Thurs (5.5e Goliath with Frost Giant ancestry)
by Marc SaindonThe Goliath is not a species or race part of Mystara, although the case could be made that the Stalwart was an early attempt at a similar demihuman type. As for retconning the Goliath in Mystara with the new templates that include specific Giant ancestries, it would be rather be simple to just have some of these folks originate from the Plane of Jotunheim, where they serve as servitor folk to the greater Frost Giants, populating the cold realm in great numbers in a way equivalent to humans in Mystara, occupying a similar ecological niche.
At times when portals occur into Mystara, either intentionally through magic or by the breaking down of barriers between worlds when the temperature drops below -40 celsius, some tribes have poured in, either to quickly raid human settlements as part of the upcoming Ragnarok, or escape their status as minions and carve themselves a new home in the mountains.
Goliaths in the Northern Reaches would be called "Thurs" (a word used alternatively for a giant or ogre) to distinguish them from the great Jotunns (Giants). While they initially served antagonistic roles against the people of Vestland and Soderfjord, individual communities and a few mercenaries have made enough dealings with human communities to achieve some form of truce and even commerce, allowing some initial contacts that are not automatically violent exchanges. The Thurs mainly keep to their cold mountain peaks, as hunters and herders of goats and sheep.
Thurs tribes split along the lines of loyalists, who still support their Jotunn overlords (themselves fragmented in rival factions) and the prophetized Fimbulwinter war, and the independents (who still compete for resources among themselves) who want self-rule. Such rivalries within rivalries keep their numbers down and avoid having them overrun the humans in the valleys below. A few Jotunns with a grudge also make expeditions into Mystara to reclaim escaped tribes back into the fold and under their heel.
The volcanic regions of east Rockhome, near the Soderfjord border, might be suitable for a variant of Goliaths with Fire Giant ancestry, with ties to the fiery realm of Muspelheim instead of the cold realm of Jotunheim.
Thurisaz
The New 2024 Goliath (DnD 5e Species Deep Dive)
Image from: https://www.deviantart.com/calangoaventureiro/art/Orekko-The-Goliath-Barbarian-1121853892
