Hill Giant

Hill giants, called haugjotunen in their own language, were voracious, primitive giants defined by their gluttony. They were the least of the commonly recognized "true giants", the shortest in stature, weakest in mind, and lowest in rank according to the Ordning. Granted domain over the rolling hills by Annam All-Father millennia ago, they were masters of its slopes and deeply connected to the land itself.

Description

Hill giants normally stood around 16 feet (4.9 meters) tall, but males could reach about 17 feet (5.2 meters) in height, although some reports of giants from other worlds put them at around 10​ to ​10.5 feet (3​ to ​3.2 meters). Females tended to be a bit shorter, at 15 feet and ​5 inches​ to ​16 feet and ​4 inches (4.7​ to ​4.98 meters). Their reported weight was around 4,500 pounds (2,000 kilograms), but morbidly obese (and immobile) individuals were known to weigh over 10 tons (9,100 kilograms). Their skin was a deep, ruddy brown, but they could also be light tan in coloration as a result of a life spent under the sun. Their hair ranged from brown to black, and their eyes shared that color in addition to having red rims.

Hill giants were basically humanoid in shape, but had an oddly simian in appearance, with low foreheads, stooped shoulders, thick limbs, and elongated arms shared by both genders. Despite being the shortest of giants, they had larger and more muscular appendages than other giant breeds. They had a rugged, barbaric look, and if not for the lack of two heads could be mistaken for the relatively uncivilized ettins at a glance.

The traits that other races often saw as attractive were known to be considered strange and worthy of scorn to hill giants. Straight teeth, neat hair, unblemished skin, clear speech, and a lack of drool when eating were abnormal, if not repulsive traits. Their own sweat mixed with the reeking stench of the crude, rough animal hides they wore. Animal skins worn by hill giants were poorly stitched with hair and leather thongs, not stripped of fur, and rarely cleaned or repaired, since hill giants normally opted to simply add more skins on.

Personality

Hill giants were selfish and brutish bullies that, like other earth giants, often forced weaker creatures to do their bidding. They lived as uncivilized savages, surviving by foraging, hunting, and raiding for food when not coercing other, smaller beings into doing the work and feeding them.

Although prone to evil behaviors, a hill giant's acts of cruelty were normally more along the lines of angry reactions than deliberate decisions. They were short-tempered creatures whose form of chaotic evil was known to be defined by violent mood swings and losses of patience. They were likely to go on a violent rampage if they felt deceived, mocked, or otherwise humiliated, and in their tantrums would rage against the guilty and innocent alike until they calmed down, grew hungry, or were otherwise distracted. Their memories were also normally too short to hold grudges, with some reported to forget those they recently met after waking up (which conversely could mean that any previously built rapport could be forgotten).

However, while most hill giants (around 40-50%) conformed to the chaotic evil behavior commonly found among them, true neutral and even chaotic good hill giants were not totally unheard of.

Intelligence

Hill giants equated size with strength, functioning based on a "bigger is better" mentality. Smaller creatures, sentient or not, were prey to hunt with impunity, while larger creatures, like dragons and bigger giants, were dangerous adversaries. Following this logic, a hill giant of average intelligence might think to consume food in attempt to grow immense (not understanding biological limitations) and therefore superior. The idea that giants were stupid was perhaps the most commonly stated misconception surrounding them, but few kinds embodied the fallacious belief more than hill giants.

Hill giants were reckless, sluggish, and notoriously moronic, such that they would died out long ago if their great size and formidable power did not compensate for their dull wits and lazy disposition. Ironically, their mental weakness was partially perpetuated by their brute strength. Having never faced adversity that required adaptation and improvement, hill giants had managed to survive for millennia with their lacking ambition, living unchanged as barbarians with simple minds and underdeveloped emotions.

The least intelligent hill giants were mentally closer to beasts than civilized beings, while the brightest were above average compared to most humanoids. Hill giants were blunt and direct in conversation, and though reasoning with them was useless, they could be manipulated into taking certain actions by more clever creatures. They had little concept of deception, to the point where villagers standing on each other's shoulders could cover themselves in blankets and hold a large, circular object above themselves to fool a hill giant into fleeing from the opposing giant.

Hill giants were much like ogres in terms of mental prowess, being as intelligent, if not stupider, than the smaller giant-kin. Both had a tendency to be overly literal due to not thinking about their directions, misinterpreting even the simplest instructions due to their lacking consideration. However, though potentially less intelligent than ogres, hill giants shared with them an exceptional cunning, even outmatching them in craftiness. Though they themselves were easily susceptible to the schemes of others, both were capable of surprising feats of cleverness, albeit in pursuit of limited desires.

This article uses material from the “Hill Giant” article on the Forgotten Realms wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.