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I FINALLY managed to finish this!!! *does not want to draw snow clumps anytime soon*
Beware, long post about Caeill’s biology below!

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In my world setting there’s several different kinds of “giants”, but they’re actually more closely related to centaurs than to humans. The large majority lost their 2nd set of arms over time, as they got in the way of the mobility of the 1st set, but they still retain some vestigial muscles
Caeill belongs to the Evergrower family line, the only type of giants that besides starting bigger than the rest, they don’t stop growing once they reach adulthood
This is because they live exclusively in a forest jungle populated by enormous trees, so the taller they grow the more food sources they can reach (and their stomachs grow along the most out of all the organs, besides the heart and lungs, in order to digest a more plant exclusive diet. Reason why their torso becomes particularly long)
This dependency on plants as the main food source led them to develop an innate understanding of plants, which helps them find the best plants, avoid sickly ones and have a certain intuition on how to tend to them and avoid consuming too much. The name Tree Walker comes from this ability to tend to trees, the same way other giants tend to cattle
Caeill wasn’t born there however, so his growth is actually a bit stunted. But whenever his body has enough excess food it will convert it into extra growth, rather than store it as emergency body fat. That’s why starvation is a particularly big risk for Evergrowers and why they are extremely rare outside of their forest, as it’s the only place that can easily provide them with enough food
Despite all odds though Caeill will manage to reach an advanced age, mainly because of him being a dragon trainer. After leaving the Academy they help him find enough food during the meager months and his expertise is a valuable trading item for other giants and humans alike
Another problem Evergrowers face, because of their increasing size, is the amount of stress their weight puts on their organs and bones. That’s why they lose the ability to run and jump as they age and falls become a risk
The body tries to compensate by thickening the legs and bones, slowing their metabolism and provide them with particularly long arms, so they don’t have to bend or move much in order to reach things. The particularly strong upper body strength also helps minimizing the movements of the rest of the body
With the slowing of the metabolism comes longer periods of sleep and thus more likelihood of dirt, moss and seeds to accumulate on the skin. And if they penetrate deep enough they’ll actually start to develop a symbiosis, where the plant roots obtain extra minerals and other resources in exchange for the energy produced by the photosynthesis
This is a trait all giants share, but Evergrowers tend to develop it earlier and can reach a more severe state. Because the more the plants take root, the longer the sleep periods last, which can lead to muscle atrophy and potentially death from starvation (since they can’t get up when they do finally wake up to binge on food the symbiosis alone can’t provide)
That’s why when they reach this stage in life most other giants in the area congregate around the elder and tend to their needs (humans call this giant courts and the elder the king/queen), in exchange for nuggets of wisdom or stories from long times past, or to hear the mumbles of the long sleep, which are considered prophetic
Humans can find this behavior rather weird, especially coming from the larger giants, because the larger they are the less likely it is for them to form communities (a natural mechanism to not overburden the land)

Description

I FINALLY managed to finish this!!! *does not want to draw snow clumps anytime soon*
Beware, long post about Caeill’s biology below!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my world setting there’s several different kinds of “giants”, but they’re actually more closely related to centaurs than to humans. The large majority lost their 2nd set of arms over time, as they got in the way of the mobility of the 1st set, but they still retain some vestigial muscles
Caeill belongs to the Evergrower family line, the only type of giants that besides starting bigger than the rest, they don’t stop growing once they reach adulthood
This is because they live exclusively in a forest jungle populated by enormous trees, so the taller they grow the more food sources they can reach (and their stomachs grow along the most out of all the organs, besides the heart and lungs, in order to digest a more plant exclusive diet. Reason why their torso becomes particularly long)
This dependency on plants as the main food source led them to develop an innate understanding of plants, which helps them find the best plants, avoid sickly ones and have a certain intuition on how to tend to them and avoid consuming too much. The name Tree Walker comes from this ability to tend to trees, the same way other giants tend to cattle
Caeill wasn’t born there however, so his growth is actually a bit stunted. But whenever his body has enough excess food it will convert it into extra growth, rather than store it as emergency body fat. That’s why starvation is a particularly big risk for Evergrowers and why they are extremely rare outside of their forest, as it’s the only place that can easily provide them with enough food
Despite all odds though Caeill will manage to reach an advanced age, mainly because of him being a dragon trainer. After leaving the Academy they help him find enough food during the meager months and his expertise is a valuable trading item for other giants and humans alike
Another problem Evergrowers face, because of their increasing size, is the amount of stress their weight puts on their organs and bones. That’s why they lose the ability to run and jump as they age and falls become a risk
The body tries to compensate by thickening the legs and bones, slowing their metabolism and provide them with particularly long arms, so they don’t have to bend or move much in order to reach things. The particularly strong upper body strength also helps minimizing the movements of the rest of the body
With the slowing of the metabolism comes longer periods of sleep and thus more likelihood of dirt, moss and seeds to accumulate on the skin. And if they penetrate deep enough they’ll actually start to develop a symbiosis, where the plant roots obtain extra minerals and other resources in exchange for the energy produced by the photosynthesis
This is a trait all giants share, but Evergrowers tend to develop it earlier and can reach a more severe state. Because the more the plants take root, the longer the sleep periods last, which can lead to muscle atrophy and potentially death from starvation (since they can’t get up when they do finally wake up to binge on food the symbiosis alone can’t provide)
That’s why when they reach this stage in life most other giants in the area congregate around the elder and tend to their needs (humans call this giant courts and the elder the king/queen), in exchange for nuggets of wisdom or stories from long times past, or to hear the mumbles of the long sleep, which are considered prophetic
Humans can find this behavior rather weird, especially coming from the larger giants, because the larger they are the less likely it is for them to form communities (a natural mechanism to not overburden the land)