Saga of the Ortegids: Races

The settings of the Dragon Quest games tend to be quite humanocentric. Almost all playable characters throughout the series have been human, and the ones that aren't tend to be cursed humans or tamed monsters rather than sapient humanoids. In the entire Erdrick Trilogy, there are only two nonhuman polities (three if you count Charlock), and nonhumans are not found in human realms. However, nonhuman races do appear in the Trilogy, and some play quite a prominent role in certain quests. Thus, there is room for discussion on what role the different playable races fill in The Saga of the Ortegids.

In general, nonhumans have their own kingdoms, and there is little overlap in demographics between them and human states. Mixed settlements are rare to unheard of. This is clearly a world closer to Middle-Earth than Faerun. This doesn't mean that nonhumans should never be found in human settlements - I think there's something to be said for leaning into the Blacksandliness of Ashalam and having some beastmen there, for instance - but this should be rare, and worthy of comment.

• Elves are your typical willowy magically-inclined forest dwellers. From what we see of Elvenham in Dragon Quest III, they don't have much in the way of permanent structures, which may imply a semi-nomadic lifestyle, or else they live in the trees and we can't reach their dwellings. I'd be inclined to rule them as wood elves, rather than high elves, but they do tend to be fiercely xenophobic and look down upon humans. They have one kingdom, Elvenham, located in the forests in the far north of the Romalian Empire. I would give them multiple such realms in wooded areas throughout the worlds. In particular, I think it makes sense for them to have a heavy presence in the Worldforest.

• Hobbits appear a few times in DQ3,mostly as one-off NPCs. Of note, the series consistently uses the term "hobbit" rather than "halfling," and I'm going to be keeping that - this project is already an act of copyright infringement anyway, so Tolkien lawyers can't stop me. Curiously, these hobbits tend to be quite solitary; the only two with significant dialogue both live alone in the wilderness, in contrast to the typical bucolic villages we expect of halflings. For The Saga of the Ortegids, I would run hobbits as typically being loners and hermits dwelling far from civilization, leaning into a more fey vibe. Ironically, more Tom Bombadil than Frodo.

• Dwarves do not actually appear in the Erdrick Trilogy, but it feels weird to have elves and hobbits without them, especially if translating the setting to D&D. I would add dwarven strongholds to the mountainous regions of the worlds, likely as self-sufficient and isolationist holdouts that trade little with the outside world to explain their absence from the games. The fact that the world is hollow does have some interesting implications with a subterranean race. There may be dwarves who maintain tunnels linking Erdland and Torland, allowing for travel between the two worlds - though this would, of course, require gaining the trust of the dwarves involved. There is a considerable overlap with hobbits here; one of the hobbits in DQ3 lives in a cave in the mountains, and some translations of the game use the term "dwarf" instead of "hobbit" for these characters. However, the term "hobbit" is used in the GBC release, which is what I'm most familiar with, and the Japanese script specifically uses the word "hobitto," so I'd like to keep them as halflings.

• Beastmen, also referred to as Orcs, would take the place of orcs, goblins, and other monstrous humanoids, and would be represented by their stats. This is a catch-all term to encompass the various humanoid monsters encountered in the Erdrick Trilogy (at least the ones that don't appear to be actual humans, and there's far more of those in earlier games than one familiar with later entries would expect). The series uses anthropomorphic animals more than it uses humanoids with odd skin tones and bestial features - orcs are consistently pig-faced, for instance. So if the Caves of Chaos exists in Torland, it's inhabited by wolf-men, swine-men, bird-men, ape-men, rat-men, and lizard-men instead of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears - which is quite satisfyingly pulpy anyway. There aren't as many of these sorts of monsters in 3 compared to the first two games, so I'd say that beastmen are native to Torland, but they've no doubt established populations in Erdland as well from past excursions. Beastmen tend to be brutish, barbaric, and degenerate, but in the interests of portraying a more realistic ecology than what's in the video games, they would have some degree of society, with villages and fortifications scattered throughout the worlds.

