Fire Giant

Fire giants are towering automata who wander the Geit homeworld, Jotun. They tower fifty to a hundred feet tall with armored brass skin. A smoldering crown emits a plume of smoke into the air above them. Due to their size and powerful weaponry, a single fire giant can pose a threat to even a well-armed ship. They often have reason to attack passing ships as well, as their diet consists of nectar, a fuel often found on merchant ships. Fire giants are often heard before they are seen, as their language consists of a whale-like song that can resonate for leagues across Jotun's glaciers. Any who hear these haunting melodies on Jotun's seas are advised to point their oars in the other direction.

Creation

When the Forger created the spheres, they were populated only be his terraforming machine constructs. Eventually, he decided that he would give creating life a try and created the fire giants--a mechanical facsimile of true life forms that the Forger viewed as his children. y. While the fire giants possessed some hallmarks of life as we know it, such as the ability to reproduce, they were still the creations of a mechanical being whose knowledge lie in great feats of engineering and, at the end of the day, knew and understood little about living beings.
As firsts drafts at life, the Forger felt his fire giants threatened when true organic life emerged on the spheres. He sent his Shapers on a genocidal campaign to wipe out organic life so his chosen creations could inherit the spheres. However, after a conflict known as The Saints' War, the Forger was imprisoned within The Forge and many of his fire giants died in the conflict. Without their father to watch over them, those who survived were left to wander Jotun's icy climes.

Combat

Fire giants are among the most powerful foes one can face on Jotun, owing to their weaponry and the scolding temperatures their bodies reach. In the wild, most fire giants emit a shield of heat that will melt most projectiles thrown at them. In order to damage them, ships will initiate their volleys with barrels of ice water to reduce the giants' temperature before moving on to heavier ordinance. When threatened, fire giants have a number of weapons at their disposal to defend themselves. Due to their size and heat, a fire giant's long limbs alone are enough to pose a serious threat to anyone who gets within striking range. Additionally, fire giants can channel that heat throuhgh flamethrowers in their arms to make for powerful close and midrange weapons. When seriously threatened, a fire giant will activate its core reactors to fire a capricorn beam out of its mouth. While this weapon is slow to recharge, it can decimate the hull of any ship it comes into contact with.

Spoils

The unique physiolgoy of a fire giant produces some materials highly valued among Geit society. Few Geit are foolish enough to go hunting for a fire giant, however some sons and daughters of clan cheiftains might lead their navies against one to prove themselves most worthy amidst their siblings to inherit their parents' clan. In addition to housing large quantities of nectar in their stomachs, fire giant blood has incredible warming properties that can melt snow and keep the ground warm in a given area for decades. The ancient geit relied on fire giant blood to establish permanent settlements through a process called consecration.
Fire giant hearts are also rare commodities. The Koan Empire used them to fashion weapons such as flamethrowers and Capricorn Beams. The heart of a young fire giant can also be used to create an embermuur, a powerful artifact capable of melting enough ice to house an entire city beneath Jotun's glaciers. The secrets of this rite were considered lost after Shrike betrayed the Geit Saints, however in ancient times Geit Cheiftains would sacrifice their first born in the Rite of Olaf to receive the hearts of young fire giants from the Forger following his imprisonment.

Ecology

Most Fire Giants seen today are nomadic or travel in small herds. However, they are able to communicate with each other over long distances through their songs. Exactly what they say remain a mystery to the Geit, as their language is so complex that its inner workings remain a mystery to even the scholars today. Fire giants wander the tops of Jotun's glaciers seeking ancient artifacts from which they can harvest nectar or ships that they can attack for it. Many tribes of White Druids also form symbiotic relationships with fire giants, following them across the tops of glaciers for their warmth and protecting them with their bows and mammoth cavalry if they are threateneed.
While appearing as machines, fire giants reproduce through live birth. It is unclear whether they mate or simply form copies of themselves in their wombs after certain intervals, but baby fire giants are sometimes found within the bellies of their mothers after a kill.
Rarely, fire giants can be found in groups much different from their typical ecological habits. Some still remain at The Forge, helping defend the ruin from intruders and rogue Shaper automata. These fire giants still benefit from The Forge as a power source, and do not need to drink nectar to survive. Another group of fire giants have formed an entire settlement in The Lost City of Saxon, where they have enslaved generations of Geit to scavenge for nectar and components of The Forge for them.