Giant-Spawned

**Giant-spawned**, also known as **half-giants**, **semi-giants** or **"the remnants"**, are a group of sentient species living in Giantstep. They are theorized to be descendants of the mythical giants that once ascended to the heavens using the Cosmic Staircase. Their common attribute is their massive size, dwarfing even trolls, and that forces them to live in isolated areas of the world, apart from the rest of civilization. Many also believe that their origins was caused by the growing impurity of the giants’ blood, which made them lose size, strength and intelligence until their heirs could not ascend the Cosmic Staircase anymore, leaving them in the step for the rest of their existence.

## General Giant-Spawned Characteristics

The first and most obvious distinctive of giant-spawned is their massive size. Giant-spawned are by far the biggest and tallest sentient creatures in Giantstep, and as such, they tend to be rather rare. Their food intake is massive, and to keep a balance with the world around them, they tend to be solitary creatures, living either in very small groups or completely alone. Otherwise, they would end up consuming most resources of the region they live in. This also makes giant-spawned migratory species, always moving across the landscape to hunt or to find pastures for their cattle. Their massive body also gives them incredible strength, something can use liberally when hunting or fighting other groups. This also gives them a considerable resilience against poisons, toxins and diseases, and the toxicity and virulence of these elements needs to be extraordinary weaken, much less kill, a giant-spawned. It is very common for giant-spawned to have redundant organs, like a pair of hearts or two pairs of lungs.

Giant-spawned are also not particularly intelligent. Some argue that the flow of blood to their brains is limited due to their sheer height, and thus it has limited their intelligence, while some defend their sheer strength and resilience mean that they have little incentive to develop their minds any further. Nevertheless, they usually live in stone-age levels of technological and social development. These suits them fine, as a stone spear with a tip the size of a human head, weighting as much as a horse and thrown at high speeds is as effective as any enchanted bow or musket, getting the job more than done. Even cannons struggle to cause as much damage as a massive boulder thrown by the giant-spawned, though cannons do indeed reach further. However, due to their level of intelligence, they can be baited or taken down through traps and outmaneuvering. They can also be swarmed, as the numbers of giant-spawn are very low.

## Main Giant-Spawned Species

### Balachko

**Balachko** is one of the many giant-spawned species living in Giantstep. Balachko are massive creatures, measuring up to 8 meters of height, and being the heaviest sentient species in the world. They are so heavy their legs can barely keep them upright, and thus they are extraordinarily slow. They walk with care, though they are so heavy and their skin is so thick they can often just squash any possible obstacle in their way. They are so slow in fact, that many plants and fungi grow on top of their skin, which is seemingly adapted to offer them part of their blood as nutrients. The strange symbiosis between the plants and fungi growing on top of their head and shoulders see them looking more like hills infested by vegetation and animals than actual giants, with that detail only being noticed after they begin moving. Their skin is a blueish green, and their arms are long enough to use them to walk on all fours if they ever need to.

The older a balachko grows, they can sometimes develop a second, and even a third head, sprouting from the neck. These heads can often lack certain elements, such as mouth, eyes, nose or ears, and their level of individual conscience is heavily discussed, as the individual balachko's behavior is not that altered. The can also grow one or two extra arms, in an uneven and ungainly, often in a more deformed shape (either multiple elbow articulations, multiple hands sprouting from the wrist, or even a diminutive hand growing from the tip of the finger). During this growth, their skin will change into a brownish coloration, and once the development is complete, they will go back to their blueish taint.

Balachko are creatures that prefer solitude. Living around in forested areas, they spend most of the time sleeping. They will slumber for weeks until they feel the need to eat, starting to slowly move towards any form of food. This can see them getting into trouble, as there are few sources of food slower than balachko, and so they often end up going to stables, grabbing as many sheep or cow as possible, filling their stomachs, and then leaving. Many areas where balachko and fey live together see the fey population making offerings to the giant-spawned, to avoid attacking nearby settlements. In non-fey areas, however, balachko are fight fiercely against, seeing as the damages they cause are severe. When not having the chance of getting food through other sentient species, they tend to go to set up some form of bait, letting the prey come to them, and once they are there, clap their hands together as fast as possible. This creates a massive soundwave that is capable of startling many creatures, making them lose their hearing and their sense of equilibrium, giving the balachko enough time to slowly grabbing and swallowing the victims whole.

### Southern Giants

**Southern Giants** is one of the many giant-spawned species living in Giantstep. They are one of the rarest members of the giant-spawned, to the point many believe they are going to become extinct in the next centuries. As all giant-spawned, they are massive, measuring 7 meters of height, but unlike the rest of the giant-spawned, they are surprisingly thin. While their width is considerable when compared to smaller species, proportionally, southern giants look emaciated. They have very long hair, which grows to their hips, and often becomes populated by all sorts of birds, which use the hair to protect themselves from predators. Their eyebrows also grow very long, reaching all the way to the jaw. They do not have beards, as the skin of their jaws is nearly diamantine in hardness, as the density of the bone is high enough to make their faces somewhat elongated due to the weight. This also makes them have their mouths agape most of the time.

Southern giants are highly reclusive, preferring to move around the land feeding their ox herds. They are highly religious, following a very spiritual culture that believes in harmony with the spirits of the land. However, they believe these entities are highly mischievous, and they attack those who do not offer the proper respects to them. As such, they wear ritual masks near constantly, only taking them out when they eat or sleep. They dedicate quite a lot of time painting complex patterns into the masks, changing them constantly to keep the spirits at bay. This also makes them very reluctant to approach to those without masks, as they believe the spirits will judge them poorly if in company of those who do not pay appropriate veneration. As such, they always move through areas that are sparsely populated.