Giant: The Perfidious

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Since time immemorial, Giants have roamed through our tales, sometimes as friends, mostly as savage foes for stalwart young heroes to slay and prove their worth. Even when they're not absconding with young maidens, milling the bones of the sons of farmers or hoarding gold, they antagonize and make war with the mighty Gods. They're beasts, through and through; In the shape of a man, yet monsters possessing strength and size far beyond the capacity of even the mightiest warrior. They have no home, no society, no point to their existance...

But what if they do? In this homebrew World of Darkness splat, we will explore the histories, capabilities and damnnation of the Gigantes on modern day Earth. Born of a human woman, yet not quite a messiah as one would hope. Beware the Giant who has fallen so irredeemably far, the Unworthy are branded as such only until the Earth can no longer tolerate their existance. Oh, yes, Giants have always been around. We have always chosen to forget.

It's also the kind of setting where you can totally pit Paul Bunyan and Thor up against Godzilla and Cthulhu.

Theme and Mood

A Giants life is multifaceted: He has the potential to conquer or help, to subjugate or save. His is a position of power, a father to humanity and nature, and like a father he also possesses the capacity to be cruel and full of malice towards his child. Yet, though he is entitled to be honorific, to lose his Worthiness and be abandoned by what defines him and accept a life of mindless bloodshed is a lift of burden that may spiral him towards terrible greatness. It's a story of loneliness and comradery, faith and doubt, blood and sinew, life and death.

The theme of Giant: The Perfidious is Authority. Obviously, Giants are big, yet are familiar enough to man to not immediately judge them as being destroyers. Because of their size, strength and connection to the Divine, however, it is easy for Giants to coerce man or nation into granting him sovereignty, even to be deified. It goes beyond that, even, because much like their Pantheistic cousins, the Gods, Giants can be granted credit and traited with aspects of nature, which bows to them as well. The earth quivers and gifts the Giant with statues of dirt and stone, presenting gold and precious metals for naught but a word from the behemoth. The Mood, however, is Isolation. Even with power and money, a Giant is truly alone. No man can possibly understand him, and cold brutality can only darken his growing loneliness. A Giant can eschew control of man to control nature, but even with his silent, obedient groves, exotic personal zoos and lonesome castles, were he to meet with another Giant, it would be in the context of a king meeting another king. Only by bending knee to the Councils and giving up his authority to a higher power can he hope to alleviate his solitude, though then he as the beck and call of a group that may not have his best interests at heart. Power is at the crux of the Giants existence, and much like an young adult making his way, its discovery and how he chooses to wield it can spell fulfillment or doom him to misery. In the end it falls for naught, however, as a Giant hoping leave his mark will inevitably fade away into obscurity, a victim of the Doubt that will cement both him and his cousins as inevitable allegories and myth.

Pantheons: Giant Groups

Being part human still leaves them as social creatures, so much so that friendships developed among giants are titled Pantheons, not for ironies sake or to mock the gods, but because together they are a single unit of power.

Rarely elect a Gibborim = leader of a pantheon, mostly divide power evenly

The Councils: Giant Society

Jotnar

Nordic Elemental Spirits, Foes of the Gods and Protectors of Land

Wind Giants

Jotnar Protectors of the Clouds

Templars of Apkallu, Lords of Mythical Mu

Jotnar Scholors of the Ocean

The ocean has held many poetic meanings over mankinds history. To some she is a lover, to others she is death, and a source of unbridled fear. Monsters sleep in her depths, and the still, inky blackness scuttles with life unknown to the mortal eye. These Giants believe that the ocean is the natural home for Giants, being spacious, filled with food, fields of Ley Lines and relatively safety from human encroachment. Nearly every Ocean Giant is a member of the Jotnar, and opt to fight their yearly battles deep within the murky shadows of the sea.

