Stories Of Zoltah

Gigantomachy

In the midst of all the chaos and mayhem, bloodshed and tears, another foe of the celestials lurked in the shadows. We may never know why they were spared by the titans – perhaps it was their lack of magic, or simply because the titans, born out of a reaction to a celestial, were only drawn to their kind. But the giants, dwelling in lands beyond Asgard and Olympia, were presented with a unique opening.

Before the titanomachy, Thor had led the charge on Jotun, the land where the horned giants of Asgard lived, keeping them at bay as he attacked and oftentimes killed the towering creatures – miniscule in size compared to the titans. These giants, most of which were brutish and seemingly attacked only out of instinct rather than a coordinated attack, were easily defeated, so much so, to the extent that before the titans were unleashed, they had already begun to keep their distance from the Asgardians. Even in Olympia, a different breed of giants stalked the kingdom – adorned with a single eye in the centre of their foreheads, and known as the cyclopes. Regardless of their massive stature and sheer strength, the Olympians had managed to stave them off all these centuries; Until that fateful first attack by the titans. The once thoughtless giants and cyclopes, sensing weakness and turmoil, descended from their lairs and crept into the kingdoms, devastating an already defeated people. In Asgard, those who dwelt in the village of Noburg bore the brunt of the punishment, as they found themselves quickly over run and overwhelmed, while in Olympia, some of the cyclopes wandered as far as the Nemean forest, stretching beneath Mount Olympus, only to be repelled by the Fates. These attacks, as futile as they seemed in the beginning, quickly became a frequent occurrence, as soon after the titans retreated from one land, the giants sprang up and entered it.

Eventually, the attacks became fiercer, as some of the giants grew stronger from each raid. And only after an urgent council was convened by Odin in Valhalla, did they realise that the giants' increasing strength was a result of their own making. For you see, the more these brutes attacked and were repelled, the more they learned to fight, evade and more importantly, the stronger their bodies became. And true to the nature of their pact, rather than share the knowledge of this newly found attribute, the Asgardians kept it to themselves, leaving the Olympians to discover it first hand when it took Hercules nearly a day to wrestle with a drove of ten cyclopes – a feat he would have ordinarily achieved within a matter of moments. Now armed with the revelation of the improving giants, and the eventual return of the titans looming over them, the celestials braced themselves for the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy – lasting for centuries until the day of the Uplifting.