• Dragonborn, or Dragovians, actually fit pretty nicely into the setting. The Dragon Quest games have a number of NPCs who are dragons capable of taking human form, and having dragonborn be playable would represent similar characters. In the interests of game balance, these would have to be lesser descendants of dragons that cannot take the form of a true dragon, but still possess draconic powers. They look mostly human, but may have horns, patches of scales, unusually-colored eyes, or other such features. Their primary realms are Charlock in Torland, and a small kingdom north of the Worldforest in Erdland.

• Tieflings aren't specifically present in the games either, but I would allow them as a playable race anyway. A number of villains in the series have monstrous features that are never really explained, and the amount of demonic incursions into mortal domains would make it quite believable that some interbreeding would occur. Tieflings would be very rare, appearing only sporadically and often being shunned by society, and would not have much in the way of their own civilizations.

• The Drokkarim are something of my own creation. In DQ3, the villain Baramos looks like some kind of saurian humanoid. He's probably supposed to be some kind of demon, but due to technical limitations, they reuse his sprite a few times, including as a generic monster in Zenithia. And one boss, though portrayed in recent releases as Baramos's ghost due to a mistranslation, is actually supposed to be his brother seeking vengeance. Based on this, I've interpreted Baramos to be a member of an entire race I've called the Drokkarim. These creatures are twice as tall as humans, with dragon-like heads and wings and three-fingered claws. They were originally created through the experimentations of the mad wizards of Old Aliahan by breeding humans, demons, and dragons together, and the knowledge behind their creation is long since lost, but scattered populations of them still live on. Drokkarim would be very rare, solitary creatures and would not be available as PCs.

Law in the Green Downs

The Green Downs has little in the way of centralized authority or a code of law. It has no real need for it - the halflings mostly keep to themselves and mind their own business, and the fertile soil and the agrarian livelihoods of most Hinnisch folk means that life is generally sustainable, so individual people have little reason to turn to crime. So too, there is no real governing body to make or enforce laws. While some halfling families may be wealthier than others, any real authority this comes from is mostly in name, and halflings consider it gauche to brag of such things. Generally, legal matters in the Green Downs are an ad hoc affair. If there is truly an issue that needs to be addressed, the community will decide on how to handle it in a community meeting.

The closest thing to a legal system among the Hinnisch people is not in the form of official edicts, but cultural practices. The halflings have held onto their own peculiar traditions through the years, some even being practiced in halfling communities far from the Green Downs - traditions that stem from philosophy, practicality, and folk wisdom, in many cases, but sometimes from more spiritual principles.

One of these beliefs is that a halfling may never take up arms against his neighbor, no matter the circumstances. Most halflings interpret this to mean that a halfling should never cause another halfling harm or inflict injury upon them. To this end, only a few villages in the Green Downs have anything resembling a militia, and those that do are strictly tasked with defending the village from outside threats; halflings will never war among themselves. Most of these are on the frontiers of the region, but in the case of the village of Breetschtaab, which sits in a valley that was once menaced by goblins, the threat has long since abated, and the militia is only kept as a matter of formality. The village has never faced an attack in years, and mostly all the militia does is train in weaponry as a hobby - which has won Breetschtaab many victories at harvest festival archery contests.

This rule also means that halflings do not believe in corporal or capital punishment. In the Hinnisch mindset, to sentence a murderer to execution would carry the same moral burden as the murder itself. Instead, the gravest punishment in Hinnisch society is that of exile. This is a serious sentence indeed, and is not one to be taken lightly. When a halfling is exiled from their community, their family holds a funeral for them even though they are alive, and all in the village are to ignore their presence, treating them as though they were dead. They do not speak to them, nor do business with them, and refer to them in the past tense. To deal with an exile invites bad luck, much as being haunted would.