The Rephaite

Middle-Eastern Nomads, Noble Demons and Mercenaries

Wenennefer

Egyptian Death-Worshippers, maintainers of the Status Quo

Giant history has many parallels to ancient Jewish, Egyptian and Babylonian tales, but two tales stand out more then any. It was Great King Nimrod that spoiled mankinds unity with his own hubris, a giant and tyrant over man who wanted to be greater then the very gods he worshipped. His attempt to build the tower of Babel backfired terribly, however, when the workers became cursed with tongues, unable to understand one another. Without the capability to work together, they quickly lost tolerance to the lashings of Nimrods men, and anger became their new universal language, overpowering even the mighty hunter-king and burning his headless corpse in an effigy, before going their separate ways. The Tower of Babel, without maintenance, eventually sunk into the earth, engulfed by the sands of Egypt, where it lay forgotten for several millenia. The giants that discovered the Tower during the First Crusades also discovered the etchings on the wall, cementing the terrible revolution of the legend as fact, and out of sudden, overbearing fear that such an event could occur again, these Giants founded the Wenennefer. Based within the buried Tower of Babel, accessible only by cleverly hidden dark cave, the Wenennefers Shadowy Operatives prepare for their dark works. Named for Osiris, god of the underworld and the Worthy Martyr of Giant Legend, they see fit to repeat what his brother had done, but for different motivations. Set killed Osiris for his throne. The Wenennefer kill Kings out of fear. Over the centuries they've been operating, they followed a simple code: Giants must not rule. Too often a Giant granted power will abuse it, and because of the doubt that they inspire in mankind leaving holes that Giants would otherwise have filled, who knows how many cataclysmic events Giant leaders could have caused?

Jentillak

Earthshapers, Builders and Wandering Storytellers based in Ireland

Presence bonus to Terrascuplting >A thought. What if progressing in these power trees causes subtle-but-noticeable-if-one-pays-attention slips in the field of normalcy that allows a Giant to walk amongst humans? Like say having ranks in Terrasculpting causes your footsteps to, unless you take deliberate care to prevent it, be much more resounding and vibrate the ground around you a bit. So say a giantess has Terrasculpting 1--if she still wears shoes, the heels might clack like rifle shots on a floor or sidewalk. By the time she maxes it out, however, she runs the risk of knocking portraits off of walls or shaking drinks clean out of cups whenever she strolls past.

Daityas

Indian Power Seekers, who exemplify Greed and Envy

Beastmen

Roving clans of savage Grendal

Clan Gogmagog

Evil Giants who revel in Blood and Subjugation

The Legend of the Two Brothers: Worthiness and Morality

Raphèl maí amèche zabí almi

- King Nimrod, founder of the Tower of Babel, forced to repeat these meaningless words in Hell forever.

Giant history has many parallels to ancient Jewish, Egyptian, Babylonian, Mesopotamian and Hindu religious parables, but it is one myth that all giants hold true to their hearts: The Legend of the Two Brothers. No one remembers their true names, though Giants justify them as being either Cain and Abel or Set and Osiris due to the proximity of their tales to the Giants myth.

In the days before man, demigods roamed the earth, men of strange form and power, living apocryphal lives and performing esoteric duties. These were the ages where the God of Judgement saw these wandering creatures and decided to gift them law. Over generations, the gods would become more and more stable in their forms, until they where what the God of Judgement deemed worthy. It was there that two brothers came to be. Both were strong and wise, though one had a darkness in his heart. When they were called forward to be blessed, the God of Judgement deemed one brother Worthy of inheriting the earth, and the other Unworthy, for he was wicked. The Unworthy Brother then slain the Worthy Brother, and was indeed denied by the Earth, where he was forced to wander forever. In the story of Cain and Abel, God granted Eve another son, Seth, as a replacement for Cain, who would sire the children meant for the farmer, whereas Cain would travel the world until, as writting in the Zohar, he found the Demon Lilith who would be his wife, starting a family of cursed blood. Similarly, when Set killed Osiris to take his throne in the Egyptian, Isis found Osiris' body and resurrected it, if only to impregnate her with a son. Both tales shared the lineage of the Worthy and the Unworthy Brothers passed on. Naturally, over the millenia upon millenia, humanity would expand and intermingle, though their blood would always remain a part of the Sinner and Martyr.

Giants, being a culmination of the balance between blood, therefore walk a fine line between being seen as Worthy and being deemed Unworthy. This judgement ultimately hinges on their morality and their ability to act with reverence towards their Totem; Though they may not believe in salvation, their totem will always be there to guide them.

