Ogres

Ogres, also known as giants, are large Class 2 Homunculi which resemble large hominids with characteristics of various megafauna, mainly Titanosaurs, Hukolgur, and Elephants. Like all Homunculi, Ogres were designed by the First Children, (an ancient civilization notorious for genetic manipulation) some appear to have been made for war, others for labor, though spectacle may have been just as much of a factor. The ubiquity of giants in our own culture almost certainly was present in the folklore of the First Children. While there is an inclination of ascribing a utilitarian lens to why Homunculi were made, the reality could be as simple as wanting to recreate the giants of their own legends.

Video on the Topic: Ogres, Trolls, and Walking Trees: Giants of Kaimere

### Basic Composition

  Like many of the First Children's creations, it appears a genetic base of Homo altus was used for ogres. Homeobox genes of titanosaurs were used to grow massive yet lightweight bones and air sacs through chest and bone to reduce weight that otherwise would cripple joints and ligaments. For all their derived traits, they are still genetically human: their genetic makeup is instructed to take on unconventional morphology, but it’s still human bone, muscle, and keratin. This is typical of homunculi. For whatever reason, the First Children seem to have found coding human tissues to take on features of other animals to be much easier than making hybrids or anything of that nature.

### History

  Though many Homunculi remained in Qajar after the collapse of the First Children ten thousand years ago and establishing the Age of Demons, a few giants left the peninsula and spread not only throughout Arvel, but out to Pakardia, some of the southern islands, and Ni’Khar. While they could make boats, being so lightly built meant they could effortlessly float and hereditary magic allowed them to process saltwater, so boats may not have been necessary. The First Children made an unknown number of giants during their occupation of Qajar. While many were among those who left the peninsula during the Age of Demons, only a few lineages have modern descendants. While these lineages had a variety of deviant features at creation, being able to sexually reproduce means many of the more diagnostic traits were selected against in favor of a more efficient build, and only insular populations tend to retain the old features. Oftentimes, they look much more human than their most extreme specimens.

### Prairie Ogres

Common, prairie, or Ni’Khari ogres are by a substantial margin the most successful kind of giant. These are descended from stock whose nonhuman composition is almost entirely comprised of titanosaur-mimicing morphology, with some traces of boar and Palaeoloxodon. The titanosaur base has such extreme pneumaticity that they are actually able to have relatively human proportions, albeit with much longer legs, weighing only a ton despite the oldest and tallest men looming at a staggering eighteen to twenty feet tall.

   Very few prairie ogres retain their derived attributes, instead taking on a relatively human appearance, though their skeletal and organ structure retains a lot of the hollow nature of their original construction as such traits allow for great size and therefore naturally selected for. They still have osteoderms, just usually below the skin. They look the most different from their ancestors, likely owed to such a large and healthy population, whereas hill and forest ogres often look much more derived. Some prairie ogres, especially older men, do have external osteoderms and long claws, but younger individuals do not. As these more armored men tend to be favored by ogre women looking for a lover, the trait is selected for, but it has become more sexual selection rather than protective, and it’s hardly enough to save them from an Uktan. Mostly they just serve as mineral stores to help them endure hard times and keep growing as they age.

   Like highland giants, common ogres are much more social than Shu and other peoples who encounter them tend to believe. They seem stoic, but their language is primarily infrasonic, so we only hear a fraction of what they are saying. They may only travel in small family groups, but it is typical for them to keep in touch with other bands within a few miles, and they congregate every few days to converse and trade. Shu believe they instinctively or even magically find themselves for these meetings, but often the ogres have been planning a meet for miles before they assemble, and the gatherings are anything but arbitrary.

   Common ogres range throughout the forests, prairies, and deserts of Ni’Khar, and all along the grasslands of northern Kairul. Like the titanosaurs they are so derived from, the complex air sac system that makes their respiration so efficient and size at all possible has some severe limitations in their cold tolerance: any climate colder than subtropical can lead to congestion and even respiratory infection. Though generally animals are larger in colder climates, the very systems which allow prairie ogres to reach such extremes beyond their forest and hill-dwelling kin excludes them from regions that might benefit from heat-conserving bulk. As it is, they are amazing at shedding heat and even metabolizing sun on their skin, but they cannot even venture too high into tropical mountains for fear of sickness.

### Forest Ogres

  Arvelith ogres or forest giants have obvious inclusion of hukolgur sloths. They still have the titanosaur base, so although they have enormous torsos, they are surprisingly light for their size with formidable nimbleness to go with it. They are one of the many threats facing Qajarith loggers and miners in the Arvelith mainland. While they can digest almost anything, Kaimerans have proven a threat despite small size, and the ogres won’t turn down a free meal once they’ve wiped out a mining party. A few loggers have had success trading tons of ale for work in the camps, but it’s a rare ogre that will maintain that work for long.

   Like all ogres they are omnivores that mostly bulk feed on plants, though they are the most predatory. They aren’t macropredators, instead opportunistically taking whatever easy game or scavenging opportunity they come upon, but unfortunately for the peoples who live near them: humans are small and easy game, especially unarmed loggers or miners. Mercenary guards can deter them, but ogres are a lot more intelligent than they look, and also a lot quieter, so sneaking around a guard to disable and carry off a few laborers is a reliable path for these hunters.

   Though the smallest of common ogres, the power of forest giants cannot be overstated. In terms of raw strength, they are uncontested. There are plenty of records of them laying waste to mercenary bands and cavalry units, especially when they have some sort of shield. Even so, they are vulnerable to megaraptoran attack, and fireback terror birds have also been found preying on them, perhaps mistaking them for a female hukolgur, one of their favored targets. Perhaps the ogre’s most hated rival, however, is the hukolgur. These sloths have very potent senses of smell, and are substantially larger than the ogres. The posture of ogres resembles the threat stance of a sloth, and their general appearance is incongruous with smelling human. This uncanny juxtaposition appears to greatly irritate hukolgur, and they are well documented to target ogres when trashing a camp.

### Hill Ogres

In the Arvelith Highlands of the south, the lineage of ogres called hill giants is primarily comprised of mammoths and palaeoloxodon in their deviant anatomical traits. Like elephants, they are surprisingly surefooted for their size. They tend to live in small family groups. Related women and children tend to remain in generally the same river valleys, while men are solitary and travel between groups. Women tend to stand just under four meters tall, while men routinely exceed five, which is very helpful for their more nomadic lifestyle.

   These communicate with mammoths thanks to both producing and receiving infrasound too deep for people to hear. Because of this, they are capable liaisons between mammoths and people. They also benefit from the infrasonic social network of mammoths, which they use to avoid threats or intercept on behalf of the proboscideans. They tend to avoid human settlements, using infrasonic calls to find each other and converse without kaimerans noticing. They have no actual genetics of elephants, so the mammoths and drenduga show no kinship with them, though they do communicate and assist one another all the same. The uncanny effect that forest ogres have on sloths is not present in these two, perhaps because it’s a lot harder to mistake a hill giant for a mammoth, though from the front the mistake is quite common for Arvelith highlanders, especially in forests.