The Ordning

- King Hekaton -
Giant society (such as it is) is defined in large part by the ordning, a caste system imposed upon the giants by their gods, chief among them Annam the All-Father. The ordning determines where a giant stands among his or her ilk. Traditionally, storm giants have stood at the top of the ordning. Tall and powerful, they struggle to keep the weaker races of giants from despoiling the realms of small folk and sparking conflict. The greatest storm giants are powerful seers. skilled at identifying and interpreting cosmic signs and divine omens. The aloof and aristocratic cloud giants, one step below the storm giants, rarely condescend to deal with lesser giants or small folk. Extravagance defines their culture and their place in the ordning. Below them are the tyrannical, warmongering fire giants and the merciless, predatory frost giants. Fire giants rank themselves by their forging skill, whereas frost giants rank themselves by their martial prowess. Near the bottom of the ordning are the xenophobic stone giants, who mostly live underground and regard the surface world as a realm of dreams. How well they sculpt stone determines their place among their peers. The lowest and smallest of the true giants are the hill giants, as gluttonous as they are loathsome. Hill giants are dullards who live in fear of their more powerful giant cousins. In hill giant society, the biggest rule.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Praise of the 10' Pole - July 22, 2018

Image
The crew picked the cloud giant Duchess Sansuri who lives in a cloud castle called Lyn Armaal.  They were woken by the sound of stone grinding on stone followed by a loud stone crash.  When everyone went to the doors they were met by a gargantuan ancient blue dragon.  Harshnag told everyone to run while he ran toward the great beast, sword drawn.  Harshnag and the dragon were exchanging blows but Harshnag had no defense against the lightening breath weapon and he fell with smoke rising from his chest.  As the five humanoids, our heroes, were running for the north guard room, Ronan and Skithryx saw the blue dragon grab the trident from the storm giant statue, magically polymorph into a storm giant and touched the trident to the glyph on the portal arch for storm giants.  The portal activated and the giant or dragon stepped through.  The Tick and Ronan rushed to his side and gave him a healing potion and some magical healing. Maggie raced into the north guardroom, jumped up and pushe
Read more

Session 5 - Feb 11, 2018

Morning, 25th of Ches, 1492 DR Zephros explained the shattering of the Ordning , the hierarchy of giant-kind and that King Hekaton is missing. Zephros could well be a powerful magic user as Skithrix heard Zephros casting high-level spells related to communicating with other planes. Late Morning, 27 of Ches, 1492 DR Day 3 brought visitors to the cloud giants tower; 9 giant vultures carrying cultists landed at the base of the tower in front of the main door They demanded to speak with the master of the tower.  The intimidating Skithrix did not deter them for long, however, as they returned later that day and refused to leave, storming past Skithrix to enter the tower.  A battle ensued.  Skithrix called down an impenetrable  blackness upon them, while Chamele, tiny of body but stout of heart, grappled the taller fanatic to the ground, keeping him quite helpless.  Needless to say, our motley crew prevailed against their foes. 
Read more

The Voice of a Giant God - July 8th

Image
Initial theories (Harshnag’s axe in the hands of the frost giant statue, etc) on how to activate the gateway did not work.  Everyone went into the south hall and found giant-sized tables and benches and a giant sized stone slab that seemed to be used for food preparation.  The air here was warm due to a seemingly perpetual fire burning in the middle of the room.  There was also a remoraz which immediately moved to attack.  Surprisingly, Harshnag was not as big a help as everyone may have hoped.  After the big bug was killed, they found a giant sized great axe leaning against the wall.  They immediately asked Harshnag, who agreed, to put the ax into the statue.  Nothing happened.  Maggie/Chamele suggested the glyphs were significant.  When the Frost giant great-axe was touched to the glyph for frost/snow the portal began to swirl with looked like thunder clouds.  They could make out a room beyond but no other details could be gleaned.  They all (not Harshnag) stepped through. They
Read more