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Stone giants, called steinjotunen in their own language,[12], were a reclusive and artistic race of giants that lived in underground and mountainous environments.[1]

We all know of dwarves who fell so deep in love with their craft, or the seeking of treasure or ale, that that they forgot how to live in any other way but in pursuit of it. That's what stone giants do.

Description[]

The bodies of stone giants had a gray to grayish-brown skin tone, hair that ranged in a spectrum of dark grays and bluish-grays, and eyes of a silver or steel hue. They also tended to wear clothing that was of a similar color to nearby rocks, which altogether made it easy for their race to blend in with their environment when needed.[6]

Adults averaged about 18 feet (5.5 meters) in height,[5][11][13] although fossilized stone giants from the era of Ostoria show that in the past their race was capable of reaching heights of up to 24 feet (7.3 meters).[14] Though thinner and less bulky than fire giants, who were about the same height on average, a stone giant's thicker, heavier flesh made them weigh significantly more, at about 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms).[5][note 1]

Abilities[]

Stone giants had an excellent sense of smell and had infravision sight of up to 200 feet (61 meters).[15] Stone giants were the longest living of the giants and generally considered among their peers to be the wisest of all giant races, despite their low position in the ordning. And their hearts were known to beat four times slower than that of a human.[16]

Combat[]

Stone giants preferred to fight using ranged weapons such as boulders, but if forced into melee they wielded gigantic stone clubs.[4] Some were fond of simply flinging their smaller enemies through the air.[17]

History[]

The stone giant race began with an individual by the name of Obadai, one of the mortal children of Annam All-Father and Othea, who in the kingdom of Ostoria was ceded control of the Underdark.[18] Within this mighty kingdom they created some of the greatest works of giant art.[19] For example, they would regularly carve stalactites and pillars so that they resonated in the wind, thus creating a sort of song that was attuned to whoever stood before them.[20]

Sub-Races[]

Ash giants
An offshoot of stone giants that lived in the Black Ash Plain of east Faerûn. Their size and skin tone was approximately the same, though their bodies were hairless and their eyes a deep-set black. They often smeared themselves with ash as camouflage and were known to be shamans who specialized in controlling the ashes and embers common in their homeland.[21]
Phaerlin giants
An offshoot that was created by the magic of the phaerimm, sometime after those aberrations were imprisoned in the Underdark. While intelligent enough to speak, phaerlin giants were savage brutes and had little in common with their stone giant forebears. Their bodies were hairless, had hardened skin very similar to that of a beholder, and were hunched from living in tight tunnels. They generally walked using both their feet and hands. They eschewed weapons, preferring to attack with their claws and the razor sharp teeth embedded in their protruding jaws.[22]
Craa'ghoran giants
Stone giants who had been exposed long ago to elemental energy from the Elemental Plane of Earth by druidic devotees of Gond. They were taller than stone giants, could live up to 8,000 years, and could weigh up to ten times more than them due to the massive chunks of rock that formed much of their bodies.They were cruel hunters who delighted in using their innate abilities to create a maze of traps and blind corners for prey to get lost in. They did retain their ancestors love of art, creating massive and beautiful stone carvings with their magic.[23]
Runecarver

A stone giant carving a rune.

Society[]

Stone giant family bonds were less important than the bonds between a master and his pupil.[15] The ordering of stone giant society was based upon an individual's artistic ability.[24]

The strongest stone giant nation was Cairnheim in the Underdark.[25] It was a village[26] located in the western part of the Darklands[27] in the Upperdark inside the Giant's Run Mountains under the rule of the stone giant lich Dodkong.[26]

Stone giants that spent too much time on the surface, either during their dream quests or as a result of banishment from their communities, became dreamwalkers, driven so far into madness by their isolation to the point that reality itself bent around them.[2]

Lycanthropy[]

Due to the resilience of their skin, stone giants were known to be immune to all forms of lycanthropy.[28]

Homelands[]

These giants were typically found living in temperate mountain ranges,[4] caves, or caverns.[6]

Stone giants were powerful enough to survive and make a living in the Underdark in the face of competition.[25] They had a tendency to gather in larger individual groups the deeper the given group was located,[29] but were primarily denizens of the Upperdark, though their numbers were small even there.[25]

They carved their homes out of the rock and had a reputation as good artisans, though they generally maintained an uncaring stance towards other denizens of the Underdark and expected the same stance from the others.[25]

Languages[]

Stone giants were known to speak the general giant language Jotun. But they also possessed their own language known as Jotunstein, which was derived from both Jotun and Auld Dwarvish.[7] The written form of this language was known as "Metamorpherie".[30]

Names[]

Common given names among stone giants included the following:[31]

Males
Falkh, Hundar, Korlgar, Kuljarn, Sulfulkh, Valgusk, Vorold, and Yulhamur.
Females
Beldra, Gillauga, Gurdis, Moada, Oskra, Ragnara, Rakra, Skarla, Woave, and Zarka.