Blood of Ages: The Birth of a Giant

The Two Brothers were the ancestors of all mankind, and through so many millenia the blood of the Cursed Brother and the Martyred Brother has intermingled between every single human on the planet. The blood itself is symbolic, of course; A man with cursed blood is not immediately damned, because the sins of the father are not passed down to the son. However, occasionally someone with Cursed Blood will marry to someone with an exactly equal amount of Martyred Blood, and concieve a child while in a rural area. This will usually result in Half-Giants, very powerful humans with a perfect balance of blood that should normally create a magical giant, but the lack of potency from either parent leaves them only half-made.

A full Giant can only be born if his human pairings have a sufficient amount of the correct ancestry; an imbalance of Cursed and Blessed Blood that will accumulates over generations until a great majority of one type exists in a persons body. Were this person to mate with someone of opposing blood in a rural area and subsequently be with child, a Giant may be born. It is because of these stipulations that Giants have become so rare; The odds of finding a giant in the past was difficult enough, even with 97% of all humanity living in rural areas. In the last 200 years alone, humanity has become urbanized, and for the first time across the entire planet, urban and rural life is matched tit for tat, percentage by percentage. Giants themselves may breed, but two giants coming together will have disasterous consequences, with the child inevidably being a savage Grendal, and a Giant breeding with a mundane human, providing she survives the copulation, will only result in a Half-Giant child. Because many Giants Totemed with Love and Fertility, or just those with a fear for being alone, worry that this modern urbanization could mean a potential end of their species, a few less exemplary Giants have taken to sniffing out humans of potent blood, abducting and pairing them up, forcing them to mate in hopes of producing more Giants. Sadly, this sort of thing has become more and more common over the last few centuries, and Giants who continue to live in Clans usually have an Aphrodite cruelly nicknamed "The Midwife" appointed to perform these kidnappings.

A giant will grow up much like a regular child would, though unlike other supernaturals, his transformation isn't immediate and jarring. A giant magically knows of what he is from the moment he takes his first, painful breaths out of the womb. He may be diagnosed as autistic: The features of his hands, head and feet will be slightly exaggerated, he will have trouble reacting properly to situations; He will seem to suffer no pain when he should, and his parents may find him spending hours on end playing Minecraft. He knows what he will grow up to be, though he might not tell his parents, assuming that this knowledge is normal and expected of them, and when growing up must learn to deal with the problems that will balloon substantially as an adult, be it greed, cannibalistic cravings or assaulting those that don't obey him. The adults in the childhood of a giant are the very most important part of his development, and will help facilitate the transition, even if they don't know what he is. It's a case of Nature vs. Nurture. Their Nature is that they are keepers of the world, conquerors and demigods. Their nurture is an entirely different subject. How much different would Supermans life have been had he spent 5 more minutes in the atmosphere? A well adjusted child may grow up, god willing, to be a well adjusted giant,

Aclima's Vow and Lamech's Oath

Aclima was the name of the sister and desired wife of Abel, whom the first brothers competed for by asking for God's favor. In the original Genesis story, it was the Earth herself that spat this curse at Cain, disgusted by his actions, forbidding him from growing crops again. God merely seared a mark on the murderer, so that everyone he meets knows who he was and what he had done. It was through bargaining that Cain managed to talk God into turning the mark into a form of protection, for the man that would kill him would suffer Cain's pain seven times. Cain's own decendant, Lamech, upon murdering a man, called this same curse upon himself, so his murderer would suffer 77 times for his own death. Giants, though supernatural, still carry the very human capacity of sin, and though they are all damned by their very blood, they can still have worth in their work, as their Martyred ancestor did.

A Giant with a Worthiness of 3 or less is cursed with Aclima's Vow, where the Giant not only loses the Totems that define her, but finds that they have entirely abandoned her, and she can may very well lose her reason for being. With their connection to nature severed, they begin to descend into savagery. The most wicked of Giants even may take on the title of a Pantheonic God in the worst way possible, by losing their Worthiness to the point where it recurses, their lost honors becoming twisted, bastardized versions of what they used to be, and they prepare to their ascension to Godhood in an existence that begins to deny them.

As such, those cursed with Aclima's Vow are now eligible to call Lamech's Oath upon themselves, instantly losing a point of Worthiness. The Curse of Cain appears on the Giant's flesh as a terrible burn wound, in a very visible are, tattooing in a blaze of fire a strange word written in the ancient pre-Babel tongue, forever claiming her as protected and dealing a point of Aggravated damage.

