Is anyone else tired of cyclopes in media always being unintelligent and brutish like in the Odyssey. Well dnd 3.5 had stats for the greater cyclopes, the children of Gaia and Uranus, so I converted their stats to 5e. I also made a video that will be up on my channel soon.
This weeks video was on the Vonindod, the mighty weapon of the giants. I planned this video a while ago and coincidentally Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance released some more lore for this weapon so I was happy.
I’m a little late with the video this week but today I give you the Sand Giant for 5th edition. These tribal giants are very strong and can be deadly using the right tactics.
[Commissioned by @justicegundam82. An Italian giant, one said to cause earthquakes. Not a lot is available in English, and most of the readily Google translatable material I could find were about earthquakes, not giants.]
Orcolat This immense giant has gray, craggy skin, a furrowed brow and a maw full of jagged teeth. It wears merely a loincloth, and carries an enormous spiked club. The ground trembles under its feet.
Orcolats, called earthquake giants by some, are enormous and ill-tempered giants responsible for many temblors and avalanches. They live in high mountain caves, hunting rocs, megafauna and other massive creatures for food. Orcolats are cannibals of a sort, and they will gladly prey on smaller giants if they get the opportunity. They are large enough to shake the ground around them as they walk, but can create even more intense earthquakes through magical means.
An orcolat is a dim and stupid creature, and has little culture beyond crafting of simple weapons. They have an inborn sadistic urge, and enjoy hurting creatures smaller than themselves (which is almost everything). Cleverer giants frequently manipulate them with gifts and food, getting them to provide security for cloud castles and other remote strongholds. According to giant lore, the orcolats are the products of a divine curse—their ancestors wished to be even larger and stronger than they were, and as their bodies swelled, their brains atrophied.
The average orcolat stands sixty feet tall. They speak Giant in halting voices, and rarely have vocabularies more than 100 words.
I started coming up with some ideas to make Goliath lore more interesting. I thought it would be cool if they had shamans who see glimpses of the future by spilling blood on ancestral stone and looking at how it spills over the stone.
Here are some sample omens based on how the blood spills that I have come up with (written from the perspective of the shaman):
“The blood trickles around these sacred stones like the weaving strands of a spider’s web. Just as the spider betrays the fly, someone aims to betray the chief.”
“Look, here, as the blood splashes against that stone and droplets of red seep into the dirt. Like the rain, it is. There will be a great downpour.”
“Ah, the blood pools in a small pond of crimson. But oh what is this that floats in the blood I have spilt? A raven’s feather. Oh, no. A great death approaches.”
“The blood trickles over this stone like a mountain brook. But oh. Oh no. Look as that Toad splashes in the blood. Our tribe shall face a coming plague.”
“Look, boy, as the blood swirls in a pattern that mimics the cosmos on a clear night. The spirals tell me that a great hero will soon be born.”
“Ah, yes, good. Just as the blood nurtures this flower that grows between the stone, so too will we be nurtured by good health this new year. This is good.”
As you can see it’s not just the pattern of the blood but how the blood interacts with the world around it. The shaman knows how to read the signs. Now so do you. Feel free to use in your own fantasy worlds, whether with Goliaths (or other giantkin), orcs, elves, humans, whatever you desire.
Also please note that just because blood is spilt and used to predict the future it doesn’t have to be evil. I imagine the shaman from my examples would be neutral good. And while it would make perfect since for a witch to do this too, witches dont have to be evil either.
I dont know what it is but there is something Evocative of freshly spilt blood on cold, mountain stone. It’s very mystical.
