Hill Barrens

The Hill Barrens are a largely overlooked land, just as its inhabitants like it. With the fruitful land of Shalemdel to their north and the open fields of to the south and east, this line of sparsely vegetated hills seem out of place. The poor soil through these hills makes for an inhospitable landscape for most plants, and for that matter most people as only hard root vegetables and grasses can be farmed here. However, with constant warring in the region, the consistency and security of this land has made it the home of the largest population of halfling folk in the world. Just as many people know of the calm civilization that lives in these hills as make notice of halflings anywhere, which is to say very few. But for any time a war has strayed too far and trespassed their boarders, the halfling folk always seem to have a way to handle themselves and rescue their peaceful lifestyle.

Living off of the hard soil of the hill barrens, one would expect to see a cold, desperate society. But the halflings here have long traditions of how to deal themselves better hands. Many a cookbook of halfling secrets has been purchased out of curiosity from a traveling merchant only to be left to the dust when found to be more of a manual for softening potatoes and carrots properly for a stew. But one taste of the handiwork of the halfling folk of the hill barrens shows how much care they put into every aspect of life. Apart from vegetables, these halfling folk have also domesticated rabbits for food. But given their free roaming nature, help was needed to herd the rabbits. To this end, the halflings took an astounding step in animal husbandry and seem to have created a separate species of rabbits to guide the others. These alpha rabbits are larger, smarter and much more like dogs than their smaller brothers, and feature a set of antlers atop their heads. Though much different, the farmed rabbits still follow the lead of these larger rabbits when their halfling masters give their pets the order to round up the herd.