Lightfoot Halfling
The folk of Faerûn are more familiar with the lightfoot hin than with either of the other two subraces, primarily because the lightfoots are the most numerous and widely traveled of all the halflings. Nearly every human community of any size larger than a village has at least a few halfling residents. When most Faerûnians think of halflings, the lightfoots are the people that most often leap to mind.
History
Most lightfoot halflings trace their family ancestry back to the days when a great tribe of their subrace populated the territory known today as Luiren. Following the events of the Hin Ghostwars, the majority of the lightfoot halflings departed their homeland and spread out across northern Faerûn in a great migration. Though some lightfoot halflings remained in Luiren, the subrace has become ubiquitous throughout the settled lands of Faerûn.
Outlook
Lightfoot halflings may be the most common of all the subraces, but their behavior is also the most varied. It's impossible to describe the "typical" lightfoot halfling because, much like humans, the race embodies individuals that are the absolute antithesis of one another. This diversity of behavior is mirrored in a diversity of outlooks: Some halflings adopt views and beliefs about the world that are very close or even identical to whatever human community they happen to dwell in, while others retain distinctive points of view that separate them from other races and groups (including other halflings). It's not uncommon to meet halflings who, because they spend the greater part of their lives roaming from place to place, have outlooks that are amalgams of those from multiple cultures and environments.
The aspect of the lightfoot outlook that most nonhalflings notice, however, is that they are the hin subrace that is most likely to wander out of an innate desire. It is not unknown for individual lightfoot halflings or even entire families to decide that, after living in the same place for decades, they want to move on to someplace else. Some learned folk speculate that the lightfoot hin experience a habitual need to see many different places and enjoy a variety of experiences. Other sages and loremasters wonder if the lightfoot penchant for the semi-nomadic lifestyle is socialized behavior, learned from centuries of practice. These scholars theorize that the lightfoot hin who left Luiren because of the Ghostwar massacres were unable to find a new homeland that suited them as well, so they wandered. After so many hundreds of years of wanderings, the behavior is now natural to the lightfoot hin, or so this school of thought holds. Whatever the case, there's no denying that many lightfoot halflings seem determined to see a great deal of Faerûn and have many interesting experiences during their lifetimes.
Lightfoot Halfling Society
Lightfoot halfling society is hard to quantify, because lightfoots can be divided into three groups: those who live among humans, those who live among other lightfoots, and those who wander from place to place. Some lightfoot halfling families live their entire lives in one place, sometimes as part of a human community, and sometimes in a settlement populated almost entirely by halflings. Others live their entire lives on the roads and byways of Faerûn, never remaining in one place very long.
Language and Literacy
Lightfoots speak Halfling, Common, and the language of their
home region - which, given lightfoot wanderlust, could be almost anywhere. Wandering lightfoot halflings pick up the languages of the places they live, and often learn other widely spread tongues.
