Behemoth: The Land of Giants

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25-35 is probably a good range. A good metric should be that Giants could hold the average human in their hands like a barbie doll.

In other news, to get the discussion flowing. We should talk on the nature of spirits.

In rituals, you can summon spirits to appear before you. THEN you have to successfully bind to spirit to you to perform a task.

What does it take to bind a spirit? A well thought out debate? A sacrifice? Two double bacon burgers with cheese and mayo?

Wouldn't it make sense that giants actually rule? Like if there was a kingdom, wouldn't they appoint a giant a their figure head? They already represent the community.

Perhaps in some placez, but that might not be true everywhere. It isn't always they best thing to have your best warrior making all the diplomatic and infrastructure decisions. Doubly so if they need to go off and hunt a behemoth.

Your fetish is dumb

Actually if you look, that lady is normal sized. There are knights in the background.

You're dumb.

I'd imagine its more of a thing when a community has more than one giant in it.

Spirit binding requires a place of elemental power, a long ritual to summon the spirit. and then sufficent sacrfices to convince it to enter your service for a few favors.

Depending on the strength of the spirit. it could be a few juicy steaks flame kissed to perfection, to the heart of a behemoth.

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>Not posting the second pastebin but posting the story
>Not even posting the first pastebin.
Good job, OP.

pastebin.com/mfbnCw2M

Note that this pastebin's topics section is slightly out of date since we discussed some of those topics immediately after, but more discussion doesn't hurt.

I didn't even see that pastebin in the last thread, Sorry.

My guess is that it was one of those "seemed cool at the time" things.

It still seems cool. I like river communities.

Speaking of, let's talk more about domains and shit. What sort of overlying cultures do these lands have? We've got a couple ideas in the pastebin, but I figure each main island could have 2-3 citystates on it, with the broken-up island having multiple small villages that report to lords, kinda like Arturian villages, but with fishermen.

YO THATS A TINY ASS HEAD

turns out she's not a giant at all, just really really ripped.

I'm not sure if that's a turn-on or a turn-off.

giants can have tiny heads if they want to.

For the southern collection of islands... imagine they're like a amalgamation of Polynesian and Chinese cultures. for no particular reason either.

So what, like rice and fishing villages that have feudal lords or something? I'm probably mixing up my cultural history here.

more or less

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Yes but why does it make a pentagram

When i was drawing in the rivers and dividing up the landmasses i just started drawing squiggly lines. That happened.

THough if you can find a lore reason for it to be in a pentagram by all means. Contribute to the thread. Lord knows it needs it.

Here's an example of a giant who had their growth spurt when they were "chosen" at age 14. Normally humans stop growing but at what age should giants growth rate start to decline? Is it even dependent on age? Village size/power? Depends on the setting?

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I'd say it depends on the village more than it does on when they were chosen.

The age that the giant is chosen at would probably be affected by the previous giant's passing. If they were going to die of old age soon, then a baby could be chosen and partially raised and trained by the still-living giant. If a giant were to die suddenly, we need somebody NOW guess you're the best pick, and then a teenager or adult gets picked. Other cultures may choose giants in their teens or even adults of merit, but this shouldn't affect their size in any meaningful way. Might affect their outlook on being a giant, though.

Hmm I meant "chosen" more ambiguously, since it's not really a popularity contest for who "gets" the giant power. I was thinking more of how different cultures have different customs but one of their citizens is granted this power somehow (through some unknown process, whether it's prayer, gods, training, etc).

In terms of the older giant training the new one, would that work? Wouldn't that violate the 1 giant per community rule/guideline. Maybe he wanes in power when older and that allows the power to transfer to a new citizen. I think that could work for giants that die of old age, where a newborn will slowly gain that power (and be visibly clear that it has inherited that power by growth). For giants that die early in battle etc, and maybe for villages that have just meet the minimum requirements, the power would immediately transfer to an adolescent.

Yeah the age/time one received the power shouldn't change their max height, was wondering if that should be more of an innate thing or can adult giants keep growing based on community/strength

>Maybe he wanes in power when older and that allows the power to transfer to a new citizen.
That's what I was thinking, yeah. It makes the most sense and allows us to have giants that both became giants after first pursuing something else in life, and giants that were literally born into the job and have always had that as their job, which creates psychological diversity and allows different kinds of character.

