Blood of Giant Kings Feat

[Anonymous]

Having read The Hour of the Dragon recetnly I thought it would be cool to play around with variant templetes ( Spawn of Dagoth Hill, Salome, etc...) for PC's or NPC's that were of the Acheronian settelments in Nemedia or the ivory skinned ruling class of the Stygians.

To paraphrase: Xaltotun was said to be not only a wizard but of a race of wizards. The Giant Kings of pre human history more in touch with the elder gods around during the time fo the earths infancy.

Here is a raw templete:

Must be taken at First Level.

Everything is as creature save for the following

Low Light Vision
+2 Base Power Points
+2 Magic Attack bonus
-2 Str +2 Wis
-2 Fate Points
+2 Corruptions
Languages: Acheronian, Old Stygian
Favored Class Change to Scholar

I picked low light vision due to the discriptive nature Howard uses for the eyes (sorry dont have it in front of me) but luminous, or bright I seem to remember, plus a race of sorcerous dedicated to research to increase their power might have evolved better vision due to late nights studing under candle light.

Most templets go with a +4 BPP but I went with the split again to play up the hereditary socerous nature of this pre human race of pwerful beings. Perhaps a +2 to MPP is to high and some might say +1 is appropriate but all the templetes seem to favr the +4 to BPP and I wanted to spice it up.

The abilities could be debated easily enough. I went with str because it made sense plus a sorc uses con for concentration checks. The +2 could be applied to Int for studing but I went with more the inherent sorcerous power of the race. This might seem cheesed out to give the bwis onus to BPP which almost makes up for the BPP/MPP split. Hell I almost went with Charisma because the word king is used to describe them. I know it might be metephorical in some casees but even the more reason. but I went with Con in the end.

Everything else seemed standard and well enough not to be tampered with. What are your thoughts and what would you change, add or take away?

 

[argo]

To paraphrase: Xaltotun was said to be not only a wizard but of a race of wizards. The Giant Kings of pre human history more in touch with the elder gods around during the time fo the earths infancy.

There is some room for intrepretation here. There seems to be a difference between the origional giant-kings who were not human, the nobility of ancient Acheron and Stygia who were humans that had mixed with the giant-kings (this would include Xaltotun IMHO), and the modern-day descendants of the Acheronians and Stygians who posess only the limited taint of their ancestors (SnP had a Acheronian race a while back that I liked). If I were to attemp to stat the origional non-human giant-kings I would be tempted to make them a LA +1 or so race, maybe size large and with quite a few other bennies besides. For Xaltotun and his brethren though a template sounds like a good idea so lets give that a shot.

Here is a raw templete:

Must be taken at First Level.

Everything is as creature save for the following

Low Light Vision

I like

+2 Base Power Points

Ok.

+2 Magic Attack bonus

Way too good, consider that a scholar 20 only gets a +10 BMAB and this seems very powerful. I would suggest you only give them +1 MAB.

-2 Str +2 Wis

I'm not sure what about being the mixed blood of the giant-kings would suggest a penalty to Str. Maybe a -2 to Dex instead? Xaltotun never seemd too light on his feet to me. The bonus to Wis is ok though a bonus to Cha instead might be more appropriate.

-2 Fate Points
+2 Corruptions
Languages: Acheronian, Old Stygian
Favored Class Change to Scholar

Seems pretty good overall. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

You are right about the interpretation being subjective. I was going off the first theory in the ROK about the Giant Kings.

I thought the +2 to MAB might be a bit much but it said they were of a race of wizards but a +1 is probably enough especially when you consider suchfeats that raise the MAB.

Good point on the Str aspect and Chr but nowhere does it say that the Giant Kings were bigger than Med size. This was a bit dissapointing to me as I was expecting godly beings at least 9' tall but the discriptions seem to favor a creature roughly 6'6" or higher. The stats for Xaltotun and Ashkiva (mispell) list them as Med size.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Darkstorm]

Argo is essentially correct in his summation of the bloodline of the Giant-Kings.

The Giant-Kings are non-human, semi-divine creatures able to procreate with humans. They are the literary equivilent of the Ahuras, Devas, Fallen Angels of legend. They were the prehuman civilization that the invaders destroyed in Stygia.

The nobility of Acheron/Ancient Stygia are the offspring of the sexual union between the Giant-Kings and human females. They are the equivilent of the Nephilim/ Giants of biblical legends. The Dragon-kings of ancient Persia are described with exactly the same traits as Xaltotun (white skin, glowing eyes, luminous face). They are great and powerful mages.