Art by Campaign Command

This almost always leads to the exile leaving their village and striking it out on their own. In some cases, exiled halflings have been able to find a new life in other villages, and sometimes even settle down in new families there, but word travels quickly at markets, and to be exiled carries a great stigma even outside of one's immediate circle. In other cases, exiles leave the Green Downs entirely, sometimes settling among humans or establishing new steadings of their own. The spread of halflings throughout the known world can be attributed just as much to this practice as it can to the tradition of tolerating the youth's tendency to wander.

Halfling Magic

Strictly speaking, the halflings of the Green Downs are not ones for magic. Mastery of the mystic arts involves hours upon hours of careful study, hours that most halflings would rather devote to honest farm work. So too, in such an insular society, halflings are reluctant to entertain the scholarly traditions of magic from outside the Green Downs.

However, it cannot be denied that the Hinnisch folk often encounter situations in which magic is useful. They too suffer ailments and need protection against robbers and the elements. They too lose tools that no one can find, and they too may be bedeviled by spirits. To that extent, the halflings have their own traditions of spellcraft that exist within their own communities.

In the Hinnisch tongue, magic is known as braucherei, and a practitioner is dubbed a braucher (pl. braucheri). There are only a select few families in the Green Downs that practice braucherei; it is a gift passed down through generations, and most halflings do not bother to study the mystic arts unless they are born into them. The braucher families keep meticulous records of their traditions, sharing their knowledge with their children from a young age to carry on their craft. All braucherei consider themselves members of the same extended family, united by craft if not by blood; as such, they do not intermarry, though any child with at least one braucher parent may have the gift. When a child is born to a braucher family, all braucheri in the nearby villages gather to celebrate the occasion. At these meetings, a ritual is performed to confirm whether or not the child has an innate skill for magic - if they do, they are taught the craft, trained from childhood to carry on the family business.

Braucheri deal strictly in white magic - that is, protective and healing spells. They consider offensive magic and curses - black magic - to be dangerous and unholy, and fear it. In game terms, they are best represented by clerics of the Life or Peace domains. Halfling magic, like the traditions of the cunning folk in human lands, is influenced heavily by religion, and incorporates prayers and the invocation of deities and saints, but braucheri are not ordained members of the Pantheonist cults.

The braucheri collect their wisdom in grimoires - which, in halfling tradition, do not consist solely of spells; a typical Hinnisch grimoire will also contain prayers, mundane remedies, and even recipes for food and drink. These tomes can be considered a collection of all information the braucheri consider useful to have at hand, which, for halflings, includes the more victual pleasures of life. The most prized grimoires of all, however, are the missives of heaven - texts held to have been miraculously delivered from the gods themselves. These texts are magic in and of themselves, and protect anyone who carries them from harm, be it from demonic powers or the hands of men. However, in order for such protection to apply, the user must abide by a code of conduct outlined in the text. Failure to live by its tenets means the spells will be undone.

Braucheri enjoy a position of status within halfling communities, revered as healers, teachers, and religious leaders. Many villagers will turn to them for help that only they can work. However, though it is unusual for halflings in general to stray far from their burrows, and braucheri specifically even more so, there are some that may be found plying their craft in other lands, or along the roads.

Art by Caterina Capogrossi

Background: Braucher

Prerequisites: Must be a halfling. Optionally, a DM may allow PCs of other races to take this background if they have, for whatever reason, been raised among halflings, but this is rare.

Suggested Names: Pennsylvania Dutch names, or classically Tolkienian hobbit names.

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Religion

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kits, one set of artisan's tools or musical instrument of your choice.

Languages: Hinnisch, Celestial.

Equipment: A healer's kit or a herbalism kit, a grimoire, a set of common clothes, and a pouch containing 50 GP.

Feature: Hex Sign. You have been taught several apotropaic sigils, and can imbue them with power; halflings use these to decorate their barns and homes, and they are often of fine craftsmanship, featuring bold colors and artistic designs. You may spend an hour to paint a sign on a building no larger than a barn; all creatures within that building are under the effects of a protection from evil and good spell. This effect ends if the sign is damaged or the wall it is on is destroyed.

