Next Race - Half-Masoq
No one finds a Half-Masoq pleasing, not even their parents. Their faces are often crushed and deformed, with...
Races
Half-Giant - by T.A. Saunders ©1997 v3.7
It is often postulated as to why a giant would take a smaller humanoid. In the extremely rare case of the Kashalan (Mountain Giants), it is almost always an act of love…or in the very least, passion while ‘in disguise' as one of the smaller races, using sorcery. The truth of this is always revealed and the warning that the child can never set foot in the mighty city of the Kashalans, Jhormdir. Such half-breeds are considered perverse abominations and put down immediately, as are the parents of such children. The more common (and unfortunate) coupling occurs most often with Hidulan shaman, who can wield rituals that can make them smaller, but not disguise their true nature. Then they will take their wont from the victim by force, though there have been episodes where smaller races have willingly coupled with a Hidulan, for either bribe or other mutual gain.
The very birth of a Half-Giant can be fraught with tragedy. Very often if the mother is of a smaller race, there is a 20% chance she might actually die giving birth and that percent jumps to 50% if the mother has the horrible misfortune of having twins. If the mother is the giant, there is a 20% the child is stillborn, though no further complications will exist if there are twins. Because of this high mortality rate, Half-Giants are the rarest of the half-breed races and perhaps one of the most reviled by all races.
In most examples, Hidulan Half-Giants are shunned by both smaller races and their giant kin, making life growing up difficult at best. Often taught to hate society, most of these Half-Giants become xenophobic loners with a propensity towards violence. In the case of Kashalan Half-Giants (who are often called Ogre Magi for their innate skill with sorcery), there is at least a better chance for loving parents and a chance to grow up as well-read and educated as their giant parent. These Kashalan giants know themselves to be outcasts for making the choice to sire a halfbreed child and will often never return to Jhormdir in favor of raising the child away from their utopian society. While still tending to be loners and having little faith in the structure of society, they tend to be a bit less violent than their low brow kin.
Beyond this, there is not much written history or culture of the Half-Giant race. With over 75% of their kind being of the Hidulan sort, they roam the cold north and find a cave or a ruin they can call their own and protect that home and the territory around it with vicious tenacity. It is from these Half-Giants that most tales of ogres come from and their behavior does nothing to dispel these stories. Some are known to become adventurers, or sidle up with Masoq, who cow to a properly aggressive Half-Giant. The other 25% of course being Kashalans, who usually end up either finding a ruin they then restore, or find a place within some of the more forward-thinking cultures, such as the Quar`Vess Asyndi of Farwind. A few of these magic-minded Half-Giants become adventurers as well, though it is most often with a purpose in mind.