Regarding Frost Giants
by Cab DavidsonFrom the journal of Averyx, Immortal of Time, finder of lost Gods and patron of the Alphatian Expansionist Movement, etc.
Regarding Frost Giants, part 1. Raiding.
Frost Giants have a reputation for being fearsome predators, raiders par excellence. They seem to commit acts of random, cruel destruction for no purpose other than a need to spread chaos. And yes, they do love a scrap. They enjoy tormenting species they see as 'lesser', and their lust for treasure rivals even that of the amber dragons. But there is method behind their madness. There are patterns to their raids, and once you understand this you may come to fear something greater again than the giants themselves.
Marauding frost giants take three things when they raid. Firstly, food. They not only need to eat like everyone else but they also take immense delight in sharing good food and feasting. I would actually urge you to attend a frost giant feast if you're ever invited, their bright halls in ice are as raucous as as a dwarven bachelor party and as saucy as a halfling hen night. Seriously, no party is quite like a frost giant party, but make sure the form you take is one that can metabolise frost distilled ale. Secondly, treasures - they appreciate art, jewels, and coin as much as the next murderous killer, and they trade these with other creatures for the things they need to further their other goals. And, last but by no means least, components for their great ships. In fact 'ships' really doesn't really do them justice - the vessels constructed by the frost giants may be among the most awe inspiring creations of any mortals.
And the components they need? Ahh. Thats where the whole thing takes rather a sinister note. You see, to create their great frost ships (which they know as krigsskip) necessitates that they extract the essence of their foes. The times you've read of the mutilation of farmers, villagers and townspeople by frost giants? Those times the Forestholmes of the Elves seem to be randomly raided and elves broken on trees seemingly for sport? Yes, that. Its an horrific business. But perhaps you'll understand what its all about soon.
Regarding Frost Giants part 2. The Islinse
In the great ice flows reside the Jarls of the Frost Giants. And deepest within their halls reside their shamen, which they refer to as Volva. And it is the Volva who need the sinister components extracted from magic capable sentient species that are used in rituals taking centuries to complete. In fact it is quite unheard of that a Volva starting such a ritual will finish it, it is more normal for the great grandchildren thereof to complete the work.
At the heart of a great hall of frost giants is the Islinse. Or, ice lens. It is a slowly created, worked disc of the purest ice, thirty or fourty feet across, with a surface so perfect that other than for a slight curvature magnifying what is beyond, it is barely visible. This lens focuses energy that isn't from light, not sunlight or starlight, but energy that emanates from the dimensional vortex itself. Dimensional emanations are collected and focussed on the components taken on frost giant raids, the parts that most store magical energies, the biological vessels of arcane knowledge and ability. And this interaction, the focussing of dimensional potency, allows the distillation of a material that is the most jealously guarded secret of the frost giants -oil of phasing.
Typically a few drops of oil of phasing can be created in each raiding season, and this precious material is the basis of the great phase ships of the frost giants.
The islinse can also be used for creating magical items, casting spells, and numerous other secret crafts of the frost giants. That is a topic of another discussion. For now, I shall focus on the phase ships (or krigsskip as the frost giants call them) that are truly the most miraculous thing frost giants have achieved.
Regarding Frost Giants part 3 - Krigsskip
Over the course of centuries, sufficient oil of phasing can be distilled to allow the frost giants to construct a krigsskip. The krigsskip resembles a longship, such as any of the strange helmeted fellows of the Northern Reaches may employ, with three important differences. Firstly, the krigsskip is carved from pure ice. Secondly, it is an enormous vessel that can comfortably fit a crew of 40 frost giants. And, perhaps most importantly of all, the inclusion of oil of phasing in its construction allows it, and all it carries, to travel through ice or snow as long as the frost giants choose to row it. Essentially a bubble of dimensional reality is formed around the ship and for as long as it is in or on ice or snow it can move unimpeded, in any direction. It may also float in the open sea, and as long as a frost giant is aboard it cannot melt or degrade in any temperature of water.
The krigsskip is the reason why a hard winter is so feared in Norwold. The presence of snow fields connecting to the ice bridge to Frosthaven creates a continuous corridor all the way to the Great Bay, and in particularly hard winters the Krigssips can reach Oceansend and beyond, quite unimpeded, through weather conditions and terrain that would stop even the hardiest of other creatures. They can strike a targets without warning, taking what they need, and what they desire, with few defenders being able to resist. And these attacks, as previously stated, seem completely random. But I can tell you from long study that they are not. There is a pattern - their need for what they call 'component', the magical essence of sentient creatures, is deeply felt. The construction of krigsskips is a driver far greater than merely sating their desire to feast or for plunder. And I think perhaps when I explain why you may have a little more sympathy for the frost giants...
Regarding Frost Giants - Part 4 - Portals to the Nine Realms
We all know what a portal to another plane looks like, don't we? Yes? And we all know where the most important ones are? Thats well recorded?
Well I'm afraid you're all wrong. You know where some of them are. You know the ones above the ground or possibly those within caves. You may even be aware of some under the ocean. But did you ever stop to consider that there may be more in places beyond your simple imaginings? Why should there not be a portal to another plane within the stone of a mountain? Or, perhaps, deep within the polar ice or within the deepest glaciers? And what of those portals? Who watches them? Who uses them? And who guards them?
To be a frost giant is more than to be a self pleasing raider. It is more than being a rampaging, murdering thief. To be a frost giant is to be a protector of sacred secrets, a footsoldier against horrors that may come. A defender of realities in the simplest and truest sense of the words. And the frost giants both traverse the nine planes known to them, and guard the portals to those planes from those who would misuse them. Frost giants are the reason that the fearsome druagr are rare on Mystara. Frost giants keep the strange pesta and mare at bay. And it is the cold blood of frost giants piloting krigsskip that is spilled protecting all realms from the terrible horrors that emerge from the dimensional vortex.
The frost giants are cold, in every sense of the world. They are remorseless, cruel, and vicious. But there is method in what appears to be madness - they do what they do because they must. Because someone must. And in that cause they commit the most horrific acts, with the holy certainty that they must. And I wonder, considering the harshness of the terrain they must do this within, could you or I derive a better way?