Giakos

## **Description**

**Giakos**, also known as ***"Giants," "Goliaths," and "Tallfolk"*** are an intelligent bipedal mammalian race found throughout all of planet **Haven.** The Giakos are a member of the **Edian Races**, a group of ten individual races all descendent from the **Inomeni** race, the **Edia**, who once held dominion over the whole of the world. Giakos are fairly uncommon across the world, their number far overshadowed by their sister Edian-races of **Mythra, Sylvian** and **Gnarvesh**. As such, one will not often find Giakos in great number across the world, though the sight of one may only bring about slight notice depending as to where the observer comes from.

Giakos live often solitary lives, not often living in communities of their own kind, usually either living totally alone, or assimilated within communities primarily made of other races, most typically those also of the Edian Races. Due to their low numbers, Giakos are not often seen in positions of power throughout the ages, however those who have had made a great impact in the course of Haven's world history.

The name of ***"Giakos"*** literally translates from the Edian word for ***"Giant,"*** or ***"Large,"*** so named due to the Giakos' most defining trait, that being their tall, large, and bulky stature. Giakos are the most massive of all the Edian Races, as only the **Oathreni** come anywhere near their inherent bulk, as even the smallest of Giakos will stand at least seven feet tall, and have a thick, muscular frame. Their large bodies so developed to better adapt to the Giakos' native environment of icy artic wastes, and snow-blanketed tundra.

Despite their low number, Giakos are famed the world over due to their impressive height and build. Stories of the Giants appear throughout much of Haven's world folklore. A rather prominent point of the stories is that of individual Giakos who were afflicted with ***"Giant's Wrath,"*** an inherent ailment that can affect a number of the Giakos' population, causing rapid growth of their bodies, making them even larger in height and build, as well as addling the respective Giakos' mind, driving them mad and violent against all around them, leading to much destruction of both land, and people. These Giakos, known to them as the "***Gigawrathus,"*** while being fairly rare to come to be are still much feared by the Giakos, ever-fearing the Giant's Wrath will one day over take them as well, making much of the world's population deeply fearful of the Giakos, often times barring them from entry in some areas, while the more extreme may even execute them before the ailment can manifest.

## Biology

### **Appearance**

Giakos, stand alone amongst their like in the Edian races, and as such, they are immensely easy to identify due to their tall stature, and large bodies, with the shortest of Giakos standing at least seven feet tall, (2,1 meters) with the tallest of their race reaching titanic heights of twenty-four feet tall, (7.3 meters) often times, their tall stature leaves their bodies very muscular and heavy, easily weighing in the upper thousands of pounds. Their tall and large bodies were specially developed to be able to allow the individual Giakos to be able to operate within their hostile native environments of extremely cold regions, such as tundra and artic wastes, alongside snow-blanketed mountain ranges. With their large bodies, they are better able to insulate themselves and keep their body's functions warm enough to continue to operate unhindered, while also able to combat large predators that often times make their homes within colder regions of the world.

An individual Giakos' skin is oftentimes very rough, covered with thick callouses to be better able to withstand the hostile weather and environment, though this is not universal. Their faces often chiseled, with strong jawlines and cheekbones, with a large, well-rounded nose. The color of their skin, when compared to the other Edian Races, is much more placid in hue, only adopting more muted colors such as gray, faded blues, and whites, never showing much in the wat of bright vibrancy. However, a rather unique trait amongst the Giakos is that many of their number are born with special tattoo-like birthmarks, known to the Giakos as the ***"Giant's Threads."*** These birthmarks can adopt a vast variety of colors such as green, red, yellow, and silver, though most often they take the shade of blue or black.

Giakos are oftentimes held as the single-most uniform of the Edian Races, as they all share in the commonalities of tall statures and muscular builds, with only very rare deviation, as almost none of the Giakos' number possess a thin body or a stature below seven-feet tall. Those rare few that do may be easily mistaken for Mythra, as without their titanic height and build, they would be almost impossible to distinguish from a Mythra who shares in their skin tone, unless of course, the respective Giakos' skin had the Giant's Threads birth markings across it.

### **Physiology**

Similar to most of the Edian Races, nearly all of the specialized abilities the Giakos have inherent to themselves are so developed to allow the Giakos to better survive and thrive in their native hostile environments, those, of course, being extremely cold regions of the world. Their large bodies allow a Giakos to wander icy wastes in total nudity if they so wished for several days, their internal organs all kept very well insulated and warm from the hostile elements by the thick layers of muscular flesh and fat that surrounded them. As a result, even in below-freezing temperatures, a Giakos will hardly notice the cold, making them by far the most well-adapted of the Edian Races to live in these environments.

As well, a Giakos' body naturally radiates heat outward from their skin from the internal heat kept within themselves, to prevent their organs from outright boiling within themselves, making an individual Giakos a living heater. Oftentimes, mother Giakos will hold their children close to themselves in order to keep them warm from the cold, or if a Giakos is particularly close with one not of their race, and thus faces much more danger in the cold, then they will hold onto them to keep them warm and shielded from the elements.

This insulation is a fairly double-edged sword, however, as in hot or sunny environments, a Giakos will have to strip to near, or total nudity to keep cool as their large bodies keep in so much heat. If a Giakos finds themselves in a hot environment, it will be a fairly uncomfortable experience, until' they are able to seek shaded or cooled shelter from the heat, finding themselves feeling dizzy, light-headed, dazed, and sluggish, unable to move at their normal full capacity.

To prevent themselves from totally passing out, the individual Giakos' skin is so developed to be able to pour out immense amounts of sweat from the Giakos' large sweat glands. Several liters of sweat will pour from the Giakos body and drip to the hot ground, making it appear as if the individual Giakos had just gotten out of the water. Unlike most races, however, as the Giakos will have to deal with the sweat more often than not, the aroma it produces is fairly pleasant, said to be akin to that of soap.

The most impressive trait inherent to the Giakos would have to be their titanic abilities of strength and durability, as even the weakest Giakos can carry over five hundred pounds of weight, while the strongest have been said to hold up to five thousand pounds. The Giakos are the physically strongest of the Edian Races, the only race to which comes near their physical power is that of the Oathreni, though even they will fall short in a contest of strength. This would have made the Giakos the defacto-alphas of the Edian Races, however as the Giakos' lack much in the way of inherent intellect, they are often outplayed by their sister-Edian races as they lack their means of strategy and ingenuity.

The durability of the Giakos, much like their inherent strength, is also very impressive, as it was so developed to allow the Giakos to combat large predators, able to withstand being flung near a hundred feet in the air and hurled back to the earth, making the individual Giakos often times only have to rely on their own bodies for strength and defense rather than created accouterments.