Giants

"Hard as mountains, colder than death, and loyal to the last breath."

The Giants are towering figures born of storm and hardship, descended from the people of Omendahl, the northern coastal nation of old Tarmahc, cradle of the Giants, Humans, and Smallfolk, lost forever to The Great Schism. Though often viewed as brutish remnants of a violent past, the truth is far more complex. These 8-10-foot-tall beings are a blend of human adaptability and stone-like resilience, carrying with them the weight of ancestral bloodlines and half-forgotten rituals. Their forebears are said to have been shaped by the sky itself, baptized by thunder, tempered by frost, and bound to the stone of the northern cliffs, giving them their famed storm-blood: thick skin like weathered bark, and bones said to ring like iron when struck. Once known for their bone-rattling war chants, death-defying shamanic runes, and terrifying raids across the frozen coasts, the Giants were feared and revered in equal measure. Their warrior-priests, the Skystained, would mark the flesh of the dying with sacred ink that told stories to the gods, part prayer, part warning. Today, in post-Schism Everwealth, they are fewer in number but still respected for their tenacity, stone-thick hides, and quiet strength. Their culture is steeped in survival, community, and oral legacy, with echoes of their shamanic past still whispering in how they honor death, endure hardship, and bind their clans. Songs are sung not just to remember the dead, but to weigh their worth; stories are not told, but carved into tusk, stone, and skin. Though modern folk often dismiss them as slow or somber, those who know the Giants understand: they are not a people who speak often, but when they do, the world listens.

Naming Traditions

Feminine names

• 'Brynja'.
• 'Sigrun'.
• 'Yrsa'.

Masculine names

• 'Sten'.
• 'Halvar'.
• 'Varric'.

Unisex names

• 'Alfdis'.
• 'Toril'.
• 'Eirik'.

Family names

Giants typically do not use traditional surnames. Instead, they identify by feats or ancestral titles, such as:

• 'Breaker-of-Oaths'
• 'Son of Ironholm'
• 'Daughter of the Frostshore'

Other names

• 'Stonebloods' - referencing their size and tenacity.
• 'Fellborn' - a term used by others, implying they descend from old, terrible magicks.
• 'Tidebreakers' - a coastal nickname for their resilience and origin.
• 'Grimkin' - a pejorative used by some humans, inaccurately suggesting brutishness or simple-mindedness.
• 'Oathborn' - among themselves, a title of honor for those who uphold their ancestral pacts and values.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

The Giants speak Thraalmor, an old, booming tongue passed down from pre-Schism chants and battle cries. While fluent in Everwealth Common, their dialect tends to be thick, with words spoken slowly and gravely.

• Varrat: “Honor.”
• Thurask: “To die with pride.”
• Halldan: “Clan” or “home-blood.”

Culture and cultural heritage

The culture of Giants is bound to the land, the storm, and the clan. They hold fast to what little was preserved after The Fall, oral legends, songs, and simple rituals. Ruins of their once-mighty lodges remain buried beneath ice and ash, but stories still live. Their spirituality is deeply animistic and shamanic, and while the art of binding magicks to flesh is all but lost, their reverence for such power has never faded.

Shared customary codes and values

• Never turn away kin.
• Speak plain. Lie rarely.
• Earn respect through deed.
• Never forget the land from which you bled.

They value quiet strength, honesty, and blood-bound loyalty. False words and cowardice are greater crimes than murder among their own.

Average technological level

Once masters of weather-bound enchantment and physical fortitude, Giants were never known for fine machinery or complex infrastructure. Instead, they built structures that defied wind and time, and harnessed practical magicks. Most of that is gone now. Today, their technology is tribal and survivalist, simple but effective.

Common Etiquette rules

• Never interrupt a song or story.
• Share warmth, fire, or shelter without being asked.
• Never draw a weapon unless you intend to use it.
• When speaking with elders, stand lower than them as a sign of humility.

Common Dress code

Heavy hides, fur-lined cloaks, leather belts, and layered wool garments dominate their attire. Armor tends to be handcrafted and adorned with bone or obsidian. Jewelry is minimal but meaningful, typically carved wood, runestones, or etched pieces of horn. Many brand themselves with old sigils or scars from youth-rites.

Art & Architecture

Stone halls, cavern-lodges, cairns, and bone altars. Their architecture once rivaled Dwarfish stonework in grandeur, though it leaned heavily into open-air, mountain-perched settlements. Art is carved, not painted, most of their stories are etched into shields, walls, or bone. Songs are sacred, often how they preserve knowledge.