If the Giant is slain, her killer and those he calls his nearest friends will suffer 7 times for the Giants death, instantly turning a dice pool into a critical failure at the most inoppurtune moment. This divine protection is the lone reason why Giant-Slaying is such a risky endeavor. A far cry from the tales of Jack the Giant-Killer and Corineus, the slaying of the most wicked Giants rarely leave the victor with wealth and power for very long. Even so, many of the heroes from the old folk legends managed to defeat these terrible giants by imprisoning them, fooling them into suicide, or using Singing Weapons, which, being alive, will suffer the brunt of the curse.

Worthiness

Cattle die, kinsmen die, one day you die yourself; I know one thing that never dies -- the dead man's reputation.

- Nordic Proverb

Giants are damned by whatever exists on high; Both giant and human prophets have seen their fate, being cast into the Well of Giants, a desolate land but for a massive field of Giants both buried and chained down so tightly they can do little but nash their teeth and blink. Yet giants are quite capable of escaping such a fate: By ascending to be a God unto themselves, and drink Ambrosia and Nectar for eternity in Valhalla, Mount Olympus or a Heaven of their own choosing. Doing so goes against the merits of human religion, and indeed, the limit of human sanity, for only the most vile and terrible of Giants can hope to escape Hell; And with the added benefit of being protected by Lamech's Oath, they are truly some of the most terrible foes in the World of Darkness.

Giants are expected to exercise their god-granted Honors, and sometimes this means that the Giant will be placed on a pedestal. Being worshipped is, of course, an Unworthy action, but sometimes it's simply beyond the giants control, and it's easier not to attempt to rebuke it and simply remain humble. Doing so does not risk losing Worthiness. Now mind, being deified IS a misuse of power for the Worthy (It no longer comes into account for those abandoned by their Honors), but it only applies if you are forcing bent knees. A tyrannical War Giant enters town, demanding blessings and a place in their temple. He offers nothing and expects everything through coersion, and such an action would be Unworthy. On the other hand, a Giant wanders across a farmland in Angola, sees the soil infertile and the village on the verge of starvation. He begins cultivating the land, and the ripest crops the village has seen sprout as a result. The villagers see the Giant as a spirit, and begin praying to him. Whatever force decides whether he is worthy or not sees this, and grants it as a reward for his kind behavior.

Keep in mind, that your final worthiness is a reflection of the primary Totem that you've chosen. Showing mercy to an enemy under the Warchief is considered Unworthy, whereas showing mercy to a tribesman who has done wrong is neutral.

To summarize, a low-Worthiness Giant becomes more powerful, but much less, for lack of better word, playable, and you can't go back once you're judged poorly. You will lose all of your Honors, though you will be refunded half the experience you've spent on them. You will essentially be playing a brute from this point on, though you will always have access to Ley Energy and Rituals, simply because Unworthy Giants are better at causing weird unnatural events to happen then Worthy Giants are.

Worthiness 4: A giant on the brink of losing favor with whatever exists on high and gaining Aclima's Vow, becoming Unworthy. Those that reach this point instantly recieve a Mild Derangement.

Worthiness 3: These Giants have been abandoned by her beloved Honors, as Cain was by his soil, and are now considered to be suffering from Aclima's Vow forever. The Giant that has reached this point cannot increase her Worthiness past 3. The minor Derangement she gained at Worthiness 4 is upgraded to Severe in light of this curse. However, she can now roll for Terrasculpting without losing Worthiness. The Giant is now capable of taking Lamech's Oath, which will be marked on a visible place on his body for all to see for the cost of a level of Worthiness. If Lamech's Oath is called, it cannot be revoked.

Worthiness 2: A Giant with a Worthiness of 2 becomes a Goram, a mirror of the selfish, complacent, stupid and gullible Clan Gogmogag of old Albion, devouring the livelihood of local men, absconding with maidens and unjustly punishing those around them. They gain 9 again on all Strength rolls, but lose 10-again on all Composure rolls, and 1 subtract for their total number of successes.

