What Does A Giant Look Like?

[Q. Flestrin]

Greetings. I don't know if this is an art thing or a writing thing; the question is for a story I'm working on, but I'm accepting art-based suggestions, and might be posting some of my own.

The question is: what does a giant look like? In this setting (inspired by Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed), the giants are the wise and peaceful rulers of the land. They're inspired somewhat by the Umayyad caliphates, but have a Roman attitude towards empires: build infrastructure and people will like you (in fact, they call themselves Dolossi, the architects).

My problem is that every time I try to imagine what they look like, I can't get past them just being big humans, and I want to distinguish them from humanity more. My only imaginative idea to date is to have giants be skinny, gangly, and a bit creepy-looking, but that doesn't fit their role as the good empire.

So, Playgrounders, I turn to you for help. What do you think a giant looks like?

[Eldan]

Why skinny and gangly? From a biological standpoint, taller creatures need to be broader and heavier, especially with massive limbs.

[Grinner]

I've been playing a game called Reus recently. In the game, you have four giants: Forest, an anthropomorphic tree; Mountain, who resembles a golem; Ocean, a giant crab; and Swamp, an enormous pile of goo, and using these giants, you build landscape features on the world. Perhaps something like that would work for you?

[Cuthalion]

Make them different colors. Some are fat, some muscular. Some have overly large head, some have really small heads. Beards, no beards.

[Q. Flestrin]

Why skinny and gangly? From a biological standpoint, taller creatures need to be broader and heavier, especially with massive limbs.
Well, one, I usually have the idea first and then justify it; two, I've already decided that skinny and gangly doesn't really fit the Dolossic idiom; and three, giraffes.


I've been playing a game called Reus recently. In the game, you have four giants: Forest, an anthropomorphic tree; Mountain, who resembles a golem; Ocean, a giant crab; and Swamp, an enormous pile of goo, and using these giants, you build landscape features on the world. Perhaps something like that would work for you?
No, not really; I know that these giants are humanoid and at most twelve feet tall. Thank you for suggesting it


Make them different colors. Some are fat, some muscular. Some have overly large head, some have really small heads. Beards, no beards.
Soooooooo ... make them giant humans, is what you're saying?

[Haruki-kun]

Why skinny and gangly? From a biological standpoint, taller creatures need to be broader and heavier, especially with massive limbs.

I think what Eldan is referring to is the Square Cube Law. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SquareCubeLaw) Bigger creatures need to be more muscular to move their limbs. I would make giants much more built than humans are in proportions.

[Cuthalion]

Soooooooo ... make them giant humans, is what you're saying?

Like, blue skin? Red skin.

Huge head. Tiny head.

Short arms. Very long arms.

[Q. Flestrin]

Alright! Here are some designs I thought up; PEACH, please. (I apologize for the low art quality; just something I whipped up quick after my history final.)

http://i59.tinypic.com/j9q9tx.jpg

Design 1: "The Hellboy". Here, giants have small tusks, horns they usually file down, and short claws. This serves as a jumping-off point for some interesting cultural behavior, as I imagine they would be ashamed of their monstrous appearance and try to restrain the beast within.
Design 2: "The Creepy". This is the gangly design I came up with earlier - long limbs, hunched back, big hands and feet.
Design 3: "The Oni". Not really much to say about this one; inspired by Japanese oni and the ogre mage in the Monster Manual. Incorporates a bit of Cuthalion's nonhuman skin color idea.
Design 4, probably the most inspired: "The Demigod". Giants look like strong and powerful humans, but with unusual metallic coloring and shining eyes. They also have glowing lines on their faces, their "godmarks". The one in the picture has a godmark that echoes the cog symbol of the Guardian, a god of protection and crafting. (The godmarks, by my idea, are just something giants are born with and don't actually relate to the gods; it's only giantish religion that ties the nine marking patterns to their nine gods.)

What do you think?

[Blackhawk748]

You may want to look at the Makers from Darksiders. They are basically Giant Dwarves. So massive Humans.

[Q. Flestrin]

You may want to look at the Makers from Darksiders. They are basically Giant Dwarves. So massive Humans.

Thank you, but there are already dwarfs in the setting, so that would cause a large amount of confusion.

