Frost giant

Frost giants, called isejotunen in their own language, were large giants that could be found in most cold environments of Faerûn.

Description
The bodies of these giants had skin and hair whose colors ranged a wide spectrum of blue and white shades, though some were known to have dirty yellow hair. Likewise, their eyes were generally shades of blue or yellow.

Frost giants typically wore the skins or pelts of animals, along with any jewelry they owned. In terms of armor they tended to favor chainmail and helmets that were adorned with horns or feathers.

Personality
Frost giants had a reputation among other races for being crude and of low intelligence, but they were very cunning fighters.

Biology
Much like all giants, a frost giant could see and hear twice as far as the average human. Unique to their race were senses well adapted to low temperature environments. Their visual senses extended into a higher end of the visible spectrum, allowing them to see more easily through snow and blizzards than other creatures.

Although their bodies were impervious to harm from cold, even that breathed by a white dragon, they were particularly vulnerable to fire.

Lycanthropy
Frost giants were known to be susceptible to two forms of lycanthropy, werebear and seawolf, and were one of only two giant races in which "true" lycanthropes were known to occur. These true lycanthropes were a form of polar werebear―they appeared hairier than the average frost giant and were incapable of assuming a "hybrid form."

Those afflicted with the polarwere condition were known to occasionally live among other frost giants, but generally they were loners as their pelts were considered highly coveted among their kin.

Abilities
Frost giant shamans were generally capable of casting spells from either the Charm, Divination, Healing, Protection, or Weather spheres.

Their witchdoctors were known to favor the spells deeppockets, detect magic, ESP, invisibility, mirror image, shocking grasp, unseen servant, and ventriloquism.

Combat
Frost giants often engaged their opponents by first hurling large boulders at them from afar, then closing in with battleaxes or various weapons similar to those wielded by barbarians of the North. They would often try to ambush their enemies by hiding within snow atop icy or snowy slopes, elevations that would be too high for most smaller creatures to reach.

Some were known to fight with giant bolas. It was a weapon originally developed by Jungle giants, but they had personalized it by using massive blocks of ice in place of wooden balls.

Society
Frost giant societies were led by powerful and intelligent individuals with the title of "jarl", who possessed some of the best equipment among all members of their tribe.

For frost giants an individual's place in the ordning was determined by a combination of the individual's ability to wrestle and boast. In their societies, the most important bond except for that of the ordning was that of family. So much so that the recitation of ancestral lineage was an important aspect of the sagas crafted by their skalds, with each new character being introduced with a full recitation accompanied by appropriate music.

Social Structure

 * Skalds: Within frost giant society these took the place of bards. Unlike traditional bards, giant skalds were less skilled in spellcasting, instead knowing a number of runecasting symbols. Part of a skald's life was spent adventuring, though not as much as true warriors. The majority of their time was spent writing epic poems, known as "sagas," which honored the adventures of their tribe's leaders. Skalds often described sagas as being the "mead of Annam," thus some were known to start with the phrase, "I pour mead to the All-Father." Sagas were passed down through generations in a tribe, allowing frost giants to maintain the history of their people and earning skalds respect equal to that of a warrior.

Diet
Due to the environments in which they typically lived, frost giants had a largely carnivorous diet. Frost giant typically obtained their food by means of hunting or raiding the settlements of humans and demihumans, although they were not below trading if the need arose.

Lairs
Frost giants typically lived in either castles or mountainous caverns.

Homelands
Frost giants inhabited frigid, mountainous or arctic regions where heavy snowfall was common.

Languages
Frost giants were known to speak the general giant language Jotun, their own specialized version of it known as Jotunise, as well as common. However, they were often largely illiterate due to education being undervalued in their culture.

Names
Common given names among frost giants included the following:


 * Males: Fulvragg, Helmskag, Oraldr, Oskorri, Skane, Svolm, Ulfur, Uttir, and Valkurl.
 * Females: Folka, Gauthild, Geira, Grymra, Haelgra, Helmra, Hrimma, Imbra, Magra, and Vulkara.

Religion
The role of religious leadership in frost giant communities was held by shamans and occasionally witch doctors, the latter of which was thought of by other races as being a mixture between a priest and wizard.

Relationships
They would capture and tape wild animals, keeping them as pets or guards. The most typical animal they kept was winter wolves, with rarer creatures including yetis and even white dragons.

Some were known to kidnap individuals and then either enslave them or hold them for ransom.

Notable Frost Giants

 * Orel
 * Gerti Orelsdottr
 * Harshnag
 * Hrotun, the first frost giant skald in history.
 * Kostchtchie
 * Biggrin
 * Storvald

Background

 * Outside of the realms
 * Frostgiantvessel.png giants carry a lot of the stereotypic image of the vikings such as the horned helmet the axe and the icy and snowy plains. They are also stereotypically raiders and survive mostly on raiding. Some words are from nordic languages such as:
 * Jarl (Earl) is a person of the royal family during the viking era who was next to take the throne and there was only one who held the title.
 * Skald is bard or poet in old Nordic languages.
 * Names like "Orelsdottr" are common Patronymic surnames that are used in Nordic countries this one means: "Daughter of Orel" or "Orel's Daughter".

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Storm King's Thunder &bull; Tomb of Annihilation
 * Board Games
 * Assault of the Giants
 * Card Games
 * Dragonfire (Moonshae Storms)
 * Comic Books
 * Frost Giant's Fury
 * Novels
 * The Crystal Shard &bull; The Lone Drow &bull; The Thousand Orcs &bull; The Two Swords


 * The Titan of Twilight
 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance &bull; Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance &bull; Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon &bull; Icewind Dale &bull; Neverwinter &bull; Neverwinter Nights &bull; Secret of the Silver Blades