Ettin-Range

The Ettin-Range is a region that covers most of the Onyx Mountains and some areas around it, inhabited by certain species who found refuge in the range.
== The Onyx Mountains ==
The Onyx Mountains separate the great Red Land Steppes from the lands of the bagdassi, dividing the south of Giantstep from the center of the continent. A land covered with high mountains, its frequent but gentle snows are the source of water for the region’s rivers. However, controlling the birthplace of the rivers is difficult, since the mountains are quite treacherous. Its irregular topography, full of crevices, fissures and jagged climbs, are hidden by the snow, making any unsuspecting traveler unable to see the dangers ahead before it’s too late. The wildlife has adapted well to this circumstances, with most of the animals living in the area having the ability to fly or glide: from eagles, flying mice, gliding hares… Despite the cold, the land is home to many species of mountain flowers, covering all crevices where they can take root. These mountain flowers can survive the colds and the snows, usually competing with lichen and moss for the small spaces faced towards the suns. At the center of the mountains, a depression can be found: A massive valley, carved by a long gone glacier, called the Diamond Depression. This area presents light forests and mild tundra, covered all year in a thin coat of snow. It’s in this area where most of the local groups live their lives.
== History ==
For many centuries now, the Ettin-Range has been called “The Land of Exiles”, since the populations living there arrived to the mountains running away from their old homes. The mountains seem to have been inhabited by the giants of myth, since scattered across the mountains there massive pillars with undecipherable writings, almost as tall as the mountains themselves. And while the giants themselves are gone, their descendants remain. While many of the myths about the colossal beings are nothing but speculation, most sources agree that the offspring of the giants became weaker and weaker with each generation, and that eventually they were cut off from any possible divinity all together.
The first inhabitants of the range are the Mokdregians. The Mokdregians are small offshoots of giants who used to inhabit the lands between Gilgemash and the Moonlight Shores, but were cast away by reasons shrouded in myth. Some say they were the children of a forgotten warrior god, who became disgusted with its progeny and sent it far away where it could no longer see them. Others say that they were defeated in a long forgotten war with the predecessors of Gilgemash. Whatever the reason, the Mokdregians are the oldest inhabitants in the Ettin-Range, and have protected the eastern mountains for millennia now, keeping their herds of yaks and sheep always on the move, searching pastures not yet covered by snow. The same thing happened with their close cousins, the ettins. The lineage of the ettins is said to be even more cursed than that of the mokdregians. It is said they descend from the titans Eo (a prominent warrior) and Hara (the consort of a forgotten god, though some say Uun). When Uun or whoever found out about the affair, it fused EoHara into a single two-headed being and banished it to the lower planes, where it was eventually captured by Gogotha for an eternity of torment. The many offspring of EoHara were likewise fused together in pairs, creating a cursed race of giants that eventually became the ettins after many more millennia of inbreeding. Nowadays, the ettins are seen as nothing but feral brutes, mostly found within the mountains of the Ettin-Range, though they live in relative harmony with the rest of the races of the Ettin-Range.
At around 500 ABE, the mountains were first visited by its most well known inhabitant, the Mozadizz. The Mozadizz are a species of humanoid moth who used to live from raiding and stealing during the night. The Mozadizz had been on the move all around southern Giantsep, attacking unprotected settlements and mostly stealing whatever they could thief and carry while flying. At some point around 500 ABE, the Mozadizz began settling in the mountains, turning them into their bases of operations. The mothmen were naturally protected against the cold, and the irregular and difficult to cross mountains were not a problem for flying races, who could just skip many of the dangers of the peaks. However, the danger they posed to many of the kingdoms in the area meant that they were pushed back more and more, their few holdings inland slowly pushed back by the gilgemashi and the gökmavi, until their remaining settlements were those within the mountains. They were the first ones to discover the Diamond Depression, and created many towns where they gather all their treasure. They also learned herding from the mokdregians, something that helped the mozadizz immensely, due to their raids being very inefficient at stealing cattle. The frequency of attacks has been diminishing over the centuries, with more and more mozadizz dedicating themselves to husbandry and wool working.
