The Jotun

 

Now we are looking at the other major species largely unique to Kreos Phal.  To properly understand the modern Jotun we are going to have to start with a bit of history though.  In their current form they are the degenerate remnants of a once powerful Jotun Empire that controlled much of Gal Hadre and Kreos Phal.  During the last dragonstorm nearly all of that empire was destroyed, but a tiny outpost with a few hundred soldiers and their families survived, a little less than 500 all told.

Now the Jotun claim claim, seemingly accurately, that by that point the Jotun Empire had such an understanding of dragon magic that any and all Jotun could be trained to use at least basic spells and rituals.  So their plan for not just surviving, but thriving turned to magic.  Not surprisingly they realised that their numbers were both not sufficient for expanding but also a significant risk of inbreeding with such a small population.  Within a few centuries, they had developed magical rituals that effectively allowed them to create a clone of someone, though one that still required most of a pregnancy to develop.  Thus were created the second type, and now the vast majority of Jotun, the Mageborn; while the normal Jotun became known as the purebloods.

Quickly it was realised that despite their vast understanding of magic, there was no way for a mageborn to use magic.  Over decades of study it was determined that someone with no more than 1 mageborn grandparent could use magic.  Over the decades the two groups of Jotun began to diverge, as inbreeding became more of a problem for the purebloods and new ways of improving and augmenting the mageborn were developed and implemented.

The modern Jotun Mageborn stands between 11 and 12 feet tall, roughly proportional to humans with a southern european skin tone and dark hair and eyes.  They live for around 200 years and are considered adults at 25.   Despite being referred to collectively as mageborn, the majority of them are the result of normal, not magically induced pregnancies.

A pureblood on the other hand stands around 10 feet tall with similar skin, hair and eye colours to mageborn.  They only live for around 150 years and are also considered adults at 25.  The vast majority of purebloods suffer from some kind of effect of inbreeding as a result of such a small genepool for two millenia.   All of them are mages with at least moderate skill, many are very powerful.  In the current day, there are about 30 mageborn Jotun for every pureblood, a ratio that gets further skewed towards the mageborn with each generation.

Purebloods have skills with all the different paths of dragon magics, but their true mastery is in life magics and the magical manipulation of biology at a very minute level.  Part of this skill is being able to do it in ways that hold beyond a few moments allowing permanent changes to be made.  They don’t appear to have the same level of control as the ancient mage that created the Trollkin, but what they can do to an existing species is truly impressive.

The ancient, pre-dragonstorm Jotun probably had multiple ethnicities and given their apparently incredible understanding of magic it is possible that small numbers of them have survived in other ways.  Ruins from their ancient empire dot much of the known world and many modern cities are built over such ruins.  One particularly well preserved set of ruins exists on the island of Stelark in Aclimdan, off the southern coast of Gal Hadre.

They live in a land known now as the Jotunate, which is divided into 23 clans that are largely internally self-governing from the rule of the Grand Marshal of the Jotunate.  It is south of the Werd Kingdom of Gar’Hemun and east of the Sabul Oligarchy.  It includes much of the blackwell mountains and plains to the west of those mountains.

Jotun as a rule are very independently minded and dislike authority often settling issues through the use of formalised duelling system where each of the Jotun involved is given three “darts” which humans would consider javelins or throwing spears.  Duels are a popular spectator sport and there is much drinking and gambling by the spectators.

This independent streak goes to their military as well which is organised in loose groupings of 20 to 50 warriors who don’t fight in what any other species would consider to be coherent formations.  Being largely unwilling to risk their purebloods, who often couldn’t take the rigours of a campaign anyway, they frequently use enchanted items to protect from magical attacks and in some cases have bound offensive spells.  A small but valuable export from the Jotunate is a small trickle of enchanted weapons and items.

The Jotun purebloods have also in recent centuries turned their efforts towards augmenting animals, resulting in the black steeds, oversized horses able to support a Jotun warrior riding them.  Rumours also claim that they have been attempting to create gigantic war hounds the size of normal horses.

Jotun are known to be able to become werekind, perhaps the only non-humans that can do so.  The frequency of this occurring is incredibly rare, and most of the few known cases seem to have disappeared into the research facilities of the purebloods never to be seen again.  It does suggest a strong link to humanity however as not even Trollkin are affected by the infection.

They are likely the least numerous sentient species in the world (not including dragons), partially because they are almost entirely confined to the Jotunate and limited small expeditions outside its borders.  In the infrequent times they are seen, there are usually around half a dozen of them either merchants or explorers.

What do you think of the Jotun and their very ends justify the means way of living?  Would you want to play as a pureblood or mageborn?  Are Jotun or humans somehow built off the other?  If so by who?