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Non-human civilization

Peregrine

Troubadour
During worldbuilding I have made several races.

Summary of world's history:
The wood-woses are aboriginal first settler people that populated a lot of lands in the past, but they were assimilated and outnumbered by humans, they became vestigial race and rare like pandas that retreated to boreal forests, unlike other races, wood-woses were never civilized, they live in tribes.
Gnomes had their own kingdoms in the past, but all of their kingdoms were militarily conquered by humans, gnomes became governless minorities within human kingdoms and are second class citizens in some human realms.
The wood-woses failed to develop a civilization, the gnomes are civilized but governless, this leaves only the last race, the giants.
The giants once humiliated humans in the ancient past because giants once conquered 2/3 of humanity and ruled over them, after many long centuries, the humans battled giants to overthrow their rule.
Some giants are civilized while others live in tribes. Giants have their own cities too. The giants are around 7 feet tall and look like humans with minor evolutionary differences, they are rarely ugly and not all of them are brutes.

Both races seek to dominate each other. Do you find the idea of a giant civilization weird? What do you think of these giants? Should I have giant civilizations and tribes, or should I have only human governments and monarchies like Calradia, while all other races are governless?
 
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CupofJoe

Myth Weaver
No, a Giant civilisation makes sense.
I tried the idea out in a Thought Piece a few years ago. The Giants were a race that were being out grown by the humans and as technology improved their physical presence stopped being an advantage and became a problem [if a giant can shoot a bow 100 yards father than human they have the advantage, when the human has a gun that can fire 100 yards further than that, they don't...]. My Giants were fairly civilised by the human standards around them, a single unified government on an island/peninsular where they were left to govern themselves as long as they didn't side with any of the human factions jostling for power.
[I feel] If your Giants are a sapient race then there will be some form of society. It might not look like the comparative human societies around them but it will fulfil the needs they have.
 

Corwynn

Troubadour
I don't think there's anything far-fetched about a giant civilization. Primitive giants is just one of those commonly-accepted cliches, like elves living in treetop villages, or dwarves living in underground cities. It's fine if you want to go that route, but you don't have to.

I can't help but notice that in most fantasy universes, either each species lives in its own separate society, or one race (usually humans) is clearly dominant. For my own universe, I decided to take a third option. There are five "reasoning species", but they have comparable advantages/disadvantages and populations vis-a-vis each other. As a result, they have been forced to come to terms with each other, and every society larger than a small tribe is multispecies, with no one species having domination over the others. The "governing race" in any country is usually incidental, and will change as dynasties and elected/appointed officials come and go. The result is that civilization is made to accommodate multiple species with significant physical differences, and this results in some strange and interesting cultural developments while still being relatable and comprehensible thanks to human influence.
 

Peregrine

Troubadour
My gnomes live in human societies since all of their kingdoms have been conquered, so I think races can coexist, like black people and white people, as long as they look closer to humans (like elves or gnomes) than to monsters, greenskins or non-humans.

Their size has a disadvantage however, a civilization of giants is going to need more resources than a human civilization, such resources are food, space, wood and materials, which partially explains why some giant societies fight with humans for territory.
 
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Hi,

My thought is less about the giants having a civilization and more about what sort it is. I worry - and I haven't done giants, mostly elves - that their society becomes the same as humans - ie they're really just humans with and extra foot of height. When I do my elves I want them to be different in the way their societies operate and the way they think. What their values are. So elves I've usually done as sort of greeny, commies with a lot of magic. Sometimes a lot of pride / arrogance too. My advice is to go deeper into the giants themselves. What sort of people are they? How do they govern themselves? I mean you could have a lot of fun with it. They might be a height-ocracy for a start - tallest giant rules!

Cheers, Greg.
 

Peregrine

Troubadour
Hi,

My thought is less about the giants having a civilization and more about what sort it is. I worry - and I haven't done giants, mostly elves - that their society becomes the same as humans - ie they're really just humans with and extra foot of height. When I do my elves I want them to be different in the way their societies operate and the way they think. What their values are. So elves I've usually done as sort of greeny, commies with a lot of magic. Sometimes a lot of pride / arrogance too. My advice is to go deeper into the giants themselves. What sort of people are they? How do they govern themselves? I mean you could have a lot of fun with it. They might be a height-ocracy for a start - tallest giant rules!

Cheers, Greg.

Maybe a society in which might makes right.

Humans often portrayed giants in fantasy and literature as dumb and brutish, hence inferior; maybe my giants are a race that have a counter-attitude, they view humans as inferior (because they're big and strong).
 

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I have to ask what Peregrine means by "civilization". The word itself simply means a culture based on cities, which makes sense since the word comes from the Latin, and Romans were all about cities. Civilized people live in cities. Period.

The word has evolved, of course, but the question still remains, the one psychotik raised. "Might makes right" is a philosophical principle, not a form of social organization.

Do giants live in communities? Do they build houses? Cities? How would a city of, say, ten thousand giants feed itself? They would have a whopping sewage problem, I would think. Much would depend on how big these giants are, and whether there would be a protein source in sufficient quantities to feed them. Would they use the same currency as humans and gnomes? Do they farm? Are they literate? (when they say Large Print books, they mean it!)

Having giants be the dominant people is an interesting concept. Play it out and see what you get!
 
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