Tellus: Making a Gigas Character

Lets end the year on a strong note for Tellus! This is just as much blog material as its the resource I will directly show the players when creating their characters. Rather than start with the three more common races I've decided to give focus to the least developed of the bunch: the fearsome children of the planet, the Gigas.

The Gigas

Strongest and longest-lived of all the mortal races of Tellus, the Gigas are not born 'naturally' but are rather a mortal emanation of the life energy of the planet's environment. Fearsome and wild, they live in isolated pockets away from civilization and rarely, if ever, truly interact with other races. However from time to time they find themselves dragged into the affairs of other races and at other times they even wage war against them.

Conceptual History and Setting Role

Art by Ricardo Yuji.

The Gigas draw both the most and the least from JRPG in their own weird way. When designing Tellus I wanted to cover all the basic archetypes covered by the more basic fantasy races such the city-dwelling humans, the industrious dwarves and the two archetypes of elves: wood-dwelling hippies and pretty, smug elusive magical beings on the decline. The latter is best embodied by the Sky-Folks (and the Moon Folks, but these guys aren't playable by default). However the whole 'guardian of nature' angle was left to be covered. Drawing inspiration from various sources in JRPG, such as the Gigantos (name should be a cue), various 'Beast Men' races and the Yaksha of Vedic mythologies I constructed the Gigas. They fill in both that 'strong guy' role, the 'barbarian' role and the 'hippy guardian of nature' role at once.

Where other settings have effete Wood Elves and stupid Gnomes, Tellus has the towering and terrifying (yet possibly soft-hearted deep inside) Gigas: a race which doesn't really draw from any clear source but its setting role feels oddly archetypal nonetheless.

Who are the Gigas?

To be born a Gigas is to be paradoxically more connected to nature and at the same time less. Gigas, unlike other living beings, lack parents: they are born from a confluence of magical geomantic energies in wild locales, they are born from this 'cocoon' of plant, rock, sand or ice and raised communally by the tribe which inhabit said locale. There is something rather bare bones about Gigas communities: people only speak when they need to, only forge weapons and armors when needed (and pass down any spares to whoever needs it) and meals are incredibly basic with only the crudest of agriculture. Even then most Gigas is expected to grow or raise some of his or her own food and not bother the community. This can make them appear to be dull-minded and even anti-social to outsiders: in truth, Gigas have a strong inclination toward primitivism and self reliance and treat most aspects of civilization as a luxury and not a core component of their societies.

Given their long life span and low 'birth' rate, Gigas society is inherently stagnant and dull. The only real hierarchy are based on age and one's ability to wield magic to support themselves and their community (but only in time of needs). There is always the risk of a young (relatively speaking) Gigas becoming curious about the extremely complex societies of the greater world. Those who return to their dull, naturalistic communities are welcomed back without any real punishment: being forever different from their simplistic kin is punishment enough by itself.

D8	Personality Quirk
1	You never speak unless directly addressed/asked a question. The only exception to this is when you inform your allies of something of interest. Unless directly addressed others can talk about you, in your face and you don’t seem to care.
2	You dislike being inside any building more complex than a simple tent. You will instinctively gravitate toward the windows and door for a quick exit should trouble manifest itself. You are also far too big to escape by windows but that won’t stop you.
3	You have developed mild paranoia about hurting those smaller than you, possibly due to troubled interactions early on. For someone so massive you have extremely focused, deliberate and delicate movements to minimize the risk of breaking someone or something.
4	Your emotions are very potent, which appears quite at odds with your normally relaxed and mostly expressionless face. Your outburst of joy, fear or rage are sudden and utterly baffling to others.
5	You have an artistic side. Too bad others can’t appreciate the joy and wonder of fungal artistry, plant ball-spitting painting, beard root-weaving and other rare forms of Gigas artistic styles.
6	You don’t appreciate the food of the ‘civilized people’ and will prefer eating raw, uncooked meat, chew on roots or stuff your face full of raw, live bugs. You completely lack the ability to see why this is seen as ‘weird’.
7	You enjoy gathering food and feeding your fellow party member as you believe them buying rations and eating in inn to be a sign they are too inept to properly feed themselves, akin to a young child.
8	You’ve become convinced that ‘civilized people’ are weak and/or morally reprehensible, making you boastful about your primitive ways being more honest and true. That you take people’s gold and spend it on booze doesn’t appear dishonest to you at all!

