Clay Giant Culture

Way of Life for the Hardy Folk

The plains give way to hills, mountains, waves of plantlife that harbor immense herds of roaming beasts that make their homes in the large valley often called the Cradle of Clay. Native plants blanket every inch of the earth here except where the interwoven patchwork has been tilled and cultivated with different plants, ones that will become a food source for the peoples that call this place home. With such idyllic farmland in view, one would expect something much different from the hulking forms of the Clay Giants that live and work throughout the Cradle of Clay.
One part of the warring clans of the Giants and their Hierarchy, the Clay Giants have made their home in the fertile lands of the Cradle of Clay, serving as stewards and shepards, leaving the life of war and battle for one of peace and farming. These people trust their faith into the goddess Rerena and the land that brings forth new life, a constant, sustaining cycle that allows for story and growth. While the Clay Giants share little in common with the Centaurs that share their homeland, both understand the infinite power of story and tradition.
Among the rolling hills of the Cradle of Clay, the Clay Giants have built a life on simple tenets, the ideas of storytelling, farming, and growth. Growth can come in many ways, whether through study or hard labor. Even removed from their ancestors, the Clay Giants still hold to few of their warring tendencies, of strength, bravery, glory. These things can be gained in many ways outside of the bloodshed that the Hierarchy believes in, a fact that creates a far deeper separation from the Giantkin they once called brothers.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Through the teachings of Rerena and their ties with the Humans, the Clay Giants strove to far remove their culture from that of the Giants. Instead of war and expansion, they turned toward farming and husbandry, trades that were fulfilling but still required the immense strength the Clay Giants had. Even with their more peaceful life in the Cradle of Clay, strength, glory, and bravery were still sought after traits, things that all were to strive for. While many traditions from the Hierarchy were tossed to the side, those involving war and fighting remained, although altered.
No matter where a Clay Giant may roam or where they may live within the Cradle of Clay, these people will often adhere strictly to the ways of their people and the respect that is paramount to their traditions. A sense of tribe and influence does not leave when one ventures outside of the Cradle of Clay. Tradition and story are everything to these people.

Beliefs

All races in Isekai have a set of beliefs that they consider their law. Clay Giants see their law as one of strength and stewardship.

1. Strive! Strive for strength! Strive for bravery! Strive for glory! The Clay Giants shall be many things and called many names but we shall never be unknown!
2. Fights are loud conversations. They shall not be interrupted until everyone has had their say.
3. War is a chorus, when we fight we shall fight and none shall forget our marches. Nor shall any forget the songs that we sing afterward of ourselves and the enemies that we marched against!
4. We have been gifted with strength. For that reason, we shall seek to lend our hand to those of smaller stature and likewise, they shall lend a hand to us. The exchange of labor and thought is the most basic of all trade and it shall be honored.

These beliefs drive the Clay Giants and their way of life as they move through interactions with not only their own people, but those that reside in the Cradle of Clay and those outside of their borders. Even Clay Giants outside of the Cradle of Clay rarely waver from these beliefs.

Family

Much like other races of Isekai, family is extremely important to the Clay Giants, but often family means far more than just blood relations. To these people, one can earn a place in a family through hard work or ties that can run far deeper than blood. It is not uncommon for people to call each other brother, sister, mother, father, or other names without any actual relation between the two individuals. For the Clay Giants, family is a collective idea that should be earned, not just given because of one's birth.
Tribes are often groups of multiple families, but in most cases, a tribe is also a family. A member of a tribe may refer to the elders as grandmother or grandfather, a sign of respect for their age and knowledge. Children are raised by all members of a tribe or village, further blurring the lines between blood relations and the familial ties that the Clay Giants tend to build. Even so, these people do believe in bloodlines having their own spaces and abilities to pass on traditions and stories that are special to their bloodline.

Property & Ownership

While the Clay Giants believe in collective family, they still believe in the ability of one to have their own space and things. Some items may have collective ownership, such as objects that have ties to history or tradition, but otherwise, items often only have a singular owner. The only instance where this idea differs is in terms of land. All land in the Cradle of Clay is collectively owned by the Cradle and should be treated with the utmost respect. Certain tribes may have areas that are their responsibility in terms of farmland or grazing lands.

Taboos & Insults

Clay Giants shy away from little and rarely believe in what others may call polite conversation. They are known for speaking their minds and being open, which leaves little room for anything to be taboo. These people are insulted by little and prefer loud conversations to come to a conclusion instead of dainty parlays.
The greatest insult to a Clay Giant is to forget their name.

Clay Giant Culinary Arts

Along with a culture that is steeped in tradition and story, food is a necessity of all celebrations as well as daily life. Clay Giants tend to enjoy their food more than most, to an extent that they have bred different species of cattle and other small animals for the perfect meal.

Cradle-Fed Beef

While other peoples of Vóreios also rely on a steady stream of meat for survival, no group has taken this to the extreme that the Clay Giants have. Many are often fine with whatever wild game can be found, but those of the Cradle of Clay preferred to domesticate and breed their own animals for meat. Cradle-Fed Beef is the culmination of this and can refer to either meat from the Black Stout or the Tatanka.

Geyser Whiskey

Another specialty of the Cradle of Clay is a strong liquor distilled and aged in heavy oak barrels beneath the taller hills of the area. Geyser Whiskey was given its name due to the colorful sparks that appear when the liquid is lit on fire, reminiscient of the Arcane Geysers. This liquor is created using the various grains grown by the Clay Giants.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

The lives of Clay Giants are built upon tradition and storytelling. Long-established traditions permeate every part of their lives, from birth, to work, to downtime hours, and everything in between. While many believe that these established traditions make the lives of Clay Giants rather strict and without room to choose one's path, this is far from the case. These traditions often mark periods of growth that allow all to reach out past their limitations and learn.

