Minor Giant-Kin

Minor Giant-Kin are small enough to interact with humanoid cultures on equal terms, allowing them to escape the oppressive demands of the Orden and the limitations of life in the shadow of the true Giants.

Goliaths

Goliaths are among the smallest giant-kin. They are sometimes erroneously called ‘half-giants,’ as if they were the direct children of giants and humanoids, but in fact they are the end result of a long process of dimunition among the descendants of giants who left mainstream giant society many hundreds of generations ago. Conservative giants blame this reduction in size on moral decline, while the goliaths themselves tend to attribute it to resource shortages in the environment after leaving The Orden.
Proud descendents of rebels, goliaths have a cultural distrust of civilisation, formality and rules. Their societies are typically egalitarian, fiercely competitive and survival-oriented, and limited to a tribal scale. Goliath social groups are formed around a mixture of blood relations and shared purpose. The general name for such groups is 'sodality', and a sodality is divided into families, which are also not uniquely defined by blood ties. The laws of a sodality are simple, and the first and strongest loyalty of its members is always to their family and sodality.
While most goliath sodalities live in high, mountainous climes, there is a substantial population in the Empty Quarter of Suto.
The goliath worship the Urii, a pantheon of Young Gods who act as proxies for the Gods of Orden revered by their giant progenitors. Some scholars have speculated that the Urii are some form of ascended Titan.
Like most giant-kin, goliaths have a very strong sense of biologically determined gender, incorporating male, female and intersex identities. They also conceive of a distinction between ur- and no-genders, with ur-gender goliaths adopting a strongly traditional role associated with their gender, and no-genders either living a life more associated with another gender, fulfilling one of the many social roles not associated with gender, or living outside goliath society altogether. Ur-male goliath are warriors and herders, ur-females are hunters and cratfers, and ur-intersex goliaths take on mystical roles.
Goliaths also frame their social roles around their giant heritage. Descended from giants of all ordai, they possess a wide range of gifts inherited from those bloodlines. A goliath born with the heritage of storms is expected to be a leader, one with the heritage of cloud to be a merchant or diplomat, and one with the heritage of fire to be an artisan or artist. The heritage of stone is associated with storytellers and scholars, the heritage of ice with warfare, and that of the hill with community and care.

Firbolg

Smallest of all the samordai, the firbolg trace their line back primarily to the cloud giants, and possess fey magic as a result - so their own legends say - of generations spent in the Primal Wild after the collapse of their original cloud city. They have a close bond with the natural world, and lean toward druidic worship. Traditionally prefering to live in small, self-sufficient clans, many do now dwell among the other races.
Unlike many other giant-kin, the firbolg have a fluid sense of gender identity, finding their own sense of self as they grow.
Some minor giant-kin social units take in lesser giant-kin. In particular, verbeeg often find a place, either with goliath bands or firbolg assemblies, which allow them to escape the limited vistas of their birth.