Giants

Giants are creatures whose origins are as shrouded in mystery as their physiology and culture. Deep in the Anbrian mountains they make their home among rugged terrain and hardy plant life. They are counted among the magic species of Alksheist. There are very few in Anbri, let alone in the world, who have actually seen a giant. Some even doubt their existence.

Giants are, as the name suggests, enormous humanoids. They run the gamut of physical appearance, ranging from 50 to 150 feet in height. All giants have super-dense bone and musculature to allow for their height. Giants are generally dark skinned, as there is no protection from the sun large enough to shield a giant for long, unless the giant is a mor that never moves from the shade of a mountain. Even then, genetic predisposition selects for dark skin.

As for hair and eye coloring, giants have some truly incredible mixes. There are typical colors that dominate, but some giants have coloring as wild as magenta or silver. This is due in part to the genetic processes that maintain diversity in this asexual population. Similarly, hair texture varies. Some simply shave their heads to avoid the work required. Some giants keep their hair long, and caring for it is a long process that requires hours, sometimes days of work. Many giants have hair that naturally lends to braids or allows them to portion their hair into easier-to-manage locks.

Giants have incredible eyesight, but they have very poor hearing. They almost of zoom-in vision, as the muscles of their eyes are built to focus on far away targets to assist in hunting. Giants are too large to surprise prey unless they spot it from far away. Giant ears, on the other hand, can't pick up anything but low sounds. Much of the giant's spoken language is guttural or sub vocal. To make up for this deficiency, giants have developed incredible vibratory sense. They can sense subtle shifts in the weather, feel the movement of creatures through the earth, and even somewhat feel the vibrations of other's vocal cords and heartbeats.

Society
Giants are very close knit and secluded. They rely on a sense of community. Clan Heads are often chosen from the most well learned and magically skilled members of the clan. These Heads rule until they are either too old to rule or die. A Head can be voted out by the giants and, since giants are pacifistic by nature, the Head usually agrees with the majority sentiment and vacates office.

Heads choose a council to help them run the tribe, usually five to nine of the Head's peers and elders. It's up to the Head what jobs they are given and how involved they are in the day to day processes of giant life. Currently, Clan Head Malli Len Pon is the Head of giant society. Pon has been head for a number of years, is very level-headed and is a skilled mage.

Giants, as previously said, are naturally pacifistic. That said, giants have a long history of battle practice (wrestling, grappling, mostly, but other sorts of martial arts as well). This has less to do with battle and more with tradition. Giants believe that if you can hone your body, you should. To be useful to the tribe is the best thing a giant can be in life. A honed body bears children better, can gather food, work longer, and work better.

Eating: Giants mostly thrive by absorbing the ambient magic of nature, especially that of the earth and of heat. Giants, however, have iron cast stomachs with deadly acid and can, quite literally, eat anything. Dragons, large beasts, trees, heavy vines, all of these can be meals for a giant. Giants sometimes swallow rocks to more efficiently use the magic within them. This also has the benefit of helping grind up plant matter as they dissolve in the acid of the stomach. Giants often eat gemstones, as well. Musimite is a particularly valued mineral not only as a meal but as body decoration.

Giants, being as large as they are, rarely wear clothing. Sometimes, they will use plants to decorate their body or hair, and they will occasionally fashion garments out of dragon hide, but these are decorative only. Giants don't have a taboo against public nudity.

Language
Giants have three languages: written, spoken, and signed. Of all of these, the most used and most versatile is signed language. There are several thousand combinations of hand gestures that can create "speech" that is both beautiful and eloquent. Spoken language is the least often used, composed mostly of low tones and guttural sounds. Written language is considered a "magic" language. Written work is done with Intent, and it is often the base of many spells.

Giants, as a result, often have three names. Their written or "magic" name, their spoken name (usually preceded by their gender(s) and followed by their parentage or position in the tribe (depending on which is most important to them), and finally, their signed name.

Introductions are an affair for giants. Their written names are drawn in the air, where they glow for a second as they introduce themselves verbally. They dispel their written name by signing the signed name through it. The order is important to many, just as the way you introduce yourself is.

Verbally, most elders are addressed by the "full name", their gender(s) and their name. Some peers whom one isn't familiar with are addressed this way as well. Acquaintances are sometimes called by just one gender and their name, or just the name. Friends and children are typically just the name.

Gender
Gender is not based on genitals and, while it has its base in the physical, it is a far more cultural and religious entity among giants. Originally, there were only three genders: leth, len, and mor. Leth are the smallest of giants. The mor are the largest, and len are something in the middle. Physically, these are the distinctions most giants would point out, but they are by no means set definitions. Your actions define your "gender" in this tribe, not your physical size.

Culturally, leth giants can be seen as the "hunters". These are active giants who were able to supplement their magisynthesis with alternative sources of energy (plants or animals–usually long vines or sometimes even trees, and dragons and other large beasts. Leth are often seen as "providers" for the giant tribe and, in times of stress, served as its warriors and front line of defense.

Len giants are something like the "homemakers" of the tribe: these giants accept the care given to them by the leth giants and in turn care for the mor, the sick, and the elderly. These giants study magic. They are the originators of the most of the complex spell work of the giant tribe, including the incredibly complex "shrinking" spell that allows giants to become as small as 7 or 8 feet.

Mor giants are giants who are often too large to provide for themselves. These giants are seen as something like wise people or sages. They spend their time thinking and listening. They are the most in tune with their natural magic and, as a result of their sedentary state, often have small ecosystem growing within their skin. Some of these giants are so covered in plants as to appear to be mountains themselves. A mutualistic relationship has formed in which the giants use some of the energy the plants create while the plants live on the giants.

