Culture
Craftwork
Fire giants are the greatest smiths, architects, and technicians among giantkind. The iron-lined halls of a fire giant stronghold, deep inside a mountain or a volcano, support the unimaginable weight of the stone above them and enable the giants to harness the heat of rivers of magma to power their forges.
Fire giants don’t spend a lot of time crafting works of art, although they would maintain that all of their feats of metalworking and engineering are themselves forms of artistic expression. Beyond such accomplishments, true artwork is scarce among fire giants, and most of what exists is jewelry, made from gems and ore that they mine and then refine. A unique form of art that some fire giants produce involves manipulating magma as it cools, forming it into fantastical, one-of-a-kind shapes. The most striking of these works are collected and displayed inside the stronghold, not unlike how other cultures create topiary gardens.
Mighty Fighters, Poor Planners
Fire giants rarely wear armor, as their bodies heat up to extreme temperatures while they fight, causing straps to melt and metal to deform. They instead hone their own bodies into the perfect weapons of war.
A fire giant’s prowess in the occupations of martial art determines its place in the ordning alongside his crafts. Master monk select the best disciples to pass their knowledge on to, along with their standing. Often pupils are children or siblings of their teachers, but that’s not always so.
Leaders are chosen by general recognition from among the best martial artists in the clan.
When fire giants aren’t honing their crafting skills, they’re drilling with weapons or exercising to keep themselves fit for battle. The typical fire giant has a mastery of combat tactics that few other warriors can match, but the giants’ understanding of strategy is rudimentary.
This deficiency isn’t born from a lack of ability, but has its roots in tradition. In ages past, when the giants worked together to dominate the world, strategy was determined by the cloud giants and the storm giants. If an ambitious fire giant ever became a master of strategic planning (or captured and enslaved a cooperative general), little could stop a tribe of fire giants that enjoyed this additional advantage over their neighbors.
Fire giants raise and train hell hounds as war dogs, and they sometimes persuade
Human wizards (free or enslaved) to harness fire elementals as guardians for their strongholds.
In the fire giants’ world, fire is strength. It burns away impurities and leaves behind only what is strong enough to withstand the heat, such as the best steel from the forge. When fire is controlled, it is the giants’ most powerful tool; when it rages unchecked, it can bring down forests and lay waste to cities.
Spirituality
Fire giants, once reliant on the slavery of humans and other smaller folk for labor, faced a significant shift in their society after being exiled to the Giant Island. With their source of forced labor gone, they had to adapt, changing the structure of their society and way of life.
With less time to engineer and craft weapons and strongholds, many fire giants turned to a more spiritual lifestyle. This transition was marked by a profound change in their religious practices and beliefs.
Fire giants traditionally worshipped Surtur, the giant god of fire. However, the death of Surtur at the hands of
Feth'razaal shattered their faith. Without their primary deity, they were left searching for new spiritual guidance.
In the absence of Surtur, the fire giants shifted their reverence to the spirits of the world, primarily the Phoenix, the spirit of fire. Fire giants now believe that the flames they possess hold the power to cleanse them, making them pure unlike other giants.
Paying the Price
Fire giants on many occasions have ransomed captives back to their families or communities, once the giants determined that a slave had no particular talent they needed and others were willing to pay for its return. Affluent prisoners such as merchants and aristocrats are the most likely to win this sort of reprieve, for obvious reasons. The ransom demanded rarely involves baubles such as gold or gems: fire giants prefer payment in Mithral,
Adamantine, or different slaves (ones with more useful talents or stronger backs).
History
In 902 AD, a portal to the
Elemental Plane of Fire opened in
Ironslag within the giant island. This portal, believed by the fire giants to be an attempt to escape their island, was a path to their enslavement, as numerous efreet poured into the fire giants' fortress, winning them by force of numbers. The efreet retreated shortly after, taking numerous slaves and closing the gate to their planes, fearing the giant retaliation.
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