Dai-Yukai
The Giant Paragons of the frozen tundra
All Female Race
Base Racial Traits
Ability Score Modifiers: (+4 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity) The Dai-Yukai are incredibly strong and durable, yet due to their immense size they are hardly nimble at all. Size: Dai-Yukai are huge-sized creatures. They gain no extra ability score bonuses for size beyond what it already listed in their statblock. Type: Dai-Yukai are Humanoid creatures with the Giant and Cold Subtypes. As Half-Undead, they are treated as Undead for the purposes of positive and negative energy, gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws versus disease and mind-affecting effects, and do not sleep unless they want to gain some beneficial effect from one of these activities, though they still must eat, drink, and breathe(Though with enough liquid they can stave off the need to eat for up to one week). They also take no penalties from energy-drain effects, though they can still be killed if they accrue more negative levels than they have hit dice. After 24 hours, any negative levels they’ve gained are removed with any additional saving throws. Speed: Dai-Yukai have a base land speed of 40ft. Vision: Dai-Yukai have Darkvision out to 60ft thanks to their half-undead nature, and low-light vision from their giant heritage. Additionally, they are capable of seeing through snowstorms, blizzards, and other cold based extreme weather conditions, ignoring the miss chance and perception penalties for these obstructions up to their normal normal range of vision. Languages: Dai-Yukai begin play speaking the regional the Regional Language that reflects their origins(See Languages of Zheng-Kitar), and Necril. Dai-Yukai with high INT may choose between the following as bonus languages: (Giant, Orc, Baltairi, Ezdhûlian, Sylvan, Abyssal, Common, Aquan, and Infernal). Amazonian Mind: Dai-Yukai not only have supremely powerful physiques, but minds blessed with unnatural cunning and intellect. Dai-Yukai gain a +2 to any mental ability score of their choosing. Dai-Yukai Defenses: With skin as thick as iron, Dai-Yukai gain a racial +2 bonus to their natural armor, and immunity to cold damage. They also gain vulnerability to fire and take 50% extra damage from it. Slam: Dai-Yukai gain one powerful slam attack that deals damage as if they were one size category larger(2d6). This counts as a primary natural attack if you possess no natural attacks, otherwise it is not considered primary. Incorporeal Touch: For a number of rounds a day equal to (1 + 1/2 CONMOD, Minimum 1), Dai-Yukai can treat their attacks as being incorporeal, passing through and ignoring natural armor, armor, and shields. Deflection bonuses and force effects work normally against these strikes. This also lets Dai-Yukai strike incorporeal creatures as normal for the duration of this ability. Mighty Trample: Masters of crushing their foes flat with their massive size, Dai-Yukai always possess the Trample Universal Monster Rule, dealing damage one step higher than their slam(3d6) + 1.5x their STRMOD, with a DC to avoid it equal to (10 + 1/2 HD + STRMOD). Dai-Yukai do not provoke attacks of opportunity when trampling as if they had the Improved Overrun feat, but do not get the bonuses to trample/overrun the feat would give them and can still take Improved Overrun to gain the bonuses. The damage for the trample increases by 1d6 for every 4 HD they possess, to a maximum of 8d6 at 20th level. Snowstorm Aura: Within a 50ft radius of a Dai-Yukai, whirling blasts of snow buffet the area and all within it. The snowfall and wind gusts cause a -4 penalty on Perception checks and ranged attacks. The wind itself blows in a clockwise rotation around the Dai-Yukai, and functions as severe wind. Any effect that causes these winds to drop below severe (such as control weather or control winds) cancels the snowstorm effect entirely. This ability can be suppressed or activated as a standard action. Giant Paragons: Dai-Yukai count their Strength Score as 15 higher for the purposes of carrying capacity and lifting weight. Additionally, they gain a racial +4 bonus on Intimidate Checks, and can either gain it as a class skill or use STR in place of CHA for its associated ability score. They also gain a racial +2 on all Knowledge(History) checks, and gain it as a class skill. Iceblood: Any creature damaged by a Dai-Yukai's slam attack or their trample must succeed on a Fortitude Save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + CONMOD) or become entangled for 1d10 minutes as their bodies freeze over and stiffen up. This is an Extraordinary Ability, and functions as the 'Entrap' Universal Monster Rule except