The Gods of the Halflings

Like the universal story of Littleman, halflings have a common pantheon which undergoes a great deal of local variation. Community individualism runs rampant among halfling populations; thus, every village will honor the same gods but probably call them by a different name. Among the halflings of the Moonshae Islands in the Forgotten Realms, for example, Yondalla is known as Perissa and is held to have made Littleman on one of those faerie isles. Those halflings who live along the Sword Coast to the south of Waterdeep (not terribly far from the Moonshaes) refer to Yondalla as Dallillia and hold that her origins are as the village goddess of a small woodland community. The halflings of Lurien far to the south insist in turn that their land is Littleman's original home. And of course each halfling pictures Yondalla as belonging to his or her own subrace (unlike Littleman, who is conceived of as sharing characteristics of all the subraces rather than belonging to any single one).

It's important to remember that this distinction extends farther than simply among the subraces. Halfling villages scarcely two dozen miles apart might each have a different name for Yondalla, and the citizens of each might believe that this goddess is a local deity, concerned far more with the single village than with the race of halflings as a whole.

This reflects an important fact of halfling mentality: the only really important things are those that happen close to home. They're far more interested in worshipping an immediate and beneficent deity--one whose responsibilities are to them, and no one else--rather than an abstract goddess who is presumed to overlook the entire race. The remoteness of most human deities bewilders many halflings, as does the deference human worshippers show to their deities. It's not that halflings are irreligious; it's just that while they treat Yondalla and her companions with respect, they're far less in awe of her than is the norm between god or goddess and follower.

As halflings see it, they have a bargain with the gods: in return for their worship, the gods promised to take care of them. Halfling clerics exist to see that both sides of the bargain are kept--to remind halflings to give the gods their due and to remind the gods that they are responsible for the safety and comfort of their loyal followers. Although this sounds like a cold-blooded business arrangement, it is not: stories of the "Bad Old Days" remind all halflings of how much they owe Yondalla, and the average halfling feels both gratitude and affection toward her for her gifts.

In addition, halflings will worship a vast number of very specialized minor deities, variously called "the small gods" and "the thousand home gods." Each house commonly has a protector of its own hearth, often inspired by some matriarch or patriarch in the clan's history. The Homesteader who starts a small community might well be accorded a similar status in later years--that is, his or her spirit might be invoked on matters relating to the health and prosperity of the village. Littleman is widely viewed (by nonhalflings) as a composite of a multitude of these forgotten cultural heroes into one archetypical figure.

Halflings are inclined to see evidence of these small local gods in many aspects of their surroundings. A patron deity of baking might be credited for the way a particularly good batch of bread comes out, for example; if the game is plentiful, the god of the neighboring woods (often pictured as a hare or fox) will be thanked with small offerings. Halflings who fish commonly revere venerable river denizens, such as an ancient and battle-scarred trout. In the latter case, a halfling who hooks or nets the great one will almost certainly let him go--you don't see mounted fish or animal heads on the wall of a halfling burrow!

A full detailing of the most common halfling pantheon is detailed in DMGR4, Monster Mythology. The listing here is intended as an introduction, summary, and quick reference.

The small folk have a very matriarchal view of religion: all their primary deities are female. The goddesses are all concerned with the most important aspects of halfling life; the male gods are viewed almost as sidekicks, ruling over peripheral (if necessary) aspects of life.

The avatar listed for each deity is a temporary incarnation, the form in which that goddess or god is most likely to be encountered during play. Of course, these avatars are not intended as NPCs to be commonly encountered by the player characters--rather, they can be used as beings of more or less normal appearance but great, almost unlimited, power. Perhaps they appear to offer the PCs a warning or to suggest a course of action. Littleman has no avatar, being not a god but a legendary (and possibly mythical) folk hero.

The following are the great halfling gods, universal to the race (though under many guises and names). The real force of daily worship, however, is much more likely to be directed to one of the "small gods," a locally famous deity who can influence the success or failure of mundane tasks and simple, creature comforts.

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