Ruk

Ruk was the progenitor of the hill giant race.

Description
As chief of the hill giant kingdom of Ostoria, Ruk wore a golden crown and bejeweled rings. His weapon was an ebony club.

Relationships
Ruk was one of Annam All-Father's many terrestrial sons through his wife Othea. His brothers were Lanaxis, Vilmos, Nicias, Masud, Ottar, Obadai, Arno and Julian, and Hartkiller, who was the last born. He also had four terrestrial half-brothers through his mother, including Dunmore, the father of the voadkyn. He had many divine half-siblings through his father, including Stronmaus, Hiatea, Grolantor, Iallanis, Memnor, Skoraeus, and most likely Surtr and Thrym as well.

Ruk had at least one son, who was named Morg.

History
Like his other non-divine brothers, Ruk was born sometime around &minus;30,000 DR. When all of the siblings were old enough, Annam granted each of them an inheritance in the great giant empire of Ostoria. Chief Ruk laid claim to the rolling hills of Faerûn, and his seed became the hill giants of later millennia.

Thousands of years later, Annam discovered that Othea, Ruk's mother, had not been faithful, having had an affair with Ulutiu. After Ulutiu's amulet caused the Great Glacier and the Endless Ice Sea to form, Ruk and his brothers soon discovered a way to halt the amulet's magic; however, they were forbidden from doing so by their mother. Lanaxis, Ruk's eldest brother and the leader of all of them, summoned them together for a meeting in Voninheim. There, Lanaxis planned to murder his mother by poisoning the waters of the Well of Health, but he accidentally poisoned not only Othea but also Ruk and all of his other brothers except Arno and Julian and Dunmore.

Ruk was buried in a drumlin outside of Voninheim. There his body lay with those of his murdered brothers for about 3000 years until 1369 DR, when the firbolg Tavis Burdun unveiled the Twilight Vale and challenged Lanaxis. Lanaxis used powerful magic to reanimate Ruk's corpse as a zombie, and he did the same with all of the other brothers. The undead giant kings attacked Tavis with the full fury of their magics, but Tavis and his companions were protected by Annam's axe Sky Cleaver. Tavis then used the magic of Sky Cleaver to reveal to them, even in their undeath, that Lanaxis, their older brother, had betrayed them. Ruk and the other dead giants turned and charged at Lanaxis instead. Lanaxis created a magic shield to protect the portico from their onslaught. Nicias, the cloud giant, was able to shatter the shield with his morning star, but then Lanaxis killed each of them a second time with his sword. Ruk was the second to be slain. Lanaxis cut his body completely in half and sent it crashing through one of the walls of Voninheim.