they cannot render a creature helpless with a second application. The ice has Hardness 10 and HP 15, and the entangled condition ends when it is broken, or they otherwise break free. Those grappled by or those grappling a Dai-Yukai take 1d6 points of cold damage each time they maintain the grapple or it is maintained against them that bypasses immunities and resistances. Blackgranite's Unbreakable Bulwark: Dai-Yukai gain +1 to all attack rolls and +2 on damage rolls and grapple checks against Outsiders. Hlodvi's Concordat: Dai-Yukai are capable of entering any structure or space designed for creatures smaller than themselves(Down to such places designed for small size creatures, no smaller) that they would normally not be able to or would have a hard time fitting into as if they were a creature of that size. Their physical size does not actually change(Though they can wish it to), instead the spaces they enter become extradimensionally capable of holding them. If they will their size to change while inside a space their mechanics do not change, only their outward physical appearance/size. This is an extraordinary ability and cannot be dispelled or suppressed.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Dai-Yukai are huge even amongst Giantkind, and as they on average stand easily over 30ft(9 meters) tall...though some amongst them can reach as high as twice this. Despite this size, they are built mostly like normal humanoids...they have two muscular legs that end in feet with five toes each, and burly arms that end in hands with five fingers each. However, this is where similarities end between them and smaller humanoid races - as giants of indescribable size, their bodies are unmistakably different. Primarily, this takes the form of legs several times thicker and rounder than the norm for smaller races like Humans - with wider, thicker, and shaggier legs as well as rounder feet(More akin to enormous columns than defined appendages) to better support their enormous weight. They possess two mammoth-esque tusks that grow in at the left and right sides of their neck/lower cheek area(Clear sign of their distinct Giant Heritage), and are all universally female , thus all possessing feminine bodily qualities and reproductive organs.
Dai-Yukai internal temperature is nearly -58 F(-50 C) - their bodies are frigid and colder than most any climate or locale or item on the entire continent. Their skin is equally as lethal - their frosty blue skin clocks in at the same temperature as their internals within frigid and arctic locales, and these temperatures can decrease even more in senstive 'cold spots' on their body, such as the palms of their hands, the soles of their feet, and so on - meaning that being crushed beneath, placed against one of these cold spots, or grabbed by one of these Titanesses will rapidly spell one's death by hypothermia(Unless one has resistance to cold) in a matter of minutes, preceded by one's encasement in ice - and if they are not able to get free, their complete encasement in it. Because of this, Dai-Yukai often keep ice-encrusted trophies of those they defeat in their villages or castles - frozen relics of those they defeated. In non-arctic climates, their skin tends to warm considerably as their body attempts to keep their internal bodily temperature cold enough to prevent their partially dead organs from defrosting and their remaining organs from ceasing function. In hot climates, their bodies, unable to endure the heat, will rapidly shut down and they will die in short order unless chilled somehow, or inured to the heat.
For those Dai-Yukai who carry the frigid infusion of Uttercold within them, their blood is quite literally as cold liquid nitrogen, clocking in at nearly -358 degress F (-200 C) and this makes fighting these colossal Titanesses a terrifying task, as cutting their skin means one must avoid being bathed in their frigid blood and internals and frozen to the bone in seconds. Their skin is equally frigid, and the mere act of touch their skin is often enough to lose that finger or extremity that did so - and to be unfortunate enough to be trampled by one or grapped all but spells one's demise. These Uttercold Titanesses can somewhat control their skin temperature and tend to keep it at normal Dai-Yukai levels outside of combat, to prevent unexpected deaths at their own hands. Luckily, though these Uttercold Titanesses are much less dependent on the cold to sustain their bodily temperatures - they can exist at temperate climates quite easily as their uttercold bodies keep their internals and skin cold in all but the most extreme hot and desert climates, which can still be lethal to them.
