Giff

The giff are a race of powerfully muscled soldiers and mercenaries. They are civilized, though arcane magic is a rarity in their culture. Giff seek honor and glory in battle, and collect trophies from their conquests to prove their martial prowess. When not in combat, giff are laid back and introspective. Even though it seems comical to have such huge beings think, they are a deeply philosophical and spiritual race.
Personality: According to the giff, all creatures in the universe have a role to fill. For the giff, their role is to take orders and fight. To this end they practice to mastery the art of war. Giff society is organized into clans. Each clan is moderately self-sufficient but it excels in one aspect of warfare: communications, guerrilla warfare, and fortifications magic to name a few. These clans are all organized under a supreme giff regime, which supervises the race as a whole. They do not bully those weaker than themselves nor do they travel from place to place, laying siege. But if a giff is challenged it never refuses and never backs down. Giff do not practice slavery for they feel that the exploitation of others is wrong and it takes away from the giff idea of all things serving a purpose in the cosmos. Giff will not attack with the intent to kill a weak opponent. If the opponent pulls a weapon (or other similar lethal attack) then all bets are off and the fight is to the death. Giff never fight one another to the death, although they will happily wrestle and engage in rough horseplay (which can be lethal to some of the less hearty races).
Giff love to collect weapons and armor, especially those from fallen enemies. If an attacker doesn't use weapons they take suitable trophies like teeth and claws to adorn themselves with. Giff also love loud noises and flashy magic. Fireballs and lightning bolts, including natural thunderstorms, make giff anxious and happy.
Physical Description: The giff are humanoids with stocky, flat, cylindrical legs and a humanoid torso, arms and fingers. Its chest is broad and barrel-shaped, which supports a hippopotamus head with a natural helmet of flexible, chitinous plates. The vast majority of giff is black with less than one percent being gray or gold in color. Giff hide is thick and rough, but nearly hairless. Most giff have battle scars on their bodies, which they show off with pride. Some giff practice ritualistic scarring on their thick skins and put patterns into their hides. Giff females practice ritualistic body piercing to attach pretty cloth and adornments to themselves. Giff average between 8 and 9 ½ feet tall and weigh from 650 to 800 pounds with little deviation occurring between the sexes.
Giff wear very colorful loose-fitting clothing. The pattern of the cloth used in the garment signifies what clan the giff belongs to. All giff have a sash or braid that carries the medals they have earned. The sash also serves as a convenient harness for weapons and a place to hang one's favorite trophies. Giff who are not actively at war can be found relaxing in a pond, smoking and drinking with friends, or practicing its tactical skills in games like bowling or chess.
Giff women take multiple husbands, due to the dangerous lifestyle the males undertake. That is not to say that giff women are defenseless. Giff females are just primarily used for defense of the cities and homes. Giff give birth to a single child after a long 13-month gestation. Giff are considered mature the first time it can remain conscious after its first head-butt after knocking down a tree. Giff unfortunately do not age gracefully, living to about 70 years old. As a giff grows older it begins to slow down and it is possessed with the idea of having to prove itself like when it was young and vital. As a result there are few very old giff.
Relations: Giff like most races, as long as the race does not war amongst itself or eat other sentient beings. They view the Lakshu as smaller kindred spirits who just need to relax more often. The grippli are pitied at times but the giff ally with any grippli who want to fight against the Yuan-ti. The grippli are one of the few races that the giff trade with often, and it is usually for their rubber products. Giff universally hate the Yuan-ti because of that race's evil, corrupting nature. The Itzi are also looked upon unfavorably because of their love of blood sacrifice and cannibalistic tendencies. Humans are a special case for the giff. They war with one another, but they do value peace and have great diversity and wondrous ideas at times. As such giff try to help humans to not fight, but rather leave the fighting to those who are born for it: themselves.
Alignment: Giff are naturally mellow creatures. They live in a very social environment and all members of a clan are encouraged to participate in the clan's celebrations. While they find glory in combat and honor in duty, they are good-natured and well meaning at heart. Most giff are lawful good or lawful neutral, with a small percentage being just good or neutral.
The giff consider preying on other sentient races a sign of mental sickness. Rather than attacking the symptom, they try to cure the cause of the “instability”. Thus evil giff are usually ostracized from their clan due to the dishonor the giff causes the clan. Those who exploit the giff are punished without prejudice. When giff finally do recognize an enemy they use overwhelming force to utterly crush the adversary and guarantee that the foe will never again pose a threat. They do not gloat over their victories, but they do make sure others know of their accomplishment.