The invading Stygians that have had sexual relations with the nobility would create children with a taint of Giant-King blood. These children would still be presumably pretty potent as magic users. Thugra Khotan (Natohk) and Yara both appear to fit this profile. Both are described as being taller than Conan. Most Stygian mages are probably in this catagory.

Hope this helps

Dale Rippke
************

 

[Zul Daire]

Okay. So Xaltotun is essentaily the offspring of human and giant king. That is where I was getting confused thinking the Acheronians were of pure blood giant kings.

But what of Akvisha? (mispell) If she was around since Valusia she would have been of these pure blood giant race. But she is not described near a large creature as I can tell.

Anyway the info you both gave is extremly helpful. Your right about the MABB and Abilities.

And thanks all the cool backstory and biblical comparisons which put it in perspective. No only if I could find a copy of the Book of Enoch of a histocal book on the Dragon Kings of Persia...

Thanks again fellas!

 

[Zul-Daire]

Darkstorm,

I have been researching the web and on Amazon for books on the Nephilim or the Ahuras or the Dragon Kings of Persia.

That vague passage in Genesis right befiore the flood always facinated me and I recently discovered what the book of Enoch is.

I have found a few interesting books that offer historical background but was wondering if you had any suggestions for titles on the subject.

Just researching on the web and reading Amazon reveiws of certain books gave me some inspiration for plot ideas.

I read your essay which answered much of the questions I had for years about the Giant-Kings I figure you might have read some interesting books on the subject.

Thanks

 

[Darkstorm]

Zul-Daire,

The best book on the subject that I am aware of is FROM THE ASHES OF ANGELS, by Andrew Collins.

It is his belief that the remains of an advanced race gave the trappings of civilization to mankind shortly after the last Ice Age in the Middle East.

He examines the legends of the Persian Dragon Kings, the Nephilim, the Ahuras, all that stuff in pretty good detail.

Parts of it are a bit tedious (he goes on about vulture shamen) but it should answer a lot of your questions and maybe make you think up a few more...

Awesome book!

 

[Zul-Daire]

Thanks Darkstorm!

I piscked up the book today after work and about 70 pages into it.

All ready it has illuminated my perspective of the Giant-Kings, Acheronian, and the nobility of Old Stygia.

Not to mention the way these legends seem to have inspired Howard's writings in particullar "The Hyborian Age" essay and the first cataclysm comes to mind.

The haunted pyramids of Stygia predating that race comes to mind as well when Collins talks of the Nephilim responsible for the monolitic wonders.

At the same time it has a lot of info an a subject in Genesis I was always curious about.

Thanks for the awesome recommendation. It wil surely influence a few things going on in my current Hyborian campaign.

I had heard there were going to be similiar compilation books like THe COming of COnan the Cimmerian, such as Soloman Cain, a couple fther conan books, but what about Kull stories? Any compilatuion of Howard's Kull stories coming out. I would love to read up on the Age of Atlantis and the strange Elder Gods, Serpent Men and the like.

Thanks again Darkstorm!

 

[Zul-Daire]

I just finished this book and would recommend it to anyone who would like some inspiring backstory to utilize for the Giant Kings, the Sorcerors of Acheron and Stygian nobility.

How the author draws evidence of this pre-himan race makes me wonder what books Howard read that inspired him because the Hyborean Age themes echoed in this compilation of ancient history and mythology is eerie.

A couple fo points which brought a smile to my face.

1. The author uses words like countenence and anthromorphic as well as other Howardesque words repeatedly.

2. The last 100 pages the author actually references the Conan the Barbarian movie twice! Totally weird.

Anyway Darkstorm recomended this book to me because I was intereseted in the Giant Kings and I could not have asked for a better recommendation.

So thanks Darkstorm!

The book should be fairly easy to find as the Borders by my work had a copy which I picked up Saturday night.

From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen RaceAndrew Collins

 

[Darkstorm]

My guess is that Howard got ahold of a translation of the Shahnameh, the Persian Epic of the Kings. An English translation of it appeared in the mid-1880's so its quite possible that Howard had read it at one time. This is only a guess, however.

One cool thing in the Epic that deserves to be mention is the name of one of its neighboring nations, Turan. I haven't seen Turan appear in any other historical literature that I remember.