"Lost and done. Our empire is no more, lost in the sands, trampled by insects. Ours is the long slow fade to quiet. Ironic for we whose voices once shook the mountains' roots. Not many left to mourn our passing now, not that you scurrying parasites would bother. Of course we turn to drink...or to the darkness in the North. Both are ways of forgetting what we've lost."
- —Amorgbrandion, Giant Raider[4a]
The Giants of today are the direct descendants of the mighty Skytitans of old.
The Skytitans (also spelled Sky-titans[2a] or Sky-Titans[3a]) were a species of enormous and highly-intelligent humanoid Giants that lived in the mountaintops of the tallest and easternmost mountain range of the mortal world, known today as the Ancient Giant Lands in the Far East.[1a][2a]
The Skytitans were an ancient humanoid race, much taller and far more intelligent than the Giants known 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.[1a][2a]
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.[1a][2a]
The Skytitans lived alone in their fortress-like peaks, too solitary to ever unite under a single banner. Further into the mountain range, not only did the mountains tower ever taller, but the Skytitans also grew larger and larger.[2a]
Skytitan ruins as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
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.[2a]
History[]
Origins[]
Skytitan ruins as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
Long before the Old Ones came to the world of Mallus, the Skytitans lived in the mountain ranges, alongside the Dragon Ogres who inhabited the caves. The Skytitans raised incredible castles on the highest peaks, larger than anything made by Men, Elves or Dwarfs. In these "sky citadels" the Skytitans ruled benevolently over the mountains and their herds of great beasts. It is not known what their reaction was to the Great Catastrophe when the energies of Chaos first flooded into the mortal world, but what is known is that their civilisation remained mostly unchanged until the great war.[5a][6a]
Ruins of the Skytitans as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
In time, the Skytitans' realm in the mountains west of Grand Cathay came under constant attack from migrating Ogres. Sensing that the doom of a race that had walked the mortal world since before the coming of the Old Ones was imminent, Xen Yang, the Dragon Emperor of Cathay, shared with them the secrets of blackpowder, enabling the Skytitans to craft tremendous weapons of great power with which to battle their foes.[6a]
Yet such interventions proved futile and, with the Ogre tribes growing ever bolder in their attacks upon Grand Cathay, the Celestial Dragon Emperor turned to his astromancers to drive the invaders from his lands.[6a]
War in the Sky[]
A map of the Ogre Kingdoms in the present day; note the location of the Ancient Giant Lands once inhabited by the Skytitans in their skycastles.[2d]
In -2750 IC, hundreds of miles away from the Ancient Giant Lands, the fall to earth of the meteorite that became 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.[1a]
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.[2a]
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[2c], 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.{{fn|2a}
Skytitan ruins as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
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.[1c] Towards the end of the war, the Skytitans used their castle-mounted cannons against the invaders, making them the earliest users of gunpowder weapons in the Known World.[2c]
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.[2a]
The war proved a bitter conflict, but with every victory, the Ogres grew stronger, as every battle provided an absolute glut of Giant 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.[2a]
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.[2a]
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[2b] the Ogres could find no more Skytitans and they reckoned that they had devoured the entire race down to the last finger bone.[2a]
Not content with destroying their Giant 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.[1a]
Skytitan ruins as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
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.[1a]
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 herd creatures of the Giants. 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.[2a]
Some few foolhardy Ogres 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.[2a]
Giant Descendants[]
Skytitan ruins as depicted in Total War: Warhammer III.[7]
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.[2a]
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.[2b]
The surviving descendants of the long-forgotten Skytitans includes the present-day race of Giants. They are large, lumbering brutes that bestride the mortal world seeking battle and food (the one leading to the other in a Giant's mind). Giants can now be found almost everywhere in the Known World that can support their appetites, though they are (thankfully) rare.[3a]
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 mortal races' armies. Rival Greenskin tribes will often fight over a Giant, with the big lummox always winning, as he eats the casualties from both sides.[3a]
Nowadays an Ogre that has led a Giant Hunt and successfully 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.[1b]
Notable Skytitans[]
- Arghus, Greatest of the Skytitans - Legend holds that Arghus' skull now hovers over the Land of the Plaguelord in the Realm of Chaos as the Plague Moon itself, with a sickly green glow emanating from his eyes.
Trivia[]
The Skytitans are based on the giant in the popular English fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk.
Sources[]
- 1 Warhammer Armies: Ogre Kingdoms (6th Edition)
- 2 Warhammer Armies: Ogre Kingdoms (8th Edition)
- 3 Warhammer Armies: Orcs and Goblins (8th Edition)
- 3a pg. 60
- 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Old World Bestiary (RPG)
- 4a: pp. 49-50
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Lustria (RPG)
- 5a: pg. 18
- 6: Warhammer Arcane Journal: Armies of Grand Cathay (Specialist Game)
- 6a: pg. 14
- 7: ArtStation page of Luke Burnell, Senior Environment Artist at Creative Assembly