Giants
Giants are enormous humanoids.
The races of giants are:
True Giants
True giants are towering humanoids usually 5.5 meters (18’) tall or more. They have immense strength and lifespans that span centuries or even millennia. They are deeply attuned to their environments and their primary element, and their physical characteristics reflect this connection. Most are solitary, yet their sheer presence often shapes the landscapes they inhabit.
The subraces of true giants are:
Fire Giants
Fire giants average 6 meters (20’) tall and weigh up to 5,000 kg (5.5 tons). Their skin ranges from tan to deep red, often darkened by soot and ash. Their hair is typically black, blond, or brown, and their eyes burn with hues of yellow or gold. They can live for thousands of years.
Solitary by nature, fire giants stake out vast territories in volcanic regions, scorched wastelands, and other extreme environments. They require neither food nor water, instead absorbing heat or consuming fire, magma, and lava for sustenance.
Fire giants value strength above all else, and their existence is one of constant struggle, testing themselves against the world’s deadliest forces. They forge their own weapons and armor, wielding massive blades, axes, and warhammers with effortless precision. Most have an innate control over fire and wield elemental fire magic as an extension of their will, immune to even the most hellish infernos.
Proud and temperamental, fire giants bow to no one. They live and fight on their own terms, forging alliances only with those who match their power and earn their respect. They are quick to anger and slow to forgive, holding grudges that last for generations.
Frost Giants
Frost giants average 6.4 meters (21’) tall and weigh up to 5,500 kg (6 tons). Their skin is icy blue and sometimes mottled with crusts of ice. Their hair can be white, blonde, or blue, and their eyes are pale blue or silver. They can live up to 600 years.
Frost giants are solitary wanderers who carve out dominion in the most inhospitable lands, inhabiting the frozen tundras and towering glacial peaks of Praetoria. While able to subsist on ice alone, many prefer the taste of raw, red meat as well.
They are the embodiment of the relentless, unyielding force of winter. They traverse their domain effortlessly, unfazed by blizzards and subzero temperatures. Most are skilled hunters, able to track prey across endless miles of snow and icy crags. In combat, they wield colossal axes, spears, and hammers forged of stone and ice.
Frost giants are grim and stoic. They respect only strength, endurance, and sheer force of will; only those who survive a frost giant’s wrath might earn their grudging respect.
Hill Giants
Hill giants average 5.5 meters (18’) tall and weigh up to 4,500 kg (5 tons). Their skin is ruddy or earthen brown, often covered in grime, dust, or dried mud. Their hair is usually black or dark brown, unkempt and matted, and their eyes range from dull yellow to deep brown. They can live up to 300 years.
They are ravenous omnivores, consuming anything they can kill or scavenge, from livestock and wild game to entire trees when desperate. Their massive stomachs allow them to digest nearly anything organic, and their appetites drive much of their behavior.
Crude, brutal, and fiercely territorial, hill giants roam the rolling highlands and vast plains, taking what they want with sheer physical might. They have little need for weapons beyond the massive clubs, tree trunks, or jagged slabs of stone they swing with bone-crushing force. What they lack in refined craftsmanship, they make up for in raw endurance and brute strength.
Hill giants often live in loosely structured bands, where the strongest leads until overthrown. They respect little beyond overwhelming power and view most creatures as either food, threats, or nuisances. Though not inherently cruel, their dim-witted nature and insatiable hunger make them a danger to anything smaller and weaker than themselves—which is nearly everything.
Stone Giants
Stone giants average 7 meters (23’) tall and weigh up to 6,000 kg (6.6 tons). Their skin is gray or slate-colored. They are bald, lacking hair anywhere on their bodies, and their eyes are typically a dull silver or a pale, grayish hue.
They can live for tens of thousands of years. Subsequently, to a stone giant, time moves differently. What others consider a lifetime, they see as a fleeting moment.
Reclusive and contemplative, stone giants prefer the company of stone to that of living creatures. They dwell in mountains, caves, and canyons, spending millennia carving vast, underground halls and chambers and meditating beneath the weight of the mountains.
Stone giants are not driven by hunger, rage, or conquest. Their diet consists exclusively of rocks and minerals. They are patient and methodical, not only in their lives, but also their every movement. Though formidable in combat, most prefer to avoid conflict unless provoked. When they do fight, they wield massive stone hammers, boulders, and even their bare hands with devastating effect.
Storm Giants
Storm giants are the tallest of the giants, averaging 7.9 meters (25.9’) tall and weighing up to 6,800 kg (7.5 tons). Most have pale light-green or violet skin, dark-green or dark-blue hair, and dark-green or silver eyes. They can live up to 600 years.
They typically make their homes in arctic, subarctic, and alpine regions. They require neither sleep nor food. Instead, storm giants get sustenance and recuperation by drawing upon the raw power of tempests, which they are able to harness and control (e.g., wind, rain, hail, lightning, tornadoes, typhoons, blizzards, and other atmospheric calamities).
They are immune to lightning- and cold-based damage. Subsequently, they often wear fine tunics and leather sandals even in extreme arctic temperatures. In battle, they generally prefer flexible armor, such as chain or scale. They are found living in solitude, male-female pairs, families, and tribes.
Storm giants have a most unusual method of reproduction. Instead of giving birth naturally, gestation lasts until the mother dies, either of natural causes or otherwise. During this time, the unborn children are taught in vitro, learning language, culture, survival skills, etc. Upon the mother's death, they extravasate themselves from her belly, oftentimes as adolescents or young adults, depending on the period of gestation. If they are not mature enough to care for themselves, they are provided for by their father, kin, or tribe.