There has been almost no study into the anatomy of Dai-Yukai, but modern biologists and scholars have agreed that they likely possess a highly developed and incredibly durable skeletal system that is likely three or four times as thick and twice as well-built as the human norm in order to support their massive and muscular bodies. Likewise, their musculature system is surmised to be more akin to tightly interwoven bands of iron than normal muscle, and is estimated to be nearly four times as effective than is normal for normal creatures, allowing them to be stronger, have more stamina, and be more resistant to physical attack. Their organs, likewise, are assumed to be at most half-functional on average, and their digestive tract and all associated systems with the digestion and processing of food are assumed to be entirely non-functional and redundant.
Biological Traits
Dai Yukai are universally an all-female race, and though they can be found in almost all remote and frigid locales around Ea, there is a bit of variation that can be expected between the different tribes. Skin color, facial bone structure and overall appearance are common things that may vary, but the other predominant variation are the designs and color of the markings each tribe etches upon their skin, as each has different customs as to their tribal markings.
They are typified by a massive amount of muscle mass even for creatures their size that means they as a people are incredibly strong and durable, their muscles often each as large as a fully grown adult medium sized creature, though this can vary slightly between individuals. Their legs are especially large, and are thicker and more circular than those of other humanoids - more akin to circular columns than the legs of other creatures.
As they are half undead creatures, they have a very different physiology compared to other creatures...they have no need to process or digest food, though their bodies are still alive enough to require breathing and other mundane bodily processes. This also gives them a large lifespan, but also gives them a large bit of variation between tribes on exactly how dead their members are. Some are closer to death than life, others are the opposite, but most Dai-Yukai have one foot in the grave at least. Because of this, almost no Dai Yukai require sleep - and while many bodily processes such as perspiration are almost nonexistence in their home climates, as they are vulnerable to fire that can change very quickly should their bodies become overheated, as their bodies require a much cooler internal temperature to operate efficiently and thus need to cool down much quicker.
Genetics and Reproduction
Being an All-Female race, Dai-Yukai are naturally forced to rely on other races to reproduce. Each Dai-Yukai is capable of reproduction and, when they become pregnant, carry their young inside them and give birth as is normal for humans or similar creatures after a period of about 4 to 8 months, giving birth to an infant female of their species or, more likely, an infant of the father's species.
Though they are not infertile per se, Dai-Yukai are a race cursed by their own immense strength. So strong and mighty are they that their bodies outright reject any attempts to impregnate them if the non-Dai-Yukai in the coupling is not of sufficient strength both in body and mind...because of this, only the mightiest warriors of the humanoid races can even hope to allow the Dai-Yukai to come down with child, and often die in the process of reproduction if they prove weak enough.
Because of this, the Dai-Yukai often rely more on the more monstrous races that call the frozen climates of the world their homes, such as the mighty Jotun, the most powerful of the smallfolk barbarian tribes in the area, and other true giants. These races have a much higher chance of allowing a coupling with a Dai-Yukai to at the very least bear fruit and give the Dai-Yukai a child...though, even then, the natural odds of a coupling producing a Dai-Yukai child are unnaturally low, meaning barely one in every 100 children comes out as a Dai-Yukai instead of as the race of the father. Thankfully, the lack of overwhelming competition in their frozen homes means that the Dai-Yukai of Zheng-Kitar have been historically free to increase thier numbers in relative peace.
When they do become pregant, Dai-Yukai carry their child inside them for a length of time ranging from about 4 to 8 months, during which time they swell to massive proportions and become significantly weaker than their non-gestating kin. However, their enormous power is still incredibly daunting, and many female Dai-Yukai chieftains or overlords have maintained their throne even during the vulnerable throes of labor. Dai-Yukai birth typically takes place in a solitary temple or location designed for specifically such a purpose, as the might of a Dai-Yukai in the thrashing throes of childbirth is a force that can level even the mightiest buildings.
Growth Rate & Stages
Dai-Yukai generally reach adolescence at the age of 30, and become adults by no older than 50. Though they are not expected to fully take on the same roles as an adult as adolescents, they are nonetheless taught rigorously from a young age of the ways of their people, including combat, their history, the ways of society, and how to survive and thrive in their desolate homes. By adulthood, they are highly capable warriors that have often already fought smaller humanoid races and sometimes even crushed and/or conquered them for their village, as even a Dai-Yukai adolescent is as tall as a fully grown ogre and easily capable of flattening warrior and monster alike.
