How to justify galore of knights with giantism in humanocentric dark fantasy setting?

Setting without much magic going on, except for few artifacts/mythological characters/such

Ancient Bloodlines that bred Half-Giants.

Each has their own mythology on how they came to be so.

mildly magical plant lets people grow taller than normal, but is somewhat expensive and thus restricted for noblemen (and thus knights)

I would just have them be a race of giants.

Race of titans/giants whose culture/civilazation is built upon feudal system with strong codes of chivalry and honour though few in number every member of their knighted nobility is a highly formidable warrior armed with extraoridinarily high high quality weapons and armour of peerless craftmanship each of them capable of besting scores of men on the field of battle

Building on this, it's not a one and done thing. You have to be fed on it often and regularly starting with puberty, and it is known to mess with mental and physical development.

eugenics

Build a complex history involving Literal Gods as the tallest, followed by giants, then by Lords, who follow the Gods. Finally, have the playable race be descendants of another historical figure. Let's call him the Shy Midget. Then build a full history involving a cycle of decay and renewal that absolutely no one can understand.

Is Dark Souls the tale of a manlet finally learning?

Have everyone else be malnourished and short and knights are well fed, well bred and well trained to be hulking murder-cans.

Lower the average so that "fuckhuge" is now 6'5

Dark Souls is the tale of the manlet literally tearing through giants and gods and becoming king and/or a matchstick.

Like it.
Maybe is slightly brain damagin, so you do it for the non-first child in order to remove the competition.
Like the first gets the duchy, the second goes to the church, the third is fed the plant.

you forgot the third option, which is literally gtfo of reality.

recessive titan bloodlines are a mark of royalty

>cycle of decay and renewal that absolutely no one can understand.
the greek mythos didn't die for this.
like, seriously, the age of fire is another name for the golden age in philosophy.
Before christians decided that time was a straight line from a beginning to an end almost all religions were about cycles, dark souls is inspired by greek and northern interpretations of that.

A dofus style pantheon of gods dishing out blessings dependent on who you choose to worship from a coming of age ceremony, with more powerful blessing to the more zealous of their followers

>God of war
increased growth and strength depending on your martial triumphs and rank

>Goddess of knowledge
increased magical power, elvish features, and knowledge based on your age and students/followers

>Goddess of life/fertility/nature
healing powers, beauty, and thiccness depending on how many kids youve sired, crops youve grown, etc

>Godless
typical looking humans with no exceptional traits

>How to justify galore of knights with giantism in humanocentric dark fantasy setting?
What?

>I want to have a large amount of knights that are larger than regular humans in a dark fantasy setting comprised near exclusively with humans.

How about it the more you take, the more passionate and obsessive you become?
So the standard gentry/retinue nobility are fairly normal, but the higher nobility is made up of a bunch of Achilles' and Feanors feuding and fighting about petty shit and "muh honour"

It could also increase susceptibility to magical corruption, giving you an excuse to have a bunch of giant monsters/monstrous knights running about link in Souls

Kinda like real life,
Peasants had less access to proteins and heartier foods that the smaller class of warriors and nobles had ample access to.

Dark Souls, user. Most enemy knights are at least twice the size of the player character.

This idea I quite like. Very chivalrous and passionate, but very prone to falling as well.
Just give one a great grey wolf and let my tears flow.

Only certain parts of their bodies are gigantic.

IT WAS VERY COMMON IN MYTHOLOGY, PARTICULARLY JUDEO-CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY, THE IDEA THAT MAN HAS DEGENERATED FROM A MORE DIVINE PAST. IN THE BIBLE, THR CHILDREN OF MEN AND ANGELS WERE THE NEPHILIM, LITERAL GIANTS, WHOSE LINE STRETCHED DOWN THROUGH HUMAN HISTORY.

IF THIS IS TOO MAGICAL FOR YOU, MIGHT I SUGGEST A CULTURE OF HOMINIDS THAT WAS BRED OUT/INCORPORATED INTO HUMANITY WHICH LED TO VESTIGIAL RECESSIVE GIGANTISM IN CERTAIN FAMILIES WHO ARE NOW NOBLES. EX, YOUR GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDDADDY TAMED AND FUCKED A NEANDERTHAL, SO YOUR FAMILY IS LARGER THAN THOSE WITHOUT NEANDERTHAL BLOOD

>How to justify galore of knights with giantism in humanocentric dark fantasy setting?
>how to justify
>in a. . .fantasy setting
Found your solution. Also, that's not how you use the word "galore".

Okay, but why are you yelling? Are you old?

For every man a knight slays, he gains a slight amount of height.

If we're talking about dark souls lore, almost nothing is human besides hollows. I'm not giving a round about like they're undead, but they're actually just not human.

Yep, in DS it's justified because the race of the gods are literally giants (Anor Londo variety, no relation to the tree ones)
Hence why OP wants a way to justify having giantish knights in a pretty much human-only setting

>human-only setting
Well there are other races. Sometimes. They just seem to exist apropos of nothing.

Nah, he's from Veeky Forums

In this world, men are born by the will of the gods, some, with a greater Destiny.
If a couple bore a child of great size they must spirit them away to an Oracle to learn their Destiny. The size of a child of Destiny often determines the scale of their Destiny. A knight born to slay a great beast might stand a head or two above the average man, but the legendary first king, born to unite the realms of man and push back the old arcane enemy of the gods was said to dwarf even castle's.
The nation's of this world might vary in their opinion of these great Knights of Destiny.
A nation cast into turmoil by the death of their king by a kinight might resent them, and try to eliminate the scourge of kight born.
Another blesed by a long lineage of Destined kings might relish them, and celebrate their ever tail and victory.
Another still more pious than the rest could treat them with solumn reverence, as they have been given a holy mission of the highest order.

Ever read much classical Sword and Sorcery, like Howard or Moorcock? In Robert E. Howard’s stories (both his Conan yarns and others) the Earth was once dominated by a pre-human race of “Giant-Kings”, whom in perhaps three separate occasions are met by protagonists in his stories as sort of immortal relics from a time before humanity was dominant over the world.
These Giant-Kings are implied to be human, but perhaps not OUR sort of “Homo sapiens sapiens” sort of human, akin to how Neanderthal man was human but wasn’t precisely the same species either. This slowly-vanishing race of people had pale skin (unnaturally pale, even in sunnier climates), “flashing dark eyes”, and was on average abnormally tall compared to normal humans, though otherwise they were capable of interbreeding with us and had identical weaknesses compared to our own.

You could do something similar; your game takes place in an ancient time (or a generic fantasy world, though this looses some potency in storytelling because evolution barely works in D&D fantasy worlds at all) and there’s a pre-human but diminishing race of taller superhumans that either dominates or ignores humanity, but for the presence of the PC’s. That is assuming you actually have players and aren’t just jerking off a setting into the ether because you’be nothing better to do.

Wouldn't that lead to rampant inbreeding?

What's wrong with that guy's shield? He's holding it upside down and just with his hand rather than his whole forearm

>Wouldn't that lead to rampant inbreeding?
Doesn't royalty already do that anyway?

Yes, but I meant even relative to standard royalty.