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Description
----Ancient times----

Contemporaries of the elves, the ancient giants were a successful civilization of huge, stocky humanoid hominids who ruled (the lands now known as the human continents) from Teinentelmhaas in the far north, to the Antarctic xenarthran lands far to the south.

They built tremendous megalithic cities, temples and other tremendous structures, domesticated many animal and plant species (such as maize, bison and elephants), and even kept humans in their cities as servants, slaves or even pets.
Many giant religions were somewhat druid-like, mostly revolving around the worship of the earth, great trees (such as redwoods, baobabs or great banyan fig trees), or in some cases less easily defined concepts of spirituality.

Giants were often magically and/or psychically gifted, and they were able to use "infrasonic magic", a type of magic entirely unique to their species.

Eventually, as both species expanded their domain, the giants and the elves ended up competing for many of the same territories, and soon a full-on world war broke out.

The war ended when a magical superweapon was activated, cursing all the giants to forever lose their sapience on a species-wide scale. Whether this weapon was built and used by the elves, or whether it was of giant design and simply backfired, has been lost to history.

----Modern times----

Today, a good 2000 years after this event, giants have dwindled greatly in number and are now mostly found in remote forests and mountains, where they live in loose tribes or troupes resembling those of great apes.
Many of the ancient giant cities (such as Shi Korxis, the capital city of Shi Kerashi) have since been taken over and expanded upon by humans.

Countless giant-built ruins also dot the landscape, and millennia of neglect (due to no giants being able to tend to them any more) have sometimes caused the old infrasonic magic of some of these old structures to "deteriorate" over time, often having a strange effect on local magic used in the area, and affecting the local environment in very subtle yet also very strange ways.
Ancient giant architecture is often magnificent in both scale and ambition. The royal catacombs of the boreal giants of Teinentelmhaas are a perfect example of this, with enormous effigies of the faces of specific kings being carved into the sides of the mountains inside which they were entombed upon death.

Whether in ancient times or modern times, giants stand roughly 4-5 metres tall on average, are covered in shaggy hair, and weigh around 1 - 1.2 tons. Males are significantly larger and more muscular than females, and typically grow enormous bushy beards that the females lack.

They are of a stocky and squat build, with proportionately short arms and proportionately huge hands. Their stout legs are pillar-like and end in rounded, almost elephant-like feet with small, stubby (and mostly useless and vestigial) toes.

Modern giants communicate through a wide variety of means. Most of it is verbal (various "whoop"s, whistles, howls, screams, and fast-paced babbling), with deep infrasonic undertones that can be heard for miles. They also communicate with one another through "wood knocks" (striking trees with rocks or large logs).

Description
----Ancient times----

Contemporaries of the elves, the ancient giants were a successful civilization of huge, stocky humanoid hominids who ruled (the lands now known as the human continents) from Teinentelmhaas in the far north, to the Antarctic xenarthran lands far to the south.

They built tremendous megalithic cities, temples and other tremendous structures, domesticated many animal and plant species (such as maize, bison and elephants), and even kept humans in their cities as servants, slaves or even pets.
Many giant religions were somewhat druid-like, mostly revolving around the worship of the earth, great trees (such as redwoods, baobabs or great banyan fig trees), or in some cases less easily defined concepts of spirituality.

Giants were often magically and/or psychically gifted, and they were able to use "infrasonic magic", a type of magic entirely unique to their species.

Eventually, as both species expanded their domain, the giants and the elves ended up competing for many of the same territories, and soon a full-on world war broke out.

The war ended when a magical superweapon was activated, cursing all the giants to forever lose their sapience on a species-wide scale. Whether this weapon was built and used by the elves, or whether it was of giant design and simply backfired, has been lost to history.

----Modern times----

Today, a good 2000 years after this event, giants have dwindled greatly in number and are now mostly found in remote forests and mountains, where they live in loose tribes or troupes resembling those of great apes.
Many of the ancient giant cities (such as Shi Korxis, the capital city of Shi Kerashi) have since been taken over and expanded upon by humans.

Countless giant-built ruins also dot the landscape, and millennia of neglect (due to no giants being able to tend to them any more) have sometimes caused the old infrasonic magic of some of these old structures to "deteriorate" over time, often having a strange effect on local magic used in the area, and affecting the local environment in very subtle yet also very strange ways.
Ancient giant architecture is often magnificent in both scale and ambition. The royal catacombs of the boreal giants of Teinentelmhaas are a perfect example of this, with enormous effigies of the faces of specific kings being carved into the sides of the mountains inside which they were entombed upon death.

Whether in ancient times or modern times, giants stand roughly 4-5 metres tall on average, are covered in shaggy hair, and weigh around 1 - 1.2 tons. Males are significantly larger and more muscular than females, and typically grow enormous bushy beards that the females lack.

They are of a stocky and squat build, with proportionately short arms and proportionately huge hands. Their stout legs are pillar-like and end in rounded, almost elephant-like feet with small, stubby (and mostly useless and vestigial) toes.

Modern giants communicate through a wide variety of means. Most of it is verbal (various "whoop"s, whistles, howls, screams, and fast-paced babbling), with deep infrasonic undertones that can be heard for miles. They also communicate with one another through "wood knocks" (striking trees with rocks or large logs).