D&D: An Adventurer’s Guide To Yondalla
Yondalla was the mother of halflings. A goddess of fertility and fields, as well as hearth and home. Oh, and illusions.
The halflings of Faerûn owe much to Yondalla. She was the matriarch of their pantheon, but also their creator. Every halfling descends from their mother goddess, who in turn blesses them with bountiful fields and surprising luck. A halfling can turn even the darkest of tides.
All because of Yondalla.
Yondalla – Mother of Halflings
Though the stories of halflings origins were shrouded in myth and contradictory accounts, they all tended to fall into one or two different camps.
The first stories portrayed Yondalla as the mother/creator of halflings. In these tales, she gave birth to the first halflings directly. She was driven to birth them herself after being mocked by the gods for having no children to call her own.
Other stories had Yondalla as more of a creator/mother, in that she assembled the first halflings from the disparate qualities of Faerûn’s other peoples. She gathered mirth from the fey (who were otherwise too frivolous), the grace of the elves (but not their stuffiness and patience), the stoutness of dwarves (but not their dour nature), the boldness of orcs, and the plentifulness of humans.
Whatever the case, once halflings came to be, Yondalla nurtured them carefully. She gave them tenderness, but when the world was unkind, she fought for them fiercer than even the warrior gods. And her secret was a hidden, darker nature.
Dallah Thaun, her Dark Mirror
Dallah Thaun, Lady of Mysteries, was Yondalla’s rebellious dark side. She and Yondalla were once one being, but they physically separated into two “distinct entities” after Yondalla created halflings. But they were still one being.
What Yondalla knows, Dallah Thaun does too. And worshipping one is the same as worshipping the other. But despite being the same, er, being, they couldn’t be more different.
Where Yondalla was kind, Thaun was fierce. Yondalla might nurture the survivors of a tragedy, while Thaun would seek vengeance and justice, often through violent means. In short, Thaun did the dirty work to keep Yondalla’s hands clean.
This meant that the Mother of Halflings could negotiate with Corellon Larethian for the rights to the green spaces of the world, while the daring thief, Thaun, would drive out bandits and demons and wickedness from the grasslands promised to the halflings.
A mother’s love—and her ferocity went hand in hand to protect the halflings.
To this day, they keep Dallah Thaun a secret, never revealed to outsiders.
In return, they live mostly idyllic lives, knowing that two aspects of one goddess are looking out for them.
Happy Adventuring
