Giants

**Giants** are humanoid creatures renowned for their tall height and strength. The Ice Giants owned a proud empire that spanned much of the prehistory, they warred against their rivals, the dragons, causing the mutual near-extinction of both races. Nowadays very few true giants remain, with their legacy now carried by their lesser and more brutish giantkin cousins.

## Appearance

Generally resembling humans, giants are usually 10-20 metres high. True Giants were much taller, and could be the size of mountains.

## History

### Origins

#### In Cannorian Myth

According to the Cannorian Pantheon the giants as well as the genies were the initial servants and creations of the Primordials and fought for their respective creators during the Primordial Wars against Castellos and his siblings.

After the primordial defeat, the giants, along with the genies and the newly created dragons helped the gods mould and shape the earth. By the outbreak of the Godswar amongst the gods the giants were split with some favouring Castellos and others favouring his brother Agrados. With the end of the war and the Godly Decrees in place the gods left for the heavens and left their creations to their own vices, leaving the dragons to rule the skies, the genies to rule the sands and oceans and the giants to rule the land and mountains in their stead. It is said that those that favoured Agrados were banished to the hells along with the traitorous gods and dragons, with giantsblood forming the basis of large demons.

Some suggest that one of the reasons of the Inheritance War, in which the dragons attempted to claim the divinity of the gods, was the fact that the dragon lineages were on a war of annihilation against both giant and geniekind. With the draconic victory of the Inheritance War the giants became their foremost enemy and the two races warred upon each other for millenia upon millenia. This would be known as the War of Ages.

At around 100,000 BA the dragons were beaten back, and many fled to Aelantir to rule there and settled on an uneasy truce. The true giants were said to be content with this, and resorted to war against the different subtypes and giant realms, much like how the dragons of Aelantir did with their draconic lineages.

### Rule of Giants

The period that came after the draconic defeat is known as the Rule of Giants. It is unknown when this period started exactly, but we do know that it ended around 12,000 BA, which marked the end of the last ice age.

#### Realm of the Ice Giants

With the breaking of draconic rule over Halcann the giants and the remaining genies partitioned the lands to themselves, with the frost giants of the north ruling over much of Cannor with their monarch, the Frost King Gerud (which is also where the landmass gets its namesake).

The Realm of the Gerud was marked by its icy domain which back then stretched over much of northern Cannor, with the seas of the Giant's Grave still encased in ice. Throughout their domain dotted magnificent palaces of pure ice which caused this icy phenomenon.

#### Realm of the Cloud Giants

Another realm that still exists to this day is the Realm of the Cloud Giants and their floating castles on clouds. Due to their relative isolation and the loss of draconic dominance of the skies it is unknown how prosperous or vast this realm is, but many tales throughout history speak of sightings and tales of floating castles with one supposedly falling in 1282 BA.

### Fall of Giants and The Last Dragonflight

It is said sometime in 11,000 BA that the last surviving dragons in Halcann (after the rest of their kin fled to Aelantir) embarked on The Last Dragonflight. They used their remaining power to melt the ice palaces of the Frost Realm of Gerud, the strongest of the giant realms, to break their the Spell of Eternal Winter that maintained their dominion over the land. This proved catastrophic to the true giants, with many of them drowning in what is today known as the Giant's Grave Sea that lies to the south of Gerudia.

After this period the true giants as a whole faded to obscurity, as it was said that a great many of the last true giants had gathered in Gerudia during the attack. Eventually, these giants would be succeeded by their descendants, the Giantkin.

## Varieties

* **True Giants:** the original progenitor giants, said to be as tall as entire mountains.
* **Ice Giant**: the most well-known type of giant, had an empire thousands of years ago, and drowned.
* **Cloud Giant**: A more mysterious type of giant that live in castles in the clouds. Occasionally, an airship spots one of these castles. Whether they have any nations that are larger than a castle is up for debate, although there are increasing sites of a 'Palace in the Sky' above the Uelos' Lament.
* **Fire Giant**: An almost extinct, at least on Halann, type of giant, pushed back to a few volcanoes across the world. They maintain cool relations with outsiders, but seem to be willing to give magical knowledge that involves interplanar travel.
* **Stone Giant**: Not much is known about them. It is likely they are extinct on Halann, eaten by Giantkin during the Rule of Dragons.

## Giantkin

* Ogres: The most common and most brutish successor, ogres stand at abound 8 - 10 feet tall (making them the smallest type of giant) and live at the fringes of civilization. Many ogres find work as mercenaries and raiders, bringing back their hard-earned loot in secluded manses filled with slaves. Some suggest that ogre-blood was used in creation of the orcs.
* Trolls: An reclusive and isolated ethnic group of giants known to dwell in forests and caves known for their extraordinary regenerative capabilities, some suggest that trolls are offspring of giants who escaped into the Feyrealm.