The Orden

The Orden is the ancient social order inherited by the Giants from the Titans. Whether the modern Orden bears any great similarity to the Titanic system is a matter of debate among scholars, but it has certainly persisted, recognisably if not unchanged, for millennia.
According to this system, every giant has a place in a grand and fluid hierarchy. This place is determined first by their Ord - the broad, elemental subdivisions of giantkind - and then by their adherence to the principles of Meya – righteous thought and action, harmony and order – and rejection of Asef – its opposite, wrongful doing and chaos. Each of the giant Ordai is expected to adhere to different principles - typically expressed as a trio of 'virtues' - in order to maintain Meya. These virtues, which are linked to the Meya Runes of the Titanic alphabet, are underlaid by a more complex and comprehensive code of laws known as the Lectitanis, or law of the titans.
There are six recognised Ordai, five of which are associated with the Gods of Orden, and see themselves as the direct inheritors of the power and social order of Titanis. The sixth Ord instead revere their ascended titanic ancestors. The Ordai are largely dynastic and separate. While giants of different Ordai may interbreed, and large giant holdings will contain giants of many, or indeed all, Ordai, it is more common to find communities composed primarily of one Ord, loosely connected to communities of other Orden.

Storm Giants (Ordenvar)

The Storm Giants are the highest Ord, paramount within the social hierarchy of the Orden. They consider themselves the inheritors of the Sky Titans and the powers granted by Brontes the Storm-Walker, an aspect of the Old God Iestros, and as such the natural leaders of all giants and the pinnacle of the Orden. As a result, the Storm Giants lay claim to the lion's share of Titanis's treasures and surviving mansions. All of these claims are disputed by the other Ordai - apart from the Hill Giants, who tend to stay away from politics - but possession being a core tenet of the Lectitanis and the Storm Giant dynasties holding so much already, their claim has at least some legal support.
As the self-appointed aristocracy, Storm Giants tend to occupy the grandest remaining mansions. Where they have such things available, they will allocate lesser mansions to the use of other Orden in exchange for fealty or service. Those who do not find their way to leadership roles will typically seek a path as a mystic, seer, rune priest or philosopher.

Virtues of the Storm

Rune	Name	Virtue
	ash	Prophecy	While only a handful of Storm Giants are natural soothsayers, they have a predilection for the divinatory arts, and many of their scholars make a particular study of prophecies ancient and modern.
	noh	Nobility	The Ordenvar not only believe themselves stronger and more capable than other giants, they feel a need to prove their moral superiority in deed and intention. Nobility is a calling and a code for them, as well as the seal of their supremacy.
	seh	Contemplation	Storm Giants hate to act in haste. Some might call them hesitant, but they hold it a cardinal sin to leave any part of a problem unexamined, any fragment of a thesis undeveloped.

Cloud Giants (Ordenskai)

The grandchildren of Stratos, the Sky Father (an aspect of Notus,) are the advisers, chancellors and viziers of the giants. Outwardly generous and good natured, Cloud Giants focus primarily on the liquidity of their community, although their own comfort is a close and highly competitive second. Many modern Cloud Giants are happy to seek advancement to the highest levels of society, but traditionalists will always favour a role beside the throne to a seat upon it.
Cloud Giants most commonly occupy a position as advisers to Storm Giant rulers, maintaining bureaucratic, mercantile and diplomatic dynasties alongside the aristocracy of the Ordenvar.

Virtues of the Cloud

Rune	Name	Virtue
	ull	Wealth	While storm giants are paramount in property, cloud giants are expected to gather more mobile and fungible assets. A cloud giant who is poor is considered a poor cloud giant.
	jah	Generosity	In part the reason why accumulating wealth is an inherent good among the cloud giants is that it allows them to exercise theirt second virtue. A worthy cloud giant is expected to accumulate without meanness, and to give without excess.
	ese	Deceit	The third virtue of cloud is sometimes framed as diplomacy or counsel, especially by the Cloud Giants themselves, but deceit is as good a translation of the proto-Titanic term as any.

Fire Giants (Ordenflam)

The Fire Giants worship Crematis in the aspect they call Laugi the Devourer, a deity of both creation and destruction. Masters of metal, both its forging and its wielding, the grandchildren of Laugi are warriors and battlefield commanders, but also master artisans. They produce skilled exponents of many trades, but it is in blacksmithing that they truly excel.
Because of this role as smiths, the Fire Giants have always maintained some terrestrial presence, usually on the slopes, or even in the craters, of volcanoes. Such communities traditionally answer to a skyborne leader, but increasingly the Fire Dynasties have their own kings and queens.
The meya of a fire giant lies in finding a way to balance their drives towards the protection of their communities and the prosecution of war for its own sake, often on a knife edge. Most giant leaders consider the management of their Fire Giant subjects a vital part of their role.