I've got a bit on my plate, but I'm working on some drafts for nations and other elemental giants, as well as giant-specific magic. If somebody beats me to the punch, I won't be insulted or anything since I'm only an okay writer at best.

We've probably got enough content at this point that we can start talking mechanical systems, or we can make it a system-less setting and keep talking fluff as desired.

I don't think one giant per village was a hard and fast rule. Just a guideline.

Do giants age? I kinda figured since they had some divine magic in them or something they wouldn't.

Also can anyone contribute a kingdom? I've had an idea for a magical senate for a while but haven't used it anywhere

I remember someone mentioned "hunters" a while back, ordinary humans who fought against behemoths and dragons and the like. I can't imagine its a particularly desired dayjob - the mortality rate would be sky high. It seems like there would be two types of hunter: temporary posses that form to drive off a smallish behemoth or to help out their local giant (think farmers, militias, etc) or professional hunters. Because of the high mortality rate, these 'professionals' would probably only choose this career path if its that or starve. Seeing as they don't have any other options, they probably wouldn't be particularly weealthy or skilled, or have access to fantastic weapons, armor or magic (cuz if you can do magic why not get a job as a mage?).

Of course, its possible there's all kinds of literature romanticizing life as a hunter or portraying them as heroes, which is probably full of inaccuracies or tactics that would get "real" hunters killed.

I personally think that the growth should start very early. Five years old at the LATEST.

Would it be possible for someone (maybe a bbeg) to tap into the primal power of the world and attain gianthood?

>Confederacy of Oros
Covering most of the north-west continent, Oros is a major power in the world. Oros' government is an unusual ogliarchy. There are seven magical colleges that train mages in Oros. The first four (druids, clerics, sorcerers and wizards colleges) formed the confederacy of Oros several hundred years ago. They were joined by the college of Witches 80 years ago. Each of these five colleges trains mages. When they graduate, students become official mages. They are allowed to vote and hold political offices. There are also two other magical colleges in Oros, but these are not official members of the confederacy and so cannot vote.

What about a kingdom in the northwest whose giants are known for their smithing skills in places where lava is close to the surface. Their main trade commodity could be iron

Giants, while technically allowed to join the colleges, are rare graduates because it takes a decade of study on the campuses to before students are eligible for the final exam and few giants can afford to be away from their villages for so long. Non-mages are excluded from politics by law. It goes without saying that the senate of the Confederacy is horribly, horribly corrupt.

The five confederate colleges are:

>College of Sorcerers
Made up of the elite sons and daughters of ancient sorcerous bloodlines, the secretive college of sorcerers used to be a major power in politics. While it is the oldest college and has the most pedigree it has lost a lot of its status and now mainly functions as the "sidekick" of the college of Wizards. Rumour has it the source of the bloodlines is cross-breeding with dragons, which most sorcerers find incredibly offensive.

>College of Wizards
Made up of the children of the nouveau riche who emerged following Oros's dominance of trade, Wizards learn magic through magical rituals, "Rhythm and Repitition". While their magic is slower and not as spontaneous as others', it can be quite potent. It is VERY expensive to attend the college of Wizards, ensuring only the wealthiest can afford it, but this is the only barrier to entry. This means there are many second sons and daughters of other kingdom's in the college, and by extension, in Oros politics.

>College of Druids
The college of druids is the second smallest (larger only than the sorcerers) and poorest of college. Made up of magical prodigies from rural areas, especially small farming villages, this college specializes in communing with the spirits of nature. Members of this college do vote in the senate, but rarely hold office, as most are more interested in ensuring their home has a bountiful harvest than they are in playing politics in the capital. The college of druids has the strongest relationship with giants.

>College of Clerics
The second of the "Big Three" colleges, the college of clerics focuses on channeling the power of the 'divine' through rituals and prayer. Outwardly similar to the college of wizards, these mages usually come from convents or priesthoods. They have the strongest relationship with the Titan of Oros, Sassalia, the guardian of the capital of Oros.

cont. in next post.

