The Frost Giants of Rhackdalia

Frost Giants of Rhackdalia

A Book in the Library of the Overreach

Background

Ma'yah found and borrowed a book from the library of the Overreach during the Ice, Snow, and Blood encounter at Preen Pass. This is a summary of the book's contents.

Frost Giant Characteristics

• Frost Giants are patriarchal but less cruel to women than other giant folk.
  
• Dwarves, elves and gnomes, as well as orcs, goblins and almost all other humanoids, are all viewed as enemies, and halflings are seen as insignificant worms.
  
• A few daring humans trade and sell the giants items they desire but cannot obtain on their own.
  
• Similarly, powerful human wizards and warlords may gain the respect of frost giants, who serve in their armies for the opportunities of power and plunder.
  
• Ogres are valued as lackeys, servants and additional sword arms in battle.
  
• Frost giants are 15’ reavers from freezing lands beyond civilization; pale blue hair or blonde younger ones, and white hair older ones; matted with frost and icicles; flesh is blue as glacial ice; golden eyes;
  
• They wear their hair long and down to their shoulders, with males almost always sporting thick mustaches and beards, which are a point of pride among male frost giants;
  
• Commonly dressing in thick garments of woven cloth and animal hides of much better quality than those of hill giants, frost giants frequently also wear vests and coats of ringmail, carrying their weapons with them at all times.
  
• Their voices are, like those of hill giants, of a deep baritone, although much richer and clearer than the guttural voices of their kin.
  
• For all their civilized pretenses among their own people, frost giants can be savage killers and know little to nothing of mercy.
  
• Their homes are often large castles and fortresses carved from mountain stone or glacier ice, although like other giants they will also take up large caves or rifts that can be adapted to their own use.
  
• Frost giants organize themselves into clans centered around the rule of a jarl, or king, who rules the giants of his clan by virtue of his noble bloodlines and his great deeds in war.
  
• Below the jarls are the carls, or aristocracy, frost giants that have themselves received prestige through their own prowess in combat.
  
• The carls frequently act as check and balance on the jarl’s power, offering or withdrawing support for the jarl and even potentially deposing him if the clan becomes dissatisfied with his rule.
  
• Through their own noble bloodlines, carls may themselves ascend to become jarls, their sons therefore becoming royalty, although such ascensions are very rare unless the jarl has grievously failed or sinned in some manner, and one carl manages to position himself as the most worthy candidate for the office.
  
• To prevent frequent turnovers in leadership and assure stability, however, frost giants frequently only employ such a strategy as a last resort.
  
• While they wield no official power, frost giant women are frequently sought after by males and the most beautiful or talented women can attain greater status by wedding the best mates available.
  
• Oftentimes, particularly ambitious women will seek to marry outside their clans, possibly to become the lover or even the wife of a foreign jarl, and thereby attain greater power in society.
  
• Frost giants can and do marry outside their clans, and there is little stigma attached to a dissatisfied giant renouncing his loyalties to a particular clan and jarl and moving to pledge himself to another one.
  
• While the clans are strictly organized, and can battle against one another, individual giants can and do move freely between them.
  
• The jarl may strip a carl of his noble rank if he oversteps his bounds, or promote a commoner to join the aristocracy if his deeds are sufficiently impressive.
  
• Frost Giants respect strength above all else; evidence of physical might
  
• Fierce and hardy warriors, recognize strength and brute force in battle; they appreciate gems and jewelry large enough to be noticed; they keep treasure for trading opportunities;
  
• Scars and trophies are important to them;
  
• The don’t cook their kill but eat it raw;
  
• War horns of the Frost Giants announce their coming.

Frost Giant Anicent History:

• Frost giants have long lived for battle, conquest and plunder. They are as old as ice and snow.
  
• The oral lore of the clan elders, the songs of the bards, and the legends of the Northern Barbarian shamans are all replete with stories of the savagery and cruelty of the frost giant race and their peoples’ struggles against these foul beings.
  
• The race of frost giants was made in the image of its creator, the god Thrym.
  
• According to legend, the deity Annam, the greatest of the giant gods, observed the rise of mortal beings and decided that he would create mortal beings to revere him.
  
• He sealed a pact with the Mother, who repaid his loyal service by giving him the same boon she had to the other creator-gods.
  
• Annam then devised a plan. His weakness for women of beauty had led him to father many sons, all of whom clamored for their father’s favor, and he feared that some of these might become a threat to his position.
  
• To avert this, he gathered his sons together in his hall and announced that he would hold a contest to determine the most worthy heir to his throne.
  
• As his sons eagerly listened, Annam proclaimed that he would take the boon granted him by Mother and share it with them, allowing them all to create races in his image. The son who produced the most worthy race would thus be given Annam’s position.
  
• As the cunning Annam had foreseen, his sons competed vigorously with one another, creating multiple races who all came to revere him in some form, even as his sons soon became more concerned with besting one another and fighting for dominance in the contest, than seeking to overthrow him. In this way, Annam maintained his hold on power as ruler of the gods of the giants.
  
