theme for a fantasy campaign

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

If jotuns are the same as the Danish 'jætter', denizens of Jotunheim (which seems likely), then "troll" and "jotun" are not synonyms. Jotuns are giants. Trolls are usually not very much bigger (though a lot stronger) than humans (and can be found in Midgard). I suppose some stories could have mixed them up, but some trolls live under bridges while jotuns have gloves big enough to be mistaken for caves. "Thurs" sounds like 'turser', which are ice giants.

Tolkien portrays trolls as the largest of the peoples of Middle-Earth, and I'm going with that. There's a known pattern where life in cold climates runs bigger than life in warm climates, because of the thermal efficiency of bodies with a low surface to volume ratio. But I also just like the fantasy image of a troll as a huge figure looming out of the snow.

I've thought a bit about sexual dimorphism in the various races. My current image is that selkies have much larger males (as in some seal species); men have slightly larger males; elves have minimal dimorphism; dwarves have slightly larger females (and may have sterile "workers," like mole rats); and trolls have much larger females, who are smarter than the males and tend to be skilled in magic. Not sure yet about ghouls or halflings.

Bill Stoddard