>College of Witches
The youngest and largest college. The college of Witches was not a founding member of the Confederacy. The four original confederate colleges did not allow women to graduate. A few sorceresses founded this college a century ago and it quickly became as large as all the other colleges combined. Fearing a civil war, the other colleges reluctantly allowed the College of Witches to become a member. Although the other colleges have since changed their standards of entry to allow for female mages, the college of Witches remains the largest college. It has the lowest standards of entry, taking any who are gifted in magic and female. This means there is a plurality of political positions within this college, leading to much infighting and backstabbing. Nevertheless, it dominates the senate, and holds many political positions.

Non-confederate colleges:

>College of Warlocks
Founded by anarchists, the College of Warlocks was founded by mages who thought it was unfair that non-mages could not participate in the political process of Oros. They specialize in quickly training people with no magical aptitude to be powerful warlocks by making deals with the oldest and most abstract of Behemoths, who may predate the world. They are attempting to force the senate to accept them into the Confederacy the same way they were forced to accept the College of Witches. They have been repeatedly refused a spot in the Confederacy, citing their demonic heritage and stiff opposition from the College of Clerics. They are a source of much uncertainty and instability in Oros right now.

>College of Archmages
A deliberately non-confederate college, the College of Archmages is made up of graduates of other colleges who grew sick of the politicking of mages, resigned any position they had and gave up their vote in the parliament. Focusing exclusively on magical research and learning, the members of the College of Archmages are some of the strongest mages in the world.

They are immortal and never stop growing, but they grow very slowly

>Giants of Oros
Sassalia Oros - A fifty foot Titan, Sassalia is a mighty mage and the only being to be a member of all five confederate colleges (although three of those graduations were honorary). Though she possesses magical power possibly unmatched the world over, she is not much of a fighter. Few Behemoths make it near the capital city of Oros as to get there they would have to defeat countless lesser giants before reaching the Oros heartlands. Because of this, she spends more time playing poiltics, constructing great magical works or engaging in tremendous acts of sloth or hedonism.

Yuros the Arcane - One of the founders of the College of Archmages, Yuros is possibly the most learned being in all the world. As powerful as Sassalia despite being half her size, mages travel from all over the world to (sometimes literally) learn at his feet.

Cairn the Unstoppable - The OTHER Titan of Oros, Cairn's 'town' is the mighty fortress of Orosain which protects the Oros end of the great bridge. He has spent most of his life fighting against Behemoths of the land and sea, dragons, and giants and titans from Molackh Doul attempting to force their way into the heartlands of Oros. Grim and unsmiling, he is known far and wide as one of the world's greatest warriors.

Just keep in mind that very rarely can humans directly use magic on their own. Other than that, this is great!

In the archipelago to the east known as "The Shattered Heart" there is a multi-island civilization, Tethiti. They have a fanatical religion surrounding the sea and the beasts in it. The giant of this place is known as Ekem, Lord of Lightning. He has an innate control of magical electricity and is known to use it to augment his physical abilities, causing him to be faster and stronger as the need arises. He shares his domain with a lesser giant and together they protect the town's from the behemoths of the deep. They believe their may be something even bigger than a behemoth, perhaps even a Leviathan, hiding in the sea.

I think that was by biggest qualm reading it. A single city having 5 different mages colleges feels strange. Having one, or 3 if it's very important that there's a rivalry, feels more manageable.

Sweet, thanks for the feedback. The confederacy is basically the 1% running everything else crossed with the British empire, so it makes sense they'd be very, very, very few. And now: Geography!

Oros locations
>Oros Heartlands
Located on the southern end of the continent, the Oros heartlands contains the capital city of Oros, Sassalia's temple and countless miles of surrounding farmlands. It also contains the Colleges of Witches, Wizards, Sorcerers and Clerics.

>Forest of Behemoths
A brooding, nightmarish, overgrown place. North-east of the heartlands and west of the Rocky Hills, the Forest of Behemoths lies along the Valley River, with its main centre between the two Great Salt Lakes. Early in its history Oros made multiple attempts to carve its way through the forest in order to create highways to the Oros Reaches beyond. This resulted in a great many Behemoths - animals and trees - growing there, further damaging the environment. After generations of this awful cycle the forest has become a much-feared battleground of monsters. The Forest Guardians were formed in response to this danger and defend the Heartlands against any threat from this quarter.

