Alter Aeon The Great Library

Welcome to the Alter Aeon Historical Archive!

Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  13793
Title: a book entitled "The Giant Pyramid Builders"

In ancient times, giants flourished across the mainland. They built great
civilizations that spanned from ocean to ocean. Their only competition was
the children of Tempus and fairy lords that dominated the world during the
last days of the Age of Creation. Their civilizations disappeared near the
beginning of the upheaval of the Age of Chaos in a catastrophic event known
as Skyfall. Their descendants are believed to live on today as the various
races of giants.

Whatever they called themselves has been lost in antiquity. They are often
called the Giant Pyramid Builders due to their propensity to construct huge
earthen mounds and stone pyramids. Some scholars, finding this title to
cumbersome, instead refer to them as the Progenitor Giants or simply the
Progenitors. Some scholars identify the Progenitors with the Titans of old.

As to how the different types of giants arose today, there are many
theories. Modern giants are extremely diverse in form, culture and
language. Many are actively hostile towards other groups.

One theory  holds that the different civilizations of Progenitors were
already racially divergent when they were founded. This theory contends
that the common ancestors of giants are even more ancient than the
Progenitors.

One of the more popular theories is sometimes called the Big Utopia Theory.
In this scenario, Progenitor society is composed of different races of
giants all living together in harmony.

Another theory proposes that Progenitor civilizations may have had rigid
caste systems. They would have bred different kinds of giant for various
purposes. This theory is not popular.

The most commonly accepted theory is that the Progenitors were a singular
race of giants that somehow diversified after their civilizations fell and
the survivors scattered. This theory has some viable evidence to support it
-- Progenitors often mummified their dead. Many well-preserved bodies have
been studied. They average between nine and fourteen feet in height, and
they do not retain any discernable elemental associations.

The giants living closest to known Progenitor sites are the desert giants
of the Ash Desert and the mountain giants of Cornia. Both of these
varieties of giant have weak elemental associations and are between seven
and fifteen feet tall. The desert giants in particular retain legends about
their ancestors, centered around the pyramidal ruins of the Progenitors.

However, this is not conclusive. The firbolgs of the western forests of
Suboria are another small race of non-elemental giant. They live far from
known Progenitor ruins. On the other end of the scale, the stone giants of
the Ash Mountains average between twenty and thirty feet tall and have an
overwhelmingly strong elemental earth affinity.

The mysteries of the Giant Pyramid Builders will likely remain unsolved,
until new evidence is discovered or a new method of study is devised. It
should also be noted that not all races called giants are necessarily
descendents of the Progenitors. For example, the so-called "shadow giants"
that fought in the Great Wars are, by their own accounts, descended from
matings between evil gods and sak'trids, a type of demon that is itself
derived from hybrid demon-human stock.