Halfling mythology is best described as vital, wild, and fluid. New stories are told seemingly every day, and it’s common to receive strikingly different accounts of events from two halflings who live on different shores of the same river. Even the relative divinity of a given figure depends on who you’re talking to: Yasmine is a Goddess to some and a demigoddess to others.
To outsiders, this is puzzling and frustrating. But the halflings themselves wouldn’t have it any other way.
There’s just about one thing that just about every halfling agrees about: the great heroes and divines of myth travel. At times, they explore, other times, a few may join each other on the road, and in times of great struggle, they have been known to all travel in a great caravan upon the heavens.
Who they are and why they travel is subject to much spirited debate. Here are some commonalities:
Rondel is many things: plump, jolly, drunk (in some tellings, unbecomingly so), flirtatious, kind-hearted, and maybe a little selfish. Rondel, above all, enjoys fun—for himself as well as others—and travels to seek it out. He is not the great hero of many stories, but he is vital to so many of them—he represents comfort, warmth, and spirit, and is a stalwart friend and invaluable support to his comrades.
Yasmine a frequent companion and something of a foil to Rondel. Where he is carefree and gently hedonistic, Yasmine is determined and practical. Yasmine prefers to go where it is difficult to go—in some stories it’s because she has a duty to fulfill, but in others it’s because she simply enjoys the challenge. Despite their differences in outlook, Yasmine and Rondel get along well together, as both have long since found qualities to admire and cherish in each other… though they’re not above the occasional spat.
Jaffrey, or Jaff, is running from something. Some say he is a thief who has stolen something precious from a more powerful God. Some say he betrayed, or was betrayed, by a friend. Yet others insist that he is being chased by a legendary predator or a sinister evil. Whatever the case, Jaff represents fear, swiftness, loneliness, and thrill, and many a prayer is whispered in his name. He rarely travels with others for long out of fear of endangering those he respects.
Eldice is a warrior. Her personality differs radically depending on who is telling the tale, but her deeds are always heroic and she always protects her charge. Sometimes she seeks the fight—sometimes she seeks the fight in less-than-commendable ways—or sometimes the fight comes to her.
According to some, Eldice is not merely one, but two separate people. Eldice protects the innocent and fights for justice, but her identical twin Candice fights merely for the thrill of fighting and without regard to her victims. Can Eldice and Candice be told apart? Do the other Travelers know of Candice at all? Do Eldice and Candice even know of each other? Only the storyteller knows.
Rokko is the friend to the wild beasts. He tames them, or converses with them, or sometimes even lives with them. In any case, he generally prefers their companionship to that of his fellow halflings, although it is said he has a certain respect for them. Some of his greatest deeds have been done at the expense of mortal halfling populations: preventing loggers from destroying forests or hunters from taking great prizes. And this means that to some, Rokko is a hero, and to others, he is an anathema.
Brandti is the patron traveler of the homeless. His home has been destroyed by fire, by raiders, by earthquakes, by dragons, by accident, or sometimes by his own hand. By most accounts, he is the least talkative of the Travelers, even more taciturn than Jaffrey. Despite that, it is agreed that he is wise in the extreme, and anything he does say is sure to be something of incredible insight and value. In most tellings, he is a powerful wizard who seeks out magic, for through magic he may finally find a home.
Anna is the merchant extraordinaire, always about to ply her wares and make new friends. She almost never travels alone, as she constantly seeks out the company of friends and strangers alike. She negotiates fiercely, but fairly. Many storytellers even claim to have met her themselves—a claim not often made of the other Travelers.
Human listeners are often struck by the diversity of stories told and the outright conflicts between two tales concerning the same God. How can both be true, they ask? Surely one of the storytellers is mistaken. But the truth of the halfling divines is that their lives are not singular. They travel through the planes, through time, and through media unknowable to mortal theologians. Their lives encompass all that is told about them, their forms are ever-changing, and they are quite beyond mortal comprehension.
At any rate, they do have a sort of clergy in our world—their storytellers—and who are we to question their word?