Hill giant

Hill giants, called haugjotunen in their own language, were voracious, primitive giants defined by their gluttony. They were the least of the commonly recognized "true giants", the shortest in stature, weakest in mind, and lowest in rank according to the Ordning. Granted domain over the rolling hills by Annam All-Father millennia ago, they were masters of its slopes and deeply connected to the land itself. "Don’t be fooled by its brutish appearance. A hill giant is as close to the earth beneath your feet as a storm giant is to the thunderhead above you."

- Noldir of Hammerfast.

Description
Hill giants normally stood around tall,  although some reports put them at around  in height. Their reported weight range was between, but morbidly obese (and immobile) individuals were known to weigh over. Their skin was a deep, ruddy brown, but they could also be light tan in coloration as a result of a life spent under the sun. Their hair ranged from brown to black, and their eyes shared that color in addition to having red rims.

Hill giants were basically humanoid in shape, but had an oddly simian in appearance, with low foreheads, stooped shoulders, thick limbs, and elongated arms shared by both genders. Despite being the shortest of giants, they had larger and more muscular appendages than other giant breeds. They had a rugged, barbaric look, and if not for the lack of two heads could be mistaken for the relatively uncivilized ettins at a glance.

The traits that other races often saw as attractive were known to be considered strange and worthy of scorn to hill giants. Straight teeth, neat hair, unblemished skin, clear speech, and a lack of drool when eating were abnormal, if not repulsive traits. Their own sweat mixed with the reeking stench of the crude, rough animal hides they wore. Animal skins worn by hill giants were poorly stitched with hair and leather thongs, not stripped of fur, and rarely cleaned or repaired, since hill giants normally opted to simply add more skins on.

Personality
Hill giants were selfish and brutish bullies that, like other earth giants, often forced weaker creatures to do their bidding. They lived as uncivilized savages, surviving by foraging, hunting, and raiding for food when not coercing other, smaller beings into doing the work and feeding them. The mean creatures would go on a rampage if they felt deceived, mocked, or otherwise humiliated, raging against the guilty and innocent alike until they calmed down, grew hungry, or were distracted.

Hill giants equated size with strength, functioning based on a "bigger is better" mentality. Smaller creatures, sentient or not, were prey to hunt with impunity, while larger creatures, like dragons and bigger giants, were dangerous adversaries. Following this logic, a hill giant of average intelligence might think to consume food in attempt to grow immense (not understanding biological limitations) and therefore superior. The idea that giants were stupid was perhaps the most commonly stated misconception surrounding them, but few kinds embodied the fallacious belief more than hill giants.

Hill giants were reckless, sluggish, and notoriously moronic, such that they would died out long ago if their great size and formidable power did not compensate for their dull wits and lazy disposition. Ironically, their mental weakness was partially perpetuated by their brute strength. Having never faced adversity that required adaptation and improvement, hill giants had managed to survive for millennia with their lacking ambition, living unchanged as barbarians with simple minds and underdeveloped emotions.

The least intelligent hill giants were mentally closer to beasts than civilized beings, while the brightest were above average compared to most humanoids. Hill giants were blunt and direct in conversation, and though reasoning with them was useless, they could be manipulated into taking certain actions by more clever creatures. They had little concept of deception, to the point where villagers standing on each other's shoulders could cover themselves in blankets and hold a large, circular object above themselves to fool a hill giant into fleeing from the opposing giant.

Hill giants were much like ogres in terms of mental prowess, being as intelligent, if not stupider, than the smaller giant-kin. Both had a tendency to be overly literal due to not thinking about their directions, misinterpreting even the simplest instructions due to their lacking consideration. However, though potentially less intelligent than ogres, hill giants shared with them an exceptional cunning, even outmatching them in craftiness. Though they themselves were easily susceptible to the schemes of others, both were capable of surprising feats of cleverness, albeit in pursuit of limited desires.

Combat
Though hill giants would fight with anything at their disposal, their favored form of weaponry was clubs. Hill giants were capable of hurling boulders up to through the air.

Society
Hill giants lived in large communal families known as huslyder. In their society, the most evil act that could be committed was the betrayal of one's tribe.

The ordning (social ranking) of hill giants was determined by a combination of an individual's physical strength and eating ability.