Throughout the 2nd millennium ABE, the Onyx Mountains began receiving the visit of another species from the south of Giantstep: the Bombus. The Bombus are a peaceful species of humanoid bumblebee, moving around the lands of the south in caravans searching for fresh flower fields. However, their homelands turned more and more hostile with the expansion of the Yagura, a human tribe that would end up occupying the entire rainforest of Chakobsa. Their customs of ritual sacrifice would target the bombus, since they were peaceful and had little experience in the arts of warfare, and thus were forced to move to avoid being exterminated. They settled down in the lands of Neegus, where they thrived for many decades, but the arrival of the men of wood was taken as a bad omen by the bombus’ priests, and were thus forced to move once again. At some point they met with some mozadizz raiders, and while at first the two groups met with hostilities, the bombus’ elders managed to enter negotiations with the mozadizz leaders. Thinking the bombus could be a great help for the mozadizz society, the mozadizz brought them safely through the mountains to the Diamond Depression, where they have lived ever since. The bombus’ peaceful ways have managed to introduce agriculture within the land, albeit that of flower fields, and their production of bombus honey is greatly appreciated by the mozadizz and the mokdregians, which consider it a delicacy. Over time, many roaming bombus began moving to the Ettin-Range, abandoning most of their nomadic customs in exchange for agriculture and herding.
The final species to reach the mountains were the Zidazzi. The zidazzi had ruled a great portion of southern giantstep for many centuries, but after the rise of the bagdassi leader Hibila the Terrible, they were nearly exterminated by the vengeful bagdassi hordes. Having to run or face extinction, they moved northwards to find refuge in the mountains. They found kinship with the bombus, who took them as refugees and helped rebuild the zidazzi colonies, sharing their knowledge of how to insulate their hives from the cold of the mountains. The zidazzi have some remaining holdings in their old lands, but they are at a constant risk, so most of the existing population now exists within the Diamond Depression.
== The Mokdregians ==
The mokdregians are believed to be an offshoot of the giants of ancient age. They are hulking humanoid figures, easily reaching 5m of height, and with the highest mokdregians registered reaching near 7m of height. They are one of the most ancient species of southern giantstep, with records of them dating back to the days when Gilgemash was a young nation. They have a lanky appearance, with slender yet powerful bodies, with their arms and legs proportionally much longer in comparison to a human. Some of their bones are visible from the outside, and some, like the spinous section of their vertebrae, protrude outside of their backs. They have a pair of small horns, which only appear during childhood, and once they are broken, never grow back. Their most characteristic element is their two heads. Mokdregians are born with a protrusion of muscle and bone in the right side of their neck, and throughout their live, it grows into a second head. It has everything, from eyes, mouth and nose to even a secondary brain. However, the second head is inert and irresponsive most of the time, having only reflexive movements for the most part. The second head will only function if their primary head is damaged or they fall unconscious, acting as a backup system to allow the individual to survive. In the case of the primary head suffering massive and/or irreparable damage, the secondary head will take over control, having most (if not all) the memories and experiences of the first one. In extremely rare occasions, the secondary head will have a will and a personality of their own, and will function independently from the first. These individuals are thought to be omens of either fortune or misfortune, and will usually keep to themselves in caves lost in the mountains, living in isolation as hermits.
The mokdregians live alone, usually only grouping when they casually meet while travelling the mountains. They prefer isolation, though they are quite amicable with the other races living in the mountains. It is pretty common to see mozadizz or bombus children happily perching on the shoulders or heads of a mokdregian who happen to pass one of their towns or hives. Mokdregians live for very long periods of time, easily living more than three centuries. This, as well as their isolated lifestyle, has caused the mokdregians to have very limited familiar bonds. There is no marriage in mokdregian society, when two mokdregians meet and find each other acceptable, they will stay together for a year or so, and once the female is clearly pregnant, they will go separate ways. The female then will take care of her child for around 40 years, the time that takes a mokdregian to reach adulthood. The mother will then give the child part of her cattle and say goodbye, probably never seeing her child again.
Mokdregian culture is very primitive, only having the bare minimum to survive in the mountains. They are able to work stone and wood, and long ago learned to use copper, but they have not gone any further than that. Their primary weapon are wooden clubs, quite effective considering they can be the size (and nearly twice the weight) of an adult human male. They can also chuck the many rocks and boulders in the region as a range weapon, something quite effective considering their innate strength. Their clothes are made out of wool and leather from their charges, creating simple pieces of clothing to cover their bodies from the cold, though their bodies have become pretty resistant to the low temperatures as it is. They have developed a complex system of mural art, painted on the sides of the walls, mountains and caves. The many icons and images represented are said to bring good fortune to the mokdregians that will happen to find them next. Many of the symbols represented can also be traced back to the ancient writings of Gilgemash, sharing many of the characters with their alphabet. Many mokdregians also braid their beards in the style of gilgemashi’s ancient fashion, showing another link with gilgemashi.
