D&D General did giants ever get the spotlight?

[Voadam]

Giants are a very important setting element in Eberron's Xendrik.

 

[Voadam]

It's not there was a 1e module series that focused on each dragon type in turn (which, thinking about it, seems such a glaring omission!).

I'd take a second look at Dragonlance.

 

[jayoungr]

Giants' society is more structured and better described than that of most monsters.

No matter what you write, someone is going to find it boring.

Also: Don't forget that in addition to Storm King's Thunder, giants play a small but significant role in Tyranny of Dragons, especially if you use the Frozen Castle expansion.

 

[jmartkdr2]

what are primordials?

In the base 4e setting, the Primordials created most of the universe, and all the elements. Then they fought a big war with the gods - the gods won, but only just.

Primordials are associated with the elements, the Elemental Chaos (which replaces the elemental planes), and with a number of creatures. Giants are their main servants, and titans are very big, very powerful giants with stronger elemental theming.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Giants' society is more structured and better described than that of most monsters.

No matter what you write, someone is going to find it boring.

Also: Don't forget that in addition to Storm King's Thunder, giants play a small but significant role in Tyranny of Dragons, especially if you use the Frozen Castle expansion.

it is just they do not seem to do anything and no seems to be able to explain what hill giants were even for?

In the base 4e setting, the Primordials created most of the universe, and all the elements. Then they fought a big war with the gods - the gods won, but only just.

Primordials are associated with the elements, the Elemental Chaos (which replaces the elemental planes), and with a number of creatures. Giants are their main servants, and titans are very big, very powerful giants with stronger elemental theming.

so demiurges of great power but having little to do with abstracts like law or murder?

 

[Aldarc]

Essentially the answer is no.

The closest we've got is probably Monte Cooke's Arcana Unearthed/Diamond Throne setting for d20/3.XE, where the giants are absolutely central to the setting and quite fascinating - but they're not the D&D giant races, rather different humanoid giants.

This is the setting that taught me how satisfying a non-human dominated setting can be. I for one welcome our giant overlords.

Edit: also shoutout to all the people giving Nentir Vale its due!

 

[Mind of tempest]

This is the setting that taught me how satisfying a non-human dominated setting can be. I for one welcome our giant overlords.

you got a link so I can read the lore?

 

[Aldarc]

you got a link so I can read the lore?

I can look, but I can give you a long story short to hold you down.

Dragons were in control of the continent populated by humans, lion people, faen (think combo elf-gnome-halflings), and red-skinned Vulcans. But they were overthrown and driven back by demon-dragon hybrids (dramojh), who then enslaved the continent for centuries.

From overseas sailed giants and their jackal-people allies who launched a crusade against the dramojh. They swore an oath - a serious thing in Diamond Throne - to wipe them all out in a long crusade, including rituals that made them more warlike. They wiped them all. All of them. Then they used rituals to downsize themselves to the largest end of medium and more peaceful mode, and then basically took over as "stewards" of the area, establishing the Diamond Throne kingdom/empire. Giants can still use rituals to increase their size. (This was the non-WotC game in 3e that basically introduced the concept of racial levels.)

But part of the tension in the setting is (1) some humans don't want giant overlords, and, more pressingly, (2) the surviving dragons much further to the west believe that the giants have broken an ancient pact by even being on this continent.

Their lore was influenced by giants from The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: lovers of song, rituals and ceremonies, sailing, and building.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

You're not wrong, but as much as I love the books (lumps and all), I don't know that people idolize the DL module series anywhere near as much as, say GDQ. I'd say "imagine if Gygax had written a series of dragon-centric adventures in the 78-81 era," but had that happened we might not have gotten Dragonlance, since it partly sprung from the realization that they hadn't done much with dragons and their adventures.

I'd take a second look at Dragonlance.

 

[jayoungr]

it is just they do not seem to do anything

They were active in two major 5E published campaigns. That seems like doing things to me.