Once they hit adulthood around age 50, Dai-Yukai ritualistically daub their skins with paint and inscribe the first markings upon their skin, which will stay on them for their entire lives as more are added and a true tapestry of splendor and majesty is inscribed onto their skin.
Dai-Yukai typically live to the ancient age of 450 and rarely upwards of 500 before dying of old age.
Ecology and Habitats
As they are incredibly resilient to cold and inversely incredibly weak to heat and fire, Dai-Yukai exclusively inhabit the frigid and remote climates of the world.
Being tribal and simple in their culture and lifestyle, Dai-Yukai villages and tribes live closely with the land around them, and are often incredibly in tune with the natural world they live in or near, often having druids or nature-speakers to commune with natural life around them and ensure they do not infringe upon it, as they see animals and nature as more trustworthy and pleasing to be around than most other races.
They live very simple hunter-gatherer lifestyles, though their villages typically are built in highly secluded, hidden, but well-defensibly locations and rarely move. From these villages they roam out across the land, crushing their foes beneath their titanic feet and conquering, assimilating, and/or enslaving those that survive their attacks while simultaneously defending and working alongside any nature or beasts they may live near.
Due to their tribal lifestyles and immense power, when a Dai-Yukai tribe arrives in a region, the first thing it usually does is subjugate all other tribes and races in the vicinity, making them into vassals of the tribe and forcing them to do labor and other tasks for them in exchange for protection and safety. Similarly, when other creatures notice the arrival of a Dai-Yukai tribe or they are discovered to be nearby, most other creatures make no attempt at peace, truce, or alliance—they simply leave their own homes and lairs behind and move on. “Easier to reason with an avalanche than make peace with a Dai-Yukai,” goes the ancient Jotun saying about Dai-Yukai. Despite this, some Jotun, Human, or other tribes will sometimes stay and become vassals of the Dai-Yukai, as working beneath the Titanesses does have quite a few benefits if one can endure the work and exertion of serving and living alongside them.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Though many assume Dai-Yukai have no need to eat at all, that is not entirely accurate - while their partially undead bodies do provide them with some advantages(Lack of sleep, for one), the organic parts that make them up still require sustenance to function. However, much like others of their True Giant brethren, Dai-Yukai bodies have evolved to turn the towering Titanesses into ravenous Omnivores through and through - capable of eating anything and everything that can fit within their gullets, Dai-Yukai are nonetheless specialized to gain a maximal amount of nutrients from the most plentiful resource of the environments they typically adapt: water.
Their bodies capable of extracting an abnormal amount of nutrients from water, ice, snow, or even blood(Which is especially nourishing to them), Dai-Yukai can sustain themselves for quite some time in emergency situations with a diet consisting of as much as 90% liquid - though in more normal times they tend to balance their diets with anywhere between 60% to 75% liquid. Their half-undead bodies capable of filtering mundane pathogens and impurities in liquids with abnormal efficacy thanks to the undead parts of their anatomy acting as pseudo-sponges to soak up such things in that they drink and consume, Dai-Yukai rarely develop specific dietary preferences for solid food - whatever is on hand is often happily used to supplement their mostly liquid diets, blended up to provide more nutrients in a more palatable form, or made into jerky or other easily-kept foods in the wilderness(Where a single slain mammoth or local creatures can feed a tribe for weeks).
While a diet made up of mostly liquid supplemented by more solid food acquired from the tribe's nearby hunting grounds or from monster-hunting expeditions that take place, in especially-well off tribes with ample access to time and more exotic resources such as spices and seasonings the members of that tribe will often begin developing a culinary style placing emphasis on richly spicy food rather than excessively high-temperature food(Which tends to disrupt their cold-based biology), which is more often than not presented in either cold or frozen food or in complicated blended meals that come in single "shakes" which certain Dai-Yukai take pride in developing to replicate the flavor of more solid food as closely as possible, since their excessively low body temperature will often freeze food solid on contact.