Physical Appearance

Gigas are large and heavy, with even the smallest of their kind being larger (and much heavier) than the average Ulm or Dragon Clan. Beyond the raw mass there isn't much any Gigas has in common with others of its race, as each is somewhat unique in the various physical traits they manifest. A Gigas' body is partially plant and/or mineral-like, often in somewhat baffling ways. Horns, tusks, scales, plant-like hair or beards or even stone protruding from their skin are commonplace.

Gigas Appearance
D6	Eyes	Skin	Feature
1	Gold iris, black sclera.	Earthy brown and mottled. High amount of body hair.	Bony or stony brow spikes.
2	Dark brown, almost black.	Grey with stony scabs. More stone-like at extremities.	Tiny antlers growing out of head.
3	Pure green orbs.	Dark green, with an almost leaf-like texture.	Hair and/or facial hair is plant-like.
4	Pure gold orbs.	Covered in short, small stubby spines.	Overly broad torso, longer arms and shorter legs.
5	Wolf-like.	Bark-like in texture despite being fleshy.	Large hands and feet.
6	Raptor-like.	Unnaturally dry and dirt-like.	Hair grow down to the middle of the back.

Note that this table is for the more common Mountain or Forest Gigas, which use the default Goliath or Firbolg stat block. Variant Goliaths would replace these traits with something similar but themed to their element, such as snow-white skin for cold-dwelling Gigas or glowing red eyes for those tied to volcanic places. Underground-dwelling Gigas would likely replace the plant and tree-like elements with mushrooms.

Gigas Names

There isn't much of a culture to the Gigas, at least not one which produce the wealth of names with religious, mythological and historical meaning which Humans (and other fantasy races in other settings) have. After all, in most languages names have a meaning. Gigas cut the middle man and simply give names which are description of an individual, be it some physical descriptor of some title which hint at their function.

Gigas Name
d10	Descriptor	Function
1	Barkback	Strider
2	Stoneskin	Hunter
3	Plantface	Protector
4	Weedhair	Wanderer
5	Stonebeard	Teacher
6	Flowernose	Warrior
7	Bushbrow	Guardian
8	Treeback	Keeper
9	Gnarlhands	Grower
10	Mushroom	Loner

Choosing A Class

Compared to the other races, Gigas are a lot more limited in their possible education, limiting them to classes which can be used to represent their innate gifts or simply self-teaching: which is even less common than it might appear, especially for the more complex use of magic. This does, however, leave Gigas with a somewhat pessimistic and determinist mindset. While there is some truth to this (such as magic gift or lack thereof), Gigas would produce much better warriors and spellcasters if they understood relying on knowledge and understanding rather than raw instinct or gifts.

• The Druid class is the most obvious pick for Forest-dwelling Gigas and, indeed, this is the class most associated with the race as a whole. While there are Druids among other races, the origins of Druid themselves are found among the Gigas. Most Druid Circles work for the Gigas race.
• The Sorcerer class may initially appear as an odd pick but it has several Bloodlines which are well suited to representing a manifestation of the innate gifts of the Gigas race. The Fury Magic is a good example of the 'barbarian' side of the Gigas made manifest through magic. Any Bloodline from the Children of the Wild homebrew/third party works well too.
• The Barbarian is the fairly obvious martial option for Gigas, representing their more destructive and primal side breaking loose. Indeed it is the race most associated with the class. In theory nearly every Barbarian Path could be used.

Of course these are but a small sample available to Gigas. Being naturally focused (but also ferociously destructive) beings make the Gigas well suited to any 'martial' class which make use of their brute force and, size and innate cunning.

Tellus: More (Potential) Races

In general I like to keep races to a bare minimum. However it is worth noting that 'races' in Tellus is a bit vague and all encompassing as what is considered a 'race' in universe can actually be represented by different stat blocks, such as the extremely varied Gigas who include Goliaths and variants as well as Firbolg. As with everything in Tellus, nothing is truly canon until the game is ran and it appears in said game.

