Giants

Written by Heart

Few humans have engaged Giants in battle and won. They're terrifying creatures, as tall as four men, and thrice as broad. Limbs like the trunks of the greatest tree's and most spells just bounce off their hides, as does most weaponry. If you want to take out a Giant, you need mobility, numbers, and seige weapons. That, and alot of luck.

— Lacdu Lancelot in "Battling Inhumans throughout History"

Anatomy

Giants, as their names would suggest, are monstrously sized humanoids that pushed the limit of what land-walking creatures were capable of even with the assistance of magic infusing their bodies. Giant's are tremendously large species that on their own tend to stand well over twenty feet on average. Built like great walls of flesh, they hold immense strength and durability. Making up for their lack of speed with pure range that their limbs and height allow them.
As a whole, Giant's tend to be heavily bottom-heavy, with dense thick muscle and skin covering their legs, core, and feet. Their feet in question have heavily compressed, forming into large tree-trunk-like ends to their legs similar to that of an elephant than a human. With thick skin, and dense wide bones to support their frames though their lower body is stronger than their upper, they are by no means physically weak. With enough upper body strength to support their own weight for climbing their mountainous homes.
Unlike other humanoids, they have also developed an elongated spine, with additional vertebrae and ribs. This is to help support and protect the two additional abdominal muscles that have offered the Giants a bit of their extra height as well as their tremendous core strength used to manipulate their heavy legs properly. Due to their close heritage to the Firstborn, they hold minimal hair. Their thick hides limiting it to strictly their heads and sideburns near their ears bottoms. Both females and males grow this hair in a variety of styles.
Breeding for Giants is an incredibly slow process, due to their long lives, size and natural magic. A Giant female is only fertile a single month per year, though sexual activities may continue despite that, no children will be born. After successfully breeding, a Giant female will then be pregnant for the next five years as the child slowly grows. She will only ever give birth to a single child. This slow birth rate is the reason the Giant's have slowly dwindled in number and the primary reason that Giant-kin have become far more common by comparison.

Abilities

Giant's abilities tend to be fairly obvious. Their sheer size and strength make them devastating foes, but pure power alone is hardly enough to warrant the fear that they instill in the other races. Their greatest asset, by far, is their immense durability, endurance, and stamina. As this great stamina, combined with the fact they are born with a Mana Core, makes them terrifying users of both Natural Magic and Martial Arts. Enhancing their already immense physical abilities even further, being capable of expending their magical prowess far beyond anything an average magical warrior is capable of.
This, combined with their choice of weaponry and natural size make them devastating on the battlefield. Shrugging off damage that would render most creatures dead, while dishing out their own attacks cutting great swaths through the battlefield. Giant warriors are well-trained as a warrior society in multiple weapons, but they are more famous for their use of slings, scythes, clubs, and War Heels. The weapons they choose will vary on their opponents, but as most are far smaller than them, scythes are used to casually bisect large groups of humans with each swing alongside their War Heels.
Clubs are used against opponents that are able to properly resist them alongside large round shields that have been knock to block entire volleys of arrows. This trait has often been used to turn Giants into mobile fortresses for their smaller allies in battle.
The most devastating weapon of the Giants and something they are feared for above all else is a strategy that Humans have nicknamed "Nature's Wrath", for the destruction is causes being compared to that of great tornado's passing through the area. Giants will load large slings with a single large boulder, or, a linen sack filled with bits of rubble pebbles, and scrap iron. When even a handful of Giants then slings these toward a human town, the linen bags will explode on impact sending the smaller pieces flying in every direction. Shattering wooden buildings, and slaughtering normal humans with ease due to the raw power of the "small" pieces of rock and metal.
On the other hand, seeing six or seven massive boulders each the size of a grown man flying through the air to smash through your castle walls, destroying your homes with ease, and crushing any Human unfortunate enough to be in the way to paste is a similarly disheartening experience for most.

Social Behavior

Giant's are, at heart, a race of warriors. The species, along with the other Giant-kin, once ruled much of the world, rivaled only by the Firstborn in raw land owned on the original single-continent of the world. Through the great Tal'Gelrul Empire, the Giant-kin raised a great era of peace for much of the First Age, however, after it's fall much of their rich history and culture has been lost.
Due to the fact most Giant-kin have been reduced to wandering tribes, only fragments of their culture exist. However, their universal acceptance as warrior societies remains. Be they Giant, Troll, Ogre, or other partial-breeds of Giant-kin, all tribes hold some form of connection to warrior society. Where only the strong survive, where power determines one's true worth. Giants are no different, seeing power in all its forms, not just physical might as what is important for their next generations.
As such they teach that intellect, tactics, magic, power and skill are all important. The greatest of the tribe's members are then viewed as the highest-ranking within a tribe. Though each tribe varies on their individual beliefs, and tend to follow specific ideals of what 'power' means to them. Tribes of Giant-kin will take on the names of a creature, plant, or concept that represents these ideals. Giants tend to favor aspects of nature for their small clans, and as such are named for things such as "Blackrock" for a tribe that live near volcanos, and focus on their great endurance and power of natural magic, favoring flame and lava for instance.
Almost all Giant tribes are ruled by a Matriarch, though there are a few led by Patriarches instead, this is considered rare. Due to females generally being more intelligent, calmer, and with longer lifespans compared to their male counterparts whom tend to in turn be larger and more physically gifted. Courtship within Giant tribes is based around ones individual power, but feelings and love are viewed as incredibly important as well. Due to their long lifespans, mating is considered commonplace, and just because one has a child with another doesn't mean they are considered together.
Instead, the concept of a "wife" or "husband" doesn't exist within Giant-kin tribes. They instead mate as needed to produce children, especially with their incredibly slow fertility cycles and gestation rates. To claim another as their own, however, is something far more sacred. They are considered "Soul Mates" and often courting can last for many years as the pair, or in some cases, groups of Giant-kin will attempt to court one another. When they are convinced that they care for one another far beyond simple lust, that they have bound themselves together for life, they name one another as Soul-Mates. A sacred bond and a ritual in the tribe is commenced that will alert one another of their current health, and general direction they are from one another.
After a Soul-Mate is decided, it can never be broken. This is why such a practice is considered slow and can take tens of years in many cases to earn one another's trust to take such an extensive step.

Lifespan

800 Years

Average Height

21'

Average Weight

13,500 lb's

Genetic Descendants:

• Ogre: A sub-species of Giants that shifted to the Jungles of the south, instead of remaining in the mountains. Due to this change millions of years ago, the Ogre's evolved to be smaller in stature and heightened metabolism.
• Ettin: Though rare due to the size difference, when children of Humans and Giants are produced, they are known as Ettin. This term is also rarely used to describe Ogre-Giant hybrids as well.
• Trolls: Corrupted spawn of Giants and Ogre that were cut off from the Empire during the Great Rupture, trapped within the Labyrinth and forced to rapidly mutate over the past six-thousand years.
• Orks: The term used for the children of Trolls and Humanity. They are smaller than Trolls, and often lead to the death of the mother if she is human, but tend to stabilize due to their human blood. Creating a tainted creature instead of a corrupted one.