== The Ettin ==
The ettin are an offshoot species of giants, considerably more twisted and warped than the mokdregians. They can reach up to 4m of height, with the tallest one been recorded as reaching 5m. Like the mokdregians, the ettin have two heads, but unlike the ettin, both heads work at the same time, which can cause problems moving around or taking decisions. Throughout their lives, each of the heads will fight with the other for dominance, which results in a great deal of “self-harm”. For the most part, a head will be the dominant mind, choosing the ettin’s movements and course of actions. The ettin have high healing abilities, capable of regenerating entire limbs if cut, though killing one of the heads will lead to the death of the entire ettin. 
The ettins organize into loose tribes, each including a couple of family units. Unlike the mokdregians, the ettin actually value social cohesion, though they are quite primitive. The ettin live all around the mountain range, usually hunting and trading with the other species within the Ettin-Range. The most powerful chieftains will fight each other for dominance, and once in a generation, the most powerful one will crown itself as the “King of the Ettin-Range”, though this claim is only really recognized by the ettin themselves, and not even the other species in the mountains recognize his authority. The King himself will not try to exert his influence outside of his race, due to the many rules and bonds of kinship and respect with the other inhabitants of the mountains. Outside of the Ettin-Range communities, few nations consider the ettins to be a kingdom, or even recognize the ettins as being any better than the trolls they sometimes command. Sometimes tribes have shamans. Often these shamans have male and female traits, not unlike EoHara. A few shamans have magical ability, though the source is unclear.
Ettins are primitive yak herders and hunter-gatherers with technology limited to stone and wood. They hunt the great predators of the mountains, like bears or snow tigers. Ettins sometimes gather “pets” who help them hunt. The most common are desert trolls who venture in the mountains from the north, and various non-sentient predators, which they bind into shape through violence. They also trade many different elements with both the other species within the mountains or the gilgemashi, in exchange for food or cattle. Ettins will hunt anything, but find sentient beings to be particularly easy prey. As a result, the lands bordering the Ettin-Range have been sparsely inhabited. The people living at the foothills usually are those with no better choice, like exiles, fugitives and bandits. This has given the mountains the name of “Ettin-Range” due to their attacks. However, the ettins don not recognize insects as food, allowing several insectoid races to flourish within the Ettin-Range. It also helps that the insect races within the range will happily trade and share their resources with the ettin, in exchange of protection or help with the many activities of the hives and towns within the Diamond Depression. The zidazzi have hired many ettin to protect themselves from the bagdassi raids from the south, and the ettin themselves will gladly help the zidazzi in exchange of honey and being allowed to eat the bagdassi captives once the battle is over.
== The Mozadizz ==
The Mozadizz are a species of humanoid moth, and are by far the most numerous group living in the Ettin-Range. They have a similar average height of a human, but slightly taller due to their antennae. They have three pairs of limbs, using a pair for walking and the other two to manipulate objects. They have a short thorax covered in dense fur, and an abdomen that contains most of their organs. Their heads are slightly bigger than the average human’s, but are mostly covered by their great compound eyes. They have a great of sight and are able to see very minute elements, as well as color spectrums invisible to the human eye. Their mouths are usually hidden behind their chest fur, and are composed of two parts: a lipless mouth they use to speak and to breathe, with two sets of beak-like teeth in case they need to bite and/or crunch something. The other part is a complex proboscis, a tubular mouth within a mouth used to drink and to absorb liquid foods. The Mozadizz are omnivorous, and can eat practically anything organic (they have a particular predilection for pumpkins), the only real problem is that it needs to be in a liquefied state, or at least crunched enough to be absorbed though their proboscis. They have a pair of antennae, which they use as both their sense of hearing and depth perception. Having their antennae is an extremely dire situation for any ettin, and in many cases signifies death, since, without hearing or depth perception, flying becomes extremely dangerous and can lead to a crushing death.
The mozadizz are an anomaly in the world of Giantstep, since they are the only [sentient] species (besides beings above regular mortals like dragons) who can fly over long distances. They have two pairs of wings, which can reach 3-4m of wingspan. This, alongside their light complexion, allows them to fly over long distances, mostly by taking advantage of wind currents, avoiding the exhaustion that other flying sentient species like the bombus or the zidazzi suffer. Their wings are also coated in a thin glaze of dust, which nullifies their flying noise. This allows their flight to be incredibly quiet, which they combine with their great sight to silently infiltrate the other species’ domains to steal away all they can carry. Once in the ground, they can bend and squeeze their wings to a great degree, to keep them from being a hustle when walking.