Wayward Halfling Youth

Art by Pajazet

As a rule, the halflings of the Green Downs are highly community-minded. They shun overt expressions of individuality as being arrogant and pretentious, preferring to focus on the practical matters of life. However, it is natural for the youth of any society to push back against its norms and values, and halflings are no exception.

In Hinnisch society, it is to be expected that young people will try to act out and rebel against society. The halflings have known this paradigm for generations. As such, they do not push back against it - they know it is natural for their sons and daughters to seek out independence when they reach a certain age, and as long as they are not disturbing the peace, they are allowed to do as they please. The wisdom of the elders holds that the wayward youth will return to the ways of their parents sooner or later; until then, it is best to allow them to live as they please. Fighting against their youthful whims will only encourage them more.

When life in the Green Downs is so heavily focused on the hearth and the fields, and it is considered gauche to be too concerned with matters outside of the home, teenage rebellion, in halflings, tends to take the form of leaving their burrows in search of more adventurous activities than they are used to. They may wish to see more of the world, and to deal with the ways of big folk, integrating into society more than is common in the isolated Green Downs. This period of wanderlust is so common and accepted, it has become something of an unwritten rite of passage in halfling society - in some communities, to leave the home and live among big people is a ritual anticipated by everyone in the village at the cusp of their adulthood.

Most commonly, halflings on this excursion will find work in a given trade in human lands, plying the skills they are familiar with from their time on the farm. They may serve as farmhands or shepherds, or they may ply their trade at woodcraft (the Hinnisch are known as great carpenters). However, it is not unheard of for them to find work in less honest trades. Their quick wits and their ability to fit into tight spaces are valued skills for burglars, and many a halfling has found lucrative work among thieves' guilds and roving bands of treasure hunters.

Typically, a halfling's excursion from their society lasts a few years, and ends with them returning to the Green Downs to marry and establish a burrow of their own (men also grow out their sideburns at this time, as a visual marker of their adulthood). The majority of halflings quickly realize that the farming life is a dependable one, and far less risky than one on the road. However, some of them do choose to stay in human society, which has led to many of them integrating into the settlements of big folk. In this way, they have spread far and wide beyond their homeland in the Green Downs, and can be found just about anywhere in the known world.

Worship in the Green Downs

The halflings of the Green Downs do not construct temples. In the Hinnisch philosophy, to build a specialized edifice for prayer, with all the statuary and ornamentation that entails, is too pretentious. The Hinnisch folk prefer things to be tasteful and practical, and there is no need to pray in gaudy building when one can do so at home.

Nor do the halflings have any priestly or monastic orders. Preferring to live for themselves and to be unbothered, they have little use for rigid hierarchies that arbitrarily allot power to some people over others. Instead, halfling religious traditions emphasize the value of community, and of communal life.

The practices of the Green Downs, though ostensibly part of the same traditions as the formal Pantheonist cults, have little oversight, and they have diverged in numerous ways. A key point is that the halflings believe that anyone can lead worship - if the prayers are written down, the sacrifices to the different divinities are understood, and the people know how to interpret signs that the gods are pleased or not, then there is no need to turn to an external authority for such matters. Holy symbols in the Green Downs are not the purview of clerics, and just about every family keeps a talisman or two to ward away evil spirits, just in case.

In lieu of temples, the halflings observe communal worship in their neighbor's homes. Every other Starday, and on holidays, a given community - usually about 20 to 30 families in the same general vicinity - gathers at the burrow of one of their number (the position rotates such that a different family hosts the service each time, usually hosting once every year), where the head of the household leads them in prayer.

