Kender ("Children of the World")
Appearance
Adult kender resemble young teenage humans: aside from their pointed ears, they could pass as human youths. Despite their attenuate limbs, kender are well muscled. Most stand between 3'6" to 3'9" tall (2d8+36 inches for males; 2d8+32 inches for females), although some few reach 4' 6" tall. Mature kender weigh between 85 and 105 pounds (3d10+80 pounds for males; 3d10+75 pounds for females).
Hair coloration for kender ranges from sandy blonde to dark brown, with some who have coppery red or red-orange hues. Short-cropped shag haircuts are popular in Hylo, but Goodlund kender prefer longer hair: braids, ponytails, knots, and combed manes. Kender cannot grow beards or moustaches.
Although fair-skinned, kender tan quickly, becoming nut-brown by midsummer. Their eye colour varies: pale blue, sea green, olive, light brown, and hazel. Their ears have points, much as elven ears do.
Typically, kender faces bear the intense, bright-eyed inquisitiveness of children. Happy kender grin madly; sad kender wear an intractable pout. When throwing taunts, kender look impish and shout with an incredibly grating tone. Their emotional intensity is infectious.
Kender clothing varies a great deal, but all wear durable, rustic outfits. Bright natural colours and ribbons accent clothing. Males wear shirts, pants or breaches, laced leggings, and soft leather boots or sandals. Females wear a tunic or dress, pants, and soft leather shoes or laced sandals. All kender wear vests, belts, or short cloaks with many pockets.
In their countless pouches, pockets, and belt packs, kender carry a wide assortment of junk: feathers, stones, rings, string, teeth, toys, whistles, paper, charcoal sticks, ink, tinderboxes, buttons, chalk, figurines, handkerchiefs, marbles, mice, dried meat, bones, dried fruit, coins, candles, and so forth. Kender live to 100 years and beyond, always retaining their youthful flair for life. Adulthood begins around 20 years, and old age set in at 70. As kender age, their faces retain a youthful appearance, save for a deepening network of lines and crow's feet. Their hair greys gently, often starting at the temple. Kender consider this aged look attractive, and some accelerate it using mud packs to dry out their skin.
Kender voices range from the shrill tones of childhood to the husky growls of old age. Most kender can create bird and animal calls. When excited, kender speak very quickly or very loudly to make themselves heard. At other times, kender tend to ramble, producing convolute logic and illogic.
Personality
Kender of all ages share a childlike nature: curious, fearless, irrepressible, independent, lazy, taunting, and irresponsible with others' possessions.
Curiosity: Kender are curious about absolutely everything. They are natural explorers. They disgorge the contents of locked cupboards and delve into deep caverns. "Anywhere a rat can go, two kender will be," quips a human proverb. Very little escapes a kender's notice. Kender study every detail in a room, no matter how often they have been there.
This curiosity extends especially to unusual things. Kender love magic items and rare creatures (chimeras, centaurs, unicorns, and dragons topping the list). Gadgets – especially gnomish gadgets – also catch kender eyes. Kender seek beauty in all things: they might prefer an old tarnished coin to a gleaming, newly minted one merely because the tarnished one is unique.
Fearlessness: Kender are often fearless. They cannot grasp their own mortality and thus feel invincible. This fearlessness combines with kender wonder to wash away any dread (and any common sense) they may feel. Kender fearlessness does not, however, equate to stupidity. In moments of danger, kender battle bravely while others cower behind. And kender rarely let their fearlessness endanger anyone but themselves.
Some tales suggest that kender can actually be frightened. Even so, these tales describe such monumental catastrophes that few kender survive to be questioned about their feelings. Irrepressibility: Few on Ansalon can shut a kender up or tie one down. Full of youthful energy, kender dread boredom and seek excitement, entertainment, and fun. Fun for a kender may mean spending hours watching an industrious ant climb over various obstacles. Sadly, though, risky undertakings hold at least as much allure for kender as safe ones. While other party members grimly embark upon a gruelling trail with near-certain death at its end, a kender will accompany them "just for the fun of it."