The Demiurges (Vedalken of Kaladesh)

An ancient race of magical craftsmen and contemporaries of the Tritons, the Demiurges may in fact be distant cousins (which would also make them related to the Ulma). They are a tall, thin and pale people with mono colored hair, eyes and somewhat geometric skin and an innate understanding of magical crafting. In the modern age only a single extended clan of these creatures yet exist. They are an aloof race usually best left to be used as NPC and rare experts on obscure scientific and magical knowledge.

Aetherborn & Warforged

Two artificial races born of advanced magical technology, these would not so much be races as the rare one-off entity which has achieved full sentience. Their existence, however, would mean a strong focus would need to be placed on the magitek elements of Tellus which I currently don't know if that will even be the focus of the campaign when it is started, if ever at all. Given the lifestream-esque interpretation of Tellus metaphysics it is clear such beings would indeed have souls, even if possibly entirely through accident.

Vampires (Ixalan)

Generally speaking, Undead creatures are not very common in Tellus nor are they particularly gruesome, as few JRPG tend to indulge in the horror and nightmare imagery of Undead which greatly clash with my own love of the horrible buggers. However, Vampires remain quite popular in Japanese pop culture, especially as a true-breeding race of long lived or even flat out immortal bloodsuckers. The Vampires of Tellus would also be an ancient, seemingly Ulma-derived race and would breed true with them. However they would be nocturnal and blood-drinking. This dark and primal gift whose true origins are shrouded in mystery have made them disliked, if not outright hunted to near extinction. They would look like androgynous white or black-haired, goth-looking people with pointy ears and glowying eyes or something.

Tellus: Character Concepts (Ulma Variants and Moon Folks Redux)

By default, the four major races available to players on Tellus are Ulma (Humans), Dragon Clans (Dragonborn), Sky-Folks (Siren) and Gigas (Firbolg and Goliath) with the possible fifth being the Moon Folks (originally Eladrin, but more on that in a bit...), who current write up predates the current version of that setting. Some groups of Ulma, while technically 'human' can exist having the stat blocks of other races. One thing with Tellus is that, beyond the basic core assumptions nothing is properly 'canon' until I run a game.

Moonfolks and Daeva (Aasimars)

Taking cues from D&D 4e and Vedic mythologies, the Daeva is a suitable replacement for the Aasimar stat block. Not so much the descendants of Celestials as a form of true Celestials themselves (albeit mortal), the Daeva work well with the many concepts highlighted in the last post, where Ulma are sometimes born touched by Divine powers or possibly reincarnations of great celestial souls.

Remember the Moon Folks and how sometimes a Moon Folk is born to a human? Well, forget the part where I said those were Eladrin: Moon Folks are now a sub type of Aasimar. These are a stable population of aloof Daeva-like beings who nearly always reincarnate in their celestial abode on the moon rather than being a form of Bodhisattva-like beings. The two, nonetheless, are higher souls with a strong inclination toward White Magic and extremely long lifespan. Of course, if there ever was a race of token oh-so-pure good guys who would produce an edgy bastard with delusion of Godhood and Justice it would be Daeva...

Mutated Ulma

Mera may not be very 'anime' but
she's still an example of 'pretty fish people'.

The vast majority of Ulma are of the basic, unmodified stock and only distinct among each others via variations in phenotype which don't really change much. Southerners, for example, tend to have darker skin and some groups have enough Dragon Clan blood to have more reddish hue to their hair and eyes or have slightly larger builds but these are still baseline Ulma. Having spread over Tellus for centuries, if not millennia by now, some of the Ulm have deviated from their original stock through exposure to the planet's energies or through contact with the beings native to the world. These races are human in ancestry and nature but they are physically and mentally distinct enough to be considered a separate race. Most of them are limited to a single population living in a specific area whose geomantic energies have infused the people more deeply.

