Stone Giants

When the All Father made the first peoples he gave them many shapes and sizes. The first were the faul, the "folk", the bearded dwarves who in after ages created the foundations of the world's civilizations. From these early beginning rose many of the people's of Aihrde, both giants and men. The taonu muen, the "tall stones that live", the stone giants, stood out from the others for they were aloof in their quiet solitude.

In those days many creatures followed the works of the All Father, invisible armies living in his shadows, fearful yet adoring, curious yet arrogant in their own power. Burol was one such, a powerful spirit of the order of the Val-Eahrakun; he suffered not the arrogance of his fellows, but he listened to the All Father and watched all that he did in his labors; he understood little of his language or act of creation, excepting the nature of stone and rock. Whenever the All Father worked in in stone Burol could see it and grasped it readily. Burol harbored the knowledge and learned to master the stone. In time of years the All Father set aside his labors upon the faul and moved to other tasks and the folk scattered far and wide. Burol remained however, and he gathered a great hose of the taonu muen to him and taught them what he knew. He gave them the "gift of stone" and ever after they worshipped him and the early fathers and mothers as gods.

At first the taonu muen did not move as did the other folk. They dwelt in the Stone Mountains, far to the north of Mount Austrien in the lands of the westering sun, learning from Burol. They traded with few of their kin, retreating into the high mountains to work their own magics to shape their world of stone. But in later years they grew curious as rumors came to them of greater mountains to the east and peaks so high they looked down upon the Stone Mountains and thus they began to travel across the world.

Forged in the fires of the All Father's youth the stone giants stand tall, with long arms and legs and a narrow torso beneath a barrel's chest. Their necks are thick and faces wide, with large eyes, nose and broad mouths. They range in color from a light brown to a deep gray; their skin is tough, though not like stone as some imagine. The wear no clothing though their habits are such that they sit for days without moving allowing all manner of lichen to grow upon their hides. Some revel in the warmth provided by the lichen, for it dulls the sharp mountain winds and they encourage its growth so that it covers them almost entirely. Some sit for many months and even years until until they giant is utterly lost to view. They do not favor weapons, armor or even tools but use their mastery of the ancient tongue of the All Father to shape their world; they cast life into stone to awaken it and shape it thus to their own design.

Stone giants eschew the dark, loving the warmth of the sun, the wind and open skies for this they love high places most of all. They use their knowledge of stone to awaken it, building wondrous dwellings unlike any in the world of Aihrde. They heap stone upon slag and shape it, twisting it like ropes and tethers, binding the mountain's slopes to the sky's heavens. There is no inside for the giants, the pillars possess carefully wrought ledges that provide perches for the giants to sit upon and rest when they are not at their labors. The giants climb them and settle upon their flanks so that they can see the wide world and feel the weather upon their brow. The greater giants perch atop the highest points, the lesser clinging to the pillar at its base.

From Rune Lore