Ourworld:Goliaths

The Goliaths as they are known to other races (their name for themselves translates as "the people"), are a proud and noble pre industrial people. In personality and outlook they are most notable for their constant striving to live in ballance, both with each other and the world around them, and physicaly for the fact that their powerful shoulders tower well abouve the heads of the other races

History

The history of the goliaths is something of a mystery, since few other races paid them much heed, and since they do not mark time on a calendar as such, meaning that their oral histories do not say “in 1328 Akmenhe defeated the Red Hand tribes” instead recording it as “it was a harsh winter the year Akmenhe, son of Uhnamen the squirrel brother, defeated the Red Hand tribes”. What can be safely surmised is that they have been inhabiting the great northern plains for more than a thousand years , because many of their stories refer to the time “before the corruption fell from the skies”, referring to , of course, the fall of the meteorites that marked the coming of the abberations over 11 hundred years ago.

Religion

The goliaths do not worship gods per se, instead paying homage to a series of “totems” with each tribe and individual, having a totem, which acts as heir intermediary to the world of the spirits. While most people feel at some level in touch with the whispers from their own totem, through dreams and omens, the opinions of tribal shamans, who act as healer/councilor/advisor are often sought, especially when the omens are hard to interpret

The Moots

Once every 18 months, on alternating winter and summer solstices the shamans of the various tribes travel to the shores of the inland sea, to hold meeting to discuss goings on.

Goliath technology

The goliaths can best be described as Neolithic, using stone tools for the vast majority of their endeavors. The live for the most part in conical tents made from titanotherium or other hides, wear treated animal hides for clothing and use weapons made from wood or stone. Although they will trade with other races for jewelry, especially prizing teleri filigree , few make appropriately sized tools for the goliaths, so the goliaths have little interest in them.

Traditionally the Goliaths utilize weapons appropriate to their hunter/gatherer lifestyles, bows with flint tipped arrows (or obsidian where they can get it) spears, stone knives and axes. These last require some description, as they are, for all that they are made from stone, finely crafted tools. Surprisingly sharp, and balanced for throwing, they are an excellent multi purpose tool. In addition , however, many of them feature a small bowel on the reverse of the blade, and a hollow haft, allowing them to double as pipes for the communal or ritual smoking of tobacco. Another implement that requires some discussion is the totem pole. The shamans carve two sorts of totem poles. The first is the pole that serves as a religious focus of a whole village or tribe, the other is the pole that serves as a focus for the shaman’s “personal” totem, his bond with the spirit world. These poles are often intricately carved, and are of works of art in their own right, and serve as something of a badge of office for the shamans. It should be noted , however, that shamans are not above using these spiritual icons as tools of destruction should the need arise... Indeed, as one foolish Keltoi explorer was heard to say while recovering onboard a ship en rout back to Cair Dunan “He hit me… with a tree!”

As far as protective devices go, Goliaths will wear leather, re-enforced leather, hide, bone and wooden armours. There are a few family heirloom suits of stone-plate that exist, but they are rare to say the least. In war they will utilize leather tower shields for protection.

The Goliath People

The Goliath are a dark-skinned race, whose smooth skins devoid of body hair range from a slate grey , through brown to an almost red, with distinct bands of differing pigmentation around the face and chest. They tower over the other races with heights of 6’10-7’6 being the norm. In addition to their great stature they are powerfully built, with massive shoulders and muscular arms and legs. Their hair colour is invariably a lusterous bluish black and very thick and straight. In many ways the most striking feature of the goliaths is their eyes, whose irises range in colour from gold, green, hazel, blue and violet.Combined with the promenent brows from which they peer what makes their eyes particularly striking, however, is that both the iris and “whites” of their eyes vary in colour drastically depending on the goliath in question’s mood. This feature makes it very easy to tell the mood of a goliath if one is at all familar with this phnomenon

They are quiet people who are proud of their traditions, many of which seem odd to other races. One of the most important traditions that they uphold is the principal of “non-violence” (it should be noted here that their conception of such isn’t quite what other races might mean by the term, they are also a somewhat “rough and tumble” race). The Goliaths inhabit a harsh land, filled with many potential dangers (aberrations for instance) the summers are lean, and the winters are vicious. As a result of these many dangers, goliaths are all too aware how dangerous life can be, and go to great lengths not to perform any action that would place another in greater danger. One example of how this manifests is in their approach to tribal warfare (they are peaceful people, not living saints). When two tribes come into conflict, say, over a hunting ground both feel they are entitled to hunt upon, then a “war” often ensues. These wars , however, are fought with non lethal weapons; bare fists, crops and nets. Those rendered unconscious, caught in nets or even tripped by the crops consider themselves to have been “defeated” and withdraw from the conflict. Such a withdrawal brings with it a great sense of shame, however, which leads to another tradition of the goliaths.