Giff Lands: Because giff require enormous amounts of food and water to survive they are primarily found in cities, jungles, rolling hills, and anywhere fresh water is found in abundance. Mountains are attractive to the giff, but their immense frame makes climbing difficult. Giff are rarely found in swamps unless the swamp is not very deep or is relatively mud-free. Desert regions are nearly impossible for the giff to live in, and giff on the open seas are usually uncomfortable with their surroundings. Giff towns are surrounded with huge walls and manned ballistae and catapults are common sights to see. Stone is the building material of preference, but when needed log houses are built. Giff patrols carve extra wide paths through treacherous areas (like jungle overgrowth) so they can more easily reach a battleground. Giff also use rafts extensively to patrol their rivers and waterways.
Giff farm for themselves as well as fish, hunt, and forage for their sustenance. Giff teeth are not built for ripping and tearing meat; meat usually is ground into a paste.
Giff communities are always full of happy, lively inhabitants. Giff weavings and paintings adorn the walls (both inside and outside) of their houses. Singing is a favorite pastime of the giff, and deep thunderous melodies are sung in chorus from neighborhood to neighborhood. Giff do not have more refined artwork (like sculpture and other daintier art) because their fingers are ill equipped. Giff architecture is massive in scale and they consider that their artworks. Giff also value philosophical debate and public forums are popular attractions.
Religion: The giff venerate “The Great One” – the mother of all creation. According to the giff she gave chaos order, but realized that only through conflict do her creations realize their full potential. Thus she created the giff as her keepers of the peace. When depicted in battle, she takes on a male appearance. When at peace she is female. Giff realize that one wars to seek peace. Other gods are worshipped too, but all other gods were created by the Great One and thus are subservient. The other gods soon saw the giff and became jealous. They created their own races after their ideals. The giff realize that other races might become adequate (and even impressive) warriors. However, it is their gift from the Great One to be the best fighters. Their capital city is home to the giff military training academy and the main temple to the Great One.
Giff government is partially matriarchal due to the dual nature of the Great One. The males run the military arm of the government and all other aspects of the culture are female dominated.
Language: Giff is a straightforward language for foreigners to learn. Giff appreciate others who learn their blessed language. Giffspeak is loud and cumbersome sounding to hear, but it is very elegant when sung. Body language is helpful when speaking giffspeak (such as wiggling the ears or flaring the nostrils); however, the giff realize that foreigners usually speak “with an accent”. Giff writing is large and block-shaped but also is easily translatable. The largest storehouses of giff text are the military record repositories. Tons and tons of papyrus scrolls and clay tablets filled with the exploits and deeds of every giff ever born are kept at these buildings.
Names: The local priestess of the Great One gives a giff's given name to her at birth. Her clan name is her last name. Giff who do not like the specialty of their birth clan can go to another clan provided that the other clan will adopt her into its membership. This is usually done in adolescence and almost never occurs once a giff reaches maturity.
Male Names: Bombaata, Canabi, Haljar, Humphred, Jyon, Paaht, Tybold
Female Names: Nutt, Marijayn
Clan Names: Small Berries, Rolling Thunder, Wave Rider, Heavy Arms, Smoke, Starcrest
Adventurers: Giff adventurers are not unheard of in their culture. Giff males who wish to find exciting trophies or exotic weaponry leave the clan for a time and seek fame and fortune abroad. Such giff are sure to have interesting stories to tell when they return home and souvenirs are always welcomed. Some giff smell the sulphur of a fireball explosion and seek those races that practice magic affluently just to participate in their wars. As stated before giff will never war on themselves since their entire culture considers it a sign of weakness to war with itself. If two or more giffs meet each other on the battlefield they retire for at least a day and drink and sort out ranks. Sometimes one side will join the other side but more often than not the two sides just leave and look for combat elsewhere. Warlords who hire giff must therefore be careful to know what forces the other side has for fear of wasting the money hiring a giff for their own use.
Some giff adventurers travel to persuade other races to see the wisdom of the Great One and find their place in the grand scheme of things. Others just get a wild idea to see what can be seen and come back with a great story. As such, giff are predominantly fighters but monks, paladins, priests, sorcerers, rangers, and bards are common as well. Rogues are very rare because of their bulk. Wizards are rare too since giff write so large.

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©2002 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

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Giff, © 1990 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Variant Giffs ©2002, by Mark Doolan and Ron Pollard
Original Source: Lorebook of the Void & The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook