The most hideous and wicked of all
giantkind are the godless fomorians, whose deformed bodies reflect their vile demeanors. Some have facial features randomly distributed around their misshapen, warty heads. Others have limbs of grossly different sizes and shapes, or emit terrible howls each time they draw breath through misshapen mouths. Each one of them have had one of their eyes shifted across their face to the center as the other has withered away or closed shut on the side of their heads. Their wretched appearance rarely evokes sympathy, however, for the fomorians brought their doom upon themselves with the evil that rules their hearts and minds.
Curse of the Evil Eye
The
elves remember when the fomorians were among the most handsome of races, possessed of brilliant minds and unrivaled magical ability. Speculation suggests that during these times they were a race not too disimilar to
cloud giants in their stature. That physical perfection did not extend to their hearts, however, as a lust for magic and power consumed them.
During
the Founding the fomorians sought to conquer the
Feywild and enslave its
inhabitants, claiming those creatures’ magic for themselves. When the fey united to defend their realm, the fomorians fought them and were subjected to a terrible curse. One by one, the giants fell as their bodies were warped to reflect the evil in their hearts. Stripped of their grace and magical power, the wretched horrors fled from the light, delving deep beneath the world to nurse their hatred. Cursing their fate, they have ever after plotted vengeance against the fey that wronged them.
Fomorians can pass their curse onto others using a power called the evil eye — a last vestige of the giants’ once-remarkable spellcasting ability. A creature cursed by a fomorian’s evil eye is magically twisted and deformed, gaining a glimpse into the pain and malice that has consumed this evil race.
Giants of the Underdark
The fomorians dwell in eerily beautiful caverns in the Underdark, rarely venturing to the surface. Their lairs feature abundant access to water, fish, and mushroom forests, as well as to the creatures whose slave labor keeps the fomorians fed. When those slaves can no longer toil, they are slain and devoured. Wickedness and depravity are the cornerstones of fomorian society, in which the strongest and cruelest giants rule. Fomorians mark their territories with the corpses of their enemies, painting their cavern walls with blood or stitching together limbs and body parts to make mockeries of the creatures they have killed.
The deformities visited on the fomorians prevent them from hurling rocks like their giant kin, or wearing anything more than scraps of cloth. However, the grotesque positioning of their eyes, noses, and ears gives fomorians keen perceptive abilities, making it hard to surprise or ambush them.
The greed and evil of the fomorians lies at the heart of their degeneration and fall, and continues to plague them. Fomorians make alliances with other creatures when it suits them, but they are disloyal by nature and betray their allies on a whim.