Independence: Kender believe in the rights and freedoms of the individual. Kender nations have no real ruler because they prefer the freedom of anarchy. They resent being ordered about, and would rather do what they want, when they want. Demanding something of a kender only results in loud complaints, reluctant work, and taunts. But kender willingly volunteer for any task, as long as it is interesting.
Although they demand freedom of choice, kender often fail to consider the consequences of their actions. A kender's impulsive action may back him into a corner from his comrades must save him. "I guess I shouldn't have opened that door with the warnings on it, huh?" Entire parties bristle when a kender utters that awful saying, "Oops!"
Compassion: Kender make lifelong friends. They offer undying (though distracted) devotion and self-sacrifice to their companions. They always aid those who are hurt and they happily share their meagre bounty with those less fortunate. The wounding of a dear friend sends kender into paroxysms of grief. Their grief is so plaintive that it can soften even the hardest heart.
Due to their big-heartedness for others, kender are easily hurt by indifference or cutting remarks from friends. However, they quickly forgive and forget, and this endearing trait makes them extremely difficult to dislike.
Dreaming Laziness: Dwarves say that kender are "good for nothing, lazy doorknobs." True, a kender performing drudgery is like a hobgoblin dancing: it looks and feels unnatural. Kender, however, are among the most industrious creatures of Ansalon as long as they remain curious about their task. Work for work's sake is boring, tedious, and stodgy. Beautiful fields, clever dormice, and antic chipmunks are another matter entirely. Kender love dreams better than realities, and daydreams best of all.
They thrive on stories and storytelling. True stories are routinely modified to make them spectacular, fascinating, and satisfying. But kender willingly listen to any story, no matter how poorly (truthfully) rendered it is. Kender also love music and dance. They have added chimes, bells, and whistles to all of their daily tools. Whether pounding nails into a barn roof or facing down a black dragon, kender always keep their beloved music on hand.
Taunting: Kender, like human children, possess a calculating sense of insult. Their intense curiosity wins for them all sorts of shocking insights into a creature's private life. These insights become weapons in moments of wrath. Kender lash out not only to injure an enemy's pride, but to drive him to irrational behaviour. The lapses in judgement that follow a kender taunt often allow the kender to land a killing blow.
Handling: Kender are oblivious to matters of ownership. If a kender needs something that another person is not using, the kender will innocently borrow the item and put it to use. Curious kender often pick up items for closer examination, then distractedly forget to put them back.
Although dwarves cannot distinguish this action (called "handling") from theft, handlers and thieves differ drastically. First of all, thieves steal for personal gain, but handlers take things due to curiosity and distraction. When a handler's curiosity shifts to a new item, he often loses the one he just picked up. Secondly, a thief always takes the most valuable item but a handler always takes the most interesting one. A handler will prefer a glittering shard of glass to a bag full of dull silver ore. Finally, thieves steal maliciously, knowing that they break moral and governmental laws; but handlers take things innocently, unaware of rules of property that would make their actions malicious.
Although kender handlers have common thieving abilities, they are not thieves. Handlers take quick offence at accusations to the contrary. Even if caught in the act of handling, they have (and believe) many excuses:
- "I guess I found it somewhere,"
- "You must have dropped it."
- "I forgot I had it."
- "I was keeping it safe for you."
- "You said you didn't want it anymore."
- "This looks just like yours, doesn't it?"
- "Maybe it fell into my pocket."
History
The lessons of history stand firm: kender arose when gnomes were transformed by the potent and unrestrainable magic of the Greystone of Gargath. All written histories agree on this fact.
