CLOUD GIANT
Clomd giants live extravagant lives high above the world,
showing little concern for the plights of other races
except as amusement. They are muscular with light skin
and have hair of silver or blue.
High and Mighty. Cloud giants are spread to the
winds, encompassing vast areas of the world. In times
of need, scattered cloud giant families band together as
a unified clan. However, they can seldom do so quickly.
Attuned to the magic of their airy domains, cloud
giants are able to turn into mist and create clouds of
billowing fog. They dwell in castles on high mountain
peaks, or on the solid clouds that once held their fiefs.
Stili gracing the skies on occasion, these magic clouds
are a lasting remnant of the giants' lost empires.
Better spellcasters than most other giants, some cloud
giants can control weather, bring storms, and steer the
wind almost as well as their cousins, the storm giants.
Affluent Princes. Although cloud giants are lower
in the ordning than storm giants, the reclusive storm
giants rarely engage with the rest of giantkind. As a
result, many cloud giants see themselves as having
the highest status and power among the giant races.
They order lesser giants to seek out wealth and art
on their behalf, employing fire giants as smiths and
crafters, and using frost giants as reavers, raiders, and
plunderers. Dimwitted hill giants serve them as brutes
and combat fodder-sometimes fighting for the cloud
giants' amusement. A cloud giant might order hill or
frost giants to steal from nearby humanoid lands, which
it considers to be a fair tax for its continued beneficence.
On their mountain summits and solid clouds, cloud
giants keep extraordinary gardens. Grapes as big
as apples grow there, along with apples the size of
pumpkins, and pumpkins the size of wagons. From
· the errant seeds of these gardens, tales of cottage-
sized produce and magic beans are spread in the
mortal realm.
As humanoid nobles keep an aerie for hunting hawks,
so do cloud giants keep griffons, perytons, and wyverns
as their own flying beasts of prey. Such creatures also
patrol the cloud giants' gardens by night, along with
trained predators such as owlbears and lions.
FRosT GIANT BouLDERJ0. ,-,',i '( ~-1.(. ' , \ , ' ' I. < 1~· : J_., t ..,
(:hi/ClrelJ 'oft~e Trickster. The patron,go.d and
f<!.ther of the·cloud giants is Memnor the :fr-1ckster, the
clevere'st and slyest of the giant deities. Cloud giants
align themselves according to the aspects and exploits
of Meinnor that they most admire, with evil cloud
giants emulating his deceitfulness and self-interest and
good cloud giants emulating his intellect and silver-
tongued speech. Family members usually align in the
same direction.
Wealth and Power. A cloud giant earns its place in
the ordning by the treasure it accumulates, the wealth
it wears, and the gifts it bestows on other cloud giants.
However, value is only one part of the assessment. The
extravagances a cloud giant wears or places about its
home must also be beautiful or wondrous. Sacks of gold
or gems are worth less to a cloud giant than the jewelry
that might be crafted from those materials, creating
treasures that bring esteem to a cloud giant's household.
Rather than steal from one another or fight over
treasures, cloud giants are inveterate gamblers with a
hunger for high risks and high rewards. They frequently
bet on the outcome of events nominally outside their
control, such as the lives of lesser creatures. Ordning
ranks and kings' ransoms can be won and lost in bets
over the military triumphs of humanoid nations. Fixing
wagers by interfering in the conflict causes the loss of
the bet, but such deceit is considered to be cheating
only if it is discovered. Otherwise, it is cleverness
honoring Memnor.FIRE GIANT
Master crafters and organized warriors, fire giants
dwell among volcanoes, lava floes, and rocky mountains.
They are ruthless militaristic brutes whose mastery of
metalwork is legendary.
Fire Forged. Fire giant fortresses are built around
and inside volcanoes or near magma-fille d caverns.
The blistering heat of their homes fuels the fire giants'
forges, and causes the iron of their fortress walls to
glow a comforting orange. In lands fanemoved from
volcanic heat, fire giants mine coal to burn. Traditional
smithies occupy places of honor in their demesnes, and
the giants' stony fortresses constantly belch plumes of
sooty smoke. In more remote outposts, fire giants burn
wood to keep their forge fires lit, deforesting leagues of
land in all directions.liiLL GiANT BouLDER