All giants live in the sky!

[Gold Roger]

Just shooting of an idea here.

You see, I like having a good reason and place for major monster species in my homebrew (not all can be a wizard/god/demon/devil/planar traveler did it). This is why there, all of grimlocks, troglodytes, changelings, bullywugs, kuo-toa and a bunch I'm forgetting now are basically mutated remnants of a mad lovecraftian ancient species.

And I've been stumped on giants (I like my elder species a bit "hm" wierder than "really big people"). So today I thought, hm, sky islands are nice, dumdumdum, hmm cloud and storm giants make sense in the sky, lalala- ALL GIANTS LIVE IN THE SKY !!111!

So yeah. Clouds are solid and giants live on them, but that is not all. You see, giants don't just live in the sky, they rule it and all that comes with it.

Storm and cloud giants are, of course, responsible for storms and clouds and rain.

Winter?

That's frost giants, who have their own cloud islands.

But what do stone and fire giants do? Why, fire giants live on the sun of course, where they keep the greatest eternal flame ever burning. And that makes stone giants the lords of the moon, obviously.

Giants don't rule earth, because it's beneath their notice. Sure, there are trolls, ogres, hill giants and exiles, but don't even dare calling those true giants to the face of a lord of the sky.

In fact, if you ever speak to a true giant, you'll see arrogance personified.

Man: Why the hard winter?

Giant: Do you care about ants you trample?

M: Surely dragons are your equals?

G: Pfah! Fools, who lost their domain to the like of you! We welcome many exiles from below, as long as they serve us.

M: What of the gods? Surely you worship them

G: Scoff! Why would we!

But then, when winter lasts for years or when a solar eclipse shows stone and fire are at war, It just might be time for a group of mortal misfits to reach for the sky.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I like it. Especially the Amazon Giants on the Moon! (OK, I know you didn't say they're Amazons. I'm just riffing.) And Fire Giants on the Sun? Awesome! "Who's this Pelor person? WE are the sun gods!"

XP for you.

 

[Gold Roger]

Addendum:

Preface-my elves are the "wildelf" kind

Elfes are the natural servants of giants and solid earth their eternal longing.

The few "groundelves" are descendants of fugitives, which is why they are so rare, tend to stick around other races and have little culture of their own.

As the giants "property" they have little connection to the god. Rather, they worship the earthbound nature they so crave in enslavement.

One particular tribe of fugitives decided to get as far away from the giants as possible. They dug deep underground, which is anathema to their old lords, for it is cramped and the air to thick. Beset by Trogs and worse, they consorted with dark and terrible things and became the drow.

 

[Gold Roger]

Ogre Mage

The creatures falsely called ogre mages on the ground are somewhere between true giants and the lesser kin.

Called Oni in the giant tongue (which is spoken in various degrees of complexity by all giants and elves, except drow, and uses the elemental script used in the ignan, druidic and other elemental languages) they are a seperate kin.

In the sky, Oni serve as messengers and taskmasters of elves. A fair number of Oni go rogue and come to the groung, where they enjoy ruling over ogres and join up with all kinds of sinister groups. Some also find their way into the service of gods, to spite their lords.

Still, both lawful and evil, most Oni serve faithfuly, so beware. Any Oni you meet might be a spy or other agent of the skies lords!


One thing I'm stuck on is, with the sky an inhabited area, the shape of the world needs to be definitive. I know it's neither a sphere, nor a disc. So what could it beß I wonder, I wonder.

 

[Glade Riven]

Planar "sinkhole?" The world is made up of various planes scrunched together at one "point." Layered like a cake - (bottom to top) void/darkness, abyss, hell, fire, earth, water, air, celestial. Volcanos are fire poking through the Earth plane, dry land pokes through the water plane (oceans), floating islands are whatever they need to be.

 

[Herobizkit]

One would think that Dwarves would be the logical servants of the Giants, but maybe I just like my tropes.

 

[Glade Riven]

Unless we're talking Eberron

 

[fireinthedust]

If there isn't a "land" how can there be a "sky"? You can't have storms if there isn't a sky where there can be clouds.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

ALL GIANTS LIVE IN THE SKY

This needs to be an album and/or song by either Mastodon or The Sword.

 

[Gold Roger]

Planar "sinkhole?" The world is made up of various planes scrunched together at one "point." Layered like a cake - (bottom to top) void/darkness, abyss, hell, fire, earth, water, air, celestial. Volcanos are fire poking through the Earth plane, dry land pokes through the water plane (oceans), floating islands are whatever they need to be.

Not quite. The outer and inner planes are much freakier. As longlived, arrogant and mighty giants are, they are mortal and relatable.

As mage tells apprentice: "There once was an archmage, wise and smart, who wanted to know the meaning of life. He summoned 7 demons and asked. From 6 of these he got 9 answers, each horrible and dark. The 7th ate his soul."

The idea definitely is that sky and underdark do not use the same laws as the normal material though. You might call them different layers of the same material plane.

One would think that Dwarves would be the logical servants of the Giants, but maybe I just like my tropes.

Nope. Dwarfes are the servants of the abstract gods of law, inheriting the culture of the lost elder race known as architects. As their homelands drowned in flame and terror, they joined and guided the other species of our age.

Unless we're talking Eberron

I felt bad fr a moment, that my and Eberrons elves both where once servants of giants. Then I thought how different these giants and elves are. And then I remembered how much I stole already. Feeling good now.

If there isn't a "land" how can there be a "sky"? You can't have storms if there isn't a sky where there can be clouds.

This is just a snippet of a larger setting. The sky of giants is just an element for high level play and backdrop for giants in play before that. This is supposed to be used in actual play of D&D and the rough baselines of "solid land" is pretty standart for D&D, to be honest. Also, to giants it isn't sky. It's "sky" to the cluless berks below the sun, moon and cloud islands (if you'll excuse my planar cant)

This needs to be an album and/or song by either Mastodon or The Sword.

This setting might have a literal stairway to heaven (where heaven might be either the sky or the upper planes), so I'll prefer Led Zeppelin. But then metal isn't my cup of tea. Mastodon is ok though, so if they want, I'll lend them my scavenged IP for a song ><


Ps: Forgive my spelling, I know it's atricious. I guess it's natural for a non native speaker with little writing practise. I'll try to keep this thread alive, as it's great source of amusement to me (and hopefully you). With luck I'll improve ^^