Skytitans

The Skytitans (also spelled Sky-titans or Sky-Titans) were a race of enormous and intelligent Giants that lived in the mountaintops of the tallest and easternmost mountain range of the world, known nowadays as the Ancient Giant Lands.

Overview
The Skytitans were an ancient race, much taller (and far more intelligent) than the Giants of today. The Skytitans had hewn vast fortresses into the mountains themselves - blunt, megalithic citadels that overlooked shimmering seas of clouds, pierced by great islands of rock on which stood other castles. Hermitic by nature, the Skytitans had long ago forgotten about the other races of the world, for they were content in their reclusive realm, hidden from others by the sheer inaccessible nature of the peaks and their shrouding cover of cloud. The Skytitans rarely descended below the treeline, save only to tend their herds of cave-beasts and enormous mammoths.

The Skytitans lived alone in their fortress-like peaks, too solitary to ever unite under a single banner. The further into the mountain range, not only did the mountains tower ever taller, but the Skytitans also grew larger and larger. The most ancient of that long-lived race grew to enormous sizes, yet over the great ages of their lives the Skytitans became more sedentary, until finally becoming like the mountains themselves. Many Ogres believed that the final peaks they climbed in the Ancient Giant Lands were not mountains at all, but instead the eldest of the Skytitans, now permanently enthroned in living stone.

History
In -2750 IC, hundreds of miles away from the Ancient Giant Lands, the coming of the Great Maw triggered the Big Migration of the Ogres, sending thousands of confused and starving Ogres up into the mountains in an attempt to escape the lethal attentions of their new god. Their arrival heralded violence of unprecedented scale in the mountaintops. The Ogres came as a plague of locusts to the Skytitans, for they ate everything they could find, stripping the mountains of all food and slaughtering the Mammoth herds with abandon.

Noting the growing losses amongst their herds, the Skytitans were soon made aware of this ugly new threat that had climbed the mountains to assail them. Although alarmed, the Skytitans were far from helpless, and they unleashed lightning storms and avalanches, slaying many Ogres and driving others off the mountainside to fall to their doom. Thus began what the Ogres call the War in the Sky, pitting the last surviving Ogre tribes against the Skytitans. Always the attackers, the Ogres surrounded and besieged each peak while the Skytitans defended their castles with enormous cannons decorated with friezes, their largest and most loyal herd beasts and, finally, their vast bodies - stomping upon Ogres or snatching them up and hurling them at great distances so they plummeted through the clouds and fell many miles to their deaths.

In this time, Tyrant Bruto Thundergut became legendary for smashing his way into the sky-castles with a huge, two-handed obsidian club called Siegebreaker

Although their population had been drastically reduced, the Ogres still outnumbered the Skytitans by hundreds to one and, what's more, the Ogres attacked together in tribes whilst the Skytitans lived alone in their fortress-like peaks, too solitary to ever unite under a single banner. The war was a bitter one, but with every victory, the Ogres grew stronger, as every battle provided an absolute glut of flesh. One by one the isolated mountaintop keeps fell and bloody feasts took place in their colossal halls. The more fortunate victims were already dead when the eating began, but by no means were all so lucky.

As the Ogres rampaged further into the mountain range, they noticed that not only did the mountains tower ever taller, but that the Skytitans also grew larger and larger. The most ancient of that long-lived race grew to enormous sizes, yet over the great ages of their lives the Skytitans became more sedentary, until finally becoming like the mountains themselves. Many Ogres believed that the final peaks they climbed in the Ancient Giant Lands were not mountains at all, but instead the eldest of the Skytitans, now permanently enthroned in living stone. If this was so, they were the last of their kind, for by -2735 IC the Ogres could find no more and they reckoned that they had devoured the entire race down to the last finger bone.

Not content with destroying their foes utterly, the Ogres slaughtered their herds of beasts and rampaged across the peaks, toppling castles into the valleys below. Today only a few shattered stone shells and a wide scattering of immense ruins on the valley floors give any evidence of the once-proud race of gentle Giants and the amazing heights they had reached with their architectural marvels. The famous trade route known as the Ivory Road joins one of these passes, winding around enormous chunks of masonry that were once the foundation stones of a city of castles in the sky. The deserted city of megaliths is amongst the safest areas the Ivory Road passes through, as the Ancient Giant Holds are haunted by little more than shadows and movements seen out of the corner of the eye.

For a while, the Ogres were content to stay put, sprawling out atop the shattered halls of the Skytitans and dining on the dwindling and now shepherdless creatures. Yet there, on the very roof of the world, the Ogres began feeling the ill effects of living at such heights. Great clouds of debris from the explosive coming of the Great Maw continued to be carried upon the wind from the east and it fell heavily onto those highest peaks. At night the skies shimmered with an unnatural aurora and, instinctively, the Ogres knew they must press onwards - and so the majority of the Ogre tribes descended the colossal mountains of the Ancient Giant Lands, heading further westwards into the range known as the Mountains of Mourn. Some few foolhardy ones stayed, choosing to live high up above the clouds despite the premonitions many felt. Although Ogres have proven particularly stubborn to the mutating effects of Chaos, they are by no means immune. Over the centuries, the Ogres that stayed to eke out a living amongst the dust-tainted sky-castles regressed in nature until they became feral and bestial. They evolved white shaggy fur and long talons and a new affinity for the harsh cold in which they lived. Thus was the mountaintop race of Yhetees born, and although rare, the abominable creatures have spread to many other high places of the world, where they prey on all who dare those frosty realms.

Last survivors and current Giants
At the end of the War in the Sky there was rumour of the final few Skytitans unfettering their mountaintops and sailing away on the clouds, but if this were true, none could say to where the refugees fled or if they ever arrived there safely.

Around -1700 IC a lone Skytitan was found roaming the Ogre Kingdoms and was hunted down and slain in battle by Buluk Knifefinger, whose tribe feasted on the remains for a month.

Descendants of the long-forgotten Skytitans, current Giants are large, lumbering brutes that bestride the world seeking battle and food (the one leading to the other in a Giant's mind). Giants can now be found almost everywhere, though they are (thankfully) rare. Giants often settle for a time before moving on, leaving behind ravaged countryside and flattened villages. They live solitary lives, but some of the hulking behemoths are coaxed or convinced to join other races' armies. Rival greenskin tribes will often fight over a Giant, with the big lummox winning, as he eats the casualties from both sides.

Nowadays an Ogre that has led a Giant Hunt and successully brought in and broken a Slavegiant is hailed as a great warrior. A Giantbreaker is invariably extremely strong and supremely confident of his own abilities.