Worthiness 1: The Giant is now a Nephilim, a new God. She not only regains her Totems, but gains every possible Honor attributed to them, though only as a bastardization of what they once stood for. A God of War no longer cares for concepts such as honor or upholding peace, only to shed as much blood as possible. Fertility Gods become vile hedonists. A Nephilim player gains 9-again on any skill roll she wishes with an expenditure of willpower, and her Strength is upgraded to 8-again. However, any empathy rolls are now a chance die, and as per her demigod status, she is now only tangible in areas with active Ley Lines, though she cannot create her own, nor interact with the world herself besides wandering it. Any mortal that worships her will follow her every command, and mortals with an occult level of 5 may speak directly with her no matter where she is, provided she knows of the mortals existence. She may become an NPC at this point, at the storytellers call; Her personality has changed much, paralleling her to the solipsistic nature of the Gentry in Changeling: The Lost.

Worthiness 0: The Giant no longer exists in this dimension. Changelings who hear this tale shudder to think that perhaps the Gentry got its start by the ascension of terrible giants. After all, the similiarities between the Pantheonic Gods and the Gentry differ only in that the ascended Giants thrive in Pantheons. Only stories of the PC are left, though every Solstice and Equinox the Giants of the Jotnar Council can swear to have seen vague glimpses of familiar faces fighting alongside their hated foes.

Templates: What Kind of Giant Are You?

Character generation of a giant starts the character up with no classes or clans, the only unique feature is a single Honor, or a Godlike trait he's given credit for. A Giant can take 5 separate categories of Honors, which are split off groups called Totems, or a code that the Giant follows, lest he lose Worthiness. Note that a Giant can only learn Honors of his current Totem; To learn those of another he must change the his life path to another Totem. Honors are powered by Ley Energy, and since Giants can't store Ley Energy, they can only be activated in areas of A: Great cultural, occult or religious relevance or B: Places that the Giant has used his innate Landshaping abilities to cultivate Ley Lines of varying potency.

Gigantes

Powerstat: Connection

Giants start at Size 8, with an average male being about 9 feet tall and weighing about 500 pounds. Both will increase with Connection, to the point where a giant falling down will take lethal damage from bones cracking under his own weight.

Giants start with their Strength, Dexterity and Stamina caps at 6,

When starting characters, Farmers recieve 1 stamina and presence, Warchiefs recieve 1 strength and stamina, Hunters recieve 1 dexterity and intelligence

>As a giant grows in their powerstat and size, they should probably take increasingly heavy social penalties to interactions with normal humans. >I'm thinking the social penalty mentioned by >>17187841 ought to come in the form of unconsciously slipping in little quips, jibes, diminutives, and remarks that belittle, tease, demean, and otherwise unflatteringly remind people that you're the one who is large and in charge here. You don't mean to do it, it's just...they're so small, it just sort of comes out... >It's probably something that bothers giants who were raised in human society, as human interactions aren't a mystery to them and they are thus capable of grasping the idea that people, well...*don't fucking like being talked down to*.

Grendel

When a giant and a giant get together and get nasty, their child is always going to be a savage beast-man, loyal only to her parent.

Powerstat: Connection

Half-Giants

Half-Giants are surprisingly common, and most are relativily well-adjusted individuals indistinguishable but for their seemingly effortless feats of strength and the sickingly sweet stench of their blood, though sadly they cannot pass this blood on, as every Half-Giant is sterile. Half-Giants suffer from Doubt in the same way that Giants do, though it takes a long time after they are dead for it to sink into public consciousness. King Arther, Jack the Giantslayer, Tom the Tinkard, even great Corineus who killed the terrible Gogmogog, all were half-giants with their history drifting away, replaced by "Kings and Lords who actually existed". Half-Giants also make the best Giant-Killers; Their almost human physiology doubled with the strength granted by their preternatural connection with Giants gives them a magical edge; Half-Giants recieve +1 to their dice pool when opposing Giants in a contested action, and spending Willpower in such a situation will grant 4 dice instead of the regular 3. Because of their heretige, however, they are hunted in turn by a surprising opponent with terrible regularity: Vampires. Their value to Kindred is two-fold; Half-Giants can make the most efficient Ghoul you can ask for, and the overpoweringly sweet aroma of their blood is too much to resist, so potent they can be picked out of a room filled with drunk partygoers by smell alone. Vampires receive one extra point of Vitae for every one drunk, which does not stack with the Third Coil of Blood, Perspicacious Blood.

