Why don't giants rule the world?

[Ry]

Giants are hard to feed, as are dragons. Humans are relatively easy. You don't need to have a whole cow at dinner (Giants eat all the meat off the cow, dragons eat the whole damn cow).

 

[Arkhandus]

The question should be: Why don't Hogoblins rule the world?

They're militaristic, capable, and they likely breed with either the same speed of humans, or faster like goblins. Not only that, they're slavers; so they can assimilate other races into their ranks to do the job so more hobgoblins can be pulling their weight militarily.

Because slaves get uppity sometimes and mess it all up, especially when those slaves are bugbears, or ogres, or those pesky human b@$t@rd$.

 

[Aeolius]

So why don't all the dragons that have come to maximum power rule the world?

Because the hags won't let them.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Sheer number of humans (and other races). That's why.

 

[Woas]

Cause ..... it's a game?

Why don't the Romans still rule the world?

 

[Ry]

Cause..... it's a game?

Why don't the Romans still rule the world?

Cause it's a game. They never got a whole continent, so no army bonuses. Asia, 7 armies, Europe 5 and Africa 3. But they just never got a whole one. Same thing happened to Alexander the Great: Tried to make it to Australia and couldn't get past Siam.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

Giants rule the world--the giant world. Dragons rule the dragon world, beholders the beholder world, etc.

Just because one species isn't busy keeping another species under their thumb doesn't mean that they rule them. Take our world, for example. It's an insect's world. Of all the species described on the planet, over half are insects. That includes trees, bacteria, worms, birds, us, you name it. By some estimates, over one third of all the biomass that is in terrestrial animals--elephants, rhinoceros, dogs, people, etc.--are in ants and termites. By any objective measure, this is an ant's world, we're just living on it.

Now, of course, this doesn't change the fact that on a day-to-day basis, what we humans do is far more important to us than what the ants do. It also doesn't change the fact that we can wipe out ant colonies far more effectively and with more certainty than an ant colony could kill even one human. (An ant colony, given the right conditions, could kill a human, sure, but it's not a foregone conclusion.)

So, as far as the giant or dragon is concerned, the same thing applies. We are their ants. They probably have built buildings and systems that humanity can only begin to comprehend. Perhaps the very existence of magic is actually something the dragons set in motion. Just as a mouse who finds a bag of grain has hit the jackpot without knowing anything about agriculture, a wizard's spells might be just individual grains to the draconic system of magiculture.

So, why haven't the giants enslaved us? For the same reason we haven't enslaved the ants. It's not worth it to us. Sure, we use ants from time to time--we need them in films, kids have ant farms, etc., but we don't run around forcing them to do our bidding against their will. We'll kill them without remorse if they invade our homes, but they can usually live in our front yards just fine.

But then again, when we do use ants, how aware are they that they are being used by us? How do they know that they're being kept in a small plastic box for the bemusement of children? And, if the giants were to enslave us, how could we tell?

 

[Rechan]

So, why haven't the giants enslaved us? For the same reason we haven't enslaved the ants. It's not worth it to us. Sure, we use ants from time to time--we need them in films, kids have ant farms, etc., but we don't run around forcing them to do our bidding against their will. We'll kill them without remorse if they invade our homes, but they can usually live in our front yards just fine.

Interesting notion, but the problem comes from the fact that in a fantasy world, more humans kill more giants or dragons than ants kill humans in our world. With the right conditions, ants could kill a person. But it's a lot easier in D&D for four humans to kill a giant.

We're not just some pesky bug that wanders in to eat their food. We're coming into kill them.

 

[jmucchiello]

They do.

I would have left off the smiley.

 

[Tewligan]

I'm guessing the yakfolk are behind it somehow.