Race Position (Communities): Harmonious, intermixed villages.

Race Position (Segregation): None.

Race Position (Rights): All are equal.

Race(s) (Primary): Halfling, Lightfoot; Halfling, Stout; Halfling, Ghostwise

Race(s) (Secondary): (None)

Languages: Halfling (Native), Anishinabe (Trade), Common

Literacy: Low (oral traditions)

Technology Level: Stone Age (pre-contact); now "Dark Ages" (importing metal)

Industries \ Trades: Agriculture (Massive Food Export), Brewing (Ale), textiles, woodcarving, trade.

Arms \ Equipment: Slings, wooden spears (formerly); now importing steel daggers/spearheads.

Government System: Communal (Council of Elders)

Ruler(s): A council of elders from the three Halfling families.

Came to power by: Divine "Seeding" (Y0)

Social Alignment: Neutral Good

Civilization Archetype: Pastoral/The Shire

Settlement Type(s): Villages, farming communes.

Settlement Population: (No data)

Cultural Archetype: (No data)

Rebelliousness: Very Low

Brigandage: Very Low

The Founding of the Tepe

Part I: The Perfect Paradise (Year 0)

When the Fifth World was born, the gods set aside one island chain as a gift. The Tepe Islands were an idyllic, pastoral paradise. They were islands of rolling green hills, lush forests, calm bays, and soil so rich and black it was a farmer's dream.

Into this paradise, the gods seeded the three families of the Halflings:

• The Lightfoot Halflings were immediately drawn to the gentle, rolling hills, where they built their first comfortable, grassy burrows.

• The Stout Halflings, seeing the perfect soil and pure water, immediately began to plan the first farms and breweries, their hearts full.

• The Ghostwise Halflings, a quieter, more primal folk, took to the deep woods, where they began to commune with the land and the animals, acting as the island's first wardens.

For the first two decades, the Tepe Islands were a utopia. The three families lived in perfect, easy harmony. They had abundant food, perfect weather, no natural predators, and no monsters. They were happy, isolated, and completely unaware of the violent wars and insane dragons of their neighbors. They had everything they could ever want.

Or so they thought.

Part II: The Great Want (Circa Y20-Y25)

The Halflings were master farmers, brewers, weavers, and woodcarvers. By Year 20, their villages were comfortable, their larders were overflowing, and their lives were peaceful. But they had hit a wall.

Their paradise was too perfect. It was an island chain of soft, fertile earth and gentle forests. It had no mountains, no volcanoes, no deep, rocky crags.

It had no metal.

The Tepe were a "Dark Ages" civilization stuck in the Stone Age. They could not forge a single nail, a single knife, a single plowshare, or even a single metal hoop for their renowned ale barrels. Their most advanced tools were sharpened obsidian, and their strongest weapons were fire-hardened spears.

This was "The Great Want." The Halflings, resourceful and clever, began to build small, seaworthy rafts. Their bravest Lightfoot sailors were sent out, not to conquer, but to explore, following tales they had heard from migratory birds. They were in desperate search of one thing: rock.

They found their neighbors. First, they found the Hosteki Dwarves in their volcanic isles. The Tepe had nothing the Dwarves wanted... except for their food. The Dwarves had an endless supply of metal, but lived on barren rock, their diet one of grim necessity.

The first, tentative trade was made: a barrel of the finest Stout-brewed ale for a single, priceless steel axe.

This single exchange was the spark. The Halflings realized that their "useless" surplus of food was, in fact, the most valuable trading commodity in the entire Equatorial cluster. They had what no one else did: a reliable, massive food source.

This realization defined their culture. The Tepe would not be warriors or kings. They would be the provisioners. They were the "breadbasket" of the islands, and their mastery of food would be the key to their security, their wealth, and their central, indispensable role in the future Anishinabe Confederacy.