No one knows the true origin of the Giants. The event known as the Great Growing is lost to time, leaving only three competing myths, each championed by a different faction.
1. The Trial of the Frost (Myth of the Stone-Shield & Frost-Fang)
This myth claims the Great Frost was a divine test from the gods of the mountain and storm. They sought to see which mortals had the strength and will to survive a dying world. Those with the fiercest hearts and most unbreakable spirits were blessed with colossal size, making them the designated protectors and rulers of the new age. Giants see themselves as a chosen species, and their rule is a sacred duty.
2. The Curse of the Unworthy (Myth of the Sun-Splinter Throne)
The elves tell a different tale. They believe their ancestors attempted a grand ritual to banish the frost forever, channeling magic from the heart of the sun. The ritual backfired catastrophically. The magical backlash did not create the Giants—it cursed those deemed "unworthy" of the perfect, elegant world the elves tried to create. In this version, becoming a Giant was a punishment, a fate of clumsy, brutal scale inflicted on those who failed. The elves who became Giants see themselves as fallen nobility.
3. The Seed of the World-Serpent (Myth of the Free-Soul & Ashen Crest)
A more primal myth speaks of Jormungandr, the World-Serpent, who coils deep beneath the ice. As it slumbers, its breath is the Frost-Grasp. But when it first fell asleep, it shed a single, immense scale that dissolved into the world's magic. This scale was the "Seed of Scale," and the Great Growing was simply this power manifesting randomly across the population. There is no divine will or curse—only the chaotic gift of a sleeping god, making Giants not chosen rulers or cursed failures, but simply the random, lucky (or unlucky) recipients of power.