Half-Giant is a template that you can add to any mortal character that grants them 9-again on Strength rolls, as well as decreasing the cost of all physical attributes by one experience point, and Half-Giants may purchase the Giant Merit at character creation for two dots instead of the regular 4. Half-Giants may not take any Totems, as they have morality, rather then Worthiness and thus have no need for Totemic stipulations. However, they may take Jotnar Honors if they are accepted into the Council (A regular occurance, roughly 1/3 of all Jotnar are Half-Giants), though they must still draw Ley Energy from Ley Lines they cannot create in order to use these powers. Half-Giants can be Embraced, Awakened, turned into Changelings (With the Wyrd seemingly having a preference towards the Ogre Seeming) or have their bodies turned into Prometheans, though they cannot carry Uratha blood, since that overwrites the legacy of the Two Brothers.

The Inherent Powers of Giants

The Curse of Doubt

Giants do not need to maintain a Masquerade, though this does not mean that they can simply throw caution to the wind. However much they may fear modern weaponry, they, like their cousins the gods, will inevitably be forgotten and dismissed as allegory and myth. Save for fascinatingly detailed stories written in parchment, their legacies will crumble because, as with the relation between all Gods and all men, from time to time even the most auspicous of clegy tend to doubt. And why not? The village over the hill claims to be plagued by a massive two-headed beast that breathes fire! How fantastic! It's so ridiculous I wouldn't believe it if I saw it with my own eyes! Even in the modern world, when men who have seen the hairy, apelike Grendels of the Pacific-Northwest can't keep their stories together, their memories becoming muddled by doubt and only validity of her existence being in old newspapers and half-somber internet sites. Military excursions will eventually review their reports and gawk at how they could have possibly written down "Giant" where they clearly remember ambushing a small group of terrorists.

To this end, stories are very important to the Giants, and most Councils have established literacy programs in order to preserve their mostly lost histories, as after their deaths, even the closest of Pantheons will forget their friends and lovers without stories to occasionally remind them who they're fighting for. Because of this, the mark of a truly successful Giant, one who has lived a life worth living, Worthy or not, is a giant who has written his own Autobiography. Councils store the originals in the most secure vaults of their keeps and strongholds, and ensure copies are available for giants to reminisce over lost friends. In this way, even the Damned have a comfort knowing that though they may died, the memories of their lives on Earth will be immortal.

Blood and the Olfactory

Giants, so strongly tied to the earth, can with a simple whiff find where the father of the subject was born, and if it is strong, the balance of the Murderer's Curse in his blood.

On that same note, by being in the vicinity of blood, they can pinpoint what direction is North and where they are in relation to the blood of the subjects father. Being surrounded by multiple targets does confuse the Giant a bit; For crowds of 10 people within 10 yards of the Giant, he will take a -1 penalty to wits rolls to a cumulative -3 penalty. Being in the vicinity of a vampire also confers a -1 penalty to a maximum of -3, as the blood within his body is stolen, causing the Giant's mental compass to spin out of control.

Gigantomachia: Creation of Singing Weapons and Aloadate Companions

Originally named for war between Giants and Gods, now used as the name for rituals involving utilization of Ley Lines to create Singing Stones, Objects made of mundane rock or metal. Using Gigantomachia, the Giant can craft magical animals and items using mundane items. Regardless of shape, this item will be alive, and may bestow magical properties to her owner. (Paul Bunyan with Babe the Blue Ox, Golden Goose, Singing Sword, and Greek Giants, expand)

Terrasculpting

Create massive changes to the landscape immediately or over time. This is a fraction of Nephilim magic that giants inherently have access to. Its rules exists beyond time, law and chaos, a magic not native to this realm, and covers its artificial nature flawlessly, as it always appears to have been naturally made; So much does it hide it's true form that it projects a mental glamour that clouds the minds of all that see or remember it, and for all intents and purposes, has been naturally created through the grind of time. It can also be used as an attack, creating sinkholes, growing mountains and moving the very rock beneath them as if it were a weapon in order to harm prospective Giant-Slayers. Unless you are Worthiness 3 or below, using it causes you to have to roll to see if you suffer from Worthiness degeneration, as Terrasculpting is not respecting nature. You do not need to spend Ley Energy to activate Terrascupting.

