FROSTBORN and the halflings

A reader asked a good question about how “halfling servants” work in the FROSTBORN books, so I thought I’d post the answer here as well:

The “halflings” of FROSTBORN are basically hobbits – smaller and quicker and more agile than humans or orcs, but physically weaker. Because of that, they were originally the slaves of the dark elves and the orcs, and then when the urdmordar conquered the dark elves they basically used the halflings as food and herd animals. So when the humans arrived and defeated the urdmordar, the halflings swore eternal loyalty to the High King and his nobles. By the time the FROSTBORN books start, many noble houses have families of halfling servants that go back for generations, and newer nobles and richer commoners will try to hire halfling servants as a “prestige” thing, like an 19th century English industrialist hiring a butler, a housekeeper, and footmen in imitation of the old aristocracy.

There are human servants (one can’t always hire a halfling) and halflings that don’t work as servants. But in the culture the halfings have developed within Andomhaim, devoted service to their liberators (or the descendants of their liberators, at any rate) is seen as the highest and most honorable calling.

Of course, not all halflings agree with that.

The halflings don’t turn up much in the first few books, but they’re a major plot point in THE MASTER THIEF and THE IRON TOWER, and a halfling is one of the main viewpoint characters in THE MASTER THIEF.

-JM