Even so, a splinter group of scholars in Palanthus questions whether kender really came from gnomes. They note the vast dissimilarities between gnomes and dwarves on the one hand and kender on the other. Kender are not industrious; they do not tinker or invent; they have no beards; they cannot focus on tasks at hand; they are not stout and stocky; they do not dwell underground; they do not have rounded ears.
Scholars who have made these contrasts go on to say that kender share many traits with elves. They joyfully embrace life; they disregard work and time; they love woodlands and nature; they look for beauty in all things; they have pointed ears and no beards; their progenitor Balif was a close confidant of Silvanos, and even swore allegiance to Silvanos at the first Sinthal-Elish, several hundred years before the Greystone.
The scholars who have marshalled these arguments believe that kender arose when the Greystone transformed elves, not gnomes. This charge cannot be made lightly, for it flies in the face of every recorded history, especially that of Astinus's Iconochronos. Most scholars still support the histories as they stand, but the splinter scholars gain support daily. The furore still rages.
Both sides agree, however, that the earliest known kender hero was Balif, a confidant of Silvanos. Balif fought in the Second Dragon War (often called the first because it was the first to involve all the peoples of Krynn), and established the kender nation Balifor. He died in 2750 PC.
A second kender nation appeared in northwestern Ansalon in 2600 PC. An entire clan of kender became trapped on the first floating citadel, which drifted northwest and crashed against the spine of the Sentinel Mountains. The kender named their new land Hylo after its citadel, which was high and then low, and after its high mountains and low plains. In 2200 PC Ergoth arose and forcibly annexed Hylo. The Rose Rebellion of 1800 PC returned independence to Hylo.
The Cataclysm struck Hylo hard. All the kender settlements along the bay were swept under by tidal waves and the city of Hylo itself became a port town. The eastern half of the nation disappeared and the western half clung to the newly formed isle of Northern Ergoth.
The Cataclysm also decimated the land of Balifor, turning it into a desert waste. The kender left their homeland to barbaric desert nomads and migrated north. They founded a small forest city on the edge of a human ruin (now called simply "the Ruins" by the kender who explore it). Some kender believe that the Ruins are the remains of one of the missing Towers of High Sorcery.
After the Cataclysm, many kender refused to return to civilisation, preferring to wander the land. Recently, the kender folk were mustered for war by one kender of note: Kronin Thistleknot. This charismatic leader is a powerful hunter turned-warrior. He organised the kender resistance to the dragonarmy threat.
Lifestyle
Kender live in quaint, pastoral villages and towns constructed in the forests of Krynn. Perhaps this is so they can climb the trees, play tag among the boughs or just laze in the shade. Their homes are a variety of incomplete structures: tree-houses, terraced decks, spacious huts, snug little burrows, and tree hollows. All dwellings blend beautifully with their environment. Looking upon a kender city, one sees only bountiful woodlands, winter squash, grape and raspberry vines, and blossoming fruit trees. On closer examination, a city appears. The city gate is simply a passage between sentinel oaks where a footbridge spans a creek. Hedges and gullies form the city's defences and vines mask the porticoed buildings from view. Twisting stairs, rope ladders, and ropeways link the rooftops to each other and to the ground. Kender have small immediate families with 2 or 3 children. For all the noise and fuss in a kender house, one would think there were dozens of children. Most kender happily stay at home, close to playmates. Sometime around age 20, kender are overwhelmed by a desire to wander and see the world. They travel for years, enjoying the mysteries of Krynn, before their wanderlust runs out and they settle down. Some kender draw maps of their journeys, maps that become fairly trustworthy and very detailed after they fiddle with them for years. After wanderlust, kender become rooted into the land, remaining in one place until death.
The sedentary nature of aged kender and young kender allows kender societies to crop up. Kender society is an omnigarchy: rulership by everyone. Everyone does whatever they please, so long as they do not harm each other. Kender value individuality and thus have no desire to force their opinions on others. Despite their blatant lack of law, common threats bring kender into quick co-operation. With little preparation, kender nations can field a formidable army.