This entails much more than simple worship, however. Much of the Green Downs consists of isolated homesteads, so these meetings present a rare opportunity for the community to come together and for people to catch up on local gossip, considering their only other opportunity to meet up with their neighbors might be on market days. Also, given the halfling propensity for gastronomy, these meetings always include a communal meal, which tends to take up much of the day. A portion of the food is set aside for the gods as a sacrifice, but for many this ritual is merely a formality and the real appeal is getting to share in the company of one's fellows - and to partake in the food, of course. It is no small undertaking to feed an entire clan of halflings, and every host family typically spends several days in advance preparing for the feast, which often includes delicacies seldom enjoyed on ordinary days. To cook a worthy feast and to impress one's guests is an important mark of good burrowkeeping.

Though they are intended to bring the community together, it is not unheard of for halflings to rope any travelers who might be passing through or staying nearby into their services - sometimes among the congregation, and sometimes to help prepare, if they are hosting. They have been known to insist on this, whether the travelers like it or not. Even still, there are plenty of reasons for travelers to look forward to a Starday in the Green Downs. For many, a Hinnisch Starday service is as good a place to hear rumors and local news as any tavern - not to mention to get a good meal and a pint or two of ale, and for free at that. Those unfamiliar with Hinnisch practice, however, should take note that, while ordained priests and monks of most Pantheonist orders study magic and can offer their services to worshipers, most halflings do not - if one is in need of healing, they may need to ask around for an herbalist.

The Halfling Heartland

Halflings can be found in just about any corner of the known world. Of all the humanoid races, they are the most integrated into human society; although they have their own villages, many of them live alongside humans, and vice versa. Halflings - or Hinnisch, in their native tongue - migrated just as humans did, and although they tend to live comparatively sedentary lifestyles, they still found places to settle across the continent, wherever there was pleasing climates and arable land.

However, all halflings claim descent from their native land, the Green Downs - a fertile region in what is now central Vardessy, where the foothills of the rough Schaderbergen Mountains to the southwest give way to rolling highlands and lush valleys. This area boasted good soil, bountiful woodlands, and was a place of relative safety and peace, sheltered from the outside world. In a sense, it was the perfect place for halflings, and the ancestral culture of these people was shaped by the terrain in which they first settled; a culture that still holds strong to this day.

There are halfling villages across Vardessy and beyond, but the Green Downs boasts the highest halfling population in the Empire. A heavily agrarian region, it has no large cities; the vast majority of its populace live in either small villages or solitary homesteads. This is just as the halflings like it - away from the hustle and bustle of urban life, they prefer to focus on the simple things. As the Hinnisch proverb goes, as long as the sun is shining, there is food in the pantry, the livestock are healthy, and the crops are growing, there is no reason to be concerned about anything.

Of course, the halflings of the Green Downs are not without merriment in their lives. Some travelers hold their taverns to be among the finest in the land (if a bit cramped for big folk), and they gather at weekly communal meetings at each others' burrows, where there is much drinking, singing, and dancing to be had. Ostensibly, these meetings are for the reading of prayers and the offering of sacrifices to the gods (Eostre and Solenna being the most prominent in Hinnisch practice), but they also serve as opportunities for local communities and extended families to reunite, and for news and rumors to be shared.

The Green Downs are not a single province of Vardessy - several duchies and counties claim parts of the land under their jurisdiction. However, in practice, the halflings hardly know their feudal lieges' names. Their relationship with the rest of Vardessy is somewhat of a mutual agreement of isolation - the halflings stay out of Imperial business, and the nobility is content to let them govern themselves. Their lives are so mundane that conflicts rarely come up anyway, and when they do, it is usually a matter uncomplicated enough that the patriarchs of the affected families can come to some settlement. But of course, adventure can be found anywhere, for those who know where to look, and the Green Downs holds wonders of its own.

Friday Encounter: Fire in the Hole

This encounter may be used in any rural environment, preferably one settled by halflings. As always, feel free to adjust the details or background of this encounter to suit your campaign setting.

The Encounter

As the party comes over the crest of a hill, they notice smoke rising from a nearby field. If they inspect the scene more closely, they will discover that the smoke is billowing from the open door of a halfling burrow, tucked among some fields - and a crackling fire is raging inside!