Goliaths are very touchy about their “honour” (which for them means something along the lines of “being a productive member of society”) anything that detracts from their honour causes them great anxiety , which the will go to great lengths to assuage. The strongest action a goliath can take in this realm is to publicly announce that they will work of an obligation they have amassed, either setting a length of time, or some discreet task (such as digging a well or some such) . The causes of this might be a man who had a broken leg, who was cared for by others, or a warrior defeated in battle. In this last case, the debt is usually (read: always) paid to the victor or the victor’s tribe. This results in what might appear to outsiders to be slavery, but is in fact voluntary on the part of the “slave” , and if one was to call it slavery to a goliath, they would fist be confused, and then offended and outraged at the affront.

It should not be taken from this that the Goliaths are humourless. Indead they have a great love of jokes and japes, though many other races find that something gets "lost in translation" and that what Goliaths see as "friendly rough and tumble" actually equels "terror filled threat to life and limb". As an object lesson in Goliath humour, the following prank (considered the height of Goliath tomfoolery) is illistrative: Step 1, contrive to send someone of on a small errand or fetch it mission. Step 2, when they are out of sight, have your pet Krenshaw wait behind a convinient boulder or wigwam. Step 3, when the patsie retuurns, Krenshaw screaches, folds back face and frightens the bejeezus out of the patsie. Step 5 entire tribe rolls around on the ground in gales of laghter.

Another area that probably deserves some mention is the fact that the goliath’s plains have the highest incidence of abberations in the world. This is due for the most part to the fact that the greatest number of meteorites from the meteor shower 11 hundred years ago that brought the abberations fell on or around the goliath lands. The goliaths are a people who regard themselves as caretakers of the natural world, and , as such, hunt down mercilessly all the abberations that exist within their lands.

Goliath Racial Traits

Goliath are medium monstrous humanoids, they recieve a +4 bonus to strength, a +2 bonus to constitution and a -2 penalty to dexterity. They recieve a modified version of the "Powerful Build" trait which means that they may utilise weapons of 1 size catagory larger than normal, an recieve 1/2 the size bonuses accounted to large creatures (i.e. +2 to trip, bull rush etc). They treat rolling hills, deseart, plains and tundra as favorable terrain for overland movement purposes due to their namadic lyfestyle without the benifit of ridable domesticated animals. Their deep, sonorous voices give them a +2 racial bonus on perform (oration) and perform (singing) checks. The strange, colour shifting nature of goliath eyes, however, gives all those who have encountered the efect before a +2 circumstance bonus on sense mative checks directed at Goliaths.

Goliaths are usualy Good, though their devotion to and respect of traditions balances their inate love of fun and freedom, meaning that as a society they are inclined towards nuetrality with regards to law and chaos. Individuals are spread accross the same spectrum of conformists and free thinkers as most cultures, though neutral (good vs evil) goliaths are rare and evil ones all but unheard of

A Meeting between young White Cloud and the Medicin Man and chief, Anatawa

Anatawa: So White Cloud, your mother said you wanted to speak to me about something?

White Cloud: yes elder, there is something that has been troubling me

Anatawa: and what is that?

WC: Well… it’s the nature of evil

A: hmmmmm, this is, indeed a subject of a troubling nature… but also a broad one. What aspect is it in particular that troubles one so young, and darkens your brow, and makes you seem more “Thunderhead” than “White Cloud” ?

WC: … its, its that the tools of evil seem so widely spread, elder. The many animals which are poisonous, whose bites and stings cause so much suffering, the anger that drives some beasts to maul and destroy, the lust that can fill men’s hearts and drive them to dishonorable acts, surely these are the tools of evil.

A:…you mention many examples of such tools White Cloud, but look at your waist, what is that attached to your belt?

WC: I think you tease me Elder, it is the tomahawk my father made for me and gifted me with last name day, and which you yourself blessed last spring.

A: I do not tease young one, merely try to bring your attention to so near at hand an example. Your fine hatchet, is it a tool for evil or for good?

WC: Umm, I would say for good elder, for I can use it to mercifully end the life of a brother elk if we are hunting him, and he is bleeding slowly, and to help provide food for my younger sisters. I can also use it to cut saplings to make shelter, or firewood to warm my family in winter.

A: These are many good things White Cloud, and from these things can we say that your tomahawk is a tool of good. But could your tomahawk not be used, as many often are by young boys whose blood runs hot, to cut down a tree just for the vacuous thrill of reaping destruction? Could it not be used to smash in your rivals skull, for some slight you feel he has given?

