Giants: A Rough Overview

((This is a general idea I have for the Giants. It is very incomplete and only the Stone Giants will be developed further as most is known about them at this time.))

Giants Race Overview

Overview:

The giants are a humanoid race living in the far northern reaches of Sarvonia and rumored to exist in the lands of Cyhalloi as well. The giants are undoubtedly the largest race in Caeleroth and perhaps the deadliest. Fortunately for many of the "smaller" races, the giants are content to live among the mountain tops of the Icelands, under a deep volcano or in the vast wastes of the Stone Fields of Peat. With a typical height of over seven peds and possessing the strength of a dozen men, the giants are known to be short-tempered, territorial and barbaric. More than one warrior from the Ice Tribes will probably tell you that it takes a small army to battle a giant and there are some areas that the Ice Tribes dare not intrude upon for fear of being victim to massive boulders thrown at them or being crushed under a single blow from a tree-size club. Of the three known tribes of giants, the stone giant is probably best known with more research done on them than the frost or fire variety.

Appearance:

The giants share several typical features - they are tall being well over seven peds in height. Some giants are reported to be at least ten peds in height with a massive shoulder width of almost two peds. The giant appears as a very tall, muscular human with mottled white, gray, black or brown skin. They are usually hunched over with their massive heads hanging low over their chests. Some giants possess no hair upon their heads while some grow heavy and thick matted hair, usually the females. They all possess large hands and feet capable of grasping weapons and tools much longer, wider and heavier than those used by the smaller races. The stone giants are known to use tear down a single tree and create a single club with it.

Clothing typically consists of animal hides. Stone giants wear little to nothing except a single loin cloth, and perhaps a cloak composed of crudely sewn animal hides. The giants wear thick soled wrappings upon their feet, usually hides, tied around their legs using strips of leather or rope. All known tribes of giants wear similar types of clothing without the need to cover up more of their bodies as the giants really have no use for heavy armor of any kind as they have very few enemies or predators. What they cannot strike with their hand weapons, they bash with their clubs.

Territory:

The giants are known to be found in northern Sarvonia and rumored to be found in Cyhalloi. In the Stone Fields of Peat, giants inhabit the desolate fields, though usually only around the periphery of the fields, where they find caves and places of shelter among the rocky terrain. The giants, due to their light-hued colouration and bulky shape, find they are easily camouflaged in the fields. They rarely journey too far into the center of the fields, doing so only when food is scarce, and they are willing to take their chances in the fields trying to take down a cragok goat or perhaps capture a gynnia. Otherwise, they usually stay just inside the perimeter, where they aren’t a bother to the rock trolls, but rather to the ice tribes and surrounding.

Frost giants are rumored to live on the peninsula of Aeh’Os’th’er’oc, a small peninsula in northern Caael'heroth. If so, then these giants would have to be immune to the extremely cold temperatures so far north. The Aeh’Os’th’er’oc lands possess a great many tall snow covered peaks and unexplored passes that could very well house a number of giants. Very few researchers have ever tempted that harsh landscape to find real evidence of them.

Old myths tell of the race of beast people - the Ulvur - also have a word for giant, further making the assumption that frost giants live in the lands of Cyhalloi. However, these are simply myths and no eye witness sightings have ever been told of giants there.

Of the three possible tribes of giants, the fire giant is probably the most rare. The many underground caverns that exist underneath volcanoes and mountains where molten rock flows freely and temperatures reach extreme highs are rumored to house giants as well. The Celeste Mountains of northern Sarvonia is known to house a fire giant or two from the scattered stories from the native Kuglimz and even orcs. Again however, much like the snowy peaks of the North, very few would dare enter a living volcano to search for a monster twice their size and three times their weight.

Diet:

Giants are known to be meat eaters primarily. The stone giants of the Fields of Peat hunt thunderfeet, other giants, cragok goats and gynnia and even human flesh. Whether giants eat any kind of fruit or vegetable is unknown, but assuming that a giant will eat just about anything (and some will tell you that they do) then it would be safe to say that they harvest various berries and fruits.

Mode of Living/Habits:

The race of Giants is known to live among the wilds of nature. Caves are their preferred habitat as giants are not known to live among constructed dwellings of wood or stone. Giants are very simple in their living habits and exist as a hunter/gatherer culture living of whatever they can find. However, this is not always the case as there are very few documented sightings of Frost Giants and Fire Giants who live in large settlements as a group with a defined hierarchy in place. From what is known about the Stone Giants, they exist primarily as loners and rarely group together in large numbers.

The Stone Giants of Peat make their homes in the vast wilderness along the borders of the Stone Fields of Peat. There are several unexplored areas there that are believed to exist a large network of caves from which the giants make their homes. Like most living beings, the giant is a flesh and blood creature and would seek shelter, warmth and a supply of food. Among the wilderness of the Stone Fields of Peat, the Stone Giant hunts the larger prey animals and uses them for food and clothing. Occasionally, the Stone Giant will make themselves known among some of the Ice Tribe settlements sometimes stealing livestock or even an occasional warrior. The Stone Giants are thought to eat anything, even humans and each other if the situation warrants.

What is known of the Frost Giants is little. This tribe of giants live high in the colder reaches of Northern Sarvonia in the vast unexplored peninsulas of Iol and Caael'hereth. Many myths exist of these creatures as very few have explored the cold reaches of these ice peaks let alone seen a Frost Giant's living habits. There is a well known myth among the Osther-Oc of a group of big people who live and even have relations with the lost Osther-Oc tribe in the Icelands of Aeh'os'th'er'oc. There is even some among the half-orc Kaaer'dar'shin tribe who have heard legends that the Frost Giants were used as labourers during the construction of the Deep Winds Portal of Osthemangar. If these myths have any truth to them at all, then it would not be so strange to assume that the orcs of Caael'heroth and the Frost Giants once had, or maybe still do have, a sort of friendly or neutral working relationship.

Of the Fire Giants, even less is known. Kuglimz myths tell of a giant man who bellows and seeths on occasion under the Prominent Mountains causing the land to shift and form. The Ashz-Oc maintain that a walking creature of flame prowls about under the ground stomping and howling in anger. It is said among the Ashz-Oc, who revere elements of the flame in many of their creation myths, that this walking flame monster helped create the first fire and perhaps had a role in the creation of the orc tribes. Even so, the Fire Giants are considered so rare to be mythical, moreso than the Frost Giant where at least there have been some sightings of, even among the Osther-Oc. Of the Fire Giants, no one known as ventured into a live volcano or so deep in the mountain to have seen one.

Beliefs:

Perhaps a new pantheon of Giants deities could be created?

Tribes:

Stone Giant - This tribe of giants live primarily along the borders of the Stone Fields of Peat. They hunt the local fauna there and harrass the Ice Tribes. They have a tenuous relation ship with the stone trolls there and they are rumored to get their water from the hidden underground lake, if the stories are to be believed.

Frost Giant - The extreme northern snow covered peaks of Caaer'heroth are rumored to house the frost giant. This tribe is rarely seen, but most likely heard, as they travel noisily from mountain top to mountain top. They would have to maintain an extraordinary resistance to the cold and most likely live in caves carved within the mountain side.

Fire Giant - The rarest of the giants as only myths exist of this tribe. The stories tell of a group of massive creatures resembling humans living underneath the Celeste Mountains. Volcanoes are also rumored to house fire giants, and like the frost variety, the fire giants would have to possess an extraordinary resistance to the heat of their living area.