Taiga giant

Taiga giant

(Creature)

2E1E

Common

CN

Huge

Giant

Humanoid

Level

12

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 126

Type

Humanoid
(giant)

CR

12

Environment

Cold mountains and forests

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 131

Taiga giants, known as Urganta ("people" in Giant) among themselves, are enormous nomadic hunters who roam the harshest northern reaches of Avistan and Casmaron following the herds of aurochs, mammoth, and elk found there.

Appearance

Taiga giants range between 17 and 20 feet tall and weigh up to 10,000 pounds. Women tend to be about a foot shorter than men. Their skin is colored brown, and usually extensively decorated with tattoos. Taiga giants often dab their skin with dried mud and foliage to create a kind of camouflage.

Habitat and ecology

Taiga giants are wanderlustful nomads who constantly seek large prey and avoid civilization. They prefer hilly or forested habitats, but occasionally their wanderings will take them into colder northern domains.

They will occasionally raid villages of smaller humanoids for supplies, and believe that there is nothing immoral about this. Such raids can ruin a settlement, however, and their inhabitants try to provide an annual offering of tribute when a clan of taiga giants draw near.

They are extremely patient while hunting their large prey, and fight alongside their animal companion (dire wolves, dire bears, and smilodons) for good effect.

Taiga giants are contemptuous of any humanoid much smaller than themselves, are friendly with hill giants and stone giants, and will tolerate ogres.

History

Taiga giants believe that they are the original giant tribe, and that the various giant tribes descend from them. This is a belief that modern Avistani scholars largely believe to be true.

Culture

Taiga giants possess the remarkable ability to summon their ancestral spirits to consult with and do battle alongside them. More than any of the other giant races, they regard these spirits with great fear and reverence, and feel that the ghosts of their ancestors bestow great wisdom and power. Insulting their ancestors, or raising false rumors of ancient taiga giants creating the first rune giants, reliably incites swift retribution.

Clans venerate their most prominent ancestors and names itself accordingly, such as "Cliffsmiter" or "Mountainripper", though they rarely share the stories behind such grand names with strangers.

Hunters and warriors of taiga tribes wear enjoy wearing jewelry and fetishes, crafted to represent ancestor spirits are animal totems. In battle they beseech the many spirits to aid them, and do not see it as offensive to any single spirit if they seek the aid of dozens of spirits represented by their carved pieces of jewelry.

Taiga giants are great lovers of song, and spent their evenings in camp filling the air with their unique music.

Finally, taiga giants cover themselves head to toe with scars and clan tattoos. These tattoos are narratives of epic battles and tales from taiga history, and serve as a name for the inked individual. Receiving the scars and tattoos is a coming of age ritual for young giants, painfully inscribed upon them by the tribe's eldest shaman or bard.

Gristlecrack, a hill giant of taiga giant ancestry.

On Golarion

Though mostly found in wooded areas around the Crown of the World, some taiga giants live in the forests of northern Avistan. There are known to be taiga giants in the Hoarwood Forest in Irrisen, and taiga giants are among the giants in conflict with the Kellids of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords.

Taiga giants are also found in the Estrovian Forest in Mendev and in the Gronzi Forest in Brevoy, where they settled after being cut off from their western kin by the opening of the Worldwound. Other taiga giants migrated further east into Iobaria, where they are attempting to plant new forests to inhabit. In the Ice Steppes of Iobaria, they have come into conflict with indigenous frost giants and Tsolniva centaurs.

Taiga giants also inhabit the portion of the Crown of the World closest to Tian Xia. The White Woods of Malarkhan are home to a feral tribe ruled by a priest of Lamashtu, while a more peaceful taiga giant settlement, the City of Bone and Juniper, exists in the mountains of Zi Ha in the Tian Xian continent proper.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.