Giants

Giants were the final and most ambitious of the human reshapings, achieved centuries after their other brethren. Every aspect of the human form was magnified—size, strength, vitality, and physical presence—but the cost proved immense. Giants matured slowly, required enormous quantities of food, possessed a more deliberate and contemplative intellect, and lived surprisingly brief lives, rarely exceeding fifty years. They became known as a great, but fleeting people. Elsewhere, necessity overcame hesitation.

Frost Giants

Frost Giants were a cold-adapted Giant phenotype native to the frozen realms of the Azure Guard. Like Elves and Dwarves, Giant biology proved unusually prone to developing dramatic regional phenotypes when populations remained isolated in extreme environments. Frost Giants retained the immense size and fundamental anatomy of ordinary Giants, but developed frosty pastel-blue skin, dense white body hair, long white head hair, and blue eyes, with males commonly growing heavy white beards. Their exceptional tolerance for cold allowed them to live comfortably with considerably less protection than most Heirs required. Frost Giants became particularly associated with the polar wastes, glaciers, and frozen mountain sanctuaries of the Ice Wardens, sharing environments that remained difficult for most other peoples to inhabit. Despite their distinctive appearance and common name, Frost Giants were neither elemental beings nor a separate Giant lineage; they remained fundamentally Giants expressing an extreme cold-adapted phenotype.