• Dwarves, if they exist on Tellus, would be fairly similar to the stock D&D race. They would descend from ancient clans of hardy miners and metal smiths and indeed would have inspired the early development of the Sheradil Empire's technology. These Dwarves would be similar to the D&D race but have human-like lifespan. Indeed, Dwarves could be seen as almost an exaggeration of the best and worst Ulma traits, when compared to the other races: proud, industrious but also fearsome and war-like.
• Gnomes stats may be appropriate to the bizarre and stunted people of the chaotic land of Ysmin. The people there aren't really normal Ulma anymore by any stretch of the imagination, having become odd, small gnomish beings. They never seem to quite fully develop to adult size while paradoxically also appearing quite aged, leaving them as short and stunted weirdos with bulbous noses, busy eyebrows and crazy hair. Weird stuff.
• Triton are unique in that they are the only fully aquatic Ulma. Interestingly, they claim to not be Ulma and their own race in spite of looking just like Ulma but with gills and (usually) blue or green hair. They also don't lay eggs, birthing live young as all Ulma do. Even more puzzling, they seemingly do appear in the oldest records of the Sky-Folks suggesting they existed before modern Ulma. In addition, unlike baseline Ulma they can be Sorcerers.

Red Tide 5e: Race Conversions

Continuing off my 'mood' of D&D 5e and branching away from OSR, I've brought back from the grave a scrapped post written in 2018. These are my notes for converting Red Tide to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

Races (and Race-Based Class Restrictions)

The 'core' races of D&D are all already represented in Red Tide given that it was written to work with Labyrinth Lord. The ever-iconic setup of humans, elves, dwarves and halflings are all represented in a form which is both extremely familiar and iconic yet still unique to the setting. With the exception of the Drow (who lack any equivalent in Red Ride), the subraces of the elves/dwarves/halflings could seamlessly exist as variations without much need for a retcon: the elven subraces of High and Wood elves are simply different Elven Creed while the dwarven and halfling subraces could very much exist within the setting as distinct cultural groups who may or may not be noticeable to outsiders. Alternatively these may simply be abstractions of the rules representing variant racial traits and not distinct sub races much like in the case of the elves.

Red Tide-Accurate Class Restrictions

As an option to make the races a bit more accurate to what is presented in Red Tide, the following class restrictions would apply:

• Elves can only be Rangers or Wizards as well as Fighters and Rogues but only in those sub-classes which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer or Arcane Trickster.
• Dwarves may only be Barbarian, Fighters or Rogues and cannot use a sub-class which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster. They can, however, channel the primal power of Barbarians through their connection to their ancestors.
• Hafllings can only be Fighters or Rogues and cannot use a sub-class which learn spells, such as Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster.  One possible option, to allow Halflings to do a bit more, would be to allow them to be Monks of some form. Certainly, Halfling ninjas are a scary thought.

Of course while this works just fine for OSR systems like Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy, nowadays people tend to expect a lot more option for their characters.

Alternate Spellcasting Options

Under this system, the restrictions are similar to those outlined above but they open up each race to a few unique origins for the Sorcerer, allowing each race to channel the unique origins and powers of their kind in ways ordinary Human and Shou Wizards cannot replicate.

• Elves function as above, but add to their option the Sorcerer with the origin of Ultimate Magus origin, representing an Elf with the peak potential for the arcane they have acquired, combining innate magic with several lifetime of wisdom and intellect.
• Dwarves, under this option, do have their own form of Wizardry which is unique to them: the Ring Warden from the Deep Magic: Ring Magic third party supplement from Kobold Press. These Dwarves have learned to cast magic through the forging of mystical rings of gold. Meanwhile, Dwarven Sorcerers can call upon the powers of the deep Earth through some of the options found in the homebrew called Yorviing's Sorcerous Grimoire: Children of the Earth. The origin called Deep Earth works well for such a connection.
• Halflings are a little harder to pin down, which might just be a fitting trait. That and their luck, which brings me Yorviing's Sorcerous Grimoire: Children of the Strange has an origin called Lucky One.
• Warlock Class: Here is an interesting one which both change the Red Tide setting while also fitting in very well. If magic is an internal process, born of a mixture of one's own soul and geomantic energies which demi-human races struggle with (except those damn smug elves...), even assuming the addition of their rare in-setting spellcaster class options, then what about the Warlock? Much like Clerics they derive their magic from an outside source. As it happen, it is said the Demi-Human of Red Tide shunned the Gods in some form or another but...what about other patrons, hmmm? Food for thought...

