Giant

And Elyna caused '' the works of Miril and Thradia to flourish upon the world of Elrinia. And the wicked god of war, Castiel, sent emissaries to every race and taught them how to make violence upon one another. And the people cried out to Dain, the Forgemaster, and begged him to teach the Elrinians how to make weapons, and Dain taught them.''

History
Dain sent the Giants into the world to teach the peoples of the Craft. The Giants, in turn, established a powerful empire over the world of the mortals, above all conflict or contest. Their empire was mighty and they feared none. They watched in silence as the other races hacked one another to bits on the bloody fields of battle, and only intervened in those affairs when their own lands were threatened by the carnage. When those rare occasions arose, they crushed the armies of the other races without a second thought. The houses of the giants kept faith with one another as a unified people, and their empire flourished. The name of this Empire was Kelathon, and the Emperor was Tarakor the Storm Giant.

The Aramir, the Storm Giants, created their citadels among the clouds, and at the heights of the highest peaks of Eyrodd, and in the depths of the oceans. They taught the races to build sea faring vessels, and some even to harness the immense power of lightning in their magic. The home of their people was called Stormhaven.

Other Giants also put their citadels in high places, atop the peaks of every mountain range in Elrinia and clouds surrounded their mountain keeps, and they named themselves the Fogrimir, Cloud Giants. And they sent the first rains upon the world, and conjured the great mists, and the people of Elrinia revered them as the sustainers of crops and the bringers of storms. The seat of their power was called Skyfall.

And the Fire Giants, the Shadrir, caused the lesser peaks to burn with fire. They took iron from the mountains and made steel in their forges, and they made servants of the Dwarves and taught them to do the same, and their peoples became powerful in battle like none before or since. The throne of their chieftain rested beneath the mountains of Erranor, in the city of Firestone.

The Frost Giants, the Talmir, froze over great regions of Eyrodd, and from those glaciers flowed great rivers into all lands. And with those rivers flowed the Talmir’s love for bloodshed, and they reaved from the mountains and carried off spoils from the lesser races, and the people of Elrinia learned to fear the Giants as a result of their cruelty. They called their home Icewind.

Still other giants made their homes in the caverns of the great mountains, calling themselves the Ymir, Stone Giants. They crafted great halls in the hearts of the earth, carved from the stone itself. Dwarves from Erranor sought out the great masons of the Ymir, and they learned the craft of the Stone Giants. As their greatest work, they carved the halls of Stonehaven where the Dwarves of Erranor now reside.

The dimwitted Hadrir made their homes among the hill country of Elrinia. They made crude fortresses of wood from which to terrorize the other races. They were given dominion over the children of Dain’s unfaithful wife(who shall not be named), the giantkin: ogres, ettins, fomorians, verbeegs, firbolg, and voadkyn, and they filled their bellies on the bounty of the land. They called their largest village Hilltop.

When the first great wyrms entered the world and made war on all peoples, the giants arose from their halls and went out to battle, and the two great races exhausted their strength in a conflict that lasted for a generation. The dragons were defeated, and only remnants of the mighty Empire of Kelathon remained. The last Aramir retreated to Stormhaven and Blackwater, their only remaining strongholds. They abandoned their empire and secluded themselves from all others. Likewise, the Fogrimir returned to Skyfall and assumed leadership of all giants in the absence of their storm brethren. The Shadrir forsook their burning mountain halls and used their remaining strength to conquer the Ember Isles, where they now reside. The Talmir left for the furthest reaches of the north and created a new home in the frozen wastes of Frostfall. The Ymir withdrew deep inside of their stone fortresses, into the very heart of the earth, and there they still remain. The Hadrir were nearly reduced to total ruin, and the giantkin who once served them rebelled and won their freedom. Those who remain of the giants pass on the stories of their former glory, and they long for the day when they will reclaim their dominion of the world and win back the favor of their father.

Magic
The magic of the giants consists largely of runes. Their divination is conducted through the casting of runes, they evoke spells through the somatic gesturing of drawing runes in the air, they place runic wards as their primary trapping method, and any magical item or weapon is inscribed with runes to give the item its properties.

The strength of their magic is legendary, and the most powerful of their spellcasters were once able to perform feats of magic well beyond that which is currently possible in the world today, even by the greatest of modern wizards and sorcerers. The giants were a force to be reckoned with in their understanding of the arcane, and much of Elrinia's present magic is based upon the arcane principles developed by the giants.