• One of Annam’s sons was the deity Thrym, who was known for his cold, stern demeanor and his frightening savagery in combat.
  
• Often aloof and solitary by nature, he nonetheless allied with his brothers or other gods as necessary, although he jealously guarded his independence and power. He viewed the world as cold and harsh, and believed that people could only depend on themselves to survive, lest they perish and die. Nonetheless, people could ally with one another if it was in their mutual self-interest, partnering for some shared benefit. Those who offered no benefit could be murdered and robbed without remorse, for they were not strong enough to survive in a harsh world.
  
• Thrym believed that Annam would respect these traits of cruelty, selfishness, and aloofness, and so he bequeathed them upon the frost giants he created as part of his father’s contest.
  
• Placing them in the coldest and harshest regions of the Land so as to impress Annam with their strength, Thrym carefully selected other deities of ice and cold for the frost giants to worship, such as the winter deity Telchur, who could mutually profit from their association without these new deities weakening his control of the frost giants.
  
• As with the other giant gods, Thrym’s relationship with his brothers reflected the relationships the frost giants have with other giant races.
  
• Grolantor and Thrym admired one another’s fighting prowess, and frequently allied in battle, oftentimes supported by the fire giant lord Surtur, although Thrym and Surtur had less affection for one another.
  
• Thrym often cooperated with Skoraeus Stonebones for their mutual benefit, although there was little true kinship between the two brothers.
  
• Thrym’s outright hatred for Karontor and Stronmaus meant that their races shared the same loathing for one another.

Frost Giant Holds in Shae Tarhane

• Cloven Clan: Famed for the legends surrounding the cold valley the frost giants claim as their home, claiming that it was “cloven” for them (carved out of the Land) by Thrym himself; famed for their surprisingly elaborate religious art, with which they decorate the walls of the valley in veneration of Thrym; ruled by High Legate Underno, Most Blessed of the Sons of Thrym.

• Wintergale Clan:  Mherisan Glacier, Rhackdalia. Famed for their often beautiful ritual songs and music, which they play before planning a raid or battle, and which echo throughout the surrounding area; famed for their frightening war paint and tattoos of demons, remorhazes, and white dragons; famed for foaming at the mouth with a berserk rage in combat; followers of Thrym; ruled by High Jarl Lars.

• Clan of the Ice Crypts: Famed for being carved out of a massive glacier with roots deep in the surrounding hills, with ice as hard as stone that is said to never melt; famed for their endless clashes with the gnomes and dwarves, Wolf Nomads, and the elves of the Vesavive Forest; famed for their ale, renowned among humanoids of all races for its extremely potent kick, and the variety of vintages and flavors that it comes in; famed for their tradition of being ruled by female jarls, rather than males; followers of Hiatea, ruled by High Dame Lyngnarra Frostbrood.

• Clan of the WhiteDeath: Established in the far reaches, famed for their intense nature worship, and the ability of their shamans to conjure elementals of oerth and ice to aid them in battle; famed for the Sacred Icicle of Thrym, a long spear of pure ice said to be a gift from the Oerth Mother to the frost giants for slaying a white dragon that poisoned the lands around; famed for the elaborate design of their village, a series of towers carved out of the surrounding ice and rock surrounding a statue of a frost giant slaying a dragon; followers of Thrym; ruled by High Jarl Staghorn the Nineteenth.

Frost Giants of Rhackdalia

• The Wintergale Clan of Frost Giants live in the Mherisan Glacier on Rhackdalia.

• The Front Giants of the Wintergale Clan ruled this island for countless centuries. This is their ancestral home.

• Approximately 500 years ago, settlers from Floreth began mining the mountains. Dwarves recognized the abundant wealth of the mountains and leveraged the new Monarchy and their sailing boats to get here.
  
• The dwarven kingdom and the monarchy was greedy. They created the Rhackdalia settlement and fought back against the Frost Giants to plunder its resources.

• Rhackdalia was originally built as a defensible point to get mined minerals on ships and set them to sea. It was a swampland dominated by Bullywug clans who were coerced and bribed into helping the dwarven and human occupation.
  
• Between 500-300 years ago, skirmishes between the giants, humans, and dwarves happened along the glacier, in the pass, and along the wall.
  
• The Monarchy and Dwarven Kingdoms cooperated to suppress the giants and, in some cases, subjugate them into slavery as labor to ferry the mined ores to the shore.

• The Wintergale Clan attempted attacking Rhackdalia’s wall many times but their efforts were chaotic and disjointed, and never successful. The wall stood and the humans and dwarves continued to beat them in battle.

• About 250 years ago, the Wintergale Clan was eventually beaten back into the Glacier. Their Jarl, Jarl Gonzon (Goonzahn) was killed by dwarves. The clan sealed the Glacier and retreated.