The culture of nomadic Halflings of the Tatenta Plains
This is In My Eberron, and is no way cannon. It's formatted off the write ups of nomadic cultures from everyculture.com
The nomadic Halflings of the Tatenta Plains do not have a particularly hard or grim life. Given their dragonmarks they tend to not starve or die of needless illness. They are too small to conquerors and too isolated and mobile to be conquered. Being small, they need warriors to fight the big predators that want to eat them and their children, but over all, they have a good life. They have domesticated some of dinosaurs that are near their size, and are skilled at avoiding the larger and more dangerous ones.
Halflings is nomads because the Tatenta Plains is not fertile enough to support them staying one place. At the core of pastoral nomadism is migration, the pattern of which is determined by a combination of seasonal variability in the location of pasture and water. Because water and grass can be in short supply in a particular area at the same time that it is abundant elsewhere, survival of both herds and herders makes movement from deficit to surplus areas both logical and necessary.
There is more information about Eberron Halflings in Learn more: Eberron: Rising from the Last War(2019) chapter 1, Player's Guide to Eberron (2006) “Halflings.” that probably doesn't match what I have written. Use what works for you.
The traditional homeland of the Halflings is the Tatenta Plains though Halfings can be found everywhere in Khorvaire where there is "civilization". You are much more likely to find a halfling in a city or town than the Demon Wastes.
Halfling speak Common and Halfling.
The Halflings typically worship Balinor among the Sovereign Host and are strong followers of spirit worship. Talenta religion is based around reverence for spirits, both departed ancestors and the spirits of the natural world. They see no dichotomy in following both the Host and spirits. Each nomadic tribe has a lath—a chieftain who guides and protects the tribe—but it is the shamans who consult the spirits and choose the paths of migration.
In the traditional Halfling religion, both living beings, dead beings and inanimate objects such as trees had spirits that could guild them. A priest or shaman acted as an intermediary between the spiritual and material worlds. He would consult with the dead, living and dead, while in a trance induced by beating on a magic drum and performing a special kind of chanting.
The themed festivals of the Waundering Festivals, across the Talanta Plains are important to them. https://www.reddit.com/r/Eberron/comments/3uas1s/traveling_festivals_for_the_talenta_plains/
They also have simple holidays at the summer and winter solstices as well as the spring and fall equinoxes. They offer toasts to the elders, eat and drink a great deal, and listen to storytelling all night long. Epic dancing , drumming and singing, as well as other physical activities and more drinking, are part of the celebration. The quarterly festivals are often times of marriage.
There are no inns or hotels in the boundless grasslands, but one can always count on the Halflings for help. Their hospitality displays the generosity that is characteristic of nomadic peoples. The master of a Tardis caravan carts or Tardis tent will put up a stranger for the night. Multiple strangers will be split up among locations. They offer goat milk tea, mutton, and wine. The whole family shows concern by asking detailed questions. Upon leaving, the guest will be accompanied for quite a distance, then told the direction of his destination.
Tardis caravan carts or Tardis tents are the traditional housing of the halflings. Several family member sleep in and round the tent/caravan cart at night.
Cooking is done outside over fires.
Dinosaur riding, or walking, is the traditional mode of transportation.
House Ghallanda will work to make living conditions easier during bad weather or times of trouble. House Jorasco will also do what they can to make people live better and longer. Not saying the houses will make their tribes live like kings, but will help them live better than the environment would allow. Neither House is terribly concerned about payment since this is for family.
The three-generation Halfling extended family is the ideal domestic unit. Although this group, averaging between nine and eleven persons, may sleep under more than one tent or shelter, its meals are generally taken together. Though man and wife units are the norm, it's perfectly fine to have a husband and husband or wife and wife and they can adopt orphans. Families are close-knit with a great deal of attention paid to the children. A newly formed nuclear family tends to remain with the larger domestic unit until it has sufficient manpower and a large enough herd to survive on its own. The children, after marrying, move out of their parents' home. However, they live nearby and may travel with their parents in search of new pastures.All members of a family are magically tattooed (All the tattoo without the pain and can be removed or altered) with a family and personal symbol. Herding families use these marks to distinguish their dinosaurs and other livestock, from those of other families.
Children and infants are raised by the extended family unit. Parents, older siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all take part in the rearing of the young. By the age of 6 or 7, the child begins to take on simple household tasks and soon thereafter becomes a full working member of the family. Adolescence is hardly recognized; by the early teens, the individual is accepted as a full working member of Halfling society.
Halfling society is traditionally open and egalitarian, and the Halfling are known for their courtesy and hospitality to outsiders.
Halflings wear, (and I have to indulge in modern day analogies to describe it), is a mix of 17th century clothes, tribal tattoos and primitive bones and shells. Sort of a mix of burning man and steam punk. Dinosaur leather is always an element of their clothing as well as cotton and linen. Never shoes, how are they supposed to be connected to the Land.
Warriors wear dinosaur skull helmets and more dinosaur leathers. Headers wear more stone and bone jewelry.
The main traditional foods of the halflings include dinosaur meat and eggs, goat, mutton, and milk products, supplemented by found vegetables. Halflings drink the milk of goats, and sheep, as well as tea and wine. Common dishes include dumplings, steamed stuffed buns, and meat pie. Meals are augmented by House Ghallanda cooks.
Grains and flours are purchased from the 5 nations, they are not part of traditional nomadic foods. However, halfling love their bread so they buy the flour.
