History
According to the Hoar Frost Giants, they have ruled the Krond Heights since the War of the Gods, nay, since the Fall of the Titans! Their might cowed the land, and none dare stand before them! The dwarves, who were here before, they fell because they sought to unseat the giants from their rightful place! The goblins creep beneath their feet, and the men, whom the gods favored, now kneel to the mighty kings of the Hoar Frost!
The facts are not quite so clear as that, but there is truth in what they say. The giants of the Krond Heights have never been seriously challenged for supremacy. Their politics and internal wars aside, they have long lived on the mountain peaks, with only one clear challenger, and She is content to let them play their games so long as it does not interfere with Her contemplations. When the K’Ran’dan dwarves held sway underground, some thousand years ago, they did not challenge the giants seriously, only win temporary victories that were wiped away as the giants shifted against them. The Helvetians who once lived in the hills did not challenge the giants, but brooked no interference with their lives. With the fall of K’Ran’da came the gargoyles, who moved into the Helvetian ruins, but they lacked the might and organization to seriously challenge giantish control.
Those who served the giants shifted as time went on, as well. Ogres have remained largely constant, but orcs are relative newcomers. Prior to the dissolution of the empire of Kruk-ma-Kali, hobgoblins were common in the mountains, spilling out through the Odrill Hills to harry Brandobia. After that, most of their population shifted south, to Norga-Krangrel. The human inhabitants were primarily small, isolated groups of Dejy, western relatives of the lowland Bylenjy, until approximately 60 B.I.R. (Before Imperial Reckoning, the Kalamaran Standard; Year of the King 421 by the Brandobian standard).
Trade between Brandobia and the nascent Eastern Brandobia had expanded to the point where the Krond Heights were being heavily explored for settlement and resources, both by human and halfling explorers. This put pressure on the hobgoblins, who began to gather in numbers, avoiding the poor settlers and natives, in preparation for war with Eastern Brandobia.The giants, who had been weakened by a recent ill-advised adventure (wherein several clans competed and failed to kill a dragon), allowed the smaller races two giantish generations, nearly eighty years, to establish themselves. Giantish recovery and demand for tribute coincided with the rise of the empire of Kruk-ma-Kali, meaning there were no troops available to defend the settlers’ descendants; Eastern Brandobia was in turmoil, and Brandobia herself had no blood to spend on a few hundred scattered settlers contending with giants. Faced with the rapaciousness of the goblins and the violent whimsy of the giants, the humans submitted to the giants, while the halflings fell under goblin rule. When Kruk-ma-Kali’s empire fell thirteen years later, the hobgoblins moved south, away from the Krond Heights and towards their current range in Norga-Krangrel.
The Brandobian settlers of the Krond Heights integrated with the Dejy natives, and were absorbed into their lives and cultures; while Brandobian words and grammar survive, muddled, in the language, and Brandobian skills in the culture, much of the lives of the humans proceeds at a Dejy pace, regulated by the seasonal migration of alpaca, llama, and avledor. From the east, north, and below came orcs, filling much of the vacuum left by the hobgoblins; the modern orc of the Krond Heights is a mix of sn’orc blood from the north, gray orc blood from the Netherdeep, and common orc stock from the Sanakir and Shashyf Hills. The orcs quickly fell into the service of the giants, after contending briefly with the capritaurs and gargoyles.
Human Highlands, Halfling River Bottoms
Humans
The humans of the Krond Heights are the mixed descendants of Brandobian explorers and Dejy natives of a stock closely related to the Bylenjy of the Shadesh West. They speak a difficult language, mixing Brandobian and Dejy vocabulary and grammar in ways that will cause masters of either language to cringe. In many respects, their culture and technology resemble the Dejy of a thousand years ago, before the coming of the Brandobians; their stone or wattle and daub houses look the same, they raise the same mix of llamas, alpacas, and avledors, and their clothes are even the same. But a few new grains have been brought in, and they have kept the Brandobian skill of smithing with heat and iron, not the cold copper working of the Dejy.
Most human villages will have several families, but less than one hundred people. The different families will work different crops at different altitudes, then combine and share with the families responsible for herding and those who work the fruit orchards and vegetable gardens. Trade between villages with a single overlord is encouraged, allowing certain specialists to be more widely scattered; not every cluster of houses needs its own smith or potter, and mages are thinly scattered. Trade also encourages familial bonds between villages, so there is usually a cousin or an aunt or a second cousin three times removed who married your brother’s wife’s cousin.
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New Proficiency: Yodeling (2/4 BP)
Yodeling is a technique of using varying pitched calls to make oneself heard over extremely long distances. For 2 BP, one can understand yodeled information, provided one speaks the language being used. For 4 BP, one can also communicate by yodel.
By making a Musician (Singing) check, a skilled yodeler can be heard for one mile per mastery level, under ideal conditions (relatively clear, with rock faces and other objects to reflect the sound). Communication by yodel is a slow process, typically taking ten times as long as a normal conversation, and save by speaking in code, there is no way to conceal the information conveyed.
Prerequisite: None for 2 BP version; Musician (Singing) at novice or better mastery for 4 BP version.
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Relatively few “free” human villages exist; almost all owe fealty to a nearby giant. Depending on the giant, what this means can vary greatly; some giants merely take a portion of the harvest, others insist that the humans explicitly support a certain clan of ogres or tribe of orcs, and some install overseers to rule over the village and ensure the giant gets their fair cut. Ostensibly, the giants protect their human thralls from the goblins, orcs, and other humanoids, but this is largely notional; owing fealty to one giant makes a village a target of another, and there is little a giant lord will do to protect his thralls from an orc or ogre who abuses them. The closest to comfort that a giant will offer is that if a village is raided, he will avenge the insult to his property; hoar frost giants give new meaning to “cold comfort”.