Biological Cycle
As Dai-Yukai age, they rarely show outward signs of it, though internally their already half-functional organs and internal systems begin to degrade even more. Their skin and outward appearance does not change, and over time their bodies decay internally until they become aged and venerable. The best outward sign of their age is the state of their enormous mammoth-like tusks - these enormous ivory tusks grow bigger and more elaborate as they age, often requiring regular trimming to keep them managable.
Additional Information
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Dai-Yukai tusks are an incredibly sought after commodity, as they are both incredibly durable and light - meaning that though the towering titanesses are extremely difficult to hunt and slay, many try in the hopes of striking it rich by felling one and claiming her tusks as trophies.
Facial characteristics
Dai-Yukai faces are often rugged, scarred things, having been weathered from a very young age by the violent, blistering snowstorms and blizzards that wrack their homelands. Their faces are markedly different from those of other smaller races, with sloped and angular foreheads, eyes that are placed wider on their heads than most other races, and ears that exist somewhere bewteen those of oxen and elves - pointed and upright like elves, yet possessing an elasticity and size similar to oxen.
In truth, their faces are somewhat androgynous - chiseled and sloped a weathered boulder, with feminine aspects few and far between but not entirely absent.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Dai-Yukai only make their homes in the coldest and most freezing climates of the world. Their bodies are vulnerable to heat and they themselves are not a race beholden to or very accepted by civilization, so they are often found far from civilization in cold and ice-scoured wastes.
Average Intelligence
As the foremost paragons of True Giantkind and supposedly the first race of True Giants to have come into existence, Dai-Yukai, contrary to what many believe of them, are often quite a bit smarter, wiser, and/or more cunning than the average human - their tribal, simple lifestyles simply hide this intellect naturally beneath a veneer of barbarity.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Powerful not only in body, Dai-Yukai have an excellent and even feared range of visual acuity that lets them not only see excellently in the dark, but their eyes are also adapted to low-light conditions and, most notably, to whirling blizzards and snowstorms and mists, and Dai-Yukai are said to be able to see through all such extreme environmental conditions as easily as if they weren't even there.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Dai-Yukai names reflect their untamed, wild, and barbaric nature, primarily drawing from the Norse and Scandinavian lexicons and syllabaries to form their names. Their names are tough, strong, and have flowing and simultaneously biting syllables, yet each name reflects a Dai-Yukai’s true nature in the Giant tongue, and few things carry as much weight to the tribal, barbaric Dai-Yukai as one’s true name, as it tells them many things about who they are and where they have been.
Being an all-female race, Dai-Yukai’s names are exclusively female.
Female: Helga, Ingrid, Saeunn, Aestrid, Hallgrim, Audhilda, Asa, Lutra, Arnora, Jodis, etc...
Alternate Racial Trait List: Dai-Yukai Alternate Racial Traits
Racial Feat List: Dai-Yukai Racial Feats
Lifespan
450 Years
Conservation Status
Dai-Yukai are one of the most populous races of True Giants in existence and are incredibly numerous in the world's most blisteringly cold environments, but are never found outside of them. They are an incredibly tribal and secretive people, and prefer to hide their villages away from prying eyes to avoid hunters and adventurers who would seek to claim their heads as trophies and proofs of valor, so typically are not found unless one looks hard or they wish to be.
Average Height
31ft - 36ft (9.4 - 10.9 Meters.) Can get as large as 72ft / 22m.
Average Weight
8,100lbs - 9,700lbs
Average Physique
Dai-Yukai, rivaled perhaps only by their descendants the Eldragi, possess physiques of absolute physical perfection, likened to perfect sculptures more than anything else. Their bodies ripple with muscle and all other creatures could train for entire lifetimes and not match a Dai-Yukai in physical prowess or the perfection of their physique. They have wide shoulders, large trunk-like legs, massive muscle mass, course dark hair, massive ivory tusks, and bodies built for combat and physical feats...though, their bodies retain enough suppleness and softness that they are all unmistakably feminine.