Contentious Races

Not everything is as easily translated to fitting in Red Tide as the core races of D&D. These are either races which exist within the lore and fluff of Red Tide but with some unique twist/traits which don't line up with core D&D 5e (such as Half Elves and Half Orcs) or races which don't exist but are now part of the D&D core races (the Tieflings).

Half Elves

In the Red Tide setting, Half Elves are not a naturally-occurring crossbreed but rather what happen when an elven soul is born to lowly mortal flesh: physically (mostly) human but spiritually elven. Now due to the race-as-class mechanics of Labyrinth Lord, the Half Elves of Red Tide are by default a bit...weirder...than your ordinary Half Elves. As a result there are a few loose ways to imagine them for 5e:

• Option A is the most boring which is to simply use the Half-Elf stat line and say that it represent these strange half men/half elven beings. They would have restrictions similar to Elves. However this is boring.
• Option B is to represent them with the Sorcerer class, more specifically the Wild Magic option which would be uniquely available to them. They could use the racial stats of human, elves or half-elves depending on what seem most appropriate. The Half-Elves are an odd case of a race more associated with their class when converted to 5e.

Tiefling

The default presentation of Tieflings as humans-damned-and-twisted-by-infernal-powers requires very little tweaking to fit into Red Tide as they would be the descendants of humans whose ancestors made dark deals with the Hell Kings. While there could be some enclaves of pre-existing Tieflings (some of which who may in fact be Shou-Tieflings!), a new generation of Tieflings could have been born in the Kueh lands as those who worship the Hell Kings sought their blessings such as the birth of mighty demonic champions. Yet these creatures would still be gifted with human souls and as such could very well turn against the very forces which created them. Kueh Tieflings could be called Majin or Akuma if one feel like being a weaboo draw from the Japanese influence found in the Kueh.

Tellus: Sky-Folks, Zhulen Clans and Gigas

Why not continue with a nod to several series, including Breath of Fire and Fire Emblem? Yes I know that one is a tactical RPG but its still a form of RPG and it is Japanese so it does sort of count. There's also a few nods to The Legend of Dragoon in there as inspiration for good measure but generally speaking that's a game way less people remember these days.

Sky-Folks (Siren)

An Aegyl from FFXII:
Revenant Wings

Winged humanoids, enchanting and ethereal. Among those of the elder races, the dwindling Sky-Folks have myths which tell the tale of the arrival of the Ulm to the world of Tellus. Since then, the Sky-Folks (and other races) have slowly waned in influence. Then again, by nature, the Sky-Folks were a nomadic people safe for their distant aeries where they met for religious ceremonies and breeding, where young Sky-Folks would hatch and be taught how to fly without breaking their wings. The Ulm's spread over the world took centuries before it became a problem to the Sky-Folks.

Appearance

The Sky-Folks are physically similar to the Ulm but of a much slighter and elongated build. Their most distinct features is the large pair of wings which grow from their backs. With their slim build and delicate features they are quite alluring to member of other races. A Sky-Folk able to hide his or her wings can pass for a very beautiful, if exotic Ulm. This is particularly true of half breeds who have very human-like features. Each distinct clan of Sky-Folks has a unique set of wing and hair colors/pattern combinations, from pure shades of white, brown, red or black to mixed patterns of these plus other colors such as blue or yellow.

As a race of flyers, Sky-Folks are fairly light on clothing when found outside of the aeries, as they cannot carry heavy loads when flying, resulting in simple clothing decorated in extremely unique and colorful patterns. Weapons and armor too are quite light and sparse for ease of travel. When inside their aeries, however, they are fine with wearing more such as ceremonial robes and richly decorated clothes so long as their wings can deploy to glide up and down between levels. They lay eggs but are also inter-fertile with human: however only those born from eggs laid by a Sky-Folk mother are born as Sky-Folks. The mixed race children do look like their parents in other regards. Rumors persist of unlucky children born wingless from eggs and of seemingly-human children growing wings as they approach adulthood but these might only be myths.

