Book - Giant book on Giants

Giant Book on Giants - Chapter 1 - Downfall

It is agreed that nearly eighty-thousand years ago, the giants rose from the ashes of the Dragon-Fiend wars and flourished on the continent of Xen'Drik. It is known that they enslaved the elves while the elves were still relatively primitive to their current standards. For near twenty thousand years, giants ruled Xen'Drik and dominated the elves entirely. Things were essentially unchanged during that time as giants grew as a civilization. Near sixty-thousand years ago, dragons made contact with the giant kingdoms of Xen'Drik. They taught the giants arcane magic. This enabled the giants to create immense wonders that surpass todays' modern marvels. The giants, assuming the elves still too far beneath them, did not realize that the elves watched and learned…

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This chapter teaches Rhiannon that -40,000 YK the quori invaded Xen'drik from the plane of Dal Quor (plane of dreams). 1,000 years of battle lead to the giants calling upon the dragons most powerful magic. It is enough to throw Dal Quor out of planar alignment, and forever (assumingly) seals that plane away from Eberron. This was not without penalty, as massive chunks of Xen'drik are plunged into the sea, forever lost to the tides. Horrible curses and plagues sweep through the land, even 1,000 years later. The elves of Xen'Drik use this as a chance to rebel against their enslavers. A group of elves called the Phiarlan or "Spirit Keepers" work as bards, scouts, and couriers during the rebellion. In an attempt to regain control of their slaves and save their dying civilization, the giants turn to the powerful dragon magic once more. Before they can unleash another wave of destruction, like before, the dragons attack Xen'Drik and cause the collapse of the giant civilization as we know it. The Phiarlan spread the word of the elven prophet Aeren, gathering elves to flee Xen'Drik for the sub-continent that eventually became known as Aerenal. The elves who stayed on Xen'Drik eventually went into hiding and became the drow or dark elves.

Giant Book on Giants - Chapter 2 - Empires

Whether or not the giants ever rose to form a single empire is something scholars still debate upon. There are, however, known tribes, clans, kingdoms, and individual empires. Each one seemed to focus on whatever their progenitor titans taught them. At the beginning of the Age of Giants, some 80,000 years ago, giants formed a major civilization on Xen'drik. They were closer to the titans in power, than modern day giants. Though they built this civilization through the slavery of eladrin from the feyspire of Shae Tirias Tolai (which created elves as we know them). Once dragons made contact with the giants around 60,000 years ago, the giants were able to gain mastery of the arcane. They created incredible cities and items through this. Current magical techniques like Elemental Binding and even the creation of warforged, can be traced back to this...

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This chapter teaches Rhiannon about five different giant groups.

1. The Cul'sir Empire. It created an integrated society of cloud giants and storm giants, ruled by the titan Cul'sir. His throne was in what we now call Stormreach. They focused their resources on developing a thriving society, with large infrastructure and civil arcane research. This led them to them becoming the preeminent civilization of Xen'drik for millennia leading up to the quori invasion.
2. The Su'lat League were a group of fire giant mages skilled at elemental binding and other arcane techniques. They are credited with creating the drow and the Sulatar drow currently seek to imitate their magical skill.
3. The Cor'dan Empire was one of the mightiest giant civilizations before the quori invasion. They were masters of schemas, docents and constructs.
4. The Eshtarn Empire are noted for fielding cabals of storm giants against the quori that were capable of calling down lightning strikes on their foes.
5. The Group of Eleven was a faction of giants that battled the quori.

Chapter 3 - Magic

The gift of power, magic. With it, the giants were able to gain full control of the world around them. They grew new cultures, beliefs, and studies. They moved away from the savagery that they once clung to, and turned to philosophy and learning. Their growth alongside of magic was exponential. While there were certainly clashes of ideals and practices; they were all trying to better themselves with this power. They thirsted for this power, and it is in this initial thirst that the dragons grew worried. They sought to guide the Giants in the ways of magic. They took notice of the creatures the Giants enslaved. The giants were able to tap into a raw form of magic, the elements that align with Kythri. They began to craft new runes, powerful words that could imbue both people and objects with power from Kythri...

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This chapter teaches Rhiannon about why giant's magic was so powerful and dangerous. She learns:

1. The giants created runic power that could be transferred or allowed them to tap into the pure elements from the plane of Kythri, the churning chaos.
2. These could be placed on items, or imbued onto people.
3. They were done in such a way that their order affected their power. The book uses the following example: "If I were to take a rune of flames, Kot, and a rune of wind, Wyh, then I would get the runic power of Kot'Wyh, flame and wind. This would grant the power of throwing flames, either to a person or an item they held with the runes on them."
4. This was seen as incredibly dangerous, something that could be seen in modern times as the ability to create dragonmarks, and control the effects they bestow.
5. Many scholars have attempted to re-create this power, but it seems either broken, or there are missing pieces. The author has lost friends and colleagues to these deadly attempts of elemental control.

Chapter 4 - Elemental Binding

It is my understanding that, though they learned and were granted power by the Dragons, it was the Giants that first began the binding of elementals to objects. It was not enough to begin crafting runes through connection to Kythri. They eventually tapped into the plane itself (as they began to tap into others), for its raw power. This allowed them to begin calling upon elementals; beings native to the plane of Kythri. First they treated the elementals as they did other 'lesser races', using them for physical tasks. They learned that these elementals bring with them the power of the plane of Kythri. Before long they tasked the elementals with magical jobs; forging weapons, imbuing runes, creating rain, culling old growth, etc. I am uncertain exactly when the discovery was made, but in their ancient texts, the discovery was groundbreaking. It was the discovery that an elemental could be, not only commanded, but imprisoned within specially crafted objects. They called these items Mahk Gorrum, Maker's Gaol (Jail/Prison). The uses of the Mahk Gorrum were simple in use and design. They used air elementals move massive payloads on platforms, similar to Floating Disk yet far more powerful. Eventually, they would use this magic in the Dragon's war against the Giants.

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This teaches Rhiannon about the first uses of elemental binding, which is a tradition now to several houses; but none as efficient at it than House Lyrandar. Even at that, they are orders of magnitude weaker than what the Giants were once capable of.