brute giants

Before the Third Age, brute giants history was mostly tied to other giants.   Brute Giants are one of the few giant subspecies that has surviving enclaves on every major continent.   Physically, brute giants look like giant Sasquatches.   Recent History and Distribution: Brute giants have had very little impact on greater events in the Third Age. Despite their formidable size and strength, brute giants are not very brutish at all. They are surprisingly shy and timid for their size. humans, elves, and dragons have been able to bully individuals or small groups of brute giants into servitude, including cases where the brute giants are actually stronger than their supposed masters, especially if their masters are capable of any flashy magic.   Frequently, these would-be dominators eventually push to far and the brute giants turn on their former masters. While cowardly by nature, brute giants will display bravery defending their young. Also, if a third party threatens their masters, the brute giants are cunning enough to take advantage of the situation and turn on their masters. A number of allegorical tales of this have caused the practice of enslaving brute giants to gradually fall out of favor.   Most brute giants want little more than to be left alone by other races and live peacefully. A small number of brute giants break the mold and truly live up to the name "brute giant". They are tired of being pushed around by other races and respond to outsiders with aggression, sometimes preemptive aggression. Most of these violent brute giants are loners but of them dominate small groups of their own kind and impress their aggressive values on the weaker giants they lord over.   Life cycle and Society: Most modern brute giants live in forested hill country. They are perfectly content to live in mountains but will leave if they encounter any scale giants or hostile dragons. Brute giants have a general loyalty to others of their race, but they do not form tribes. Most brute giants are solitary or they travel with their mates and young. If food is plentiful enough, brute giants have been known to travel in bands of a dozen or more, but this is uncommon.   Male and female dragons are roughly the same size. Most brute giants are egalitarian in gender roles. Brute giants adults tend to range between ten feet and twelve feet tall when fully grown and weigh between 1500 and 2000 pounds. Every member of a family or band does what they can to help the group survive.   Brute giants are reach adolescence around forty years of age and are typically fully grown by age eighty. Female brute giants remain fertile until early in their third century. Pregnancies take about two years. Brute giant females give birth to a single child a time. Brute giants that avoid a violent death can expect to live over five centuries, but this is rare.   Brute giants normally mate for life though it is common for mated couples to spend time apart between child rearing, especially when food is scarce. Brute giant young can expect one or both parents caring for them this full time until adolescence when they are expected to start taking care of themselves (though they still maintain their family ties).     Religious Practices: Each generation of brute giants sees the occasional births of favored souls of both Mera and Korus. This keeps the race as a whole favorable to both deities though their prayers and worship are pretty informal as a rule. A rare few brute giant aggressors have taken to worshiping Maylar. It is almost unheard of for brute giants to worship the rest of the Nine unless they are aping the religious practice of a non-giant master.