- THE GIANT -
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"Monstrous and terrible; the earth shakes with their howls and the ground trembles when they walk. Even in their juvenile form, they are terrible to behold. Possessed of strength unknown to even the strongest of men, and their stride longer than a house. The giants of the northern tundra are a most fearsome sight to behold."
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[ Limited to Event Staff ]
H A B I T A T
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Giants live predominantly where people do not. If a human settlement overlaps with a giant’s territory, either the giant will inevitably die attacking the settlement, or the giant will gorge itself on anything that moves inside the settlement.
They are extremely territorial, and although they will cannibalize one another, a pitched battle between giants is incredibly rare. Often two adult giants that have territory bordering one another will move to the edges of their territory, and shout at one another for hours. Their howls will echo across the wilderness, and if they are more or less equally matched, both will back down. If one has an easy fight against the other, or one is pregnant, then one will become dinner shortly thereafter.
P H Y S I O L O G Y
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They superficially resemble humans. They have a bipedal form, though from the waist down they are disproportionately built, with wide bones like the trunks of trees and feet like wagons able to support their massive bodies. Their eyes are disproportionately large and often bulging, solid black and cold like those of an unthinking, brutal animal. Indeed, giants possess only the most basic sentience; they cannot be negotiated with, they possess no language, and they do not possess a capacity for empathy.
They have extremely good eyesight, but poor hearing. Like griffons, they possess an innate sense for the trajectory of thrown objects. They lack any external genitalia, given that they reproduce entirely asexually. Depending on their habitat, they are either lean or possessed of massive reserves of blubber. In the northern tundra; blubber. Anywhere else; lean.
Giants are immense. They range in size from three meters at birth, to thirty meters as adults. It takes about fifty years for a giant to reach maturity, and they grow rapidly during this time. They are insatiably hungry during this time, cannibalizing other giants for food, wildlife, anything edible that fits in their mouth they will eat.
Once adults, giants can reproduce. They do so asexually, and in a manner not unlike frogs. Hormonal shifts in an adult giant cause it to start growing eggs in its back, and it makes the giant insatiable for food in the same way a juvenile is again. For about six months the eggs rapidly grow in the giant’s back, though the process slows and can stall entirely if the giant does not have access to enough food. Before the eggs are hatched but after they are fully developed, the unborn giants bore through their parent’s back, and cannibalize one another in the womb until only between one and four giants remain. They then emerge from their eggs, leaving gaping holes in the back of their parent. The parent will sleep for a few days, and during this time if the juveniles have not left, the parent will attempt to cannibalize them.
Giants heal from their wounds extremely quickly. Their blood clots within moments of an injury, even if the injury is severe such as amputations of fingers or deep gouges in their skin. One can watch their skin heal rapidly over the course of minutes - assuming you could somehow be in the vicinity of an injured giant and not be on the receiving end of its wrath. No injury that does anything short of kill a giant remains on it for more than a week.
B E H A V I O U R
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The life of a giant is one of alternating states of ravenous, maddening hunger and comparatively serene coexistence. Their default state is that of any other wild apex predator. They walk through the land carelessly, without the capacity or interest in camouflage or concealment, looking with their advanced eyes for sources of food. They will hunt, kill, and eat - usually in that order. If they are presented with something that looks like it could hurt them or does in fact cause them pain (rare enough as that is), they leave and pursue an easier meal like any other animal.
But, at other times, giants are driven by an apparent madness that compels them to acts of ravenous, insatiable hunger. When they are juveniles they will eat hundreds of pounds of food every week, rapidly growing to size; when pregnant as adults, they will constantly, unceasingly eat as the food they consume goes toward the growth of the young in their back. These are the most dangerous times to be in giant country, for almost nothing will compel them to stop pursuing a meal.
Hunting and Diet;
Giants are omnivorous. They will tear from the ground and eat entire bushes of berries in one bite, or bite an entire stag in half. Giants live primarily in the northern tundra, where huge herds of migratory animals roam. Giants primarily sustain themselves by preying on these packs, walking toward them until some collapse from exhaustion as adults, and throwing stones or other large things at them to capacitate them while juveniles.
A B I L I T I E S
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[Accuracy] Giants are able to hurl projectiles with extreme accuracy, over long distances. For juveniles, this is dangerous but not overwhelming. For adults, this means trees being thrown like javelins, and boulders the size of small cottages being thrown like rocks.
[Tools] Giants are able to wield makeshift weapons in melee combat as well, and have been known even to lift up people in order to smash them into the ground.
[Speed] Their gate is so long that giants need only to move at a walking speed to outpace almost anything short of a galloping horse.
W E A K N E S S E S
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They are rare enough that weaknesses are not as well known, but one can assume the smaller it is the less strong it may be.
Y I E L D S
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Giants do not yield much. Their flesh is fine, but they resemble menfolk too much to be appealing as a meal for most. Their bones are hardy and dense, but not enough to be more useful than more mundane materials. Their skulls are a remarkable prize, but beside that they are a nuisance.
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