Pygmies

Pygmies are the smallest of all human races. Some Old Worlder scholars deny that they are human at all, whilst others refer to them as Lesser Men or Black Halflings. They come from the dense tropical jungles of Lustria where they live in small tribal groups.

Nominally they are subject to the Slann Emperor. Their relations with the Slann are sometimes good and sometimes not, but their jungle habitat is so wild that no Slann army would dare to cross it. The Slann nregard the Pygmies as allies of a kind, and sometimes request aid in war, which the Pygmies provide in a token way.

Biology
Pygmies are short and squat, rarely more than five feet tall and often shorter. Although small they are by no means puny. Their skin is dark and their hair black.

Culture
The Pygmies' chief skills are hunting and tracking rather than formal fighting, and their characteristic weapon is theblowpipe with which they shoot poisoned darts. Their weapons and ornaments are made from bone, wood and stone, and the use of metals is altogether unknown, save from items traded with the Slann. Pygmies survive largely by hunting crocodiles, monkeys and lizardz, using poisoned darts to immobilise their prey.

Pygmies believed in two deities - Brobat and Beesbok. Brobat was a deity of work, and Beesbok was a deity of food. Pygmy culture is primitive, colorful and full of ritual. They often paint their bodies in a similar way to the Slann, and are very keen on ornamental mutilation such as nose-bones, lip and ear plates, filed teeth, ritual scarring and tying great big weights to their tender bits. Filed teeth and ritual scarring are considered very attactive (by other Pygmies). Pygmies decorate their huts with the shrunken heads of enemies and captives are often "invited for dinner".

Pygmy wizards are tribal magicians whose powers are associated with nature and the enviroment.

Pygmy chieftains often grow enormously fat, as obesity is taken as a sign of rank amongst these tiny people.

Trivia
The Pygmies were introduced in 1984 in the 2nd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but were discontinued just four years later. They were the cheapest troops available in the whole game at the time.

Now they are mostly infamous in the Warhammer fandom due to their cartoony design and lore, which invokes the infamous blackface portrayal of black people and the old "cannibal African" stereotype.