The mozadizz civilization has always been characterized by their silent raids. They are experts of flying during the night undetected, steal everything they can carry, and fly away before someone can sound an alarm. They tend to avoid violence if they can do so, but in case that fails, they will use their hand crossbow to silently dispatch anyone who had detected the intruders. The mozadizz crossbow is a light, but mechanically complex weapon, slow to load and with short reach, but with enough power to go through iron armors. The mozadizz are able to use it to great success because they have four arms to manipulate the weapon at the same time, and thus it takes them much less time to reload and aim the crossbow. However, they are not particularly adept at hand to hand combat, since they are not particularly strong. They have been known to use light javelins as spears, but other than that, they will avoid long and short swords, and will actively reject maces and axes, since they cannot reliably maximize their damage output due to their anatomy.
Their thieving exploits are legendary around southern and central Giantstep. The mozadizz actually come from the Red Land Steppes, before being pushed back by the Gökmavi tribes. The ettin live in small groups, usually hiding all their stolen treasure in underground lairs, which can reach quite impressive depths. However, due to their lack of strength, they can only carry so much, or else they will not be able to take flight. As such, they usually tend to leave cattle alone, unless they are stealing newborn calves, small enough to carry into the air. However, ever since the arrival of the mozadizz to the Ettin-Range, they have taken husbandry in the snowy peaks. They have also adopted the role of explorers and trackers, being able to move through the mountains without problem by flying.
The Mozadizz live in familiar groups, with each couple having five to ten children. When an Mozadizz is born, it is in a larval stage, and will do nothing but eat regurgitated food from their parents for around 4 years. Once the larvae is big enough, it will pupate and will take half a year to grow into a child form. Even then, it will take at least two years to strengthen their wings enough to be able to fly. Even then, it will take a couple of years until they become full adults. The Mozadizz will build their homes in areas hidden from the rest, though since their arrival to the Onyx Mountains, they have become much more social and gregarious, especially with their neighbors, refraining from taking stuff from them, a sign of great respect coming from them. They have built small towns all over the Diamond Depression, where they sell the treasures they have taken from raids outside of the mountains, as well as to sell their cattle or crafts. Their faith is based on the adoration of the suns. They consider the suns that move around Giantstep as the great flames of life, and they praise them constantly raising their hands to the celestial bodies. They pray to the moons as well, considering them as the suns’ maidens. The mozadizz paint solar and lunar pattern on their winds as a sign of adoration, which tend to mark the belonging to certain mozadizz clan as well.
== The Bombus ==
The Bombus are a species of humanoid bumblebee that originated in the wet jungles of Chakobsa. They are slightly taller than the average human, with their entire body covered in a dense coat of fur. This fuzz makes bumblebees look twice bigger than they really are, and protects them from the weather. It is a great isolating coat for both heat and cold, being able to keep the body protected depending on the occasion. This coat of fuzz is also light, not encumbering them too much when flying. The coloration of the fur can vary from black and yellow tones to white stripes over black, with some groups even developing red dots over black fuzz. They have three pairs of limbs, using a pair for walking and the other two to manipulate objects. They have a big thorax and an abdomen of the same size, and a stinger at the end of the abdomen. This stinger, while threatening, is vestigial, and can no longer produce any kind of venom. Their head is big in proportion to their bodies, mostly occupied by oval-shaped compound eyes. Their eyesight is not as good as the other insect species, but it can nonetheless detect many different colors and shades of light that human vision cannot detect. Their lipless mouth hide long hairy tongues to lap up liquid food. The bombus are vegetarians, eating a variety of nectar, fruits and vegetables, using the chemicals in their tongues to melt their food before sucking it down. The bombus have two stomachs, one to digest their food and a communal stomach used to storage food to bring to the colony, or to share it with anyone who needs it. The bombus are one of the few sentient species with the ability of flight, but out of all of them, the bombus are the slowest, unable to take flight for long periods of time. Their two pairs of wings are seemingly too small to lift their bodies, but somehow the bombus can still fly short distances. The strain and effort of the act can exhaust them, not to mention it creates a very loud buzzing sound.
The bombus are naturally predisposed for peace. They are too slow in the air, and too poorly coordinated in land to be effective fighters. Instead, they have adapted for agriculture, crafting and other activities of the sort. They take their time with things, disliking hurries or rushes of any kind. They are lovers of arts, particularly theatrical and musical arts. They have developed a great love for music, becoming wandering singers, minstrels and bards, using their complex vocal cord system and buzzing wings to create singular melodies that cannot be easily replicated by other races. Their antennae can detect even the smallest minutia in any rhythm or tune, and thus creating “purer” melodies. While the other species cannot consciously detect this purity, they are unconsciously drawn towards them, making them very sought after entertainers. The bombus like to compete with one another to compose the best pieces of music, and musical clashes between bombus can attract hundreds of passerby who become enraptured by the melodies.
