Grolantor

Grolantor was the giant god of hunting and battle, and the primary patron of the hill giants. The most prominent member of the giant pantheon (with the possible exception of Annam), Grolantor was the black sheep of the family, a vainglorious brute that refused any title but his given name and who was dedicated more to his ego than the wellbeing of his followers.

Description
Grolantor normally appeared as a giant somewhere between tall, clad in furs and/or dragon hides. Depending on the breed he was visiting, he was known to resemble a hill giant, frost giant, or ettin.

Personality
Grolantor was a truly miserable specimen of a god, one who constantly complained about his bottomless hunger, but would sooner snatch food from a family member's plate than hunt for it himself. Though possessed of a certain cunning and skill for ambushes, he constantly undermined himself, the blame for most of his problems laying squarely at his own feet as the result of his own selfish behavior and sheer hubris. Most giantish breeds portrayed him as a wicked being, but even the evil-tempered deity's own well-being was represented as second in priority compared to sating his pride.

Grolantor was completely dedicated to his own conceit. Despite being one of the most dangerous entities in the planes, with access to abilites that would strike fear in any mortal, the vain deity was too foolish to fully take advantage of his powers. This was not to say that Grolantor was fully stupid, for in fact he could be intelligent if he would only allow himself to be. Rather, Grolantor was idiotic in the sense that he was willfully ignorant, stubbornly refusing to accept reality and seemingly determined to stay along his course of self-appointed destruction. He insisted on doing things the hard way, trying to use strength where subtlety would have been more effective.

Grolantor absolutely refused to admit that any other being, including his kin, were superior to him and tried to instill that attitude in his followers, believing that Ostoria could never be restored without such pride. He was proud of his strength, but would not respect the greater strength, intellect, or seniority of his siblings, boasting of his own greatness while insulting his peers. These delusions of grandeur repeatedly forced him and his followers into pointless conflicts, sometimes more than they could handle. He sometimes showed this rash impudence when he manifested an avatar, behaving cowardly when faced with a stronger foe until challenged or mocked, at which point he attacked.

Powers
The great strength that Grolantor was proud of was his one redeeming quality. His avatars could hurl rocks up to away, and would catch rocks and other large missiles thrown at them around 70% of the time.

Possessions
Grolantor was known to wield an oversized club named "Dwarfcrusher", and in some artistic depictions the greatclub he wielded was made of bone. In any case, his avatars wielded an enchanted club that was twice as effective against dwarves as it was against any other being. Grolantor also usually wore several belts of woven dwarf beards.

Realm
Grolantor's realm in Jotunheim was called the Steading. His realm was little more than an enormous wooden house, and hill giant petitioners roam around its hills, preying on all they encounter.

After the Spellplague, the Steading became part of the Elemental Chaos.

Activities
Grolantor spent his divided time in Carceri and the Abyss concocting his willfully stupid schemes, muttering to himself about various slights, most of which existed more in his head than in reality. He was an uncaring god who only rarely went to check on the state of his worshipers, although if something began killing his petitioners in their outpost, he might decide to descend upon it to ensure that it never bothered them again.

Grolantor frequently sent avatars to his followers to goad them into searching for acts of glory. The avatar would lead bands of hill giants (or ogres on much rarer occasions) on hunts or skirmishing missions,  but unfortunately for his devoted, this was only for a short period of time. He was known to become bored with battles even as they reached their climax, disinterestedly abandoning his followers in their greatest time of need (although a true devotee perceived this not as desertion, but as a glorious, god-given chance to prove one's own mettle).

Relationships
Grolantor was the child of Annam and the unnamed sky goddess that gave birth to most of the giant pantheon. He was the least of Annam's sons (at the very least those tied to a true giant breed), yet not the youngest. He was part of a third generation of offspring known by other giants as "the runts", with his younger brother being the fomorian deity Karontor.

Grolantor was generally scorned by all his family members, siblings and parents alike, and had been specifically disowned by his brothers for his stupidity and relative weakness. He insisted on being treated as their equal despite their obvious superiority, and had gotten into many fights with them on account of his pride, most of which he lost. Stories regarding Grolantor invariably ended with him getting another scar on his back when he pushed a family member too far and had to escape their wrath.

When they were children, the treacherous shenanigans of Grolantor and Memnor (the wicked cloud giant deity) resulted in Annam banning them from interfering with Jotunbrud affairs. However, after Annam's self-imposed exile, they convinced both Stronmaus (the storm giant deity) and Hiatea (goddess of nature and hunting) that the decree was no longer valid. Though neither Stronmaus nor Hiatea were pleased with Grolantor's behavior (several times had an angered Hiatea filled his backside with arrows) neither felt empowered enough to stop him, but both the nefarious gods sometimes left them with no other choice but to put an end to their meddling.

Grolantor's reckless behavior had doubtless made him many enemies, particularly among the dwarven pantheon, most of whom would attack him on sight. Though he hated all the evil giant gods, Marthammor Duin, dwarven god of wanderers and those that traveled beyond their enclaves, had a particular loathing for Grolantor. Similarly, Clangeddin, the dwarven god of battle, held Grolantor and his followers to be his most hated enemies. Grolantor himself had an arbitrary hatred for dwarvenkind.

Grolantor had other enemies among the goblinoid gods (goblinoid in this case including goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, orcs, kobolds and similar creatures). Solonor Thelandira, elven god of hunting and wilderness survival, also considered Grolantor (specifically, rather than simply hating the evil giant gods as a rule) to be his foe. The hill giant deity was often at war with another denizen of Carceri, Crius, the Titan of Weight and Density.

Grolantor had managed to turn several of the shator demodands of Carceri into his servitors, although less out of loyalty and more out of terror regarding him and his army of giant petitioners. They were weak-willed and obsequious, and while some shator ruled areas in Carceri as his vassals, some demodands had taken up residence in his outposts.

Worshipers
Grolantor is strong and willfully stupid. He teaches his followers to persecute "lesser races" - that is, those smaller than hill giants. His hill giant shamans stubbornly refuse to admit they are smaller than any other giant breeds.

Ettins worship Grolantor in a dual-aspected manner, and their dogma differs from that of the hill giants in many crucial respects, often preventing alliances between the two races.

The most important thing for a follower of Grolantor is to never admit weakness, and to crush the weak.

Dogma
They regularly organize hunting parties and skirmishing warbands, and take it upon themselves to root out what they perceive as weakness among their kind and elsewhere. They are not permitted to ever back down from a challenge.

Clothing
Grolantor's priests wear dark brown armor made from horn, and adorn their heads with skulls.

Rituals
Grolantor has no particular holy days, and is unusual among evil deities in that he demands no sacrifices. The closest thing to formal ritual among his worshipers is eating and drinking contests.

Rumors and Legends
Some say he created the race of hill giants by collecting and interbreeding the runts of earlier giant broods, then further polluted this stock by mating with various serpents, medusa-like hags, and the goddess Cegilune.

Behind the Scenes
Grolantor was created by James M. Ward for the Deities and Demigods Cyclopedia (1980).