And to match their impressive physiques, they are also the tallest race in the world, reaching heights even their descendants the Eldragi can only just barely stand beneath - proof positive of their status as the foremost Paragons of Giantkind.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Dai-Yukai skin ranges most commonly from dark ocean blue to a light azure, with paler shades of bluish white and darker shades of blue and borderline purple uncommon but not unheard of. Their hair is often a snow white, silver, or platinum to match their snowy climates but more varied colors such as blue, teal, light purple, and even pinks not unheard of.
Their eyes, which are often sunken and bright, are often deep blues and indigo colors, but can also run from white, silver, bright pink, purple, to platinum.
Related Materials
The Queens of the Frozen North
As the undisputed masters of the frozen north, Dai-Yukai have held their position as the apex predators of the frozen wastelands for time immemorial - though many have challenged this reign in ages past and have tried time and again to conquer or prove themselves the masters of the north, none have succeeded - all either crushed flat beneath their trampling footfalls and killed or assimilated into their tribes either through force or coercion. The biggest challenge to their lifestyle in living memory was the calamitous invasion from the fiendish outer realms during the Age of Descent over 1300 years ago, when the forces of Hell, the Abyss, and Abbadon swarmed into the material plane as the boundaries between the planes weakened and invaded Zheng-Kitar - starting with the frozen wastelands of the north, where the Dai-Yukai live. Bearing the brunt of the initial assault, the Dai-Yukai fought the fiendish invasion with the might of an unstoppable horde, but martial might alone could never hope to match the devilish powers of the fiendish hordes they faced. So it came to be that the Dai-Yukai were nearly brought to extinction, with many of their number captured by the fiends and later turned into the Eldragi...it was not until the Dwarves of the north joined the war, vast hordes of invincible Dwarven Rockcrusher Legions swarming out of the Dwarven Capital of Nan Dhurgalir, lead by the High Thane Lomdael Blackgranite, that the Dai-Yukai were saved from the fiendish invasion and given a place at the High-Thane's side as his elite infantry - trained to flatten the legions of fiends that now threatened their way of life. And even now, over a thousand years later, the kindness showed to them by the High Thane Lomdael Blackgranite persists in their society - as does their kindness to the Dwarven People, when they chance upon them, as repayment for the lifedebt they now owe as a people to the mighty High Thane for saving their species.
Ancestors of the Yuki-Onna
Though little is truly known of how it came to be, it is known to most scholars that the Dai-Yukai as a species are closely tied to the well-known Undead that inhabit the world's frozen locales, the ephemeral Yuki-Onna - the snow ghosts. Many Dai-Yukai folktales speak of this relationship - and though they all tell the tale slightly different, all speak of Yuki-Onna as undead creatures that result either from a Dai-Yukai directly when they give in to their negative emotions and desires, becoming spiteful, spurned creatures who hate the world and seek nothing but death and destruction, or when an another creature meets an unfortunate end frozen solid inside the snowstorm aura of a Dai-Yukai or as they are frozen solid by their strikes or footfalls in especially cruel ways, or with regrets. The Dai-Yukai see the Yuki-Onna as haunting and mournful spirits of vengeance, ghosts in the night who come to freeze naughty Dai-Yukai children who stray too far from home or who refuse to get along with their tribe - as well as to grown adults who lose their way and become cruel and capricious, to exact a most horrible price on them as punishment for their misdeeds. And similarly, the size of a Dai-Yukai's Snowstorm Aura growing bigger is seen as a double-edged sword - proof positive of their beginning down the path to becoming a Snow Ghost, and that punishment might not be far behind. A few rare tales speak of the Yuki-Onna as spirits of vengeance who come to punish those who refuse to respect the cold and nature - to punish them for their arrogance. Whatever the case may be, Dai-Yukai treat Yuki-Onna as despicable things wherever the two races meet each other - often, the Dai-Yukai see it as their duty to put these hateful, evil women back to a final, eternal rest and spare the rest of the world the trouble of dealing with them - whether they be Dai-Yukai who fell from grace or victims of their power, they see it as an equally important duty to put these frozen, murderous women back into the ground one last time.
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