Shortly thereafter, a rotund halfling farmer, Murdoch Knepp, runs from the door in a panic. It was fortunate that the party happened by just in time - it was only moments ago that a fire spread from the hearth to the rest of the burrow, and in the commotion, Murdoch ran for the door to save himself. He pleads with the PCs for help in retrieving the rest of his family from the fire (alternatively, if you want the PCs to investigate the fire and are not sure they will do so, you can have them run into Murdoch on his way down the road).

Making Murdoch's predicament more complicated is the fact that, like many halflings, his family is a large one - he lives with his elderly mother, his wife, his brother, and their three children (two sons and a daughter). All of them are still inside the burrow, and have succumbed to the smoke. They need to be rescued as soon as possible!

You may want to use Action Time for this encounter. If so, the party has a limited number of rounds in order to save all six halflings from inside, equal to the number of party members times 1.5, rounded down.

For each round a PC spends inside the burning burrow, they must make a DC 12 Constitution save. On a failed save, they will succumb to smoke inhalation and fall unconscious. Use the same rolls as those for retrieving the halflings if the PCs attempt to move their comrades.

Due to the thick smoke billowing through the burrow, a DC 10 Perception check is needed to navigate through its rooms. On a successful check, the PC finds 1d4 halflings that turn. Roll 1d6 on the following table to determine who they find, rerolling halflings already discovered.

1. Adlai, Murdoch's father

2. Ithra, Murdoch's wife

3. Silas, Murdoch's brother

4. Hiram, Murdoch's elder son, age 10

5. Hanan, Murdoch's younger son, age 8

6. Hosana, Murdoch's daughter, age 4

On one turn, a PC can either look for halflings or attempt to carry them outside, but not both. If they know the location of a halfling, they can attempt to carry them outside to safety.

• A medium-sized creature can carry one halfling, two halfling children, or one small-sized party member without penalty. They can carry two halflings, three halfling children, one medium-sized party member, or two small-sized party members in their turn, but must make their Constitution saves against smoke inhalation with disadvantage while doing so.
• A small-sized creature can carry one halfling child without penalty. They can carry one halfling, two halfling children, or one small-sized party member in their turn, but must make their Constitution saves against smoke inhalation with disadvantage while doing so.
• Two party members may choose to work together to transport the same victims, sharing the load. If so, they receive Advantage on their Constitution save against smoke inhalation. Additionally, two small-sized creatures working together can carry as much as one medium-sized creature, with the same rules applying.

PCs who cover their mouth with a damp piece of cloth receive Advantage on their Constitution saves against smoke inhalation. Creatures that do not need to breathe, for whatever reason, automatically pass their saves.

Some players may think outside the box when it comes to solutions for this encounter - for instance, using magic to create water and using that to put out the fire. Use your judgment on whether or not such solutions would be effective.

If the time limit elapses, the inside of the burrow is consumed by the fire and smoke, and all creatures still inside automatically die.

Further Developments

If at least one of Murdoch's family members are retrieved, he thanks the PCs and bids them his eternal gratitude. His family will need to stay at his sister's burrow (in a small village about a mile to the north) while the rest of the community rebuilds the damaged homestead, but the halflings of the village will see the PCs as local heroes, and will allow them to stay at any of their homes free of charge if passing through the area (and will give them plenty of food all the while). You may wish to mark the hex or point this encounter was obtained on, if using such mapping schemes, in case the players want to return to the village.

In addition, Murdoch will reward the party with 10 GP for every family member saved. If all the halflings were saved, he will also give them a cloak of elvenkind - a treasured family heirloom he was able to save from the fire, but one he feels will be in better hands with the party.

However, the halflings will learn to rely on the heroes they know they can trust. The village is in debt to a nearby warband of orcs, which they pay monthly tribute to in exchange for protection - but resources are growing scarce, and many of the villagers are growing restless. They know they could never stand a chance against the orcs themselves, but the PCs might be what they need to tip the scales - and should the PCs return to the village, the halflings will have a task for them...