What about some sort of beastman race? Not quite halfling or kobold, since they can be anything from a tiger to a mouse beastling.

Beastman (+1 Str, -1 Dex) Size: (Average) Traits: (Basically werewolves. Claw-hands, tail, face resembling one animal species or another) Origin: Chovin & Gruvin (found on both continents) Common jobs: Hunters, Herbalists, Common classes: Fighters, Druids, Shamans

Lore: One of the first ‘created’ races of the world. Stories tell of a great and powerful culture called the Fi’dom, whose city touched the sky. Their mathematics were unparalleled and, it was said, the civilization very nearly touched the stars. It was in this hubris that the gods decided they Fi’ray had gone to far. In retribution for transgressing on the heavenly plane, those who came back were… changed. Cursed with hideous, bestial bodies that made them scions within their own society. Stranger still, the curse began to spread like a disease among the kingdoms of Fi’Dom. Panic and terror began to settle in as people began to fear the outbreak and those affected.

Within only a few short years, the civilization tore itself apart. Mistrust and suspicion became the order of the day, as persecution of the ‘changed’ became systematic. Anyone showing even vestigal symptoms of the transformation was executed. In an attempt to quarantine these creatures, many were shipped off to camps in the frozen wastelands of Gruvin. Social amputation, however, did not stop the spread of the curse, and after only a generation, every Fi’ray had become one of the ‘changed’. In their time of upheavel, neighboring nations whom had always harbored a resentment of Fi’dom invaded and finished the job.

Now a clan without a home, the Fi’ray have mostly become a nomadic and tribal nation. Some of the original quarantine colonies have eked out a living as small trading cities, while rumor tells of tree communes deep in the forests of Chovin…