Humans of the highlands are not allowed swords, long bows, crossbows, or any spear over about 6’ in length; longer spears may be allowed, until a giant, or, more likely, one of its shorter servants, chooses to take offense. Humans are likewise not allowed shields or metal armors. Padded and leather armors are fairly common, however, and the humans are fond of brigandine, using pieces of metal (often copper, sometimes iron) sandwiched between two layers of leather. To giant eyes, it’s not metal armor, but it gives a bit more protection than studded leather (roughly equivalent to ring mail; if made with copper instead of iron, reduce its DR by 1 and weight by 5 pounds). By law in most giant territories, human mages must be apprenticed to giantish masters, and earn any further training from them. A mage might self-train from time to time without issue, but advancing too far without returning to their master will arouse suspicion.
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Sidebar: Humans and Giants
Humans (and orcs) serving giants are in an odd position; there are many things they can do better than giants, simply because their scale is so much finer than that of the giants, and there are many things they cannot do well because giantish scales are so much grander. A human making a giant’s bed must contend with twenty foot blankets. Mending clothing is not work for a seamstress, but a leatherworker, as thread will never hold together their massive clothes. Humans are valued for detail work, human smiths for their ability to make weapons suitable for orcs and ogres, and human mages for their alchemical precision, as well as their ability to be coerced into work the giants don’t want to do, regardless of their suitability.
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A peculiar mode of transport is often used in the winter and wherever there is snowpack. While some use the snowshoes common to the Shadesh West, also common among the mountain villages are skis. One ski (often the right, for a right-handed person) will be large and relatively wide; perhaps five or six feet long, and half again as wide as the boot. The other ski is shorter, only one or two feet longer than the foot it is attached to. Often, when travelling uphill, this shorter ski will be wrapped in leather or fur, to provide traction, while a long pole will be used to provide balance and additional leverage. On the downhill, the skier will put their weight on the longer ski, leaning back and using the long pole as a rudder, and the shorter ski for balance.
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Sidebar: Skiing
The people of the Krond Heights use asymmetrical skis, which work well with the rugged, rocky, terrain. In skis, any snow-covered terrain that is less than Open becomes one category easier. Additionally, skis allow jogging, running, or sprinting speeds to be maintained indefinitely on a downhill.
There are difficulties, however. Fighting while in skis provides an additional 2 point penalty to attack and defense, in addition to the penalties caused by any protective clothing that might be worn; removing the larger ski is usually fairly easy, taking only 10 seconds or so, but the smaller ski is often tied more tightly, requiring 15-20 seconds to remove, plus any time one must take to remove gloves or mittens. Bindings of either ski can be cut, requiring only 3 seconds per ski. Skis are also relatively heavy; the longer ski can be another ten pounds of weight, the shorter another five or six, and the pole is at least four, which can add considerably to encumbrance and thus to fatigue.
Downhill skiing is also difficult to manage balance. At 10 feet/second or less, proficient skiers do not need a Feat of Agility. At 15 feet/second or more, a Feat of Agility v. d20p is necessary to maintain balance; this is checked when accelerating to that speed, or every few minutes, as determined by the GM. Every 10 feet per second above 10, the d20p adds +1 (so, +1 at 20, +2 at 30, etc.) Failure on the Feat of Agility either increases speed by an additional 5 feet per second, requiring another Feat of Agility (at a possibly greater difficulty), or the skier can choose to fall, taking damage as if they had fallen a distance equal to their current speed in feet per second. If the Feat of Agility failed by fewer than 10 points, the fall is considered an anticipated one, and so effective speed is considered 10 feet per second slower (thus reducing fall damage). Remember to adjust falling damage for the landing surface! Non-proficient skiers must check at any speed above 5 feet per second, and the opposing d20p increases by 1 per 5 feet per second above 5 (so, +1 at 10, +2 at 15, +3 at 20, etc.). Symmetrical skis (not used in the Krond Heights, but used elsewhere) add 2 points to the Feat of Agility roll, but require the failure to be within 5 points to have an anticipated fall; not having a ski pole (or two poles, for symmetrical skiers) provides a -4 penalty to the roll.
Proficiency with skis is 2 BP. Not all natives of the Krond Heights are proficient with skis, but those who pursue it require only 1 BP. A talent for skiing, Adept Skier, confers a +2 to Feat of Agility checks resulting from skiing. The first purchase of Adept Skier is 5 BP; every subsequent purchase is 3 BP more expensive than the last. Giants, in particular, are avid skiers.
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Influence from the giants has made the humans embrace a rather odd version of the Emperor of Scorn as their chief deity; to the humans of the highlands, the giants are their natural superiors. They hate the halflings who abase themselves before the goblins. They hate the orcs and ogres who lord over them, but most do not resent the giants. The giants, after all, are their betters. They are stronger, wiser, live longer, and are more resilient. They are master smiths, and a human can only hope to be apprenticed to them. The giants have a strong musical tradition, much moreso than the wailing that human music produces. The Emperor of Scorn anointed the giants as his favorite; the humans are lucky to serve so illustrious of masters.
Or, at least, so goes the official line in the giant-held villages. Priests of lesser deities -- the Home Foundation and the Church of Life’s Fire have long-lost congregations in the Krond Heights -- hold to their own sacred concepts, and whisper their truths to their congregants, and a balance between the racial superiority doctrine of the Emperor, and the love of home, hearth, and field of his opponents, is the reality on the ground. It leads to an open disdain of halflings and those humans who live under the sway of goblins. Half-orc infants are exposed. Orcs and ogres are lesser than humans, but valued by the giants for their brute strength; they cannot match what humans can do, who, likewise, cannot match what giants can accomplish.
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