Culture

Nina from Breath of Fire II

The Sky-Folks are a race of nomads, poets, philosophers explorers, travelers, seer and troubadour. Being not only attractive and gifted with an innate ability to enthrall others has helped the Sky-Folks to not completely go extinct as the Ulm covered the world. They travelled across the Ulm's new kingdoms and nations, bringing gifts from faraway lands and teaching the Ulma new sciences and magic. Others became courtesan or even lovers to great heroes and nobles. It is believed that much of Ulm magic and mythology is derived from their early mingling of the Sky-Folks and both races share some fairly common points when it come to their myths and beliefs.

However that was a long time ago.

The Sky-Folks are increasingly growing embittered by a world they find more and more alien. Many of their aeries have turned to isolationism and even xenophobia, fearing the earth-bound Ulm. Others found themselves trapped between warring nations and faced extinction. Others found themselves enslaved. This has hurt the collective pride of race which once flew from one end of the world to the next. There are young Sky-Folks who are being brought into the service of the Sheradil Empire as flying shock troops, allowed to fly with heavier armor and weapons through magic and technology. This is an interesting prospect to the more war-like Sky-Folks as it would completely negate the one weakness of their flight.

Zhulen Clans (Dragonborn)

Artist unknown but I absolutely love her design.

Said to have the blood of True Dragons in their veins, the Zhulen people have remained as unchanged as ever in the modern age. Equally gifted as sorcerers and warriors their culture has continued to thrive where the Sky-Folks have faltered. Perhaps it is because the Sky-Folks were evasive, and shifting like the wind and sea whereas the Zhulen were like a raging fire and unbreakable mountain and so have remained defiant in spite of the spread of the Ulma.

The Zhulen takes a few ideas from the previous Opherian description of the otherwise unrelated crossover of Godbound and the Opherian scrolls but with as much, much lighter tone.

Appearance

At a quick glance, the draconic ancestry of the Zhulen people is not quite obvious as they appear akin to tall and muscular Ulm. Their teeth are slightly sharper, as are their nails and even slightly their ears. The hair of the Zhulen people is notoriously wild and spiky, with vivid colors such as red, orange and the slightly rare blue being common. Like the Sky-Folks they are egg-layer and follow similar rules when it come to mating with the Ulm. It is unknown if they can breed with Sky-Folks but presumably the child would also be the race of the mother if they can.

Befitting of their fiery personality, the Zhulen are a notoriously bold people and favor particularly fancy clothes and armor: the flashier and/or more intimidating, the better. Gold and bronze are well-favored elements in their gear, as are feather and scale motifs. Many of their more baroque designs have been adopted by the Ulma over the years. When going on about their daily lives, they like skirts, short tunic and poncho. Being naturally-resistant to the elements give them much less of a reason to cover their bodies and as such, elaborate body art is not uncommon as a mean for a member of the Zhulen clan to establish their identity.

Culture

Kain from FFIV

The Zhulen Clans cannot be completely reduced to a simple shtick as warrior, mages or merchants: these three however are very common sight in other lands, as Zhulen adventurers are decently common with traders and mercenaries being just as if not more common. Pride, self-expression and passion are very important to their culture and finding a meek Zhulen is about as likely as finding ice in the desert. They fight harder, they love deeper and they drink even deeper still: few people can out fight or out drink a Zhulen. In spite of all this they are neither brutes nor stupid or reckless, they simply have higher self-confidence than the average Ulm and are far more open than the more silent, aloof and private Sky-Folks. Bards sing many tale of Ulm-Zhulen romance and most of them usually involve a passage about being tsundere difficult.

The Zhulen Clans are notoriously a bit more inclined toward what Ulm would classify as 'Black Magic', which is to say destructive and/or alteration magic. The Zhulen have a fairly casual attitude toward magic, seeing it as something as innate to them as any other part of their bodies and culture. It is their innate gift and birthright. They worship their gods and ancestors more through deeds than complex rituals but that doesn't mean temples don't exist in their lands.