Supper is the main (and traditionally, the only hot) meal of the day. Dinosaur meat is a protein-rich dietary staple. Even the dinosaur 's blood is used, for sausages. Fish and amphibians caught in the many ponds on the Halfling routes are eaten boiled, grilled, dried, smoked, or salted. Wild berries are another mainstay of the halflings diet. Berry alcohol is prepped and buried and retrieved when they pass through a year later.
Halfling value usable and portable forms of education like history, ballads, animal husbandry, crafting, storytelling, healing. Being nomads, they have no use for education that needs fixed infrastructure like forges or libraries.
The Halflings are known for the House Ghallanda and House Jorasco. Other resources go into detail on the houses.
The Wandering Festivals - Being nomads, they don't have many permanent settlements. However they do have themed gatherings and festivals for every month at various spots across the Talenta Plains where they converge.
The Talenta Halflings have a rich collection of oral literature that includes myths, legends, folktales, riddles, and proverbs that has only recently been discovered by the Dragons to have clues to the Prophesy. Bards are common among nomadic halflings.
Traditional musical instruments are mostly limited to the single-stringed instrument, various types of drums, and a type of recorder or wind instrument. Almost all Talenta Halflings have at least one small drum and are passably good at jamming with other with it. When a halfling is lost, a community will play drums to guide them home.
Most Halflings of the Talenta Plain engaged in livestock husbandry, raising mainly dinosaurs, sheep, and goats. Halflings cooperated in hunting, trapping, and fishing depending on where they are at them time. Talenta dinosaurs, are used for transport and as a source of eggs, and they are the subject of dance and songs. The Halflings develop a reverence for dinosaurs from childhood. Most children love dinosaurs riding, and participate in games and races on dinosaurback.
The division of labor among Halfling is determined age and by the type of animals that are herded. The larger domesticated dinosaurs are the responsibility of the older folk. Children are often barred from close contact with these animals so they don't get killed. It is generally the responsibility of the children to herd, feed, and milk the smaller mammal animals (i.e., goats and sheep).
The Halflings, in general and of House Ghallanda and House Jorasco are employed across Khorvaire and send remittances home to their families to make their lives less hard and buy them luxuries of cloth, flour and better tools and Tardis Tents.
Wandering Inn Is a nomadic pack of caravans that mimics cruise ships and offers the same luxuries one would find in most Ghallanda enclaves. (This is all I know of the Wandering Inn)
The three main sports in the Talenta Plains are clawfoot raptor racing, ranged attacks, and wrestling.
For wrestling, after a day's work, everyone gathers near the Lath's wagon. There is no weight or gender classes, it's a just two opponents. Each are trying to knock the other off balance till they touch a knee and elbow to the ground. But this done while singing an agreed upon song or ballad duet and if one or both stop singing the song, they also lose. In game play terms, the first wrestler makes an athletics or aerobics roll the other wrestler must equal or beat. If they fail, they must make a performance roll save vs DC 15 or they have lost the song and the match.
Halflings use a row of small woven leather rings about 10 feet long. Halflings use short bows to shoot 10 arrows from about 200 feet and the winner is has the most arrows within the rings.
For sling contests, the range is 100 feet.
For the Talenta Boomerang, there is a rod 30 foot way. The contestant throws 5 times and the throws that do damage to the stick count. However if they miss, the boomerang will return, and if they catch the boomerang, they can throw once more. If it misses on the second attempt, it counts as a fail.
Mount Racing, Weekly racing involves the riders and mounts doing either athletics or acrobatics contents. This is speed (athletics) contests of the riders and mounts riding out and back the fastest. Once a month, a complicated course is set that tests the riders and mounts acrobatic skills to weave and dodge the best.
The annual event for wrestling and ranged attacks is the Rough and Tumble Games during Olarune.
The annual Dravago Stock Fair during the month of Dravago, features formal athletics or acrobatics contests for the halfling and their mounts; Carver, Clawfoot, Fastieth, and Glidewing. There are traditional short track races and acrobatic contests similar to their nomadic contests. There is a marathon race of 300 miles over 6 days.
Halflings entertainment is provided both by expressive activities, including storytelling and singing, and physical contests such as wrestling, ranged contest and racing.
A traditional board game for rainy days involves one character playing a clawfoot raptor and the other a hunter and companions. The players maneuver their pieces around a board with the hunter trying to corner the predator before he or she "eats" all the hunter's pieces.
The Talenta Halflings produce beautiful crafts, carving a variety of objects—such as tools and utensils—from bone, wood, dinosaur leather, dinosaur shell, and precious metals (so long it doesn't need a large forge), often with geometric motifs. The Talenta Halflings make decorative beaded jewelry including necklaces, earrings, headbands, and wrist and ankle bracelets. Talenta Halflings also excel in wood carvings, Their crafts are popular tourist purchases, although the Halflings save many of their creations for their own use.
The Tardis Tent. When set up, the inside of the tent is 3x bigger than the outside footprint. Opening door or window flaps does not cause problems. As it taken down, it gently contracts to its natural footprint. If the tent is destroyed, HP <= 0 or less, it violently contracts doing 2d6-2 damage if the tent has contents.)
The Tardis Caravan cart. The Caravan cart is bigger on the inside. The Tardist Cart had one larger room and two smaller ones, with wood walls. The cart is approx 3 times large than it seems on the outside. If the cart is destroyed, HP <= 0 or less, it violently contracts doing 4d6 damage to what ever is inside And then explodes if there is too much stuff for the space.
