Editing Giant

'''Giants''' are an endangered type of [[Other]],<ref name=":11">She went to the table to drop off the books: ''Fae Courts Across History, A Circle of Cold Iron,'' and ''Dark Somnambulism.'' While there, she investigated what Lucy was collecting.<br><br>A minute later, she found some books with menacing looking eyes on the cover and directed Lucy to them, to better sort through it.  ''Apotropaic Protections.''<br><br>She found more for the Kennet Others.  ''Vessels'', ''The Rusty Nail, Anima and Animus, Other Soldiers.'' To throw any observers off the trail, Avery gathered some more books on different kinds of Other: ''Dying Giants'', ''Divine Hands: Servants and Messengers'', ''Hardest Bargains: Envoys'', and ''At the Threshold of Death''.  They covered giants, divine servants and messengers, envoy incarnates, and the undead, respectively. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/31 Excerpt] from [[Cutting Class 6.2]]</ref> that are made by old [[Gods]] and can’t breed, no gods old or rough-edged enough still around to make more; bad karma to kill or harm one, and people will come after you.<ref name=":1">“Fuck,” I said.  “What about giants?”<br><br>“A hell of a lot simpler,” Tiff said.  “Um.  Secluded.  Big.”<br><br>“Basically,” the satyr said.<br><br>“They still bleed, though?” I asked.<br><br>“They’re endangered,” the maenad told me.  “Can’t breed, no gods old or rough-edged enough still around to make more.  Except maybe where ''you’re'' from, but any that crop up there still aren’t going to be adventurous enough to move.  Everyone knows it isn’t ''right'' to touch a giant.  Or they ''should'' know.”<br><br>“And if that giant over there comes after us?” I asked.<br><br>“Metaphor,” the maenad said.  “One of the last elephants in the world charges you, your life is obviously on the line.  You going to shoot it?”<br><br>“I don’t know,” I said.  “I get your point.  I do it, it’s technically ''okay'', but an awful lot of people aren’t going to see things technically.”<br><br>“Yes,” she said.<br><br>“Got it,” I said.- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/06 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.3]]</ref>

==Descriptions==
Their name is helpfully descriptive here the only one seen in the Otherverse so far was something like a humanoid cliff, probably larger then a three story building with facial hair to match.<ref>It was a shape.  A man, half again as tall as any of us, naked, his hair long and curly, a thin beard on his face.  He carried a sword and a round shield that was broad enough to cover him from knee to shoulder.  The snow piled on his shoulders, dusting his hair and pubes white.<br>[...]<br>“The Astrologer,” Fell said. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/06/03 Excerpt] from [[Void 7.2]]
<br>[...]<br>
A man.  Larger than the Astrologer’s creation, craggy in features, with a heavy beard.  Tall enough I could see him head and shoulders on the far side of a two-story building. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/04 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.2]]</ref> Can be very quite when they want to be.<ref name=":3">The giant, as it turned out, was ''quiet''.  It moved at a plodding pace, but I suspected that in a long-distance race, it would beat a running human being by virtue of sheer stride and endless stamina.<br><br>Seven or eight seconds passed as it approached our general position, and then it exhaled, long and heavy.  Hot breath steamed and froze on the giant’s thick facial hair.  Its face looked to be carved out of rock.<br><br>There was a sound like a building settling as it turned its head one way, then the other.<br><br>Every movement was slow, calculated, as if he considered it all with great care, deciding each in advance, then carrying it out.<br><br>He stepped over the pickup, as if it were an afterthought, his head turning as he looked in the direction the dragon had gone, past the intersection one block over, and further down the street.<br><br>Bending down, he used one hand to seize the pickup truck the dragon had grazed, and moved it back into position.<br><br>He remained where he was, bent over, one hand still on the truck.<br><br>I couldn’t make out his face.  Only the back of him, one leg, and a kilt of what looked to be cow hides, threaded into a continuous garment with thongs as thick around as my remaining arm. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/06 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.3]]</ref>

Their abodes are correspondingly huge as well.<ref name=DDG/> While they presumably have many languages, in keeping with their different origins, one was shown speaking a monosyllabic one.<ref name=":4"/><ref name=":5">I could hear the giant intone another monosyllabic word, from two or so city blocks away.  He didn’t shout, but he might as well have, given how far the sound carried.  The dragon screeched in response.  I heard the eruption of flame. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/09 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.4]]</ref><ref>“''Thu,''” he managed, rasping out the syllable.  He said another.  “''Ban''.”<br><br>''Giant speak'', I remembered.  A language of single syllables.  Just what he needed to communicate with the great beast. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2015/02/24 Excerpt] from [[Judgment 16.11]]</ref>

