Gunbar Crag

Official Name: The High Kingdom of Gunbar Crag
Ruler: High King Gromgar Stonefather
Government: Absolute Monarchy
Capital: Gunbar Crag
Major Settlements: Ashpeak, Thunder Gate, Black Anvil
Resources: Iron, Gold, Adamantine, Stone, Slaves
Population: 48,000 (55% Giants, 20% Ogres, 10% Ettins, 5% Trolls, 10% Mixed and Slaves)
Languages: Giant, Common
Common Alignments: Lawful Evil, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Evil
Major Religions: Surtur (LE), Stronmaus (CN), Skoraeus Stonebones (N)

The High Kingdom of Gunbar Crag is the last great realm of the Giants and is widely believed to be the oldest surviving civilisation in Warlderia. Long before the Elves built their glittering cities amongst the forests or the Dwarves carved halls beneath the mountains, the Giants ruled the high places of the world. To them, mountains were not barriers but homes, and the towering peaks that others feared became the foundations of their civilisation. Unlike the Dwarves, who tunnelled into the earth, the Giants shaped the mountains themselves. Great cliffs were carved into colossal stairways, valleys widened into roads and entire hillsides sculpted into terraces large enough for Giant cities. Many of the broad mountain passes still used today are believed to have been cut by Giant labour in an age before written history. What later races consider natural landscapes are, in many cases, the forgotten works of Giant kings.

The Giants never sought to conquer the lowlands. They believed the mountains had been granted to them by the gods and regarded the endless struggles of the younger races as beneath their concern. Whilst Elves, Dwarves and later Humans fought over kingdoms and borders, the Giants watched from their lofty strongholds, secure in the belief that no power could ever challenge them amongst the peaks. The Higher Wars proved them wrong. As the conflict spread across the continent, armies marched through mountain passes that had remained untouched for centuries. Dwarven miners delved ever deeper beneath the ranges, Orc warbands established fortresses in ancient valleys and Human engineers drove roads through lands the Giants still considered their own. What began as isolated trespasses slowly became permanent settlements. 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. Fortresses thought impregnable were torn apart by Giant siege engines hurling stones the size of cottages. For many years the younger races feared to enter the mountains at all. Despite these victories, the Giants faced a problem unfamiliar to the younger races. They were too few. Each Giant was worth many ordinary warriors, but they bred slowly and losses could not easily be replaced. Whilst Humans, Orcs and Goblinoids could raise fresh armies within a generation, the Giants watched their numbers slowly diminish. Rather than waste their strength defending every mountain, they abandoned many of their ancient kingdoms and withdrew into their greatest city, Gunbar Crag. There they remain to this day.

Gunbar Crag is unlike any city built by the younger races. Rising from the face of an immense mountain, it is a place of impossible scale. Staircases hundreds of feet wide climb between vast terraces carved directly into the living rock. Gateways stand forty feet high, whilst halls large enough to contain entire Human villages disappear deep into the mountain beyond. Great statues of forgotten Giant kings watch over the city, their heads rising above the surrounding peaks, weathered by thousands of years of wind and snow. Strength governs every aspect of Giant society. The strongest rule. The weakest obey.

Every Giant is expected to prove themselves through labour, battle or leadership. Challenges between rivals are common and the High King himself must regularly demonstrate his strength before the assembled clans or risk losing their loyalty. Mercy is rarely admired and weakness is considered a failing rather than a misfortune. Slavery has long been accepted as part of the natural order. Prisoners taken during raids labour in the quarries, mines and forges that support the kingdom. Humans, Orcs, Dwarves and even rival Giants have all known the chains of Gunbar Crag. To the Giants there is nothing cruel in this arrangement; they believe the weak exist to serve the strong until they prove themselves worthy of greater status. Despite their fearsome reputation, the Giants are not simple brutes. Their stoneworkers remain unmatched in shaping entire mountainsides, whilst their smiths produce enormous weapons and armour of remarkable quality. Within the deepest halls of Gunbar Crag are said to lie records stretching back to the earliest ages of the world, describing kingdoms, races and even mountain ranges that disappeared long before the first Human kingdoms were founded.

Few outsiders have ever entered Gunbar Crag and returned. Those who have speak of a civilisation both magnificent and terrifying, where everything exists upon a scale almost beyond comprehension and every visitor is reminded that they walk amongst a people who still believe themselves the rightful masters of the mountains. The Giants have little interest in the politics of the younger races, yet they watch them carefully. They have seen kingdoms rise and empires crumble, and they believe the age of Humanity will pass just as those before it did.

When that day comes, the Giants believe the mountains, and perhaps the world itself, will once again belong to them.