Goliath
Goliaths is a nomadic race of humanoids native to the mountainous regions of Toril. Few folks can claim to have seen a goliath, and fewer still can claim friendship with them. Goliaths wander a bleak realm of rock, wind, and cold. Their bodies look as if they are carved from mountain stone and give them great physical power. Their spirits take after the wandering wind, making them nomads who wander from peak to peak. Their hearts are infused with the cold regard of their frigid realm, leaving each goliath with the responsibility to earn a place in the tribe or die trying.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Goliaths are massive. They average between 7 to 8 feet (2.1 to 2.4 meters) tall, making them even taller than dragonborn and half-orcs. Goliaths have noticeably bony or prominent supraorbital ridges above their eyes. Goliath eyes were often a bright blue or green and sometimes glowed a little. Goliath skin is often gray or brown and extremely tough (often compared to stone). One of the most distinctive features of the goliath is the darker (often vertically symmetrical) patches of skin that cover their entire bodies. Goliaths believe that these markings somehow explain or control their fate or destiny. For this reason, goliaths never tattoo themselves as this can affect their future.
Basic Traits
Ability Score Increase: Strength score increases by 2 and Constitution score increases by 1.
Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.
Natural Athlete: Proficiency in the Athletics skill.
Stone’s Endurance: When taking damage, use a reaction to roll a d12. Add Constitution modifier to the number rolled and reduce the damage by that total. After this trait is used, it can’t be used again until you finish a short or long rest.
Powerful Build: Count as one size larger when determining carrying capacity and the weight one can push, drag, or lift.
Mountain Born: Resistance to cold damage and acclimated to high altitude, including elevations above 20,000 feet.
Language: Can speak, read, and write Common and Giant.
Source: Volo's Guide to Monsters
Additional Information
Social Structure
Goliaths live in small tribes that numbered between forty and sixty goliaths. This is usually made up of three to five extended families. Most goliaths live in the same tribe their entire life. On rare occasions, a tribe that gets too large splits into smaller tribes, or smaller tribes will merge together. Goliath tribes have a number of key roles that are filled by the most capable members, including the Chieftain, Skywatchers (Shaman) and Tent-Mothers. Tribe chieftains only maintain power as long as they can prove they are capable of taking up the responsibilities. As a result, leadership constantly changes. New leaders are chosen by contests. Any goliath can challenge the chieftain in an attempt to replace them. If this happened, the chieftain and the challenger compete in three tasks. The challenger has to win all three to become the new chieftain. The old chieftain would then leave the tribe permanently. The competitive nature of goliaths means that the attitude and achievements of one would quickly inspire the whole tribe. Individuals within tribes are constantly trying to outdo each other's good deeds. Because of their risk-taking, goliath tribes suffer from a chronic lack of the experience offered by long-term leaders. They hope for innate wisdom in their leadership, for they can rarely count on wisdom grown with age.
Among goliaths, any adult who can’t contribute to the tribe is expelled. A lone goliath has little chance of survival, especially an older or weaker one. Goliaths have little pity for adults who can’t take care of themselves, though a sick or injured individual is treated, as a result of the goliath concept of fair play.
In some ways, the goliath drive to outdo themselves feeds into the grim inevitability of their decline and death. A goliath would much rather die in battle, at the peak of strength and skill, than endure the slow decay of old age. Few folks have ever met an elderly goliath, and even those goliaths who have left their people grapple with the urge to give up their lives as their physical skills decay.
The worst punishment a goliath can receive is exile. Before being exiled the chieftain assigns a new honorific middle name to the goliath. Exile is also the fate of the old, weak, or badly injured who cannot contribute to the tribe. It should be noted that these individuals would receive a lament to commemorate their lives before their exile, however, criminals receive no such treatment.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Goliath tribes are not large or permanent as the mountain terrain does not allow for such settlements. Temporary villages would be set up then disassemble and relocate every month or so.