[Asta Kask]

The thing about giants, as I see them, is that they are large. Very large. Larger than humans, in fact. :smalltongue:

[Artman77]

I think designs 1 and 4 are your best so far. Horns and claws are more for flavor than biological advantage I would think, but flavor is what can make a story interesting.

If it was me, I would start with the "large human" base and work from there... (because that's kinda what giants are.)

I think I would give them super wide, flat, feet. It seems like all that weight would cause them to sink in areas with soft ground. Think a cross between elephant feet and gorilla feet. (Elephants have extra fat in their feet that acts as a cushion.)

Next I would make them wide, with bigger, thicker legs, and thinner arms. A lot of dinosaurs have this kind of skeleton. A giraffe can be skinny because it is a quadruped, but a biped runs the risk of being top-heavy. With that much weight that high in the air, falling could be disastrous.
Another thing you could consider adding to help with the balance of such a heavy creature would be a tail.

next I would focus on head shape. Dwarves have square heads with big noses and foreheads, so I would go in the opposite direction; a round head and tiny forehead. Orcs have small, flat foreheads, so to differentiate from them, I would give my giants more of a mini-conehead or small, round head. I would give them a large jaw, but where orcs' are square, giants would be more rounded.
-I hope that helps.

[Q. Flestrin]

If it was me, I would start with the "large human" base and work from there... (because that's kinda what giants are.)

I think I would give them super wide, flat, feet. It seems like all that weight would cause them to sink in areas with soft ground. Think a cross between elephant feet and gorilla feet. (Elephants have extra fat in their feet that acts as a cushion.)

Next I would make them wide, with bigger, thicker legs, and thinner arms. A lot of dinosaurs have this kind of skeleton. A giraffe can be skinny because it is a quadruped, but a biped runs the risk of being top-heavy. With that much weight that high in the air, falling could be disastrous.
Another thing you could consider adding to help with the balance of such a heavy creature would be a tail.

next I would focus on head shape. Dwarves have square heads with big noses and foreheads, so I would go in the opposite direction; a round head and tiny forehead. Orcs have small, flat foreheads, so to differentiate from them, I would give my giants more of a mini-conehead or small, round head. I would give them a large jaw, but where orcs' are square, giants would be more rounded.
-I hope that helps.

That ... sounds a lot like a standard Sasquatch, actually. I might merge that with Design #1 if I decide to use it; helps play up the "restrained beast" aspect.

Although your comments about dinosaur skeletons makes me sort of want to make the giants look like humanoid tyrannosaurs.

[Admiral Squish]

Are there different varieties of giants, or just the one?

From a flavor standpoint, I would say play up an earth element aspect of them. They call themselves architects, they focus on infrastructure, and 'cyclopean' is always a great term to use. I imagine they would have some sort of connection to the earth, even if it's only as tenuous as that possessed by dwarves. If you want to go subtle, just say they're all naturally talented stone-workers and builders. If you want to play it up to the extreme, give them some stone-based magical abilities. Wall of stone, stone shape, move earth... say they came to leadership by providing infrastructure where there was none, using their magic abilities to raise walls, dig irrigation channels and wells, build earthworks and monuments, and such.

From a visual standpoint, since these are supposed to be leaders, they should be attractive. People are unlikely to follow ugly leaders implicitly. I'd say go with big, handsome humans to start with, and change relatively little. Most should certainly be muscular more than fat or skinny, and I'd go for authoritative features, like strong jaws and high cheekbones. You could just say they have eyes that glitter like gemstones, or they have earth-tone skin. If you want to go more extreme, perhaps they simply look like living statues of polished stone or metal (perhaps it's naturally more rough, but they keep themselves chiseled/polished/buffed). You should definitely try to avoid features that look bestial, rough, or primitive, as these guys are supposed to be civilized and people should have a positive, trusting response when they see them, rather than a frightened one.

Oh, and in case this needs to be said, they should go big when it comes to structures. Grand, towering temples and cathedrals, looming, unyielding walls, stately, beautiful homes... If you want them to be called 'architects', you'd better do some research and figure out the details of their architectural style. I'd suggest looking up 'cyclopean' structures and taking some inspiration from there.