Giants
Giants are a physically imposing, if often disunited, race which inhabits many of the continents of the realm. The giants are also a highly diverse race sporting an array of subgroups as well as differing greatly in skin coloring, features, and development. As many would, giants have historically struggled to use their strength for good, oft using it to enslave and pillage. This natural strength that once allowed them to be dominant, however, has increasingly become a hinderance as giants looked towards strength as a solution to every problem, escalating the issues of violence between the giants and other races as well as hindering their technological advancement, which soon left them in the dust. Instead of being seen as indomitable, godlike beings, giants became increasingly seen as mindless brutes which could only be dealt with through violence. In the modern day, giants are often persecuted due to the widespread belief that they are monsters. Even had they not, the long history of grudges the giants and their neighbors have cultivated over thousands of years would have given their foes ample reasons to strike them down, and just as much reason to ignore any rational end to such conflicts. Their low population numbers and huge energy requirements have left them greatly outnumbered by the smaller races they once lorded over, and many once mighty giant houses have lapsed into tribalism, further stunting their societies. The few exceptions to this rule have become isolated pockets, still convinced of their superiority and unfortunately just as reluctant to embrace new innovations as their tribal fellows.
Of the giant races, the storm giants, native to the Skytooth Mountains of Ifyrial, are often seen as the most civilized, sporting powerful, if decentralized states. However, their arrogance and isolation, earning them the moniker "elves of giantkind" makes them impossible to negotiate with on an equal footing or even conduct fair trade relations with. Further complicating matters, the non-giant nations and tribes which border them are generally isolated, so little in the way of modernization has made its way to the storm giants.
Far to the south, from the Hundred Isles and barren tundra mainland of southern Halyren, the Cyclopes have built a surprisingly resilient society. Once rulers of a mighty empire which tore through the eastern coast of the continent, subjugating halflings and exterminating gnolls, they gained no goodwill from their subjects and spent a thousand years fighting rebellion. Finally shattered, those fighting over the empire's scraps seem to have learned no lessons from the failures of the past and continue to treat the smaller races as lessers, preventing them from trade with the gnomes, who would sell their secrets to literally anybody.
Perhaps similarly, in the north the Jotun lord over those they see as lessers. Locked in eternal war with the snow elves, kobolds, and dvur which likewise call the north home, the Jotun are a savage and backwards society by many standards- but they are a society. Buoyed by their massive slave mines, they have built an empire of fear, one which is doomed to fall if the burgeoning north-sea trade ever gets off its feet and leaves the elves wealthy indeed...
Scattered across the lands, the outland giants are by far the most widespread of giantkind. Calling the continents of Mortvügg, Ærellion, and Ifyrial their home, the outlanders once roamed the steppe, hunting mammoths and other megafauna, later settling for rule over the various races which called the steppes home. They crossed great deserts and oceans, spreading their population far and wide- perhaps too wide. Over time, their once-mighty realms have dwindled to primitive tribes fighting over slaves and the remaining land they call home. Only on Mortvügg do these pockets seem intent on long-term survival.
The Mapinguan, isolated in the jungles of south Ærellion, are often seen as the most savage and unreasonable speciments giantkind has to offer. Once dipping into the Archelin Isles of Halyren, wars with the Varaiden eventually led to their extermination there. Feared by many, their enigmatic jungles left alone but for cross-border raids, they have had to rely solely on their own intellect to craft any sort of technology, which they have little of.
Of the giant races, the storm giants, native to the Skytooth Mountains of Ifyrial, are often seen as the most civilized, sporting powerful, if decentralized states. However, their arrogance and isolation, earning them the moniker "elves of giantkind" makes them impossible to negotiate with on an equal footing or even conduct fair trade relations with. Further complicating matters, the non-giant nations and tribes which border them are generally isolated, so little in the way of modernization has made its way to the storm giants.
Far to the south, from the Hundred Isles and barren tundra mainland of southern Halyren, the Cyclopes have built a surprisingly resilient society. Once rulers of a mighty empire which tore through the eastern coast of the continent, subjugating halflings and exterminating gnolls, they gained no goodwill from their subjects and spent a thousand years fighting rebellion. Finally shattered, those fighting over the empire's scraps seem to have learned no lessons from the failures of the past and continue to treat the smaller races as lessers, preventing them from trade with the gnomes, who would sell their secrets to literally anybody.
Perhaps similarly, in the north the Jotun lord over those they see as lessers. Locked in eternal war with the snow elves, kobolds, and dvur which likewise call the north home, the Jotun are a savage and backwards society by many standards- but they are a society. Buoyed by their massive slave mines, they have built an empire of fear, one which is doomed to fall if the burgeoning north-sea trade ever gets off its feet and leaves the elves wealthy indeed...
Scattered across the lands, the outland giants are by far the most widespread of giantkind. Calling the continents of Mortvügg, Ærellion, and Ifyrial their home, the outlanders once roamed the steppe, hunting mammoths and other megafauna, later settling for rule over the various races which called the steppes home. They crossed great deserts and oceans, spreading their population far and wide- perhaps too wide. Over time, their once-mighty realms have dwindled to primitive tribes fighting over slaves and the remaining land they call home. Only on Mortvügg do these pockets seem intent on long-term survival.
The Mapinguan, isolated in the jungles of south Ærellion, are often seen as the most savage and unreasonable speciments giantkind has to offer. Once dipping into the Archelin Isles of Halyren, wars with the Varaiden eventually led to their extermination there. Feared by many, their enigmatic jungles left alone but for cross-border raids, they have had to rely solely on their own intellect to craft any sort of technology, which they have little of.
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