24 Chapter 1: Campaigns in tal'Dorei
places. The whispers of Oblivion reached the ears of the
drow nobility as their servitors struggled to stave away the
aberrations that encircled their cities.
The dark elves are a people on the brink of destruction.
Neighbors slaughter one another in the streets of their
cities as they succumb to paranoia. When aberrations can
take any form—or fool the mind into seeing any form—
who can be trusted? Unable to stop their citizens from
mass rioting, the drow elite have grown ever more author-
itarian, commanding their royal guards to keep order
by violently suppressing their people. Amid the chaos,
the drow have begun undergoing stark physical changes.
Some drow commoners have willingly offered themselves
to the aberrations to end their suffering, transforming
into white-eyed, shapeshifting doppelgangers. Some drow
nobles have fallen entirely into devotion to the Spider
Queen, and have willingly sought the Blood of the Spider
Queen to become driders in her service.
Drow rarely come to the surface, for most are too proud to
return defeated to the sun-drenched lands of the Archeart,
even to escape the madness of the underworld. Nevertheless,
some still choose this dishonorable path. If any ever sought
refuge in Syngorn, they were killed by the Verdant Guard
before they reached its gates. Most dark elf refugees live in
secret in the cities of Emon, Kymal, and Westruun, hoping
to live the rest of their lives in peace. A sizeable group of
refugees made it to the elven enclave of Lyrengorn in the
northern Cliff keep Mountains and
live with the wood elves there in
peace. Adventuring drow harbor
a violent hatred of aberrations,
and some leave the Spider
Queen’s faith to become
paladins in service of
the Dawnfather, trad-
ing their affinity to
the dark for a hope in
the light of the sun.Halflings
Halflings are the hillfolk of Tal’Dorei, and have lived as
farmers in the Dividing Plains and the foothills of the
Cliff keeps for many generations—some since the end
of the Calamity. After surviving such harrowing times,
halflings began to wish for a simpler, happier life away
from such dark deeds and higher purpose. Centuries have
passed, and contentment and peace have become the core
of halfling culture. Wanderlust nevertheless simmers
beneath many a halfling’s contented demeanor, and as the
empire of Drassig pushed eastward, halfling communities
found themselves swept up in the evolving new age.
When the Scattered War engulfed the continent, halfling
society was fractured: the Stoutheart Clan supported fighting
against Drassig, while the Lightfoot Clan prefered staying at
home and waiting for this war to blow over. Halflings across
the realm aligned themselves with one of the two clans—but
in the end, even the Lightfoots supported Zan Tal’Dorei’s
rebellion against Trist Drassig. After the war, many halflings
returned to their farms, but others began to assimilate with
the human townships that now dotted the land. Adventuring
halflings, regardless of their allegiance, found the need to
seek their potential too strong to ignore. This has led to many
an outstanding halfling hero striking out into the world and
marking their place in the local history books as champions,
leaders, and even notorious criminals.
The Mornset Countryside has become a new home for
halflings who seek the older ways, though the price for
this untethered life is proximity to dangerous wilds, and
it’s common for farmers here to be forced to take up arms
and learn to defend their land fiercely.lightfoot
The Lightfoot Clan dissolved into its many component
families after the war, but the spirit of the Lightfoots still
survives. They look out for number one first, and are more
prone to running away from conflicts than meeting the
oncoming storm with courage. Yet within the
Lightfoot spirit there is a contradiction; for all
their love of the comforts of home, there is
a certain unquenchable hunger to explore.
Most adventuring halflings are Lightfoots
who have given into this compulsion.stout
The Stoutheart Clan also
dissolved in the wake of the
Scattered War, and its ideals
and identity have not sur-
vived in the same way as the
Lightfoots’ have. Halflings
who display the same
brash personality as the
Stouthearts of old are merely
described as stout, and in
certain communities,
that is a very great