Giant-kin
Giant-kin are the descendants of failed giant transformation rituals. In a quirk of fate, they are fertile and breed true (mostly, see below about throwbacks) unlike true giants who are sterile. In fact, giant-kin are notoriously fast-breeding. Which most other peoples consider a bad thing, as these oversized humanoids are also known to be hungry and aggressive. At least in Western Noefra. The Oelfrans have different attitudes.
Types
There are 3 major groupings of giant-kin, with innumerable sub-branches. These are mainly convenience groupings for scholars--the breeds themselves are inter-fertile and only sometimes pay attention to the differences. These main groupings are ogres, trolls, and ettins.
Ogres
Those who fail out after the first command (or their descendants) "GROW IN STRENGTH, SIZE" become larger than most folks as well as stronger. Generally standing from 9-12 feet tall and weighing between 500 and 700 pounds, these massive chunks of flesh and muscle are the most common of the giant-kin. While not necessarily stupid (despite the stereotypes), ogres tend to prioritize physical strength and disdain the intellectual pursuits. Throughout most of western Noefra, they are found in small kin-bound bands, working as mercenaries, hired labor, or raiders. While not as genetically hungry as trolls, they still take a lot of food to feed that bulk, which, combined with their cultural disdain for farming, often leads to aggression. Ogre bands are known to keep sheep, in particular, however. Ogre women are just as big, strong, and predisposed to physical solutions as the men are.
Beware the rare ogres who take up the arcane (only very rarely the primal or the religious arts, for various reasons). Often outcast or semi-outcast by their bands, they are uniformly dangerous.
Ogre bands are most common in the western Nocthean Caldera and the eastern hills and mountains near the Giant Spine Mountains, at least in known lands. In Soefra, they are common in the southern part of the Ikelan Colony Lands and down into the Southern Confederacy.
Throwbacks (aka half-ogres)
The idea that half-ogres are the offspring of humans and ogres is a myth. Instead, so-called half-ogres are throwbacks--individuals for whom the titan transformation didn't entirely stick. So they end up a hybrid of the original jazuu stock and an ogre. Due to their relative lack of strength (compared to their full-blooded brethren), they tend to gravitate toward more intellectual and tactical/strategic roles. Oddly, this is broadly tolerated. Many bands are led by a half-ogre.
Trolls
Trolls (or their ancestors) failed before the third step. They have the powerful build of the ogres as well as the long life bestowed by the second step, without the hunger satiation of the third step. Trolls are consumed by hunger. Every growing and regenerating, but constantly insatiably hungry. Some few manage to transmute their hunger into a hunger for immaterial things like knowledge, but most hunger after food and sensation. Conventional trolls live in swamps and forests, especially in the Sundown Bog and the northern parts of the Jungle of Fangs. They are also common in the western parts of the Great Rift.
Most adventurers know that fire or acid are your friends against the common troll, but there are whispered reports of more exotic troll-kin who can only be truly harmed by other means.
Unlike ogres, trolls are known to be clever thinkers, as long as there's food to be had. Females tend to bear litters of young, but the insatiable hunger of both parents and children leads to high infant mortality. Only few trolls make it to adulthood, and the more civilized tribes intentionally keep their numbers down by one means or another, so as not to denude their habitats. Those tribes that don't are generally wiped out by their neighbors once they start swarming.
Ettin
The rarest of the giant-kin, these are they who failed after the first BECOME step, but before the next line took hold. They have the long life and size and strength of ogres and trolls, but do not have the insatiable hunger. Instead they are bound to the land. Their failure takes the form of mutations--generally either two heads (the classic ettin) or only a single eye (the so-called cyclops). Standing closer to 16 feet tall, their minds are slightly warped by the runic energies. Those with two heads are prone to bickering among themself, but can learn powerful arts if they agree. Cyclopean ettin are very focused on specific pursuits. In either case, the stereotype of ettins is laziness. Because the step they (or their ancestors) failed was VALUE WORK. Unlike trolls, they are only marginally fertile, and only sometimes breed true. They are found most commonly as individuals or mated pairs, and are not common anywhere.