The bombus’ society follows a eusocial structure, but a very loose one. Their queens are the leaders of the hive, but they take a much smaller role in the rule of the colony. The queens are bigger than the rest of the members of the hive, and cannot fly due to their weight. They also limit the number of male drones besides them to two, and as such, bombus colonies are much smaller. The worker bombus, composed of sterile males and females, keep the larvae healthy and well fed, as well as keeping the needs of the colony. The bombus know a lot of techniques to produce great quantities of high-quality wax, which they use to create their hives. This wax can resist most extreme temperatures, not melting under the sun or crumbling in winter. They also make half of their colonies underground, due to their larvae growing better under controlled temperatures. The bombus have no soldier caste, all members of the colony, the queen included, has to learn how to fight on their own, but they are not particularly good fighters.
The bombus worship “The Mother of Honey”, which many believe is an aspect of the Goddess of Harmony. They create many icons and idols of wax and wood as a sign of reverence towards her. They see helping other races as a sign of piety and virtue, which they will do by offering bombus honey to those in need. Many bombus hives braid their fur in different forms and patterns, decorated with hairpins and artisanal embellishments, both as a sign of faith and as a show to prove their belonging to their colony.
== Foreign Relations ==
The groups who live within the Onyx Mountains have developed a considerable level of harmony and cooperation. For as different as they all are, they generally behave as good neighbors, and avoid conflict between them whenever possible. This cannot really be said about the nations outside of the range. Gilgemash is the main source of conflict with the members of the Ettin-Range. The gilgemashi have traditionally fought the giant-spawns of the mountains, the ettin and the mokdregians. Since the gilgemashi authorities have wanted to expand to the mountains in search of mineral wealth and to control the region’s rivers, they see the strange coalition as a roadblock to their expansion. This is particularly bad for the mokdregians, since unlike the ettin, they prefer solitary lives, and are thus less likely to be able to protect themselves from gilgemashi raids. Many ettin tribes roam the area, and as such, the mokdregian generally can count on their distant cousins’ help to protect their charges. The gilgemashi also want to conquer the outskirts of the mountains to set watching outputs that could warn them from mozadizz raids. Mozadizz have been known to silently enter in palaces and temples during the night, take all the treasure they could carry, and fly away before the dawn. As such, the gilgemashi want to monitor the movements of the mozadizz, as well as to discover their treasure caches. Mozadizz merchants are still seen around gilgemashi cities, usually buying and selling “rare treasures from far away lands” which the buyers no doubt know they are stolen.
The Gökmavi have a similar relation with the Ettin-Range. The Gökmavi and the mozadizz used to fight each other for control of the steppes, with the Gökmavi finally pushing the mozadizz southwards to the mountains. The mozadizz still attack and pillage the lands of the Khaganate, easy to traverse for the mozadizz raiders. The Gökmavi also want to fight against the ettin, since the tribes living in the south have had their cattle stolen in more than one occasion by the giant-spawn. This includes the mokdregians, which the gökmavi see as the same as the ettin.
The giant-spawn have also been known to descend to the Strange Meadows to hunt the bizarre creatures that inhabit the land. They see the alchemical beasts that roam the land as gifts from their forbearers, and the population of the region generally lets them hunt in peace, seeing as they usually go for the biggest and most dangerous beasts. There have been incidents with ettin trying to take silk pigs from the local farmers, but for the most part, the two groups keep their distances. The zidazzi and the bombus also go to the region from time to time, since its prairies are particularly good as natural flower fields. Some small colonies of zidazzi and bombus have settled down in the area, though they have to constantly fend off some of the bigger predators in the area, attracted to the scent of honey.
The relations with the bagdassi and the inhabitants of the Ettin-Range revolve around the old enmity between the bagdassi and the zidazzi. After the rampage of Hibila the Terrible forced the zidazzi to the outskirts of the mountains, they have been at the verge of extinction. However, the bagdassi seem now content to keep their old nemesis controlled, and have little intention of finishing the job and exterminating them fully. This is also due to the help the zidazzi have received from the mozadizz and the giant-spawn. Many bagdassi raids have been pushed back hard by a combination of zidazzi soldiers and ettin mercenaries, who will gladly fight the invaders in exchange of eating the corpses, while the mozadizz take all the weapons and belongings from the battlefield.
Category:Geographic location
Category:Species
Category:Giantstep