Gig
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1760/gigz.jpg
Contents
Overview
Gig is the land of gigantic proportion. Everything is big in Gig. Normal-sized in Gig is what passes as "giant" to most other panians, which makes the fact that most of civilization in Gig is built a few hundred feet above ground level even more amazing.
History
Gig is considered rustic and isolated by Core world standards. The population has always been low but stable in numbers, and conflicts are pretty much unknown. The way of life in Gig is slow and peaceful, with steady routines and predictable patterns, at least until the arrival of the League of Humanitarian Swords and The Society for Cultural Enrichment and Improvement.
The only thing of notice in Gig history is an ancient legend about a comet that is said to have shaped the landscape of Gig times immemorial. It's an old tale though, distorted by time.
Nature
As mentioned above, Gig is the land of giants. Everything is BIG in Gig, and that means EVERYTHING. The fauna of Gig consists of strange, gigantic crossbreeds like the amphibian Whaletiger (a sort of striped, four-legged, teethed and clawed whale thing) or the fearsome Batbadgers (think flying Honey Badgers). Luckily, most of these terrors live on the ground level of Gig, meaning they are seldom a threat to the world's inhabitants and visitors, who live in the skies above. Which brings us to the next topic: The Hometrees
The Hometrees are the single largest living organisms on Gig, which is saying something. As the name suggest, the hometrees are trees. Only these trees are big enough to carry a village made for giants. The Gigasi civilization is completely built around the Hometrees. On top of the hometrees the Gigasi have built their cities. It's on the hometrees they find their grow their food thanks to edible parasitic plants that lives off the hometree's branches. Your average gigas will spend all his life living on one hometree or another, never putting a foot on solid grounds. The only city on Gig, called Gig's Capital is built on a cluster of fifteen especially big Hometrees.
People
The people of Gig call themselves "Gigasi". They are, like everything else, giants. Three times the size of your average human, the gigasi are an impressive sight. Besides the size, the gigasi looks mostly like humans with nutty brown skin and a really bad hairday. Their proportions are slightly distorted though, with long arms and stumpy legs, and every feature on their faces seem exaggerated with long noses, bushy eyebrows and peering little eyes that are often near-sighted. The gigasi tend to be hunchback as well, giving them a sort of lumbering appearance. Shaving is pretty much unheard off, meaning most male (and quite a few females) gigasi are bearded. Having adapted to their environment, gigasi are excellent climbers.
As a people, the gigasi are very peaceful. In known history there has never been a war between gigasi. In fact, the gigasi vocabulary lacks words to describe phenomena like "war" and "fighting". The gigasi way of life is like their beloved hometree. A gigas only want to lay down his/her roots and slowly move in tune with the sun and the wind. "Stress" is another thing that the gigasi vocabulary seem to lack. One shouldn't confuse their slow pacifist nature with stupidity though. The Gigasi got a knack for scholarly pursuits and Gig's Capital sports a phenomenal university. Likewise, although the stone and wood buildings of the Gig's Capital might seem archaic and backwards, they are actually quite sophisticated, hiding top notch plumbing and electrical networking. Gig simply lack heavy industries and other modern wonders because they live in F:ing trees.
The gigasi' pacifist nature isn't without its drawbacks though. A gigasi is will never ever use force to defend him- or herself, preferring instead to flee. This makes the gigasi quite vulnerable to the beasts that lurk bellow the hometrees.
The League of Humanitarian Swords
The League of Humanitarian Swords was funded only a hundred years ago by score of Heroes with idealistic ideas. These heroes, although from different worlds, were also very much alike in identity. They had all saved their homeworld from a great evil and were now hailed as the hero of their world, but had chosen to leave that behind in order to pursue even more heroics past the nhihn gates. Realizing their mutual interest and the need for a greater organization, these heroes banded together to form the League. The purpose of the League would be simple: To protect and serve the good people of the Mirrorskies by fighting evil and conflict.
To preserve its identity the League only accepts the finest and most honourable of warriors to its folds. Furthermore, to be honoured with the title "knight", one must be a proven Hero, since Heroes are the only ones deemed pure and righteous enough to command the League swords at the face of evil. What then, is a hero? A hero is simply put "one destined for heroics". Heroes are born with that special something that sets them apart from the common man, a special drive of willpower and moral fibre that will urge them into action against what they perceive as "unjust" or "evil". Doing good comes as natural as breathing to a hero. Being a goody-two-shoes isn't all there is to being a hero though. A hero must also have been chosen by destiny to be the hero. Only during times of great need will the hero appear in order to battle with evil. If there's no evil, there will be no destined hero to answer to it, simple as that. While battling evil the chosen hero will be blessed with great fortune and guidance by destiny.
Anyway, the League of Humanitarian Swords consists of veteran heroes. Since heroes are fairly rare though (and even fewer decides to leave their homeworld after the final battle), with time the League has also filled out its ranks with normal soldiers. These perform the everyday duties the units needs to function and acts as the rank-and-file. A normal soldier can also rise in rank and become sergeants and lieutenants and whatnot, but since the title of "knight" raises your actual ranking by two grades its very rare for a "normal" to outrank a hero (in cases of equal rank its still normal for the "ordinary" officer to give the hero the command. You don't argue with heroes, right?). The ranks in League are simple. Recruit, private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and commander. If you are a hero you simple add "knight" in front, for instance Knight Lieutenant Emma von Raufbold (although the "knight" part is usually omitted in daily speak).
Although the knights of the League are no longer guided by destiny to battle the evil of their homeworld they are still quite fearsome fighters. Besides being veteran warriors most of them possess powers associated with light, good, justice and purity. These are vaguely related to the powers usually possessed by the archetypical magical girl. Unlike the Magical Girls though, the knights aren't naive teenagers. They are battleborn war veterans and general hardasses.
Knights:
Knight Commander: Highest ranking Knight and the leader of the League. TIME hasn't met him yet.
Knight Captain Aron Belton: One of the highest ranking Knights in the League. Acts as commanded of the Gig's Capital detachment. An elf that still got his boyish looks about him and also possess a great sense of self-worth. Took and instinctive dislike to Elias (Elias answered back with the same).
Knight Lieutenant Emma von Raufbold: Belton's second in command. Her pretty blue eyes and cute face hides great experience and intellect. Very young for her rank by normal standards, which is a proof of her competence not only as a hero, but also as a leader. As a person she can be pretty humble once you remove her officer persona.
Knight Sergeant Cynic du Mound: One of the knights at Gig's Capital.
Rank-and-File
Captain Biggles: - Highest ranking ordinary officer. An expert at logistics.
Timkin Rumbleguts and Regicide Ow-my-spleen - The Those Two Guys of the Shinies. Think Fred Colon (Timkin) and Nobby Nobs (Regicide) only versions who could actually get in to a group of holy heroic do-gooders.
Cameron and the Dragon: - On their quest to become heroes, these two stumbled onto the League and decided to join. Cameron got the rank of private. The dragon is a corporal.
The Society for Cultural Enrichment and Improvement
Also soon
