Races: Giant

Giants are generally twice the height of an average human, well built and physically strong. They usually have dark brown or coal black hair, light complexions and a range of eye shades. They are great warriors and builders and their intuition matches their physical prowess. They are not, however, especially quick or agile in body or mind. This, however, is not to say they are stupid. They simply go through a slower thought process and don't care to rely on flowery grammar when a simpler word says all they need.

Giants tend to be loners rather than being community driven like most other races. They do have a few scattered towns and villages, usually in mountainous terrain, but much of their adult lives are spent looking for a place where they will just be left alone. If they haven't found such a place by the time old age sets in, they will generally return to their village of birth and live out their golden years.

Giants are a largely misunderstood race. A few have given the whole a bad name, and even most of them had no idea what they were doing was wrong. Take, for instance, Mong whose bemoaning of a tooth-ache nearly leveled an entire town. He wasn't mad at the people or intending to destroy their buildings, but all they saw was this fierce beast covered in muscle and standing 10 feet tall screaming and wailing and thrashing about. It's easy to see how this might be mistaken and even easier to see how stories like these have led to give the race as a whole a reputation for belligerence and violence.

This is not to say that giants are always gentle. The attack on the village we just described above is not a rare occurrence. Anytime a giant is scared, tired, hurt, or confused (especially confused) they tend to lash out in fits of violence. And when they do get angry, watch out...if they actually have a target to unleash their tempers upon then there's little help for whoever it was. (Notice we said was.)

Giants are usually regarded by the other races with a heavy dose of suspicion. This results in giants getting the short end of the stick often, but they have been known to ally with centaurs against humans when it suited the two races to do so. Except for these small periods of alliance, giants are ill at ease with centaurs and don't trust them as far as they can...well, as far as a human could throw them.

There is no confusing a giant with a tall human. Even short giants are taller than most tall humans, not only that but they are bound in muscle and broad as a barn. Their features are more rough shod with deeply set eyes, massive chins, heavy brows and broad faces. They also tend to be hairier than their human cousins, the men almost always sporting bushy beards and long tangles of thick hair. Or they can go from one extreme to the next and be completely bald of head and face. There usually is no in between.

Giants appear in practically every culture's mythology. The Irish called them Fomorians, they appear in Chinese mythology as ogres, and in Norse mythology they are known as Jotunheim.

Famous giants in history:
Mong, Svyatogor, Antaeus, Goliath

Did you know?
Giants aren't technically giants. They are humans with bloodlines that tie into a much larger race long since gone (or, in the case of some mythologies, imprisoned). Cyclops are the truest descendants of these mighty beings in terms of height. Only one of these true giants is known to be alive today and he lives in a castle among the clouds working for Hades as a harpy sitter.

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