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What major presence do halflings have in Golarion? In other words, do they have any nations? Any organizations? Would it affect the world in any great way to remove them from the setting?
I don't have my Inner Sea World Guide on me, so I can't check it.
They don't have any nations in the Inner Sea region, but might have one 'off the map' somewhere that hasn't been mentioned yet.
The only specific Halfling organization that I've seen detailed thus far is the Bellflower Network, dedicated to helping smuggle halfling slaves out of Cheliax.
It wouldn't significantly affect the game world to get rid of them completely, and you could even keep the Bellflower Network (dedicated to just smuggling slaves, of any race, out of Cheliax, and perhaps even run by a combination of other unpopular races, like half-elves and tieflings!). Ditto gnomes. The elves and dwarves have a small-ish presence on the map, and are mentioned a time or two in the canonical timeline of the Inner Sea region, so they'd require a few sentences to be rewritten to remove from the setting.
Or you could take it in the opposite direction, and have 20-60% of Taldor, Andoran, etc. be halflings instead of humans, greatly increasing their 'footprint' on the setting.
Perhaps *all* ethnic Varisians are halflings? Other than making some of the art no longer fit the setting, it wouldn't mechanically change anything.
(Ditto turning the entire Ulfen ethnicity into dwarves, for that matter. So the long-bearded, axe-wielding, mead-drinking, linnorm-slaying, longship-a-viking Ulfen are five feet tall instead of six. Doesn't terribly change anything but flavor.)
No nations, but the Faction Guide mentions the Bellflower Network who help halfling slaves escape from (mostly) Cheliax.
Halflings and Gnomes do seem to get the short end of the stick...so to speak.
Moar halfling and gnome love in the pipeline by chance? *begs* I realize that Golarion is a humano-centric world, and I'm perfectly fine with that. But there are SOME people who enjoy playing the shorter races, and leaving them with a history with absolutely no...history...seems a bit much.
Dwarves at the very least have the whole Quest for Sky thing to fall back on, Elves have the Soyven Stone (I know thats not spelled right, books not at hand atm).
Do it for Lem and Lini! =) (Or Droogami will eat your liver!)
Do it for Lem and Lini! =) (Or Droogami will eat your liver!)
I couldn't agree more.
Of course, like the other races, there is a book in the Player Companion line, Halflings of Golarion, that gives a lot more detail about them, including this particular topic:
Descriptions of major halfling settlements and communities, and how they differ from nation to nation
I have seriously considered making halflings a subrace of gnome. Mechanically, it would be about the same, but from a background lore standpoint it helps provide some much needed background.