The world has always been asking, “who built the great pyramids of Egypt.” Most people believe it was the Egyptians, however, there is some debate on when the actual pyramids were built. Some archaeologists say after carbon dating it seems to be around 7,000-10,000 years ago. However, other debate this and say that they are only a few thousand years old and Egyptians only came around about 3,000 years ago, so it couldn’t be older then that.What if the Egyptians did build some of the smaller ones, but not the great pyramid. What if they found it and decided to use them and construct more. Which then confused scientists after so many years. This might be why we see three great large pyramids next to three small ones which don’t seem as magnificent next to the great ones. So the question is… who built them first? Before the skeptics begin to roll their eyes, lets look into history. In Genesis it is said that the Giants (Nephilim) are ”sons of God” and the “daughters of men.” The most memorial story of course is the Giant Goliath who fights David. Also found in Egypt are drawings of smaller humans fighting against larger humans. Almost every culture has names or drawings of Giants from different eras in history.
Here is a comment from user tollan23 who is an actual archaeologist:“I’m an archaeologist (who has worked at the pyramids) and I have to admit that we’re all admitted into a secret society where we’re told to hide the secrets of the giants from all, under threat of death. Now that I have let you all know the truth my life is in danger. At least the truth is out there now but I will live the rest of my life in hiding.”On his youtube account he has a number of archaeology videos at the site of Bu Maher Fort, Bahrain.Gery Nelson has a wonderful and great article on this subject with references and pictures. In his article Nelson says:“I have tried to keep this within the realm of my own experiences.
There is so much more to this. Like the 64 pound sledge hammer found in a 3500 year old copper mine near the town of Llandudno in North Wales. Giant axes unearthed in Iran, Giant swords, etc.You could read for weeks on the subject of giants and if your mind is anything like mine enjoy every minute of it. I would suggest googeling Solomon Island giants, red haired giants, Arizona giants, California giants, Ohio giants, Peruvian giants.”A few years ago I would have never believed that Giant built the pyramids, thought it was absurd. However, in recent years I have found that the actual truth, maybe stranger then fiction.According to Author Brad Steiger, who has written over 168 books with over 17 million copies in print. He says in his book “World’s Before Our Own,”“There have been excavations in the United States that have produced the remains of primitive men and women over seven feet tall; hominids with horns; giants with double rows of teeth; prehistoric people with sharply slanting foreheads and fanged jaws…In July 1895, a party of miners working near Bridal Veil Falls, California, found the tomb of woman whose skeletal remains were six-feet-eight inches in length.”So what happen to these giants? Why don’t we see anymore today? One theory could be that they died during the great flood, caught diseases or even mated with normal humans, which could explain gigantism syndrome.
The 15 in. long finger which would make the owner about 15 feet tall. Photo by Gregor Spörri from 1988.
Also just recently published, but taken in 1988 on the German website BILD.De, are photos taken by Gregor Spörri. Translated from the article is reads:“In 1988, on the last day of his private investigation trip, he contacted an old man from a grave robber dynasty. The meeting was took place in a farm-house in Bir Hooker, 100 kilometers northeast of Cairo.After paying, $ 300 Spörri had a look at the grave robber unsold treasure. Wrapped in old rags was the bone and dermis.Spörri told BILD.de: “It was an oblong package, smelled musty. I was totally flabbergasted when I saw the dark brown giant finger.I was allowed to take it in hand and also to take pictures; a bill was put next to it to get a size comparison. “The bent finger was split open and covered with dried mold.”It was surprisingly easy, maybe a few hundred grams My heart was up to his neck. That was incredible. In size to a matching body should have been about 15 feet tall”The grave robber also showed the Swiss certificate of authenticity and an X-ray image. Both are from the 60s.”
The question is, why would Governments around the world hide this from the people? To answer this question I turn to Darwin, which takes you to a dead end if you follow this path. Right now scientists are trying to make the world believe we descended from apes, however, Giants were never part of that theory. Add Giants to the mix and what is of Darwin? If the world knew Giants existed and built the pyramids, (which would explain how huge heavy stones were transported 100′s of miles away. And would also display who actually built Stonehenge) then all kinds of questions would arise, like: Where did they come from? Did we descend from Giants? Does Darwin’s actually stand for anything? Have we been here for actually millions of years but not know? What else did they build? Stonehenge? Easter Island? Were they part of Atlantis?The human mind would become so curious that we would then be asking the Governments of the world: “What else are you hiding from us?
