Currentfolk

The Currentfolk are a nomadic halfling people who live aboard interconnected ships, drifting along the seasonal currents of Aethertide’s Warm Belt. Cheerful, clever, and deeply communal, they are master navigators, festival keepers, and the lifeblood of many tropical trade routes.

They sail where the winds are kind and the ocean remembers their names.

Appearance

  • Sun-browned skin, often freckled or wind-worn

  • Salt-bleached hair, worn loose or in festival braids

  • Brightly dyed fabrics, often patterned with stylized waves or wind-blown flowers

  • Nearly always barefoot, with thick soles adapted to swaying decks

Culture & Traditions

Currentfolk live not on land, but aboard vast flotillas of family ships:

  • Vessels are lashed together during still tides to form temporary floating villages

  • Traditions are oral, passed via tideballads, story-dances, and knot-scripts

  • Each ship is a house, temple, school, and tavern all in one

They hold sacred the Migration Circles—seasonal loops across the Warm Belt used for trade, storytelling, and celebration.

Festivals & Food

Currentfolk are famed for:

  • Floating Festivals – Nights of lights, music, and shared sails

  • Saltfire Cooking – Meals grilled over brine-heated stones

  • Drift Games – Acrobatics and races held over moving water

Each flotilla carries at least one storm drum—a sacred percussion instrument used to call or appease winds.

Roles in Aethertide

Despite their carefree appearance, Currentfolk are:

  • Legendary quartermasters – able to stretch rations and stores beyond reason

  • Chartkeepers – memorizing and maintaining maps through song and chant

  • Herbalists & medics, trained in boat-grown kelp and reef-healing tinctures

  • Messengers & whisperers, trusted to carry news across nations

They’re welcome in most ports—from @Myrrh Atolls h Atolls to @Coral Crown Crown.

Regional Influence

Their flotillas commonly pass:

  • @Saffra and @Oliban iban, where spices and stories are traded

  • @Tidewatch City , where some settle as dockfolk and tavernkeepers

  • @The Perfumed Labyrinth , which they consider a sacred rite to navigate

Few own land. Fewer want it.

Unique Traits

  • Floatsense – A preternatural ability to read waves, currents, and ship mood

  • Stormsong Memory – Rhythmic chant used to encode navigation data

  • Flotsoul Ties – Deep magical connections to their flotilla and kin, enabling long-distance empathy

"The sea carries us—not because we command it, but because we listen."

Currentfolk halflings are not driven by conquest or gold. They seek wind, warmth, and the quiet promise of another sunrise shared with kin and sail.