Giants of Warlderia
The Giants are amongst the oldest of the younger races, their history stretching back to an age before the first Elven kingdoms, before the Dwarven Holds and long before Humanity emerged as a power. Only the Dragons can truly claim greater antiquity, and whilst the Dragons watched over the world as its ancient guardians, the Giants became its first great builders. The Giants remember a world where mountains had yet to be named, rivers had not settled into their courses and forests covered lands that are now barren plains. Unlike the younger races who followed them, they never sought dominion over the whole world. Instead they believed the mountains had been gifted to them by the gods and that the lands below were of little consequence. Whilst others fought for kingdoms, the Giants shaped the landscape itself, convinced that mountains would endure long after the kingdoms of lesser races had been forgotten. Even today many of the greatest mountain passes, broad valleys and strangely regular cliffs found throughout Warlderia are believed to be the work of Giant kings from an age before written history. The Dwarves are rightly regarded as the greatest masons in the world, but even they acknowledge an old saying:
"The Dwarves carve mountains. The Giants shaped them."
The First Builders
No race can agree where the Giants came from. Elven scholars believe they were created by the gods to raise the first mountains after the Dragons had prepared the world for the younger races. The Dwarves insist the Giants merely inherited a world already formed and simply possessed the strength to reshape it. The Giants themselves laugh at such arguments. They claim they have always been there. Whether this is arrogance or truth, none can say.
What is certain is that Giant civilisation is older than every kingdom of the younger races. Before the Elves raised their shining cities, before the Dwarves delved beneath the mountains and before Humanity emerged from the Age of the Old Path, the Giants had already built vast settlements upon the highest peaks and carved roads across mountain ranges that still carry travellers today. Many places regarded as natural wonders are, in truth, the forgotten works of Giant civilisation.
The Higher Wars
For countless centuries the Giants paid little attention to the struggles of the younger races. The Elves fought. The Dwarves mined. The Orcs conquered. The Humans multiplied. The Giants watched. They believed the wars of the lowlands would pass as countless others had before them. Kingdoms would rise, kingdoms would fall, and the mountains would remain unchanged. Only the Dragons sensed the greater danger.
Whilst Dragonkind withdrew to the Dragon Isle to protect the future of their race and guard against an ancient evil stirring once more, the Giants remained upon the mainland. They neither understood nor believed the warnings carried by the last Dragons to leave the mountains. Proud of their strength and secure behind their ancient kingdoms, they saw no reason to abandon lands they had ruled since the dawn of history. They would come to regret that decision.
As the Higher Wars spread across the continent, the fighting eventually reached the mountains themselves. Dwarven miners delved ever deeper beneath the peaks, Orcs established strongholds guarding ancient passes and Human engineers drove roads through valleys the Giants had considered sacred for thousands of years. The Giants answered with overwhelming force. Entire armies disappeared beneath avalanches deliberately triggered from the heights above. Narrow passes became killing grounds where enormous boulders crushed marching columns, whilst fortresses believed impregnable were reduced to rubble beneath Giant siege engines. Yet victory came at a terrible price.
Unlike Humans, Orcs or Goblinoids, the Giants could not quickly replace their losses. Their race bred slowly and every warrior who fell weakened an entire clan for generations. One by one the ancient kingdoms were abandoned until the surviving clans withdrew into their greatest stronghold, Gunbar Crag, where they remain to this day.
The Giant Kindreds
Although commonly spoken of as a single race, the Giants are divided into several distinct kindreds. All claim descent from the first Giants, though thousands of years of isolation have produced cultures as varied as those of the younger races.
Hill Giants
The most numerous and least sophisticated of Giantkind, Hill Giants inhabit the foothills and lower mountain ranges throughout Warlderia. They live in independent clans, surviving through hunting, herding and raiding. Though often dismissed as simple brutes, they possess remarkable endurance and an instinctive understanding of the lands they inhabit.