Flaws

Multiple Heads No Legs Terrifying Loud

Of Mice and Immortals

Post relationships between supernaturals here, sucka Official Templates

Mortals: Giants and humans have a turbulant history. Giants are born to human parents, each and every one, and as such have at least some capacity to understand most human sensibilities, and thus opt to stay away from developed areas in fear of frightening the people with the big guns. Giants are sufficiently rare enough to escape the notice of mundane mortals by opting to live in inhospitable environments, and if they're spotted, the Doubt will take care of them. This does not mean that all giants shy away from people; The less scrupulous giants tend to see humans as subjects to rule over at best, food at worst. The most arrogant may even choose to ignore them the same way a man might ignore a flower in his path. However, should the giant choose to exercise conquest, they usually keep to small towns, lest they draw the attention of Giant-Slayers or the Wenennefer. Generally speaking though, historically Giants didn't hide very well, but they were rare, and never carried nor cared for much political power amongst the kingdoms of man, opting to raise their status among their Councils.

Vampires: There are always a few young vampire coteries with eyes bigger than their stomachs. The Elders like to think of the Giants as natural selection weeding out the neonates too stupid to survive. The Giants get to use vitae in the crafting of singing weapons. It is a equitable arrangement for both sides.

Werewolves: After a few ugly wars over territory back in the day, both sides decided that perhaps it was best to just pretend that the other didn't exist. This has obviously not been upheld perfectly over the years but it remains a general status quo.

Mages: GANGWAR OVER LEY LINES BITCHES also tell me about ascension

Prometheans: Prometheans and Giants prefer to avoid eachother. Prometheans prefer to not get wrapped up in the power struggles of Giants, as they tend to leave areas in ruin faster than wasteland ever could. While Giants are not immune to disquiet, they are fascinated by it. Some Giants believe one of their kind first discovered the Promethean Fire, That Prometheus himself was a giant punished by the pantheonic gods for giving humanity such power. Others say they may have been an attempt to build new giants, or even revive the Pure Brother. Still, Prometheans often find themselves stalked and indeed captured by the more greedy giants, who refuse to believe that these creatures are anything more than thrir own plaything. In other words, they have a very strained relationship, made worse by the hubris of Giants.

Changelings: Scholars are close to Changelings due to their reliance on fairy tales and myth to establish their history, both have a lingering shudder crawling up their spine that the Pantheonic Gods and the Gentry are one and the same.

note: gentry = warnings, gods = epic stories of conquest, differing genres. It's a grisly optimism in the tales of the Giants that supports this separation of the two.

Sin-Eaters: Sin Eaters and Giants have little to no relationship whenever possible. The two very rarely make similar enemies, or even enemies of eachother.

Beasts: Giants often wonder if they are subset of beast, or if beasts were created by nightmares of giants. Either way, the two groups tend to get along, more often than not. Maybe it's the mutual suffering of being a powerful monster trapped in an age that forgot about them, maybe it's the need to attach to myths, or maybe it's a mutual understanding between monsters in general. Whatever it is, the two tend to remain on good terms.

Hunters: Giants tend to take land power for themselves, often forcing people out of work, or even worse, off of their homes. As a result, they make enemies with the Night Watch, The Union, and Task Force Valkyrie very easily.

Heroes: They hate eachother, plain and simple. A giant is a creature of power, often noble in it's pursuit of land and wealth, thus making heroes view them as Ideal enemies. Some say David was a misguided Hero who killed Goliath, mistakenly believing him to be a monster. Same with Grendal, Sticky Hair, and various other famed Giants. It's hard to tell who was a Giant and who was a beast when both thrive on myths.

Homebrew Templates

Half-Giants:

Genii: Surprisingly good relations here. Both sides know the pain of being doubted and dismissed. The let us say, unique, worldview of Genii allows them to accommodate the Giants as Bardo creatures and sidestep the curse of doubt. Giants don't inspire Havoc and there are occasional collaborations to experiment combining Axioms and Gigantomachia. The results are.. inconclusive and very dangerous.

Leviathans: Lots of bad blood from the olden times here. Thousands of feuds, insults, wars, and petty slights. The world was literally not big enough for the both of them.

Princesses: Giants and Princesses are more often than not enemies. Indeed, Giants are the polar opposite of a Princess: A Giant looks down on human ideals, whereas a Princess looks up to them. Think of how 4channers view tumblr and vice versa for a general idea of how they see eachother.

Feel free to add your own!