Being so much more lively has downside and they clash far more commonly with other races. With a strong body and equally strong temper, the Zhulen Clans have been known to march to war and revel in the warrior elements of their culture fairly eagerly. Even in the current age there are stories of Zhulen mercenaries and pirates who eagerly jump to action, if not violence. As previously established, they have not taken to isolation like the Sky-Folks and have openly embraced the challenges faced when the Ulm spread over Tellus. Even today there are a few Zhulen Clan stronghold which remain trading ports with the other races.

Connection to Sky-Folks?

Both are human-like races who lay eggs. One is an avian race and one is a reptilian (or rather, draconic) race. In real-life, birds are descendant of a type of dinosaurs. They both have an innate bonus to the Charisma stat. They are both very colorful too. In addition, both races existed on Tellus before the Ulm (apparently) arrived. Are these two races related? Are they connected through some ancient link? Who knows.

Gigas (Firbolg and Goliath)

The D&D 4e Firbolg art is good enough for these.

In the wild places where not even the Sky-Folks and Zhulen did not dare to thread in ancient times lay ancient site of primordial power. This primordial power connects the planet to all living beings, all plants and even the abstract realms of Spirits and Gods. It is a living web of life and death, matter and spirit, past and future. All myths of the different races, be they the Ulma, the Sky-Folks and the Zhulen acknowledge these universal, all encompassing forces of life and nature. What few people realize is that the feared giants of myth have a deep connection to these forces. These are the Gigas.

They are not a well-known race, since they have shunned all others since the beginning of time it seems. Indeed, the race is so isolated even among themselves that much of their own history and very nature is open to speculation equally from outsiders as it would be from a young Gigas asking their elders what is their meaning and purpose in life.

Appearance

The Gigas are not a naturally-born race: they are more of a loose category of similar beings, fashioned in primeval times from raw elemental forces. Taller than any of the other races, standing almost (or over) seven feet tall they have harsh and intimidating features and glowing eyes. Their bodies are larger, either muscular or corpulent (not that it matters, as even obese Gigas are incredibly strong). Their skin is hard and coarse, like hard leather or sometimes almost like stone or bark. Many of them, especially the forest-dwelling ones, have moss growing on it. Most of them have broad, squat heads with thick brows and jaws as well as long ears, some of them drooping. Others display animalistic traits such as tusks, horns or scales. No two Gigas is ever the same, safe for their sheer size and bulk.

Unlike the other races who reproduce sexually, Gigas are 'born' from raw elemental and natural forces in wild places usually tended by others of their kind, growing from cocoons of crystal and/or plant matter (or, if born in the deserted lands either ice or sand turned to glass). Of all the races they have the strongest belief in reincarnation and in their case it might be completely true.

Culture

It is hard to truly describe Gigas culture for it doesn't really exist, not truly. They live in isolated enclaves in the wild, living off hunting and scavenging for food. While a truly ancient race, they lack any extensive written or oral history beyond their creation myth and the core rules of their tribe, such as it is. These tend to be fairly simple rules meant to enforce social cohesion. Beyond that it is hard to know for sure if more complex rules and rites exist because outsiders aren't permitted to know of them and even Sky-Folks archive are somewhat inconclusive about the depths and intricacies of the Gigas and their culture such as it is.

Variations

Being more of a collection of races than a completely homogeneous one, there are many variations to the Gigas:

• Forest-dwelling Gigas use the stats for Firbolg. They are generally the kindest type.
• Mountain-dwelling Gigas are a harsher lot and use the stats for regular Goliath.
• There are elemental Gigas and these would use the Goliath Variants found in a homebrew PDF called the Subrace Handbook.

Tellus: The Ulma (Humans)

A new series and a new world. That doesn't mean the others won't keep being expanded upon but it does mean these disparate ideas related to JRPG are being finally brought back again. After the worldbuilding of the Random World I've started to feel inspired in working on something where I am not quite as constrained by the ideas born of a random generation algorithm.

Down the line there is a chance I might end up running D&D 5th edition (for a change) and increasingly I've been tempted to run it as something loosely inspired by Pointcrawls. The setting style and trappings, meanwhile, would be that of the JRPG of old.

Edit: The world has been named Tellus, which is the Roman name for Gaia.