Clothing & Textiles

Clay Giants prefer simple clothing as it must withstand that hard manual labor and the sometimes harsh conditions of their homeland. A variety of items are crafted from animal hides that are crudely sewn together, but other items of clothing are woven by hand by many of the older women in the tribes.

Tunics

Tunics and other clothing items worn on the top half of the body are often woven to provide some protection from the sun and the cold. Using the coarse hair of the Black Stout and other animals, the women create a heavy yarn that is then tightly plaited to create a heavy-duty woven material. Often tunics are sleeveless as the sleeves tend to get in the way of movement.

Animal Hide

Clothing items such as hats, coats, and pants are often created by sewing together sections of tanned animal hide. Most animals slaughtered for meat are used for this purpose, with the hide of Black Stout being more common for summer wear and the hide of Tatanka being more common for winter wear due to the thick hair. Depending on the creator of the garment, the panels of hide can be crudely or intricately sewn together, leaving gaps between the panels if done poorly or with delicate stitching or sometimes beadwork if done well.

Tradition & Storytelling

Tradition and storytelling are remnants of the Clay Giants' time as part of the Giants' Hierarchy, but it is one they have fully embraced. Oral traditions, shared through storytelling, allow them to share their history, with not only their own children but the world. It is their deeply ingrained traditions that allow the Clay Giants to help their allies and others in the world.

STORY

Story Telling of Olden Rarities of Yesteryear, or as it is more frequently known as STORY, is a historical society for the Giantkin that had been removed from the Hierarchy. The Clay Giants, Leaf Giants, and any others that wish to join them focus on the preservation of oral histories by recording these stories on discs created from compressed Arcane Dust with the help of the Human Empire's Starlit Academy. These discs are then stored in a special archive in the Starlit Tower where they can be transcribed and shared.

Vollan Rue

Strength and influence are extremely important to the Clay Giants and are often part of the ritual that helps determine those that will lead the Cradle. Vollan Rue is a series of games that are held every three years to grant influence to the various tribes that participate. Those that do well are rewarded while those that struggle are given a goal for which to reach towards. The winners bring great influence to their tribes and are granted the honor of serving their people as part of the Cradle.

Encompassed species

• Black Stout
• Clay Giants
• Cradled Wheat
• Hillbreds
• Tante

Related Organizations

• ASHES
• Society for the Preservation of Historic Vóreios
• Story Telling of Olden Rarities of Yesteryear
• The Cradle

Related Items

• Arms
• Cradle-Fed Beef
• Geyser Whiskey

Related Myths

• White Tatanka

Languages spoken

• Common
• Giant

Related Locations

• Cradle of Clay

Significant Holidays

Harvest
Storybrook

Significant Cultural Aspects

Tatanka Roundup
Tribal Markings
Vollan Rue

Birth Rites & Traditions

Clay Giant Birth Rites

Culinary Arts

Clay Giant Culinary Arts

Related Prose

Legend of the White Tatanka

Giant Hierarchy

Around 727,000 IM, the Giants first attempted to establish their Hierarchy, but this would not be fully established until over two hundred thousand years later at the Challenge of the Lake. The Clay Giants along with their cousins the Leaf Giants fell at the bottom of this Hierarchy and would eventually be removed completely from Giant Culture during the Removal of the Weak. This led to the Clay Giants and Leaf Giants leaving the Neither Tundra and establishing homes elsewhere.
The Clay Giants created a culture that was different from that of the Giants, but certain aspects still remain. A love for strength and glory permeate the culture, but nearly everything else has been erased from their days as part of the Kingdom of Giants.

Languages

While it is not uncommon for a people to know more than one language as a whole, the Clay Giants are one of the few groups that uses both of their native languages with relative frequency. The Dwarves brought them the power of script with the Giant language, writing simple enough for their large hands. The Humans brought them the versatility of Common, a language known the world over. It is not uncommon to hear both widely spoken throughout the villages and tribes of the Cradle of Clay.

Naming Traditions

Clay Giants are quite well-known for their names as these names must live up to the stature of those that bear them. These people often have a three-part name, with the first being their given name, the second being a title of some sort, and the third being their family name. These names are complex and it is a great insult to ever forget the name of a Clay Giant.

Name Generator Coming Soon!

Relations with Other Races

Clay Giants have a deep relationship with Humans. Their history tells that Humans were the ones that brought healing and weapons to them when there were a relatively young race that received no love from the Giants. They also have a respect for creatures that descended from the Fey and the Dwarves who taught them to write.
This race has a dislike of people that are not straight forward in their dealings, which is why, while they will respect the Elves, they often find the Jade Elves to be troublesome and roundabout people. They bear no ill will towards the Halflings of the world but they see them as people of no consequence because of their incredibly small stature and often only think of them capable of trade and the simplest of agriculture despite what standings they may have. Clay Giants have a distinct dislike for others of Giant descent to include those of the Hierarchy because of the treatment they have received. The only exception to this is the Leaf Giants with whom they will often invite into their homes as family.

Religious Observance

The Pantheons of Isekai are of extreme importance to all races and cultures, no matter their differences of difficulties. Each culture worships one of the gods as this belief is what allows them to be judged fairly upon their deaths.
As a race that has removed themselves from the warring culture of their ancestors, Clay Giants now follow the teachings of Rerena as a goddess of life and agriculture. They believe the goddess requires their strength and stewardship of the land in return for the fertile homeland they were given after the Removal of the Weak.