Masud

Masud was the first of the fire giant race.

Description
Masud had a red beard. As khan of the fire giant kingdom of Ostoria, he wore a golden crown and bejeweled rings. His armor was made of darkened steel, and he bore a flaming spear that could shoot forth intense bursts of fire.

Relationships
Masud was one of the many terrestrial sons of Annam All-Father and his wife Othea. His many siblings were his elder brothers Lanaxis, Vilmos, and Nicia, his younger brothers Ottar, Obadai, Ruk, and Arno and Julian, and the youngest, known as Hartkiller. He had a half-brother through his mother named Dunmore, as well as three other half-brothers through his mother whose names are forgotten to history. Through his father, he was half-sibling to the giant gods Stronmaus, Hiatea, Grolantor, Iallanis, Memnor, and Skoraeus. He was likely related to the gods Surtr and Thrym as well.

History
Masud was born sometime around &minus;30,000 DR. When he and his terrestrial brothers came of age, Masud's father, Annam, granted each of them an inheritance in the great giant empire of Ostoria. He settled in a mountainous, fiery area in the southern reaches of Ostoria, ruling as khan, and his offspring became the fire giants.

After many millennia, it was revealed that Masud's mother Othea had had an affair with the sea god Ulutiu and that his younger brother Dunmore was probably not a full brother. After Ulutiu's amulet caused the Great Glacier and the Endless Ice Sea to form, Masud and his brothers soon discovered a way to halt the amulet's magic; however, they were forbidden from doing so by their mother. Lanaxis, Masud's oldest 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 Masud and all of his other brothers except Arno and Julian and Dunmore.

With all his brothers, Masud was buried in a drumlin outside of Voninheim. There his body lay 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 Masud'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 he 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. Masud and the other dead giants turned and charged at Lanaxis instead. Lanaxis created a magic shield to protect the portico from their onslaught. Nicias was able to shatter the shield with his morning star, but then Lanaxis killed each of them a second time with his sword. Masud fell third, after Nicias and Ruk, his body crashing into and destroying one of the pillars of the Voninheim.