Giant
Giants are the corrupted form of Humans, a dark testament to what happens when humanity completely severs its ties to the Divine. These towering beings are driven by a profound scorn for all things sacred, a hatred that fuels their unrelenting quest for power and domination.
Origins: A Sinful Growth
The first giants were born of humans who abandoned their faith, rejecting the Divine and seeking strength in their own hands. Without the guidance and balance offered by the Divine, their ambitions grew unchecked. In their arrogance, they delved into forbidden magics, discovering a way to augment their size and power. However, this magic demanded a terrible cost: the essence of other humans.
Those humans who were drained by this process became Gnomes—diminutive in stature and forced to survive on their wit. Unlike the giants, gnomes maintained a spark of the Divine, channeling their energy into invention and problem-solving rather than brute strength.
Hatred for the Divine
The giants' contempt for the Divine is their defining trait, and it manifests in every aspect of their existence. They mock humanity's spirituality by constructing grotesque shrines and altars that parody sacred spaces. These "blasphemous monuments" are designed to insult the Divine and draw others into their faithless ways.
In their twisted philosophy, faith is a weakness, a crutch for the feeble. Giants see themselves as proof that strength can be achieved without divine intervention, and they seek to impose their worldview on others by force.
The Taking of Children
In their desire to sever humanity from the Divine, giants began kidnapping human children, hoping to raise them faithless. This grim practice is central to their culture, and they view it as both a practical and ideological act.
Faithful Children: Those who resist the giants' attempts to corrupt them grow in size and strength but retain their faith, becoming Goliaths. These children are seen as failures by the giants, but their resilience is a source of hope and inspiration for humanity. Goliaths are a constant thorn in the giants' side. As the product of failed attempts to sever faith, Goliaths represent everything the giants despise: strength combined with faith and loyalty. Goliaths often form nomadic tribes dedicated to opposing the giants, protecting humanity from their raids and rescuing kidnapped children whenever possible.
Faithless Children: Those who succumb to the giants' indoctrination become new giants, perpetuating the cycle of corruption. These "second-generation" giants are often the most fanatical in their hatred for the Divine, as they were raised entirely in the giants' twisted worldview.
Culture of Giants
The giants' society is one of hierarchy, where strength and cunning are the only measures of worth. They form warbands or loose clans, each led by the strongest or most cunning giant. Despite their shared hatred for the Divine, rival giant warbands often turn on one another in power struggles, their egos too immense to allow cooperation for long.
Giants have a penchant for grandiosity, creating vast fortresses and monuments that dwarf anything humans could construct. These structures are both practical and symbolic, serving as reminders of their rejection of the Divine and their supposed superiority.
Magic of Giants
The giants' magic is primal and destructive, fueled by their contempt for the Divine. They draw upon the power of the earth and sky, wielding storms, earthquakes, and fire with devastating effect. However, their magic is inherently unstable, reflecting their inner chaos and faithlessness. The Genies take great offense to these magics, but have yet been unwilling to take direct targeted action against the giants.
The magic which was used to grow the first giants and shrink the first gnomes has long been abandoned. Some have speculated it's due to the fact that the giants no longer need it and have advanced other magics which sustain their size. Others believe the reason is more malicious; to create more gnomes would help the Plasmoids in reversing their ooze form, therefore the giants withhold their magics out of spite.
Legends and Fears
To humans, the giants are the ultimate cautionary tale of what happens when faith is abandoned. They are often depicted in stories as embodiments of hubris, their immense size a physical manifestation of their inflated egos.
To plasmoids, the giants are tragic figures, their existence a reminder of the cost of arrogance. Gnomes often channel their ingenuity into creating defenses and countermeasures against giant attacks, determined to prove that small size does not equate to weakness.
