You had me at "ride in on a dinosaur."
I went with Wood Elf instead of Halfling, but kept Barbarian for the class and Outlander background. I asked my DM if I could have a dinosaur as a mount instead of a horse, and she said I could have an
Axe Beak if I could justify it with my backstory. I accepted the compromise, and reskinned the "axe beak" monster to be a real-world prehistoric flightless bird.
And so a new faction appeared in the game world: The
Ae'rochben, or "Bird-Riders." They are a remote tribe of wood elves that dwell in the misty jungles of southern Valenar. Much of their culture has developed around large feathered dinosaurs called phorusrhacos, which they have domesticated for use as war mounts, draft animals, and food sources.