WC: that is true elder! I should throw it into a stream so it can never be used for such things!

A: You could do this White Cloud, but you had best have a good explanation ready tonight when your sister shivers beside an empty firepit that will not lite for want of kindling.

WC: true…

A: So what do you take from this White Cloud?

WC: That the tomahawk is both good and evil. And in being both, it is truly neither

A: your mind is fertile ground for the seeds of wisdom White Cloud, it pleases this old heart. Yes the tool is neither good nor evil, such things being judged on what the tool is used for. The rattler can use its venom to deter the eagle who would eat its eggs, a noble thing, while some scorpians take joy in stinging for stinging’s sake. Some bears become inflamed in rage and do great harm, but that same anger is what a she bear will use to protect her young. Tools are never truly good nor evil, only are we men, and then only by what we intend and what we do.

WC: but what about other things, the bleasings of the spirits and the Ontoway Medicines?

A: so to with these things White Cloud. I could call upon the spirit of my friend Bisson, and he would give me great strength , would that be for good or bad? Bad if I used this medicine to take from you that fine wolf pelt jacket, good if I used this strength to lift a fallen tree from a man’s leg. The same is true for the medicines of other peoples, strange though they are, judge not the medicine, but the uses to which a man puts them, and should many observations allow, then judge the man. For a man who often does evil has been tainted by the manatou and should be both pitied and avoided , lest that taint spread like the coughing fever. And now I think that you should go out and hunt young one, for I see that your brow has cleared, and the Sunshine of understanding is peeping through the clouds… and please thank your father for the brace of rabbits he left by my wigwam flap last week, the were well meant and thankfully received.

How the Goliaths see the other races:

Ailokim: the Goliaths know little to nothing of the Ailokim, save a few stories learned through the dwarves and from the Keltoi Druids, and these stories, containing as they do tales of slavery of an entire race, and the slaughter of children for crimes not yet committed, appalls them more than they can express.

Dwarves: The Goliaths are politely standoffish to the dwarves, assuming that if the “stunted folk of the mountains” wished closer relations, then they would come out of their caverns and say so. Since they have not the goliaths assume they wish to be left alone, and respect their wishes. The exception to this is the Dwarves of the lonely Mountain, who are united with the tribes around them in their ongoing struggles against abominations, and this shared foe has led to closer relations, extending to limited interaction and a certain amount of barter.

Keltoi: Few Goliaths know anything accurate about the Keltoi. Due to their fact that the Keltoi have made little effort to visit the northern continent. The druids have some contact with them at the Moots, but that is almost the entire extent of their interaction. It should be noted that the councils of the wise have requested their brother druids to not advertise the existence of the goliaths to the Keltoi, for they are a peoples that prefer to live today as they did last yesterday, and one thing that is obvious about the “little folk not as small as the mountain folk” is that they are agents of change

Laideann: The Laideann are unknown to the goliaths

Lizardmen: The Goliaths have little contact with the Lizardmen, but what contact they have is surprisingly peaceful. This is in no small part due to the fact that the two cultures religions have much overlap, and due to the fact that all shamans must venture into the rain wilds in order to find the tree that will serve as their first totem pole. This necessity means that the council of the wise has gone to great lengths to develop peaceful relations with the lizard men, though the true state of afairs could be better described as "strained politenes"

Teleri: The Goliaths do not have much contact with the Sea Gypsies, not having any ports where they would come to trade. That being said, the Sea elves do land on the rough shores of he great plains to make repairs or re stock water casks. When this occurs local tribes will eagerly trade for teleri goods, prizing especially he jewelry that the Goliaths marvel at, for its delicacy almost as much as its beauty.

Northern City States these people are not known to the goliaths

Summer Islanders these people are not known to the goliaths

Umberkim The mere mention of these pitiable folk will reduce a goliath to quiet tears, for the conception that any sentient , anywhere , could enslave an entire race, is so mind bendingly wrong that the goliaths experience it as personal shame

Aileen The Goliaths are the only peoples who know aught of the Aileen, and even then it is only respected Medicine Men and the Kakatanawa tribe who are in on the secret. The Goliaths feel similtainiously greatfull to, and protective of the Aileen, who they believe to be mesengers from the Great Spirit (despite the Aileens protestations that this is not so) who came to the people melenia ago to remind them not to fight amoungst themselves and to live in harmony with the land and each other.

See Also

Ourworld
Societies	Keltoi, Laideann, Ailokim, Teleri, Goliaths, Goblinoids_and_surrounds, Dwarves, Orcs, Ashlands