Anadian Halfling

These halflings of the scorching innermost planet average 3 1/2 feet, with near-black skin and very dark hair and eyes. They dress in white or other pale colors to throw back the fierce sunlight. Their language resembles common closely enough that talking with visiting starfarers is possible, if painfully slow.

They fight furiously for home and beliefs and gain +3 to hit with bows and slings. Metal is scarce and reserved for heavy weapons and defensive walls around key buildings, so their armor is nonmetallic; in melee they use daggers, short swords and hand axes. They gain +4 on saves against magic and poison, impose -5 on foes' surprise rolls, and count as invisible when deliberately hiding in vegetation in any natural terrain.

Everything about them is extreme: what they like they adore, and what they dislike they despise. Northerners hate whatever threatens communal law and order; southerners hate anything outside their own family.

The northern polar realm has 13 counties, each made up of 10 to 30 villages whose populations run from 50 to over 500. For every 30 residents there are a 4th-level priest and two 3rd-level fighters, while a county as a whole boasts no fewer than two priests of 6th level and ten fighters of 5th. A ruling council of 39 men and women, fighters of 3rd to 6th level and priests of 2nd to 6th, makes sure no county passes laws that curb its people's freedoms.

The southern polar realm has no fixed government. Whichever family seizes power from the ruling one becomes the law, but none can hold control everywhere for long, and much of the region is in anarchy. Constant feuding cuts life expectancy to about 25 years. A fertile woman is a family's most precious asset, and survivors breed prolifically to replace their losses. Few southerners enjoy life, yet no one will stop fighting, since no one trusts anyone else.