Hill giants that became sick were isolated from their clans. Due to their voracious appetites, such sicknesses were often related with consumption of spoiled and diseased food in spite of the hill giants' extraordinary constitution. A giant that was incapable of keeping food down was constantly visited by a priest or chieftain who sought to interpret signs of Grolantor. Individuals who did not recover and remained sick were then imprisoned and set to starve to the point of madness. These prisoners, called mouths of Grolantor, were seen as physical manifestations of the deity's endless hunger and caused extreme destruction if set loose.

Magic
Hill giants normally lacked the intelligence required to learn wizardry, and the majority were suspicious of magic to the point of ceremonially killing mages and destroying magic items they found. However, hill giants had a few among them capable of runic magic, even if their low intelligence would normally prevent them from doing so. Hill giant rune cutters, known in the giant tongue asskiltgravr, stomped huge symbols into hillsides and scarred their own flesh with magical markings.

Relationships
Among giant-kin they were most often seen working alongside verbeeg and ogres, the latter of which they often traded with for trinkets or food. Ogres were also known to act as guardians in hill giant lairs.

Hill giants often kept dire wolves and giant lizards as pets or guards.

Besides working among their kin, hill giants were known to work in more civilized areas, such as for the Rakshasa nobles of Tirumala and in the army of Thay.

Homelands
These giants tended to dwell in hilly areas and caves, often in such places that were considered forsaken by other creatures.

In interior Faerûn, hill giants could be found in the Cloven Mountains.

Language
Hill giants were known to speak the general giant language Jotun, but they also possessed their own dialect of the language known as Jotunhaug. However, they were often largely illiterate due to education being undervalued in their culture.

Names
Common given names among hill giants included the following:


 * Males: Dagg, Gulk, Hogl, Hond, Hund, Kuld, Lodd, Teldo, Vruk, and Usgut.
 * Females: Ardis, Bora, Dis, Gulkra, Gylla, Laha, Nelmyr, Telda, Teldra, Tora, and Vaere.

Diet
A hill giant's metabolism was very high for a giant, and as a result, it had to eat a great quantity of food. It was not averse to eating demihumans, and would eat almost anything.

Lycanthropy
Hill giants were known to be susceptible to all forms of lycanthropy, though were somehow immune to being afflicted with the wereraven form of the condition. Those afflicted with lycanthropy were most commonly found to be either werewolves, wereboars, wererats, or werebats. Compared to other giants afflicted with lycanthropy, hill giants were notably broad and suffered from awkward movement.

Sub-Races

 * Coombe giants: Coombe giants were hill giants who adapted to life within the treacherous Katakoro Shan mountains in the Hordelands. Though slightly smaller than their lowland cousins, coombe giants possessed amazing balance and dexterity, allowing them to safely traverse the steep slopes of Katakoro Shan and even wield a weapon in each hand proficiently.


 * Giant trolls: The result of hill giant/troll crossbreeding.

History
The hill giant race began with an individual by the name of Ruk, one of the mortal children of Annam All-Father and Othea, who in the kingdom of Ostoria was ceded control of the hills. Within this mighty kingdom they spread out all over, using their brute force to subjugate lesser creatures.

Notable Hill Giants

 * Dermos, a hill giant afflicted with the wereape form of lycanthropy.
 * Guh, the chief of Grudd Haug, a hill giant den located along a branch of the River Dessarin, northeast of Goldenfields.
 * Huzza, a pirate captain in the Pirate Isles who lorded over a crew of goblins.
 * Imir Castdie, a hill giant member of the Zhentarim.
 * Moog, an old hill giant who dwelt in an abandoned tower in the Dessarin Valley.
 * Morg, a vampiric hill giant shaman who was banished from his tribe for being unusually handsome.
 * Trahnt, a gnome who was transformed into a hill giant by Halaster Blackcloak. He lived in Waterdeep and worked as a bartender at Tymora's Blessing.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Desert of Desolation • Dungeon #15: "The Dragon's Gift" • Waterdeep • Storm Riders • Dungeon #27: "Bride For A Fox" • Dungeon #28: "The Pipes of Doom" • Dungeon #29: "Nymph's Reward" • Dungeon #34: "On Wings of Darkness" • A Dozen and One Adventures • The Sword of the Dales • Castle Spulzeer • Storm King's Thunder
 * Video Games
 * Secret of the Silver Blades • Gateway to the Savage Frontier • Pools of Darkness • Neverwinter Nights series (Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford • Neverwinter Nights: Tyrants of the Moonsea)
 * Board Games
 * Faerûn Under Siege • Assault of the Giants
 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards • Blood Wars
 * Gamebooks:
 * Big Trouble
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Herald of the Moon