Giant thread

Giants used to rule the world in ancient times,around 10,000 years ago; then they got into a war with dragons and everything went to shit. In the last two thousand years or so,some clans of high giants (or thunder giants,as they are commonly known) have tried to re-establish the empire,but to no abide; they managed to put together a giant kingdom in the ruins of the ancient capital,and that's it.
Most giants live as nomads,forming nuclear families,raising livestock and gathering fruits and such. The "normal" giants (akin to hill and stone giants from other setting,without the retardness) live peaceful lives in the wild lands of the setting,sometimes serving as mercenaries and pathfinders for armies crossing through their territories. Others live in the deepest forest,practicing druidism and such,and acting as teachers to the younger races. Trolls also do this; they're cool in my setting.
The exception are frost giants; they live in the polar circle, in fortresses built from ice and stone, worshipping an old Chaos God (who's almost gone for good,for he was killed long ago,but almost nobody knows that),submitting tribes of orcs and other evil folks into their service so they can wage war on the other mortal realms and bring Ragnarok (because they think their hod is just ignoring them,'cause they aren't breaking and killing enough).

This particular comic made a big impact on me as a youngster.

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Looks like an average character in pathfinder/4e art

One of my players is. He's a crystal elemental Priest 4/ Paladin 3 on the paths of Life and Beauty and uses a battering ram.

I like English hill giants. Cause once you go east they start growing horns and pig faces

both, depending on type, due to me playing D&D mostly.

I like giants more than I used to, when I was little I found that they were unimaginative because in many stories they're just "humans, but bigger", but I've warmed to them of late. I like describing how the environments they inhabit have been shaped in ways that allow such huge being to survive, and also that they're unpredictable and sometimes amoral, but rational enough that clever or persuasive characters can still occasionally get help from them.

I like giants as titans.
Basically gods that are worshipped and embody forces of nature and stuff.
That implies a certain level of sophistication, they should be wiser than most of humanity in any case.

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>embody forces of nature
That seems to be their origin, at least in the nordic mythology.

Not a hard border between gods and giants there.
Most polytheistic religions are not incompatible with each other. I like to look at them through the lens of nordic mythology, then different pantheons are like different families of giants playing with humans.

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Aren't the Vanir and Aesir not actually giant though?

They might as well be. Got all the same powers, interact with them like humans do with each other.
I like to think of them as all falling under the same genus as titanic beings.

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Reminds me of when a thread popped up asking what you'd rather have as a familiar:

>a kiwi 300 times the normal weight, but the same size (ultra dense)

>a kiwi 300 times the size

Pic related

I'm actually having a hard time trying to define them.

I largely like most of the giants in D&D default.

Frost Giants are metal as fuck, Hill Giants are like fairytale sorts. I love the weird mystic shit of the Stone Giants, Storm Giants are just plain cool. Fire Giants I like, but im not sure what to do with them. Cloud Giants I think I like the least, because you take a creature defined by scale, and put them in a place where everything is as big as they. I think something like that can work only once. I love the Fomorians and the Firbolgs of 5e. I don't know what to do with the Cyclops.

I don't like my giants as colossal things. They're more Harryhausen than Galactus.

Also Giants can be encountered in multiples without diluting it's concept or gravitas, unlike a Dragon.

Giants to me are deeply connected with the earth and the land, which is why the Cloud Giants are the least liked by me.

Giants also symbolize to me a previous age. The last remnants of the time of giants. Their megalithic ruins can be found across the world.

Lastly, Giants are the precursors of dwarves. Dwarves came from the flesh and blood of Giants, or they congregate like lice where giants are or have been. As such there are likely a kind of dwarf for every kind of Giant.

That's the extent of what I have for giants, any feedback or ideas?

>Giants roam these lands.
>They fill the world outside our city walls with chaotic sorcery.
>How unfortunate are those that must bear the wrath of a giant, or that must venture out on odyssees into the territory of cruel and foreign ones.
>We are blessed, young ones, to live under the patronage of a kind and loving giant, who allows us to build our houses and farm our lands without having to fear the divine wrath of their fellow titans.
>And that only for our praise and offerings.
>Remember, young ones, that not all people are so fortunate. All over the known realm people live in fear of giants, crawling like insects beneath their feet, doing their best not to get noticed. Or they are slaves to giants, forced to do labour and build monuments of worship, not out of love for their patron like us, but out of fear.
>I'm telling you. Nothing good can be found outside these walls.
>In the wild untamed beyond you will have to brave the monstrous sea serpents and other behemonths, pets to cruel giant huntsmen,
>and mountains that reach the heavens, their palaces
>all manner of corruption and warped beings, a by product of their dealings
>stay inside the city and praise our patron

>giants once roamed these lands
>this used to be a land of high magic
>now they're gone, did they die? did they leave? we don't know
>what we know is that the largest most powerful monsters were once commonplace here, relics from a bygone age
>soon mankind will have destroyed all remnants of the age of giants and the world will be tamed
>only a madman would try to bring the world back to a time when men were insects at the feet of gods

>you are a giant romaing the lands, what will you do?
>You could become patron to a city, let humans provide for you in exchange for protection
>just makes sure that you don't let humans start disrepecting you
>you could claim your own little territory and start making monsters
>watch out for rival giants though
>You could get together with some other giants and start a sick pantheon
>but you'd have to deal with politics and in-drama
>If you do any of these really well you could probably get a huge castle

Been looking for a specific picture for a while now.
It's some sort of sci-fi art featuring an excavation team unearthing this huge undead giant, it'd be perfect for a game I'm planning.

In return, have this edgy angel made out of knives.