Stone Giants
Stone Giants are regarded as the greatest builders and sculptors of Giant civilisation. Patient and thoughtful, they shape cliffs, valleys and mountains into works of astonishing beauty and scale. Many of the oldest roads, terraces and mountain passes of Warlderia are believed to have been created by Stone Giant craftsmen thousands of years ago.
Frost Giants
The Frost Giants dominate the frozen mountains and northern wastes beyond the civilised lands. Fierce warriors and fearless hunters, they measure honour through courage, endurance and victory in battle. Their halls are built from ice and stone, whilst mammoths, winter wolves and great white bears accompany their warbands.
Fire Giants
The Fire Giants are the smiths and generals of Giant civilisation. Their kingdoms are centred upon volcanoes and mighty mountain forges where they produce enormous weapons and armour of exceptional quality. Most High Kings of Gunbar Crag have come from Fire Giant bloodlines and they remain the most disciplined and militaristic of all the Giant kindreds.
Cloud Giants
Cloud Giants favour the highest peaks where they build magnificent halls overlooking the lands below. Less interested in conquest than many of their cousins, they devote themselves to scholarship, diplomacy and the study of the heavens. They are often called upon to advise the rulers of Gunbar Crag.
Storm Giants
The rarest and most mysterious of Giantkind, Storm Giants dwell upon lonely islands, sea cliffs and mountain summits where thunder never seems far away. They are regarded as prophets amongst the Giants, claiming that the storms still carry echoes of the voices once heard by the Dragons before they departed for Dragon Isle. Even the High King seeks their counsel with great respect.
Ogres
Most scholars believe Ogres share a distant ancestry with the Giants, although few Giants willingly acknowledge the connection. Strong but lacking the discipline of true Giantkind, they often serve as labourers, soldiers and vassals within the Giant kingdoms.
Ettins
Ettins are regarded by the Giants as a tragic corruption of their race. Whether they were created through ancient curses or some forgotten magical disaster has long since been lost to history. Powerful but unpredictable, they are rarely welcomed within Giant society, though some still serve as mercenaries or guardians in the armies of Gunbar Crag.
Society
Strength governs every aspect of Giant society. Leadership must be earned. Every Giant is expected to prove themselves through labour, wisdom or battle. Even the High King must regularly demonstrate that he remains worthy of leading the clans. Oaths are sacred, hospitality once offered is rarely broken and betrayal is remembered for generations. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Giants are not simple brutes. Their historians preserve memories stretching back to the earliest days of the younger races, their smiths rival the finest Dwarven craftsmen and their architects have shaped landscapes that others still mistake for nature itself.
Relations with the Younger Races
The Giants have never fully understood the ambitions of the younger races. They respect the craftsmanship of the Dwarves, though they regard their underground kingdoms as strangely confining. The Elves are admired for their long memories but considered too concerned with beauty. Humans are viewed with a mixture of amusement and frustration. The Giants acknowledge their determination but dismiss them as impatient children whose kingdoms rise and fall before a Giant reaches old age. Relations with the Orcs remain openly hostile. Many abandoned Giant fortresses seized during the Higher Wars remain in Orc hands, a slight the Giants have never forgiven.
The return of the Dragons has stirred deep unease within Gunbar Crag. The Giants have always respected Dragonkind as the eldest of all races, but many now wonder why the ancient guardians have chosen to return after so many centuries. Some believe they come to restore the old order of the world. Others fear they have returned because a danger greater than the Higher Wars is awakening once more.
Religion
Most Giants worship the ancient gods of stone, storm and fire. Temples are uncommon, for the Giants believe no roof should stand between themselves and the heavens. Their greatest ceremonies are held upon mountain summits where the wind carries their prayers across the world.
An Ancient Race
The Giants have watched kingdoms rise and empires crumble for longer than most races have existed. They remember mountains whose names have been forgotten. Roads that no longer lead anywhere. Cities buried beneath forests. They have seen the Dragons depart. Now, for the first time in thousands of years, they watch the Dragons return. The Giants do not know whether the ancient guardians come as allies, judges or harbingers of some forgotten doom. They know only one thing.
When the eldest race returns to the world, even the mountains should be afraid.