Ogre alchemists first developed magic which allowed creatures to grow to gigantic sizes using potions. Gradually, these Ogre Alchemists fell out of favour and were displaced from the royal courts of their homeland. The Alchemists and their followers left their homelands in massive caravans, travelling further east in search of a better life.
Even after the Alchemists and their knowledge died out, early Giants persisted in legends throughout the Great Steppes and beyond. However, over centuries, lost Alchemical potions would be discovered in crypts and caches throughout the Steppe. These potions were sought out and studied by the Wizarding Guild of the Empire, who hoped to recreate the magic themselves.
At first, the study and use of these potions were slow and controlled, but this changed when the Havoc Wars began. The Empire recruited wizards to use this magic in order to create giant warriors who could fight Greater Daemons. In the beginning, the volunteers were chosen from veterans with proven skill and valour. As the war dragged on, however, the Empire took anyone willing to volunteer. Then, when the Empire’s most powerful wizards sacrificed themselves to seal Havoc, the Giants were left without a means of returning to their former size.
Too large to return to their old home, most Giants were left to fend for themselves. Some Giants, bitter about their situation, turned to extorting or robbing villages. This quickly led to towns viewing Giants with fear and hatred and made them a target for questing knights, so most Giants began to move away from the cities of the Empire towards the Great Steppes.
Giant Tribes often seek out friendships and alliances with other species who can help keep them fed and supply them with cloth and other goods. It is said that if Giants see potential in someone, they may even offer them some of these ancient potions, allowing them to join their ranks. The Giants have only a limited supply of these potions, however, and are constantly seeking more.
How will you carve out a place for your tribe?
History
Magicians from the West
In the Golden City, Ogre alchemists developed magic which allowed creatures to grow to gigantic sizes using potions. They held significant favour in the Ogre courts. This changed when, centuries later, the Ogres began to discover and develop magic based on Voidgates.
The Road East
Gradually, the Ogre Alchemists lost favour and were gradually displaced from the royal courts of their homeland. The Alchemists began to travel further in search of work and gradually began to leave their native lands. The Ogre alchemists and their followers moved East in massive caravans, hoping to find a better life.
Life of the Steppe
The Ogre alchemists travelled across the central Steppes. Alchemists began trading with settlements on the Steppes, seeking supplies and protection. Soon after, Giants began appearing in the Steppe.
Ancient Memory
The Alchemists and their knowledge gradually died out, but these early Giants persisted in legends in the Steppe and beyond. Over centuries, their potions would be discovered in crypts and caches throughout the Steppe. These potions were sought out and studied by the Wizarding Guild of the Empire in order to understand the magic themselves.
Havoc Wars
At first, the study and use of these potions was slow and controlled. This changed when the Havoc Wars began. The Empire recruited wizards to use this magic in order to create warriors who could fight Greater Daemons. In the beginning, the volunteers were chosen from veterans with proven skill and valour. As the war dragged on however, the Empire took anyone willing to volunteer.
Sealing Havoc
As the Empire’s most powerful wizards sacrificed themselves to seal Havoc, the Giants were left without a means of returning to their normal size. Too large to return to their old home, most Giants were left to fend for themselves.
Lashing Out
Some Giants, bitter about their situation, turned to extorting or robbing villages. This quickly led to towns viewing Giants with fear and hatred and a target for questing knights. The Wizarding Guild secretly revealed the caches of potion that they knew of in exchange for Giants leaving the Empire’s lands.
Finding What Fits
Most Giants began to move away from the cities of the Empire towards the Steppes. Giant Tribes often seek out friendships and alliances with other species who can help keep them fed and supply them with cloth and other goods.
Shoulders of Giants
It is said that if Giants see potential in someone, they will offer them some of these ancient potions, allowing them to join their ranks. The Giants have only a limited supply of these potions however, and are constantly seeking more.
Society
Giants are humans who have been subjected to magic rituals that made them grow extremely large. The technique was first developed by Ogre alchemists, who then moved west when they were supplanted by Shamans. Their knowledge found its way into the Empire, where their most powerful mages refined it. It was a costly and difficult process which saw limited use until the Havoc Wars. Faced with a very high number of large beasts and Greater Daemons, the Empire responded by creating more and more Giants to fight them. Most of the high level wizards of the Empire died during the war, and with them the knowledge of how to reverse the spell was lost. Now small bands of Giants are spread across the Tyrian continent, trying to find enough food to feed their gigantic bodies.
Ever-Expanding
The giants’ curse is that they keep growing. The initial ritual makes them triple in size in the span of an incredibly painful couple of weeks, then their growth continues at a slow rate. Their lifespans are similarly prolonged, meaning that the oldest giants are centuries old and terrifyingly huge. The alchemists and mages of old had ways to halt that process, or even reverse it, but most of what they knew has been lost. Most bands of giants have gathered enough science to be able to brew potions that slow their growth, and they are always on the hunt for more knowledge on the subject.
Few giants die of old age, because at some point, they become unable to procure enough food to satisfy their body’s demands and starve to death. Giants’ skeletons are not an uncommon sight in Tyria, and are occasionally repurposed as construction materials. The largest skulls are even sometimes turned into small habitations.
New Giants
Giants cannot reproduce through traditional methods. However, the ritual to turn a human into a giant is still known to some wizards, and new giants are regularly made. They may have been created to help with construction work or to assist in a siege. Some bands of giants even perform the ritual themselves, turning worthy humans into fellow giants. Whether or not this process is voluntary may depend upon the band of Giants in question.
Smaller Folk
Some Giants have an established relationship with a specific village or domain. In exchange for food, they will perform a lot of hard labour, ploughing fields, uprooting trees, milling grain and so on. This is a mutually beneficial relationship, but it cannot last forever; at some point, the Giant will require too much food. If they really care for their fellow villagers, the Giant will leave of its own accord, otherwise they will be chased away, sometimes destroying a few buildings in the process. Some Giants turn the tables against the villagers and become tyrants, obtaining their food through threats.
This complex dynamic means that Giants are both feared and desired by smaller folks; they have the power to help them immensely, but the associated costs make it a tricky calculation. Both sides have many stories of being taken advantage of: one lord hires a Giant to build him a dam, then chases him away with spells and monsters, one Giant helps dig a ditch and eats a whole herd of sheep as payment.
Tribes
Once they grow too big for small villages, Giants are forced to start wandering around looking for work or prey. While there are Giants who wander around, dressed in rags and stealing cattle, these giants are rarely long lived.
Some seek out others of their kind. Bands of Giants are often led by a couple of older ones, who can give their protégés a bit of knowledge and wisdom about their condition.
The Giants who wish to survive in the long term must be clever. Those who can leverage their power to make deals and threaten enemies can become quite wealthy, especially if they find employment as mercenaries in a large-scale war, contributing to building projects for wealthy kingdoms, or even conquering their own domain. Some of them can accumulate enough wealth that they can afford to have custom-made clothes of fine silk and so on.
Some of the oldest Giants are veterans of the Havoc Wars, but these are getting rarer with every passing year.
Diplomacy
Even though they are not a people per se, Giants are united by their curse, and they have a kind of culture that they keep alive through a shared oral history. They employ many methods to slow their growth, from specific spells and potions to dubious prayers and amulets.
Still, some Giants will fight each-other for access to a food source, as hired mercenaries, or because they covet the same magical ingredient for their slow growth potions.
Not all Giants accept their curse, and many bands are actively looking for a solution. They will often associate themselves with wizards that are interested in this domain of magic, and lead expeditions into the lost Ogre kingdoms and the ruins near the Rift, in search of forgotten secrets from the mages and alchemists.