>Valley River and the Great Salt Lakes
A river valley. Unusual in that water flows inwards from the sea to here, instead of the other way around. Not drinkable, but a great source of fish, as several species use it as breeding grounds. Beware overfishing, as it causes behemoths.

>Oros Hills
Centre of Oros mining. Giants here frequently fight subterranean behemoths forged from rock, offspring of the depleted hills. It would have been long ago abandoned, but there are always new seams of ore to find.

Its not really one city with three mage colleges, more like one country covering most of the continent with that many colleges.

Why do y'all always get the most shit done when I'm not online.

Oh well, at least it's easier to sort through when there's not a constant stream of new stuff to go through.

And now: the North-East

>Oros Reaches
Hilly grasslands that made perfect farmlands. Originally home to the nomadic Hill People. Their acquisition of the Reaches was how the Oros discovered humans did not spawn behemoths if they were... depopulated. Houses the college of druids, which is spread between several large farming towns.

>The Deadly Straits
A thin strip of water between the Oros Reaches and the Rocky Isles. Very dangerous, contains many reefs. A major impediment to Orosian imperial ambitions in the central isles.

>College of Archmages
Located atop the cliffs at the very north-east of the continent, as far from Oros ass they could possibly be. Due to the nature of the college, magical phenomena in the surrounding area are common.

>Kanan's folly
Ruins of what was to become the second Great Bridge, stretching between the north east of this continent, near the college of mages, and the Easttern continent. Repeated behemoth attacks and the unhelpfulness of the natives on the other side lead to repeated failures and the unfinished bridge being abandoned. Exists only as ruins now.

It IS a confederacy, after all.

North West post

>Forbidden Forest
A thick, overgrown forest. Deforestation is utterly forbidden under pain of death, in order to avoid a repeat of the Forest of Behemoths.

>Dragonspine Mountains
Many dragons here. Stay away.

>College of Warlocks
High in the north, close to the mouth of the Valley River. A black, towering fortress, although it is not known what the Warlocks would need to defend themselves from. Rumoured that their magic has warped the sky itself, creating vast shimmering curtains of light.

>Land of Ice and Twilight
A wasteland rumoured to exist beyond the northern sea. Most sensible Orosians dismiss it as hearsay.

If humans rely on ritual, why not it be the remains, or even still active, remnants of a huge ritual, related to the fall of the Dragons?

The Orosian South

>Southern coast
South-western coast of Oros. Main Orosian ship-building ports are located here. Shame there's no one to trade with.

>Orosain Fortress
A series of large fortresses that grew so large they joined and became one. Encircles the end of the Great Bridge. Home of many small giants and the Titan Cairn. Also the centre of Orosian military power.

>The Great Bridge
A series of mighty bridges built between the isles linking the north-western and southern continents. Originally built to allow the forces of Oros to march directly on Molackh Doul without the need to first defeat their mightier Navy. Has since become a frequent target for Molackh ships and a series of naval fortresses in their own right.

>Colonies of Oros
Three large islands in the south-west of the world. Colonized by Oros before they were discovered by Molackh Doul, whose empire spread southwards from their tropical heartlands. Islands themselves are fairly useless, with few resources or people living there. Rumours Oros use the islands as naval bases to launch expeditions into Molackh waters to deliberately overfish are denied at all levels of the Oros government.

Aaaaaand dump over. That's all I got for the Oros Empire. Do the continents have names BTW?

nope

Nope. Anyone want to take a swing at it?

Okay, I got nothing for those, other than the North-West one should NOT be called Oros as its already a city.

Why not?
There's a New York, New York

Yeah, but Oros is a Confederacy. The continent would have had a name long before it formed.

Also, a thought occurs: can giants get pregnant?

We decided that it was for the best if giants not affiliated with large cities couldn't get pregnant. We never decided if giants that ARE affiliated with large cities CAN get pregnant, but at the very least we determined that it wasn't okay and kinda defeated the purpose of choosing from the populace each generation.

That doesn't really work at all, it's not generational if they're immortal

I can understand that, it would definitely make logical sense - but I think this would be more appropriate when you KNOW the child will be the next giant, like in the above examples of a giant growing old and raising the next young child who inherited his power. For sudden deaths and new village giants I think the power could be bestowed upon them randomly.

This also varies by village, different rituals, beliefs etc and allows for some breathing room for different cultures and stories.

