What is "kender"

Kender are a type of fantasy race first developed for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role playing game published by TSR, Inc. in 1984. The first kender character was created by Harold Johnson as a player character in a series of role-playing adventures co-authored by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance shared world novels did much to popularize the kender among readers and players alike, largely through the character Tasslehoff Burrfoot, who became one of the main protagonists in the series.

Tasslehoff first appeared in the Dragonlance adventure module DL1 Dragons of Despair, published in March 1984. The kender are described in a review of the module: "wizened 14-year-olds and, unlike halflings, they wear shoes." The first novel publication featuring a kender was in the book Dragons of Autumn Twilight, published in November 1984.