Famous Goliath Locations
- Thesk Mountains
- Mountains of Copper
- Sunrise Mountains
- Icerim Mountains
- Mountain range around Chult
- Spine of the World
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Every goliath has three names: a birth name assigned by the newborn’s mother and father, a nickname assigned by the tribal chief, and a family or clan name. A birth name is up to three syllables long. Clan names are five syllables or more and end in a vowel.
Birth names are rarely linked to gender. Goliaths see females and males as equal in all things, and they find societies with roles divided by gender to be puzzling or worthy of mockery. To a goliath, the person who is best at a job should be the one tasked with doing it.
A goliath’s nickname is a description that can change on the whim of a chieftain or tribal elder. It refers to a notable deed, either a success or failure, committed by the goliath. Goliaths assign and use nicknames with their friends of other races, and change them to refer to an individual’s notable deeds.
Goliaths present all three names when identifying themselves, in the order of birth name, nickname, and clan name. In casual conversation, they use their nickname.
Birth Names: Aukan, Eglath, Gae-Al, Gauthak, Ilikan, Keothi, Kuori, Lo-Kag, Manneo, Maveith, Nalla, Orilo, Paavu, Pethani, Thalai, Thotham, Uthal, Vaunea, Vimak
Nicknames: Bearkiller, Dawncaller, Fearless, Flintfinder, Horncarver, Keeneye, Lonehunter, Longleaper, Rootsmasher, Skywatcher, Steadyhand, Threadtwister, Twice-Orphaned, Twistedlimb, Wordpainter
Clan Names: Anakalathai, Elanithino, Gathakanathi, Kalagiano, Katho-Olavi, Kolae-Gileana, Ogolakanu, Thuliaga, Thunukalathi, Vaimei-Laga
Major Language Groups and Dialects
The language of the goliaths is Gol-Kaa and it is spoken exclusively for thousands of years. The language had only thirteen phonetic elements.
After interacting with dwarves and other races, the goliaths begin to learn languages like dwarvish, common and giant. Those tribes that learnt the written scripts of the dwarven language began to transcribe their oral traditions and history into carvings, cave paintings and even books.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
The cultures and traditions of goliath tribes vary from tribe to tribe and region to region but a number of traits were common across several tribes.
Goliaths have little empathy or pity for adults who cannot take care of themselves but they treat and take care of the injured and sick. Permanently injured goliaths are still expected to contribute in every way that they could.
Arts and crafting in goliath culture are limited by the resources they have at hand in the mountains. As a result, goliaths are skilled in crafts like flintknapping, tanning, stitching, creating simple pottery, bone-carving, and painting.
Goliath art is often colorful and expressive. Art is one of the few things that goliaths understand to be non-competitive; they fully appreciate that art cannot have a winner. Goliaths believe that art should be used to show people something they cannot see in the real world. Goliaths decorate their tents, caves, weapons, and clothes with abstract designs (often jagged, parallel lines and symbols that have astronomical significance).
Considering their competitive nature, it is not surprising that sports are often played by goliaths to improve their physical skills and pass time. Simple games included climbing, sprinting, and wrestling.
Most goliath tribes rever nature and the primal forces. Goliath shamans are known as Skywatchers or Sunspeakers.
History
It is unclear how old the goliath race is or where they originally come from, but it is commonly believed that they are somehow related to stone giants or earth genasi. Another origin story claim that the first goliaths are humans who sought answers from their gods. These individuals climbed the Columns of the Sky mountain range to seek parley with their gods and the journey to the peaks turned the seekers into the first goliaths.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Goliaths are particularly fond of dwarves and have great respect for dwarven blacksmiths. Some goliaths even venture into mountain tunnels to seek out dwarves to trade with. Human rangers or druids are known to sometimes work together with goliath tribes in hunts. Both the humans and goliaths can mutually benefit from these temporary alliances.
Attitudes towards giants vary. Some tribes trade with giants. Giant weapons are not as well crafted as dwarven ones, but they are a far more suitable size. Some giants, however, would try and make goliaths into slaves. This leads to conflicts and goliaths being wary of giants.
Why go on an adventure?
- Are you a sellsword?
- Maybe you are an outcast of your tribe?
- You venture down the mountains just to prove yourself among your peers?
Comments