Holy shit, user, this is great.

I think it'd work best for giants to have relatively long lifespans. They should easily live to 100 barring external factors, and if they do die of old age, it's the sort of thing that will have clear signs ahead of time so they can teach a successor.

That said though, fighting behemoths on even a yearly basis won't give giants the best survival rates. Even if they are long-lived, tragedy can still strike.

From there, the gift of gianthood gets passed to another in the village, though I feel that would still likely favor those who are very young, meaning there will certainly be a time when the village will be without a giant.

Alright. Got a new pastebin ready with the shit discussed in this thread. We have a confederacy, so I might edit the map with that if we can hammer down exactly where it is. I don't think I specifically saw which island it was supposed to be on.

pastebin.com/3fJXDStd

Good shit as always, guys. It's a pleasure working with you. Let's see if we can make this happen.

Cheers user. I'm thinking that the two main socio-political powers in this world are the Confederacy of Oros, which has powerful mages and strong land armies but a poor navy (they never needed one, as their main struggle for most of history was dominating their own continent and defeating any behemoths that emerge) vs the Molackh Doul who have a powerful navy and colossus war machines, but have significantly less experience in land warfare.

I think the Molackh Doul sphere of influence would likely be the north of the southern continent, the central archipelago, the south of the north-eastern continent and the eastern Tethiti. They would likely control this area through their Navy and trade with colonies they establish in these places. While they would likely have explored the south of their continent I can't imagine too much expansion there, as there might not be much down there except for swamps and behemoths.

Contrast this with the Oros, whose sphere of influence has been bottled up in the North-West by the reefs of the Deadly Straits and the Molackh Doul.

I can't really imagine much of a civilisation emerging from the north-eastern continent, especially in the north. Hard living conditions and frequent dragon attacks means that apart from loose alliances like the Frostland Vanguard, or the southern Molackh colonies, there wouldn't be any really large nations or untied civilizations there. Have people suggested anything for the Molackh Doul? Cuz I was thinking, given they come from a dangerous land full of Behemoths, maybe the Magocracy was run by giants?

The Confederacy of Oros is on the North-Western continent. The Oros Heartlands are in the south of it, with Oros itself lying somewhere near the south-west coast. Check my dump about the locations if you wanna map it out.

Why are they all wearing diapers?

Do you not know what an artist's manikin is, user?

Alright, cool. I'll mark it down and get to actually editing the map later.

So have we considered the prospect of Half-giants? People born of giants who while never as large or powerful. Are none the less stronger and larger than normal humans.

I would propose that due to size these half giants are the product of relations between two giants. Since a giant is created by the magic of a community these beings would not have access to that magic. Only a capulated piece of it. Therefor they would be smaller and weaker but would not be magically bound to a community. Allowing for a party of half-giants to explore the worlds setting.

I would also propose these Half-giants be sterile otherwise what would stop them from out breeding or competing with there smaller kin and defeating the whole point of their existence?

Might be a decent solution to the questions of giant breeding we had upthread, though I'd say half giants should be only in the 7-8 foot range. They'd be really tall for a human, and have some strength to go with that, but they'd still be on par with most men, relatively speaking.

Wouldn't even require they be sterile, as they would still be rather rare. You could theoretically make a culture of amazons or whatever out of them. Either way, I'm not too excited by the prospecting of making them just for the sake of making human-scale adventures more varied in the setting. We've already established that human magic is fairly utility, and if half-giants can get giant magic, then that just brings up the same issues.

The setting isn't designed for human level adventures. Giants are PCs, and humans are NPCs. Half-giants might be chief among NPCs, but they're still at that level.

The big threats in the setting are things that only giants and armies have a hope of fighting. Barring political intrigue or taking on bandits, there isn't much for a small band of human mercenaries to do.

I think we've pretty well established by now that if you want to explore the setting on a wide scale without having lost your village first, this just isn't the setting for you.

Its concepts function much better on a narrow lens. You know the giants in your area, you meet periodically, but a lot of your exploration is done near your village so that you can defend it easily. On extremely rare occasions you might go to a larger town or city for some specific errand, but that's about it.

If you want to wander around, play a giant that's out of a home.

As cute as it might be. i think that the idea of Half giants being a thing is something that should be excluded.