Totems and Honors

For editors: The first dot should be an passive survival power (Such as Water Giants being able to withstand extreme pressure and breathe underwater). Honors within the same Totem should compliment each other and work towards the goal determined by their totem, though mixing and matching Honors shouldn't be a problem (A Giant of Mirth and Sorrow? Why the fuck not?). Every individual Honorific (The actual dotted abilities themselves will be called Honorifics, natch) should designate what constitutes an unworthy usage of the power. Giants should basically be a mix of Captain Planet and Saladin, and misusing powers for an unnoble goal should call for whether they deserve powers in the first place. Otherwise feel free to go crazy. Giants are strong as shit and have the capacity to become crazy gods, so their powers should reflect that.

Also, no shrinking to a manageable, human size. When you were a kid, everyone looked giant, and the PCs were once little kids like everyone else; so with the tables turning and the character growing, I started wondering about what it could parallel? I figured that size is a great analogy for responsibility, almost like being a parent, and the potential for devastation the same person can cause. I was pondering on whether to make them be able to shrink to human size so they can deal with people, but opted against it. Why do it? They're Giants, it would go against everything that makes them magical, like a Vampire being able to become human. As a metaphor for adulthood, they've an unavoidable mark that sets them apart from everyone else, and really, they shouldn't be able get rid of it, but hold their size as a mark of pride.

A Worthy Giant uses his Honors in accordance to what his Totem guidelines. The ST shouldn't punish players for thinking creatively, but for misusing an Honor with the wrong intentions. The Warchief Totem, for example, has Honors designed for combat and causing immense suffering. Using them within this context is considered a worthy use of their intentions. Like the Morality stat, the more you deviate from the guidelines of the Totem with your Honors, the lower your Worthiness drops.

The Farmers Totem

Designed for sustaining life and helping others, or to use as a social dagger.

Industry

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Wine and Food

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●● : Grind Your Bones: Giants can use any organic material in place of wheat when preparing bread.

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Pleasure and Fertility

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●● : Giants Gift: Spend Ley Energy to bestows a single plant seed with the gift of Gigantism. It will grow to a tremendous size when it blooms. A favorite of Wind Giants.

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Mirth

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The Warchiefs Totem

Which complement a bloodthirsty conquerer

Blood

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Famine

● : Salt the Earth: Unless the Giant has granted permission, crops will not grow in the area he has settled in. It takes affect the next harvest season after a Giant has established a Ley Line in the area.\

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●●●● : Holodomor - Uses energy from local Ley Lines to short them out. No giants can use them, they must be remade.

●●●●● : More Equal - Curses a Giant from using a specific Ley Line to draw Ley Energy.

Sorrow

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Madness

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The Huntsmans Totem

For a giant that simply wishes to thrive in this world, a Knight and Scholar. A hunter is skilled and wise in the ways of the world, for he's traveled much and has seen much.

Travel

● : Free to Roam: The Giant can go anywhere without attracting attention to itself. Any mortal which happen to see or encounter the Giant will forget about the encounter soon after.

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Beast and Man

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Logic and Cleverness

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Knowledge

● : ? - Can draw half of available Ley Energy from a Field and store within a marked item. This shorts out a Ley Field for a few hours.

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The Jotnar Totems

Elemental powers that you can only take by joining the Jotnar

Water

● : Mariana Life: The Giant is capable of water breathing, surviving under extreme oceanic pressure, and is granted the ability to see underwater.

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Thunder

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Fire

● : - Fire damage heals the Giant

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Ice

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Earth

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Wind

● : Nimbusfeet - Wind Giants can walk on clouds and use them in a similar manner as stone, creating elaborate kingdoms on the clouds.

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Grand Totems

The most powerful, but should be designed to be cripplingly overspecialized, and can only be taken with a high enough powerstat.

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Peace

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Day

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Life

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Forbidden: The Judgement Totem and Honorific. Homebrew Honors and Totems may be made, but Judgement is its own unique Totem that a Giant may never, ever reach. This does not mean that Giants are incapable of Judgement. It simply means that they do not have the capacity to be completely infallible in their decisions, and to cement that there may be a force out there that is so great that even with their potential Giants cannot ever hope to emulate. Gods and Giants of Judgement are omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent to terrible degrees; They can change any facet of reality with a simple thought, though such an action will ultimately be enigmatic to even the most powerful Magi, Giant or Gentry, unknown to any denizen of the universe. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Players, on the other hand, tend to be kind not be able to understand subletly.

Big Ups To

Indonesian Gentleman