Burrowing Giant- The Tremor Titans

World: Alfheim

Diet: Omnivorous, mostly meat

Height: 24’5″

Lifespan: 280 years

Habitat: Anywhere with dry soil

Activity Cycle: Diurnal

Found below the earth in much of Jotunheim, “Burrowing” is not actually the correct term for how a burrowing giant moves through the soil. Just like the gnomes of Alfheim, they can sink through soil without disturbing the earth, rising and falling as they please. The whiskers on their face allow them to feel vibrations in all directions, allowing them to lurk below the earth to stage ambushes on passing prey. They prefer prey that can be swallowed whole, and a system of crushing muscles in their mouths allows them to crush and compact even large prey enough to fit down their throat, as well as preparing even thick bones for digestion.

Unlike gnomes, burrowing giants require air, even if they may hold their breath for several hours at a time when not moving. As such, their homes are usually burrows with an opening to the surface for air exchange. Burrowing giants are usually claustrophilic, preferring small spaces. The caverns they make their homes in often have barely enough space for a single giant to move in. As such they never cohabitate, with even parental females making a separate space for their children, nearly always a single baby. Twins are seldom, any more offspring nearly unheard of. Women, larger than men, are thoroughly in control of whomever they chose as a mate. The man provides a worthy meal, usually a well-cooked capture that can be eaten in one bite, then continues to provide extra food while his mate is pregnant and raising their child. Despite the lack of cohabitation, the couple remain in close contact for the rest of the child’s development, a couple decades, before both are free to pursue their own paths.

A burrowing giant’s complex digestion system separates out indigestible materials like hair and stubborn chunks of bones, compacting them into a solid mass. With a brutal burp, the burrowing giant can launch this wad of reject with enough force to smash wooden walls and slay even the most armored of knights or injure mighty dragons. This, paired with their ability to dive easily underground, makes burrowing giants relatively immune to predation. Largely only at risk from other sapient beings, burrowing giants are usually quite willing to sign quite lopsided contracts to guard the settlements of fire giants, the greatest terrestrial powers of Jotunheim. This defends them from threats intelligent enough to dig into their homes, but the wisest of them known that the city will always expand. How long can their outlands truly last?