This is what I use: mrinitialman.com/OddsEnds/Sizes/sizes.html

How does your Giant like their pizza?

Alright, after 10,000 years in MSPaint, the current map of the regions is free.

Orange is the Oros Confederacy, Blue is the Frostland Vanguard, Green is the Mageocracy of Molackh Doul, and Purple is the Shattered Heart.

We need more details on the Vanguard and Mageocracy. The user that wrote the Oros Confederacy stuff put the info we've come up with on these to shame. The Shattered Heart is probably honestly fine as it is, since it's relatively small.

Also, might want to consider some great Dragon Nest of sorts. It could give players an endgame goal if they want to get proactive or if estranged PCs don't want to settle and make their own village.

That's a lot of territory for these organizations...I would reduce it by like... Half if you still want the world to be explored

The confederacy controls most of the northwest continent, but I imagine there's a lot of unexplored stuff between their cities.

Still, you're right. I'll tinker around with it a bit more and get back to you.

For the love of god, even if you insist on keeping the fucked up not-rivers, please, please fix the hanging triangle on the bottom left of the not-river network. It looks utterly ridiculous.

Sorry, user, I didn't originally draw the map. I just keep track of stuff and provide input and ideas.

Here's the original map that the original artist made and then made into the detailed map.

It is told in stories and rumors that the large inner sea used to be home to a vast continent with a thriving civilization. However, there one day arose a behemoth that was so massive and destructive that all living giants at the time had to band together and user horrid magic that should never again be attempted. After the spell was cast the behemoth was gone, but so too was the continent and those who refused to leave. Some scholars debate wether a behemoth of such size could exist or that it could truely be destroyed, some speculate it may be dormant in the place the giants tried to eliminate it.

Samefag

It is apparent that the humans who currently inhabbit the world mah all be descendants of those from the first civilization. No one truely knows what happened, yet.

Maybe molackh doul has a capitol on top of a giant turtle

I can see that going horribly

Orosfag here. If you want, I could post some ideas I had about the Magocracy and the Vagnuard I had. Also I was wondering exactly what kinds of sentient species live on this planet? I assumed just humans.

I ask cuz I had an idea - Kobold Kingdoms in the Frostland mountains. The oldest dragons saw humans receive great powers from the spirits, some of them becoming mighty champions. Seeking to exploit this, they created the Kobolds, a diminuative, quick-breeding race of lizard slaves.

The Kobolds were sentient, just. They do not produce great works of art or literature, impressive feats of engineering, or make profound scientific discovery. They have an intelligence level slightly higher than dogs. Their societies survive by robbing or copying humans. Some scholars postulate that this was deliberate on the part of the dragons - kobolds lack the imagination to rebel against their draconic masters.

Most kobolds live in abject misery, constantly living on the verge of starvation, the only food they can find is usually stolen from the Frostland Vanguard or hunted down by a pack. Dragons do not care for the suffering of kobolds, because the kobolds exist for only one reason - to generate giants. These giants, known as Bugbears, serve as the dragon's foot soldiers. They stand 25 feet tall each and wear arms and armour made from kobold slave labour or looted from dead enemies. Dragons designed kobolds to breed like rabbits, resulting in there being a great many of these lizard giants. When the dragons decide to wage war, they first send vast hordes of poorly-equipped kobolds swarming down from their mountain lairs to exhaust the Vanguard, before leading their Bugbears in as a second wave.

Oros covers most of the south and east of their continent,but I'd take them off the north-west forest and mountains, as they're unexplored.The only thing really up there is the college of Warlocks, and they keep to themselves. You could also knock them off the forest of Behemoths too - they tried to set up highways through there but it really didn't work so they stay out of those places.

That said, Oros does have control of those big three islands in a line down the south-west side of the map.

I would think there would be different ways to go about it depending on the spirit and the binder.
If you're on reasonably good te4ms it works like a business deal an offering of some sort in exchange for some power.
Less friendly exchanges would take the form of forcible bindings to coerce the spirit or desperate sacrifices to try and curry some favour.

If someone were to kill a behemoth, wouldn't that feed a settlement for months on end?

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In theory, yes, but all behemoths might not be absurdly huge themselves. Kinda like those two very small Colossi you fight in Shadow of the Colossus.