Two relatively new genders are known as Malli and Gyn. Malli is a product of the giant's religion. Those who become small from the arduous process of their shrinking spell are sometimes elevated to a higher status, as this feat proves their mettle in magic, so to speak. Gyn are also small-giants, but these are giants who are not involved in the function of the tribe–in fact, these giants could be considered the "adventurers" of the tribe. They often leave home to explore other lands and return with tales of the far off cities and technologies.

These genders are associated with both action and feeling. Giants believe you can hold more than one gender in your heart. Some giants have two or three genders. Malli and gyn do not usually "lose" the feeling of their old gender, so they are likely to have two. Some giants switch between genders and others feel both at the same time.

Reproduction and Sexuality
These long-lived creatures are asexual–in the reproductive sense. Most giants has the capability to produce three to five children in their lifetime, and pregnancy usually lasts about 3 years. These children, however, are birthed from the mother in fetal sacs. These sacs feed the baby and allow it time to grow into its full size, or at least, near to it. Incubation time (or, the life of the unborn, as some giants call it) can be highly varied. Some giants are born at half size after only 300 years and some are born well past half of their lifespan. Those born early often experience "birth defects", such as infertility, low immune systems, and even stunted growth. A healthy incubation time is usually between 700 to 1000 years.

Genetic diversity is somewhat maintained by naturally evolved processes. In the same way that crossing over and random assortment can create genetically distinct siblings in sexual species, such activity can produce genetically distinct offspring in giants. There are even specialized processes for "mixing up" the genes in giants. As each child is just a clone of its parent, there are several distinct "bloodlines" of giants that have produced a host of physically varying individuals.

Despite this, there are bits of giant physiology that suggest they were at one time sexually reproductive. Many giants are still born with breast tissue for feeding the young, and giants can derive pleasure from what other humanoids would call sexual intercourse. Their physiology is remarkably similar in some ways to most humanoid females and this supports the idea that giants are descended from other humanoid species.

Giants often form relationships to care for children, to spend time with their fellows, and to seek physical pleasure. These are not usually just one on one pairings. Groups of friends will form these temporary bonds, and sometimes they will lose members and gain them as feelings change. Giants do not adhere to any concept of monogamy. There are fun rituals that one can go through with those they wish to cleave to for a while, with many interactions and gift-giving.

Magic
Giants are naturally magical beings, capable of using both natural and elemental magic. Written magic and runes have a place in giant society, though the runes they use are often very different from those used by other humanoids, and they are far fewer in number.

Giants are in tune with the raw power of nature. The earth below their feet is their primary source of magic, and hence, life energy. Giants have very little sway over plant life and often take days to commune with them as they do with the earth. But Giants have a special branch of natural magic that allows them control over gravity's pull on them. Some giants can decrease their weight by a bit, but some can even levitate.

Most giants are earth or fire mages, and some are even a strange combination that seems aligned with the magma of the volcanoes they live around. Very few giants are air mages. Water magic is inaccessible to giants–no giant can use it. Due to their dense skeletons, giants are not able to swim, either. Giants have developed a healthy sense of respect and fear for water's power. Similarly, air magic being rare, giants dislike the idea of leaving the earth (their source of power) for very long.

Giants are a culture that respects those who master their fears, however. They sometimes have sporting competitions where they walk along the ocean bottom for as far as they can manage. Those who go the farthest are praised. Giants live in awe of dragon riders who can travel so far into the air. Evercrest Academy holds a special magic for the giants. They greatly respect those who go there. It would be seen as a very high honor indeed to study there.

The Shrinking Spell is an important innovation in the culture of the giants. It is tied to their notions of magical power and religion. The spell is incredibly complex, a mix of runic and spoken magic that takes days to write out and hours to chant to completion. The spell is also performed by a group of mages, though the spell is most taxing on the targeted giant. This spell can shrink a giant, bringing them down to 7-9 feet high. It does not affect mass, magic, or even the strength of the giant. The small body becomes far more dense and weighs much, much more than it previously did. Many of those who use the shrinking spell combine it with powerful gravity magic to decrease the pull of gravity on their bodies and, thus, prevent themselves from breaking everything they step on.

Shrunken giants can return to full size, but the process is arduous and usually seen as unnecessary. Those who live in a small state are religious or social leaders. It is a privilege and a show of magical talent.

Religion
Giants generally believe in reincarnation. This is understandable, given that they give birth to a genetically similar child without any interference. Giants believe that the same life force cycles through one bloodline, over and over. As the children wax, the progenitor wanes. A push and pull of life and death, forever entwined.

Sometimes, giants are born without the means to reproduce. These giants are revered, as they will soon exit the cycle of life and death and move on to the world of deities, a world giants believe exists alongside theirs. Gods can reach out and touch their world, but the deity world is unknowable without the gods wishing it.

Giants have a variety of gods. They believe that the gods have many names and are unknowable except to the few they have chosen. The pantheon the giants worship is but a small part of the world of the deities, they believe. It is believed that the push and pull of life exists here too. There are two forces in the godly realms, those of water (death, depth, knowledge) and those of fire (life, surface, and innocence).

While Giants do not have a "hell" per se, it is believed that the wisest and most capricious of gods live in the depths of the ocean. Those who trespass on their domain without good reason are dealt with harshly. To balance this (giants believe balance is important), the gods of the earth and of fire are playful and sometimes silly. They can whip up destruction without meaning to, just as giants can sometimes shake the ground with their horseplay.