Giantkin
Giantkin are smaller and lack the elemental attunement of true giants. However, they are still larger than the other humanoid races. With the exception of cyclopes, they are violent and primitive, and their splinters are motivated primarily by hunger, survival, and dominance.
The subraces of giantkin are:
Cyclopes
Instead of a pair of eyes, cyclopes have a single, oversize eye centered in the area between the scalp and nose. Their skin and hair are generally earthy tones. One of the smallest subtypes of giants, they average 3 meters (10’) tall and live to be about 120 years old.
Because of their single eye, cyclopes have poor depth perception, and most prefer melee to ranged weapons; however, their great strength allows them to hurl massive boulders and other large projectiles that don't require precision to be effective. Many have a natural affinity for magic as well, and some scholars theorize that this comes from prescient qualities of their eye.
Birthing has an extremely high mortality rate for cyclopes' mothers, and most only have one child. Subsequently, the population of cyclopes remains low, and threats like disease, famine, and war have resulted in a decline in their numbers over the years.
Cyclopes generally live in nomadic tribes and prefer the open spaces of plains and deserts, with many inhabiting the Broken Lands and its Northwest Lowlands. They usually remain in one area until the supply of game and sustenance begins to dwindle, which is oftentimes predicated on the seasons.
A large number worship Mnephrea, the cyclopean Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. Their culture is typically one of neutrality, instead preferring to watch and record events from a neutral perspective. However, they will defend themselves and their lands if threatened.
Ettins
Ettins have two heads, each with its own distinct personality. They average about 3.6 meters (11.8') in height, with broad shoulders, long arms, and beige to dark brown skin that is typically deeply tanned. Most are muscular and incredibly strong; sometimes, one side of an ettin's body will be dominant and more muscular than the other. They can live for up to 75 years.
These polycephalic giants are typically of low intelligence and easily confused, leading to frequent bickering between their two heads. Consequently, they are quick to anger, often turning to violence when they cannot reach a common understanding or agreement with themselves.
Most ettins have little regard for hygiene or grooming; they dress in worn and tattered cloth or leathers and, as a general rule, would rather be flogged than bathed. It is said that the arrival of an ettin is preceded by both its thunderous footfalls and stomach-churning stench. Their ears and noses are often pierced and adorned with crudely carved bones. They typically favor makeshift weapons like clubs and spears fashioned from stone and wood, although they have been known to use more refined martial weapons if they acquire them. In battle, they are slow and ungainly, yet their powerful attacks are quite deadly if they connect.
Females tend to be more dominant and controlling of their mates. They typically select a partner and attempt to win them over through a colorful display of trinkets and jewelry. If that fails, they will resort to a swift blow to the head to claim their mate. The male will then serve as the female's and brood's guardian, providing food, shelter, protection, and other needs.
Having said that, Ettin are hermitic by nature, and aside from their mate and brood, they rarely congregate in tribes or settlements. When they do gather, these brief affairs usually descend into squabbling and violence.
They primarily inhabit the Northeast Machair. Most are nomadic and travel in search of food, treasure (they are particularly fond of shiny trinkets and baubles), and battles in which they can show off their great strength. As such, they typically live in caves, crude makeshift huts, or anywhere else they can find shelter.
Ogres
Ogres average about 4 meters (13.1’) in height and can live up to 100 years. Their skin is thick, leathery, and ranges from pale to brown, often blemished by warts and other lesions. They are usually bald, although some have a sparse, coarse growth of black or dark brown hair. Their small, dull eyes can be orange, yellow, or red.
Ogres are crude, gluttonous, and violent, driven almost entirely by aggression. They are indiscriminate carnivores, and their massive jaws and thick teeth can crush bone with ease. Their stomachs allow them to digest rotting meat and even toxic substances that would sicken or kill most creatures.
Primarily inhabiting the Great Scar and Wastes of the East, they are mostly solitary, though some join or form warbands and other violent splinters, with a considerable number found among the Drybone Anarchists. However, most ogres lack discipline and, without a strong leader to check their aggression, these groups often collapse into infighting and betrayal. Few ogres build civilizations, forge lasting alliances, or engage in meaningful trade. Instead, the vast majority raid and pillage, preying on the weak, taking what they want, and leaving destruction in their wake.
In combat, ogres rely on overwhelming brute strength rather than skill or strategy. They wield makeshift weapons or use their fists to pummel their foes into submission. While slow-witted, they possess a cunning, predatory instinct, often using ambush tactics and overwhelming force. Their thick hides and immense stamina make them difficult to bring down, allowing them to shrug off injuries that would incapacitate most creatures.
Trolls
Trolls average about 3.4 meters (11’) tall and weigh roughly 1,200 kg (2,650 lbs). Their tough, rubbery skin—typically a shade of gray, green, or greenish blue—secretes a slime-like substance, which many scholars believe is related to their remarkable regenerative abilities. Trolls are able to rapidly heal severe wounds fatal to most species, even regrowing lost limbs within hours. Their coarse hair is usually green, black, or brown, growing in sparse patches and tangled mats, and their eyes are typically black or green. They can live up to 200 years.
Trolls thrive in wet, marshy environments and dense, dark swamps and are found primarily in the Fenmoor Basin and its Bog of Wails. They have an insatiable hunger, driven by their regenerative abilities, which requires the constant consumption of flesh, almost always raw. Much of their time is spent hunting; they often lurk within murky waters and thick vegetation, waiting to strike unsuspecting prey.
While trolls possess low intellect, they exhibit remarkable adaptability and a keen instinct for survival. In combat, most use primitive but effective weapons—clubs, stones, and jagged branches—or tear their enemies apart with their elongated, clawed hands. Trolls are solitary by nature, gathering only to mate, and will violently defend their territory from intruders, including their own kind.
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