Foods & Cuisine

Salted meats, fermented root stews, cavefish, hard rye breads, and bitter mushroom ales. Giant cuisine is hearty and simple. Cooking is typically done in large communal pots. Grash-brew, a fermented herb drink, is an acquired taste and considered a rite of passage for outsiders.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

• Storm Vigils: Gatherings during storms where tales of old are told and lightning is honored.
• Wound-Binding: Formal apology or allegiance, where a cut is made and then healed together with salve or magick.
• Gravehowls: Mourning cries sung from mountaintops to honor the dead.

Birth & Baptismal Rites

A child is born with three drops of blood placed on their forehead, one from each parent, and one from the clan elder. Their name is spoken only after a full day of survival to ensure they are “of the world.”

Coming of Age Rites

Youth must travel alone into the mountains and return with something of value, a weapon, a beast’s tooth, or a story no one’s heard before. They do not speak of what they endured, only of what they returned with.

Funerary and Memorial customs

Giants believe the soul remains as long as the body does, and so they burn their dead with high flame and oil to release the soul to the sky. Ashes are often mixed with stone and forged into a totem to be kept with kin.

Common Taboos

• Abandoning a comrade in need.
• Lying about lineage.
• Desecrating a fallen foe’s corpse.
• Wearing the colors of another clan without permission.

Common Myths and Legends

• The Howling Nine: Nine Giants who refused to die, howling into the storm until the storm howled back.
• The Bone-Storm Pact: A tale of ancient war-shamans who could resurrect themselves with sacred carvings in their bones.
• Frostmother’s Bargain: The tale of an ancient ancestor who married a glacier spirit to grant her people protection.

Historical figures

Halvarr Bone-Singer: A war-shaman said to have crafted runes that summoned storms. Skari Ash-Eater: The last known wielder of the Giant’s Crown, a helm lost during the Schism. Eydir the Unshaken: A matron-giafntess who held a canyon pass for three days alone, refusing retreat.

Ideals

Beauty Ideals

• Scars are sacred, symbols of survival.
• Calloused hands, heavy brows, wide jaws, and powerful frames are admired.
• Some clans pierce their ears, lips, or brows to mark passage through certain rituals.

Gender Ideals

There are no prescribed roles. Men and women are expected to fight, build, and protect equally. Valor defines worth, not gender.

Courtship Ideals

Love is earned. You wrestle, hunt, survive together. Proposal rituals involve presenting a dangerous or rare object, slain beasts, alchemical reagents, or mythical trophies, to a potential mate. The rarer or more dangerous the gift, the more honorable the gesture.

Relationship Ideals

Mutual protection, shared purpose, and transparency. Secrets weaken the bond. Fidelity is assumed, and betrayal is met with exile or combat.

Interesting Facts & Folklore:

• Bone-Bound Resilience: Old tales claim the bones of Giants were carved from the roots of the world tree, giving them unnatural endurance and vitality.
• Sigil-Blooded Ancients: Pre-Schism Giants bore ritual tattoos and embedded sigils that could trigger regenerative bursts or moments of berserker clarity, now considered lost magicks.
• Shield-Kin of Omendahl: Giants once served as living shields during the coastal sieges of Tarmahc, standing in the surf with spears raised while archers fired between their shoulders.
• Frost-Blood Rumors: Some believe Giants possess diluted elemental ancestry, with blood that slows in heat but runs wild in cold, accounting for their dominance in northern climes.
• Eld-Cairn Slumber: In the oldest barrows of Omendahl, it is whispered that some Giants do not rot, but petrify, resting upright, weapons in hand, waiting for another call to war.

Metaphors & Idioms:

• "The storm sleeps in your bones." A saying meant to imply untapped potential or wrath kept in check, often used as both a compliment and a warning.
• "Strike like stone, wait like glacier." Advice passed between warriors on patience and ferocity, a lesson in knowing when to act and when to endure.
• "Built from grief and granite." A poetic way to describe someone forged by hardship, resilient and unmoving, as most Giants are believed to be.
• "When the blood calls north." A metaphor for instinct, especially a dangerous or ancestral one, often used when someone seems drawn to a path they can’t explain.
• "Even mountains kneel to time." A grim reminder that no matter how mighty one stands, age, fate, or the world itself can still bring them low.