Editing A Phantom Bestiary (section)

==Giants==
The oldest dwarven thanes say that their grandfathers are giant folk, the Foimoire, who walked from the eastern seas and drove the Tuatha Sidhe into their dreaming realm.  The dwarves give the Foimoire credit for inventing their runic writing and say that the wisest among them knew the languages of the birds and of the earth.  They strove with the gods when those Elemental Lords first followed their sister Cerithwen to Scalgard, but proved no match for their magics and retreated beneath the waves from which they had come.

The truth of these stories are kept by the Foimoire's few, certain children: the giants.  Between half again and thrice a man's height, they are creatures of incredible strength and possessed of what must surely be knowledge of the Foimoire's ancient magic.  This they practice with rage in their hearts for, dutiful sons, the memory of their fathers' fall burns within them and they would have revenge, if not on the gods themselves, then at least the men who birthed them.  Their schemes, though, come with only slight aid from kin, for giants are solitary creatures who do not often unite but instead make their lonely homes in the Foimoire's abandoned castles, sunken below the surface of the earth or floating far out to sea.  As company they keep only captured slaves or a single apprentice who they tutor in their magics - indeed, mortal wizardry has its origins with the Foimoire, as do darker pacts besides, and for love of their fathers and love of learning the giants will teach some of this power in exchange for service.  A supplicant must be quick to bend knee, though, and hope to catch his tutor otherwise without a student, or be met with no grace at all.  The only certain exception is a dwarf, with whom the giants will begin no strife, lending credence to the small folks' claims of cousinage.  

A character knows the following with a successful skill check:

* '''History DC 20''' - ''Steading of the Hill Giant Chief'' - All is not well in Srumnir, a city of the Low Countries; Froyja, the champion, has been taken war-captive by a giant living in land claimed by Edward the Bald, a disagreeable Saeson duke.  Served by ogrish servants, the giant's fortress would take an army to seize, but that would invite war with Edward and his nearby Saeson allies. 
* '''History DC 25''' - ''The Frost Giant's Daughter'' - On an island off the north coast of Seasony, the giant Isvath has a human daughter.  Her true parentage even Isvath's old apprentices do not know, but word has spread that the girl, named Aelwyn, is a beauty like no other.  Many are the men who had taken on the challenge of winning her to wife, but the tasks Isvath have set them have so far bought them only Annwyn's embrace.  This would seem to be Isvath's own cruel revenge for the Foimoire's fall; indeed, it may not even be possible to win his game.
* '''Arcana DC 30''' - ''Calling Their Fathers' Names'' - Through their inherited magics, giants may become the fathers of monsters.  The amphibious kua toa, the venomous basilisk and the various ettins and ogres among the so-called "lesser giants" are all their children, sent out of the giants' halls to smash low the kingdoms of men.  But so, too, is Aelwyn Isvath's true daughter. 

Keyword: Giant

Examples: Ettin Spirit-Talker, Fire Giant Forgecaller, Hill Giant, Ogre Thug