Religion[]

Like all true giants, stone giants worshiped Annam All-Father as their chief deity, but unlike the other races they envisioned him as being an artist whose skills were perfection.[32] Their patron deity among Annam's children was Skoraeus Stonebones, though lesser deities Hiatea and Iallanis were also known to have a significant following among the stone giants.[33]

Priests of Skoraeus felt that their duty was to oversee their society's affairs and ensure that the stone giants as a whole continued to progress towards greater achievements in art and intellectual thought. But in order to accomplish this goal, they believed that their race needed to isolate itself from others, with the exception of individuals who might help expand upon their mastery of craftsmanship.[34]

Relationships[]

Animal domestication was not common among them, though many were known to raise colonies of giant bats as a warning system and source of food.[35] While others have been seen in the company of giant goats[36] and cave bears.[6] Out of all animals they considered purple worms to be the greatest of pests, since they could effortlessly burrow through their homes and destroy prized carvings.[35]

Usages[]

Stone giants' finger bones were used by crafters from the Old Empires to create more powerful versions of rings of strength.[37]

Notable Stone Giants[]

Trivia[]

  • Historians gave the year -160 DR the epithet "Year of the Stone Giant."[40]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Giant heights and weights have varied wildly across editions. The heights of the major races of giants were shorter in 1st edition and 3rd edition and taller in 2nd edition and 5th edition. (4th edition did not provide information on the heights of giants.) This wiki follows the policy that Forgotten Realms sources take priority over core sources when determining giant heights. (For example, the sourcebooks Giantcraft and Volo's Guide to Monsters are considered canon when they conflict with various Monster Manuals.) The matter of weight, however, is more complicated, because—as at least a couple Dragon magazine articles have admitted (e.g., "How Heavy Is My Giant", The Dragon #13 and "Realistic Vital Statistics", Dragon #91)—some of the published values for the weights of giants are physically absurd. As is clear from basic geometry and physics, as an object is doubled in height with proportional changes in the other dimensions, its change in mass is multiplied eightfold, but this seems to have been taken into account in some sources yet not in others. In the case of a male stone giant, which, according to Realms sourcebooks, is over 18 feet (5.5 meters), the given weight is only 1,712 pounds (776.5 kilograms)! That is a reasonable weight for a 12‑foot (3.7‑meter), 1st- or 3rd-edition stone giant but is not even close for a Realmsian stone giant of 18 feet. A human of that height would weight around 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilograms). 2nd edition's Monstrous Manual offers 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms) for its 18-foot stone giant, and most sources suggest that stone giants have thick, stone-like builds, which would likely be especially heavy, so this is the source that we choose to cite here as the only reasonable weight.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 152–153, 156. ISBN 978-0786965614.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-0786966011.
  3. Rob Heinsoo, Stephen Schubert (May 19, 2009). Monster Manual 2 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 124–125. ISBN 0786995101.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-2893-X.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Doug Stewart (June 1993). Monstrous Manual. (TSR, Inc), p. 145. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Gary Gygax (December 1977). Monster Manual, 1st edition. (TSR, Inc), p. 45. ISBN 0-935696-00-8.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 27. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  8. Richard Lee Byers (May 2010). The Captive Flame. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 179. ISBN 0786953969.
  9. Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel (July 2006). Monster Manual IV. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-7869-3920-6.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 29–31. ISBN 978-0786966011.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 19. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  12. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 28. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  13. Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 153. ISBN 978-0786965614.
  14. Christopher Perkins, et al. (September 2016). Storm King's Thunder. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 148. ISBN 978-0-7869-6600-4.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 23. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  16. Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 22. ISBN 978-0786966011.
  17. Christopher Perkins, et al. (September 2016). Storm King's Thunder. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 246. ISBN 978-0-7869-6600-4.
  18. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 7. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  19. Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 19. ISBN 978-0786966011.
  20. Tuque Games (2020). Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance. Wizards of the Coast.
  21. Richard Lee Byers (May 2010). The Captive Flame. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 179. ISBN 0786953969.
  22. James Wyatt, Rob Heinsoo (February 2001). Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn. Edited by Duane Maxwell. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 51–52. ISBN 0-7869-1832-2.
  23. Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel (July 2006). Monster Manual IV. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 60–61. ISBN 0-7869-3920-6.
  24. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 25. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 118. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
  26. 26.0 26.1 Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 132. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
  27. Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 123. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
  28. Brian P. Hudson (December 1999). “The Dragon's Bestiary: Giant Lycanthropes”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon #266 (TSR, Inc.), pp. 76–80.
  29. Bruce R. Cordell, Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jeff Quick (October 2003). Underdark. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 113–116. ISBN 0-7869-3053-5.
  30. Troy Denning (February 1995). The Giant Among Us. (TSR, Inc.), chap. 3. ISBN 0786900989.
  31. Ed Greenwood (2020-08-25). Common Giant Names (Tweet). theedverse. Twitter. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05. Retrieved on 2021-05-16.
  32. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 43, 94. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  33. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 49, 52, 55. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  34. Ray Winninger (September 1995). Giantcraft. Edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. (TSR, Inc.), p. 55. ISBN 0-7869-0163-2.
  35. 35.0 35.1 Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 31. ISBN 978-0786966011.
  36. James Butler, Elizabeth T. Danforth, Jean Rabe (September 1994). “The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns”. In Karen S. Boomgarden ed. Elminster's Ecologies (TSR, Inc), p. 24. ISBN 1-5607-6917-3.
  37. Scott Bennie (February 1990). Old Empires. Edited by Mike Breault. (TSR, Inc.), p. 81. ISBN 978-0880388214.
  38. Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 56. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
  39. Christopher Perkins, et al. (September 2016). Storm King's Thunder. Edited by Kim Mohan, Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7869-6600-4.
  40. Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 57. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.

Connections[]

True Giants
Cloud EttinFire (Fire titan )FogFrostHill (Earth titanMouth of Grolantor)MountainStoneStorm Titan

True Giant Offshoots
AshCraa'ghoranMaurPhaerlin
Giant-Kin
Cyclops (Cyclopskin)FirbolgFomorianOgre (Oni)VerbeegVoadkyn
Zakharan Giants
DesertIslandJungleOgre giantReef
Other Giants
AbyssalEldritchFensirDeathSand

Related Creatures
GoliathTroll (FellGiant troll)
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