Ice Giant

Basic Information

Anatomy

The ice giants are bipedal with two arms and one head. They are made from ice and magic and lookl roughly humanoid but sometimes the resemblance is hard to notice.

Genetics and Reproduction

Ice Giants reproduce at an incredibly slow rate.

Growth Rate & Stages

Just like the ice they're made of, Ice Giants grow slowly and it takes years and years until they're fully matured. As long as the climate is cold enough they never stop growing, even though growth is very slow.

Ecology and Habitats

The Ice Giants live in the High North, where the ground never thaws and the snow never fully melts. They live in mountains and glaciers and have built a few cities in ancient times when they used to be a prospering species. These cities are now lost and forgotten, all except one, where the remaining Ice Giants dwell.
Ice Giants need snow, ice and frost, the colder the weather the better.

Dietary Needs and Habits

They eat ice and snow and occasionally fish and other sea food. (Sometimes they eat Northern Sea Elves but that's usually by accident). If it's cold enough they don't need that much food, because the frost and cold gives them energy. During winter time they exclusively eat ice and snow, only in the summer do they consume other life forms.

Biological Cycle

They become less active during summer time and more active the colder it gets.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Ice Giants used to live in small groups, like wolf packs but once they started prospering and runing out of space, they started building cities. Now that only few of them are left, they live in one community in the last remaining city.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

The sacred Relic of Greiforn is made from an ice giant's breath.

Facial characteristics

Ice Giants's faces are rough, all planes and edges. Some are more human like than others.

Geographic Origin and Distribution

They only live in the high north but during the ice age a few of them also ventured farther south over the Greiforn Mountains.

Average Intelligence

Contrary to popular belief, ice giants are actually a quite intelligent species and their knowledge and wisdom is vast.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

They have infrared vision. Their hearing is normal, their smelling too, but their sense of taste is very poor. They can use magic, but the way they use magic is different from most other species. They are more connected to it and have a more intuitive use of it. The magic just flows through them and they have to do little to make use of it.

Civilization and Culture

Gender Ideals

Except for mating, Ice Giants don't make a difference between gender.

History

The Ice Giants are one of the oldest species in Arregeas. They came into being at about the same time as the Dragons, Sea Serpents, Sky Whales, Great Frogs and a few other creatures that were the result of magic influencing the elements. Back then Arregeas was much warmer and the North a lot smaller, which is why there were only few Ice Giants in the beginning.
By the time the Era of Stillness and Silence came around, the North as it is now was formed and the cold spread farther and farther south, the Ice Giants saw a great increase in population and began living in cities.
When warmer climate began thawing the Ice at the end of the Era of Stillness and Silence, the ice giants started diminishing again. They retreated back into the High North where the snow never melted and the ice never thawed, but many didn't make it back over the Greiforn Mountains and died. That left only a small population of Ice Giants and because of their slow reproduction cycles that are also dependent on their environment, the species never rose to prosperity again and nowadays there are so few of them left that most people think they're a myth.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Their interspecies relations are few and far between. The elves from Valmea are somewhat hostile towards the ice giants because some of them get eaten by the giants, ven though on accident. In the past the ice giants used to have relations with the dwarves from Greiforn and they would exchange knowledge about crafting and architecure. The Giantts taught the dwarves how to work with ice and the dwarves introduced the giants to metalwork, but those days are long in the past.

Lifespan

Over 500 years. Some even think they're immortal.

Conservation Status

There are only few of them left, so few in fact that many believe the ice giants to be nothing more than a myth.

Average Height

12 - 20 meters

Average Physique

Ice Giants come in all different shapes. Most people imagine them to be very muscular and burly, but there are also lanky ones, being more similar to an icicle than anything else.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Ice Giants are semi transparent, the ice ranging from different shades of blue tints to white.

Geographic Distribution

• The High North