==Uses==
Giants can cause a lot of collateral damage due to their immense strength.<ref name":3">Not a one minute walk away was a giant.  Sitting cross-legged, hands folded in its lap, its shoulders slumped forward, head tilted so it faced the ground.  Even sitting, its head reached as high as the roofs of the two stores on either side of it, each one three floors tall.  The face had burned away, the skull shattered, revealing just how thick the bone was.  Far thicker than a human skull.  The interior of his head was only dark.  The fragments of the skull and wisps of scorched flesh littered the hands, lap, and surrounding pavement.<br><br>“''Man'',” Evan’s voice cut through the silence.  “Why does that bother me so much?”<br><br>“Giants are nearly extinct,” Lola said.<br><br>“''Man'',” Evan said, again.<br><br>“He’s his own tombstone,” Ainsley said.  “In a place like this, he won’t ever change from ''that''.  Wind won’t erode him, microbes won’t eat him.  He’ll just sit there, until this place is gone.”<br><br>“Fucking assholes,” Mags said.  “Fuck them.  Even clueless idiots like me know you don’t mess with the giants.”<br><br>“Cause they ''step'' on you,” one of the goblins chimed in.<br><br>“Because they’re fucking giants,” Mags said. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2015/02/10 Excerpt] from [[Judgment 16.6]]</ref>

<!--One way seens - can stick around after death in some ways, if gods are part of structural practices as pillers of the world are giants meant to be little pillers-->

Giants are still around thanks in part to their advocates and in part do to their propensity to have hiding places.<ref name=":2">I said.  “Question: how the hell did Johannes get these things, [and] why are they so damn ''complicated'' [and Problematic?]<br>[...]<br>“Johannes has them because he offers a sanctuary,” the maenad said.  “Just like our High Priest does for ''us'', his followers, except Johannes does it for anything that’s willing to play by the rules.  The giants have enemies, just like they have advocates, and even if the advocates vastly outnumber the enemies, there’s people who come after them, and Johannes gives them one more hiding spot, just like this. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/06 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.3]]</ref>

[[Ogre Mages]] deal with giants to some extent, presumably as advocates, possibly working against the enemies that giants do have.<ref name=":2"/>
<ref name=":6">
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/09 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.4]]</ref>
==Known Giants==
* The [[Dragon]]-owner in Johannes' Service<ref name=":4">The giant loomed at the far end of the street.<br><br>“''Thu!''” the giant called out, his voice echoing much as the bell had.<br><br>“Fee fi fo fum,” Peter muttered.<br><br>Given free reign, causing devastation that was harder to explain as people woke up.  How would the locals process it all?  The fire, the destroyed vehicles and city property?<br><br>War?  Call it an airstrike in the night?  Something else?<br><br>They’d leave, the town would plummet into the abyss, and the giant and dragon…<br><br>Well, I supposed they were tough enough to work their way free.  Probably.<br><br>The dragon reappeared.  Perching on a rooftop, a matter of meters from the giant.<br><br>The giant reached up, and dug thick fingers into the dragon’s loose-fitting hide.<br><br>“That explains that,” I said.  “The dragon’s master.”<br><br>“Almost obvious in retrospect,” Peter said.<br><br>“''Ro!''” the giant howled the word.<br><br>''Attack''.
[...]
- [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/12/06 Excerpt] from [[Sine Die 14.3]]</ref>
* The Widow Bone eater<ref name=DDG>“If you like cool ruins and abandoned buildings, there are a buncha places I could show you.”<br><br>“Can we rule out the places where I might get stabbed by the locals, or bitten?”<br><br>“Hm.  There’s still a few I can show you [...] there’s this place we can go where no human has been for hundreds of years, used to be some giant’s house, big guy lived off the meat of widows and widowers and the bread made from their bones [...] he wouldn’t off the spouses himself, point of pride or something, so he died of starvation, and his corpse is still there, which is as metal as ''motherfuck'', and the whole place is kinda ''hella'' cursed which is just as metal, but it’s a ''huge'' place you could spend all day exploring.  And-” - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bPsZs1iPqHAcsJr4N7UgW-W7Ne4OCTtUjfvcxIoBmdI/#heading=h.vfbm49jh9pqb Excerpt] from [[Poke 4]]</ref>
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[[Category:Divine]]
[[Category:Others]]