to be forgotten by the outside world while they stick to themselves, inventing new contraptions and building. But unfortunately, their discovery came at a time when the stone dwarves were trying to rediscover their racial heritage. And the rest of central Estellon were completely intrigued by them. (Thankfully the high elves showed no interest in enforcing their light elvin rights to punishment, and thus largely left the root dwarves alone.) Though they were, however, just as surprised to learn how different they were from the other dwarven races as the hill and stone dwarves were to learn of them. Their genetics baffle the dwarves. All their body hair appears to have gone to their ears, which if shaved, resemble that of hill dwarves. But you know what a hill dwarf doesn't have? A bushy tail. It is as though the Root Dwarves deviated from the main dwarven line very early in the age of creation. Leading some to wonder, perhaps this was one of Esmeranda's prototypes for the dwarven race. A theory, which yet again, contradicts the very cores of Tolgranism, and leads the stone dwarves to continue pulling hair and loosing sleep.

 

But not all Root Dwarves have shown a disinterest in the world around them. There are those who are bated by the allure of outside knowledge. From the sciences of alchemy, to the lore of a new, foster god carrying on in the late world goddess' stead. Root Dwarves can occasionally be found entering into the urban centers of southern Estellon as peddlers, potion brewers, alchemical suppliers, or even to show off many of their inventions to those who may be more impressed than those from their home communities. There are those who have taken up roots in Treventian and Targen cities. (Forgive the pun.) And the rise of the "Urban Root Dwarf" has started to normalize them, at least in southern Estellon. The commonly accepted slang term for these urbanized root dwarves is of course "Halfling." Although those who make their living in these human urban centers generally use their small, unassuming stature to their advantage. And some cities have started to regret opening their doors to the root dwarves. For their appearance and immigration has started to culminate in a rise in the crime rate as pickpockets and pilferers began plaguing the residents. Not all root dwarves are dishonest folk, however. It's just that the few who are, are very good at it. And if you believe the urban legends of the thieve's guild. There's at least one Root Dwarf who is said to run one. Be they immigrants or exiles, there are others who apply their natural talents to more constructive uses. For their time living amongst the Ramacci, it didn't take long to figure out that their skills in going unnoticed, constructing and deconstructing mechanisms, and general luck were heavily demanded skills in other lands. Thus "halfling" adventurers tend to market themselves as rogues. Although root dwarves from Nylathnore who may find themselves becoming adventurers tend to be druids, rangers, and alchemists.