Virtues of Fire

Rune	Name	Virtue
	gok	Craft	For the fire giants, creation is an act of dominion, stamping one's mark upon the world by bringing into it a thing that was not there before, and never would have been without their actions.
	kha	Defence	That which cannot be protected is not truly yours, but this virtue is broader than mere protection. It encompasses the preservation of things and of knowledge against time, and also all of the strategic aspects of warfare.
	tay	Destruction	To a fire giant, it is not only acceptable to cut loose sometimes, it is a necessity. To restrain one's strength, to hold back from the greatest effort for mercy's sake is unnatural and insulting to one's self and one's foes.

Frost Giants (Ordeneis)

Although they stand in the lower part of the Orden, the Frost Giants, above all other Ordai, cherish their own strength and magnificence. Worshipping a harsh aspect of Marestes that they name Ithazi, the Frost Reiver, they seek paths in life - soldier, raider, even ambassador - that offer them every chance to assert the superiority of the giants over lesser mortals. Traditionally, their place in the Orden is to push forward, testing the authority of their leaders as well as maintaining the momentum of their community.
While most dwell in sky mansions under the authority of Storm or Cloud Giant leaders, the Ordeneis have always maintained their own leadership structures. The position of Frost Thane is not, however, one of great honour; instead, the Thane serves the community by passing on the orders of their liege lords, so that no other Frost Giant has to take orders from another Ord.

Virtues of the Frost

Rune	Name	Virtue
	mah	Might	No frost giant should depend upon another. Even as children they are pushed towards self-reliance, and either to give or to receive charity is seen as shameful.
	feh	Plunder	Frost giants do not accept what they can earn, and will not earn what they can take. It is, to them, always better to pay in effort or blood - their own or others - than in gold or silver.
	oya	Dominance	Frost giants adhere strictly to a hierarchy of strength. While they are expected to seek advancement by challenging those above, to rebel aganst the hierarchy itself is a cardinal sin.

Stone Giant (Ordenstern)

The grandchildren of Gerontes, the Earth Shaker - an aspect of Geostros - are wanderers and storytellers. Although as powerful as any and capable of doing great deeds, their greatest concerns are the observation of life, and its preservation as both art and as history. Although often gifted storytellers, Stone Giants have a deep distrust of oral tradition and a near-compulsive drive to record keeping.
Solely Stone Giant communities are relatively rare. Instead, small groups of Ordenstern occupy mansions in the settlements of other Ordai, acting as chroniclers. Young Stone Giants are raised in these family groups, then strike out on their own to observe the world for a while, before finding their own place to settle.

Virtues of Stone

Rune	Name	Virtue
	ouv	Artistry	While fire giants hold it a virtue to craft anything, stone giants put specific store by beauty and excellence. It is better for them to do nothing than to do something badly, or indeed anything less than superbly.
	bat	Patience	More even than a storm giant, a stone giant never acts precipitately, but while storm giants analyse obsessively, stone giants hew more to the philosophy that every action has an optimum moment at which it will have the greatest effect.
	ris	Memory	This virtue is concerned with the philosophy of record-keeping and historiography, rather than with memorisation, and for the common stone giant often takes the form of journal-keeping.

Hill Giants (Ordentor)

Hill Giants have a formalised outsider status in giant society. They are descended, according to legend, from Gog and Magog, twin Titans who were given the task, either as an honour or as a punishment, of maintaining the terrestrial estates of Titanis. They almost never dwell in the cloud cities, instead living - as their name suggests - in the hills.
Often denied the higher benefits of Titanic science and culture - supposedly in order to keep them from the hands of unworthy mortal neighbours - the twins founded a subculture which obtain the status of ord through sheer stubbornness.

Virtues of the Hill

Rune	Name	Virtue
	oag	Community	Where most giants are united by hierarchies, hill giants recognise intrinsic bonds between the members of a band or township, and the need to support one another for the common good instead of individual advantage.
	ent	Endurance	Where the higher ordai are driven by ambition, the greatest good for a hill giant is simply to persevere against whatever odds are raised against them.
	shef	Gluttony	While few consider this a virtue, Hill Giants recognise it as a cornerstone of survival to gather all that you can, and that consumption is often the best preservative, especially given the impressively efficient digestions of Hill Giants. They also have a considerable capacity for storing nutrients in body fat.