If Halflings were Half-Lings - what would the Lings be?

[Wasp]

Hi everyone!

Just a silly idea that came up during a game:

If Halflings were not simply Halflings but Half-Lings - offspring of Humans and Lings just like Half-Elves are descendants of Humans and Elves - what do you think the Ling race could be like? Assuming D&D 5e for the Half-Lings and Humans?

[Millstone85]

Ling could be another word for gnome.

[brian 333]

Brownie.

A human female drinks Brownie Punch and shrinks a few size categories. When the party's over she wakes with a hangover that turns into morning sickness.

I can't imagine a Brownie mom of a halfling because the newborn would outweigh the mom.

[DuctTapeKatar]

It's the predecessor of human. They died out, leaving half-lings and humans.

[Lleban]

Lings sound like small Lynx people.

[Millstone85]

To develop my idea...

Dwarves are a true created race: The first of them were forged on Moradin's anvil. Generations later, the dwarves of clan Ling sought the mineral riches of the Feywild and settled there. The plane reacted strongly to their lawful semi-constructed nature, slowly but steadily remaking them in its image.

The new lings, or gnomes, proved more compatible with humans than their dwarven ancestors had been, both romantically and reproductively, leading to the birth of many half-lings. Around the same time, under the influence of hags, fomorians, and other ugly inhabitants of the Feywild, some lings were transformed into the first gob-lings.

Today, dwarves use all types of lings as a cautionary tale against mining the fairylands. They are nonetheless on good terms with gnomes and half-lings, and ever happy to trade with them for particular gems and metals.

[Max_Killjoy]

It's a mispronunciation, it's actually halflong or halflung... as in the Chinese word for dragon.

[Balyano]

It's a mispronunciation, it's actually halflong or halflung... as in the Chinese word for dragon.

I wrote a longer response but for some reason I got an error when I posted. Not going to recreate it all. But depending on the variety of chinese and the character it's written with you have lots of choices.

among other choices half lings can be
half effective
half clever
half speaking with a soft voice
half deities
half dragons
half nimble
half car ruts
half half
half aged
half an ancient ethnicity from southern china

[sleepy hedgehog]

I wrote a longer response but for some reason I got an error when I posted. Not going to recreate it all. But depending on the variety of chinese and the character it's written with you have lots of choices.

...
half half

Are you saying I can call them linglings?

[Winthur]

Zerglings.

Imagine half a zerg mouth smoking a pipe or indulging in second breakfast and half a pair of hairy human feet.

Also superfast, regenerating, and hungry for blood.

[Spore]

Halflings in Warhammer and LotR are pretty "magic" resistant things.
Halflings in D&D exhibit a friendly demeanor and strong willpower (charisma) without actually being magic resistant (like e.g. dwarves).

Half-lings would need a small or tiny parent race to actually be created. So a few pointers.

a) Gnomes maybe. Depending on the origin gnomes are actually earth spirits who resist magic and/or have fey origin and a cha bonus (Pathfinder).

b) Dwarves. Ever wondered why half-dwarves were never a mainstream thing? Maybe that is why. Maybe dwarves have sexual trimorphism and halfling women and men are three of their sexes.

c) As I like symmetry, and much of D&D is governed by the elements, so take gnomes as earth spirits. Elves are air spirits, dwarves are fire spirits (forges and such) which would lead to halflings being water spirits. Quite a stretch tho. (Actually tho gnomes AND dwarves are probably earth spirits.

So maybe halflings are the welcoming spirits while gnomes are the distant ones.

[LudicSavant]

Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist is half-Ling.

[Rynjin]

It's a mispronunciation that became popular as their true parentage was lost to time. They're actually half-Lengs

[Grim Portent]

Well people who like spiders sometime shorten spiderling to just 'ling.

More seriously since the intent of the OP seems to be reverse engineering Lings by removing the human traits from Halflings, I'd assume them to be very lazy, very gluttonous and prone to extreme nosiness, as those are the primary ways I can think of exaggerating halfling psychology further. Physically shorter than other races, probably about the height of kobolds but rather portly, lots of body hair, very agile and quite strong for their build. Sort of like a chubby ape-man perhaps, but with button up vests and smoking pipes.

I imagine going to a Ling village would be rather unpleasant, lots of fat hairy creatures smoking like chimneys and popping in and out of twee but soot stained little houses to peer at and pester people who pass by.

[Balyano]

Lings could just be brownies. Would explain their size and propensity to stay home. Humans occasionally getting it on with a fey that lives and works in their home? Seems likely. Basically halflings are what you get when you impregnate the house cleaner or scullery maid.

[OGDojo]

if two halflings stand on top of each other they create a ling.

But in all seriousness a halfling would probably be a cross between a human and a faerie of some type. brownie, pixie or others, or all? maybe a halfling is the term given to someone who's a mix breed of a faerie and a human