A race of halfling sized barbarians warriors that live on the edge of an undead infested region. They hunt and kill undead on a daily basis, and then bring the corpses to a huge graveyard and ritually bury them in urns so they cannot rise again. The Grave Wardens are their elite undead killers, and they spend most of their time patroling the graveyard making sure everything stays in the ground where it belongs.
They are clannish, and losly based on a celtic cultural background. The first time my players saw their warriors charge into battle with a force of ghouls stripped naked and covered in blue body paint they were more than a little surprised to say the least. Especially when after the battle the mage detect magic showed the paint glowed magically.
Each tribe is led by a council of shaman, the Spirit Lodge, who elect a war leader to lead the tribe on a day to day basis. The councils of each tribe work together to protect their people in a loose fahsion. Their are actually allied with a human empire that helps them protect thier lands (and the flank of the human empire btw) agiasnt the undead. In return the little guys send a precetage of their young and old warriors to the human leagions to act as scouts and skirmishers.
They worship the spirits of the forest, which they see in all things. The little spirits inhabit rocks and saplings, greater spirits inhabiting ancient oaks and rivers. The shaman communicate the will of the spirits to the war leader so he may rule wisely and in tune with their forest home. And since they actuakly can talk to the spirits it makes things very interesting when a tribe has to move because a local ancient tree is unhappy with them being blocking its sun with their cookfires smoke.
The little guys fear a great evil controls and spawns the undead called the Mako. And whenever they use its name they always spit on the gound and recite "cursed be its name". I love that because I've even gotten my players to do it now.
-Ashrum