The Ulma

Art by Simon Jude Albaran

Or Human as we know them, because using stupid names for humans is a thing that Final Fantasy has done before. The Ulma, singular Ulm are the current dominant race. They are defined as being industrious, ambitious prideful and sometimes self-destructive. The least magically-inclined of the current races, they are nonetheless an increasingly dominant race in nearly every aspect: society, technology, military and more. They have raised great cities, greater than any in the modern era, vast metropolis of stone and metal. They have begun deeply researching into the true nature of magic and reality and begun to pull the world out of its faux-antiquity roots.

The largest Ulma nation is the Sheradil Empire and it is exactly what one would expect: highly organized with a vast military combined with magic and technology more advanced than other nations. From humble roots as a besieged people in a hostile land they have developed into mighty conquerors and where the Sheradil don't rule by force they rule through culture and money. There was a time people saw the more positive side of their empire but, as clichés demand there might be dark days ahead and the Empire might be on the cusp of spiraling into a totalitarian, world-consuming engine of wrath and hubris.

Appearance

Imperial class from Etrian Odyssey IV.

The Ulma are, well, human. They cover a wide range of ethnicity but the vast majority of them would appear somewhat racially ambiguous to us Earth human, as a nod to many JRPG characters being depicted in art as alternating between being vaguely Asian (hey, these games were made in Japan!) but at the same time sporting features one would generally not associate with Asians. Most Ulm have black, brown or blonde hair and these are generally unrelated to skin tone and southern Ulm with bright blonde hair clashing against darker skin is hardly implausible. Red hair is quite rare and while called red it is really more that rusty brown we see in real life.

Ulma clothes are a combination of the functional clothes one would expect the city worker and pastoral farmers to have. They frequently augment these drab colors with jacket, capes, scarves and turban of bright colors and those who are of noble blood or rich will no doubt try to go for even fancier clothes. Their armor and weapons strike a delicate balance between plausible and the more ludicrous, fantastical style we associate with the genre. They tend toward using metal armor which combine the appearance of baroque medieval plate with a somewhat 'dungeonpunk' look for good measure. It is not uncommon for Ulm nobles, especially those who are married, to have increasingly elaborate hair which extend to facial hair for men. It is a sign of maturity to have a well-trimmed, suitably elaborate mustache or beard. Young Ulm, however, are generally clean shaven and a bit more androgynous for the men when it come to their styling. Both sex are known to use some form of makeup but this is not universal. Very campy, almost clownish makeup is not unheard of for particularly goofy Sheradil nobles.

Culture

Forming the 'base point' for the world, the Ulm culture is recognizable as fairly standard fantasy fare. They are primarily organized either in a semi-feudal system or into city-states with a few independents in between. They prize the core values we expect of a civilization and are, ultimately, fairly ordinary people with ordinary wants and needs. At least, for the average Ulm, anyway. Seen as a race of extremes by others, the Ulma as a whole have produce many great heroes and equally as many villains. Their core societal unit is the family.

Art by Yunjin Jung.

The Ulma have many gods and even more religious branches and sects. The Gods of this still-unnamed world (I am bad at naming worlds, aren't I?) are abstract and non-personified. Many Ulm worship deities which embody abstract concept as as 'the Light' or 'Justice' or 'Protection' and it suit them just fine: so long as it keep their bellies full and their family safe that is all that's needed. However, the Sheradil Empire has increasingly been treating spiritual matters as nothing more than fuel for their growth and ascendancy to the point of increasingly alienating their priesthood. Some fear they might destroy the planet in trying to harness forces best left untouched.

Only about one in several hundred human has an innate gift for magic, be it being able to tap into (or contact) divine/cosmic forces or to wield complex spellcraft. Many of these powers have ended up eternally mingled with human mythologies and religious rites and it is from human that terms such as 'White Magic' and 'Black Magic' have emerged, as human tend to ever-so-slightly favor the more constructive and protective side of magic when it come to their religious ceremonies, finding the power to heal most effective. The other, more chaotic side of magic, is seen either with suspicion and fear or as a deadly tool of war to rain down hail and fire on hordes of enemies.