Fire Giant Soldier (Basic Lore)

Fire Giant Soldier (CR 17)
Lawful Evil - Large - Monstrous Humanoid
Beneath the Earth, there is Fire. It is rare for creatures on the surface to ever see this deep, cthonic furnace, but when it does break free to the surface, the spectacle and destruction is so terrible that it spawns legends. Under the Earth, the furnace of the Earth is well known, and there are vast regions of the Unterwelt that are choked with flames and lava. Those portions of the Unterwelt are wastelands, uninhabitable by any of the 'usual' denizens of that dark, bleak realm. But not because of the fire. Living in fiery regions would be simple for the Drow, for example. Their dark, Fey magics could harden them to easily withstand the flames. No, the fiery portions of the Unterwelt are wastelands because of the terrible things that already live there. Fire Giants are massive creatures, twice the height of a human and as broadly-built and sturdy as any Dwarf. Their skin is solid black, although when washed by firelight it can take on a million dark and smoky hues. Their teeth glow with heat, their eyes even more-so, and flames wreathe their wild manes of hair and suffuse their terrible beards. Despite their affiliation with the wildest and most dangerous of the elements, Fire Giants are paradoxically stern, rigid, rules-abiding creatures. They form vast societies, with many castes and clans, societies and religions and cults and rules, they build precise cities of cruel black stone and fire-washed alleys. Fire Giants, despite their fiery natures, are creatures of discipline. This means that a Fire Giant army is a terrible thing indeed, as they march and attack with discipline and unshakeable morale. An individual Fire Giant is a hard-hearted, cruel beast, but they have no lack of personal courage, even the most craven of Fire Giants being a bastion of doughty durability. Fire Giants are immune to fire and revel in it, and despite their cruel, rigid lives, they produce astonishing works of art and music, amazing angular sculptures in a dozen styles, and their heavy suits of black-iron armor are subtly engraved with a myriad of intricate and astonishingly beautiful designs. Fire Giant weapons are similarly well-made and beautiful, dark works of art steeped in the blood of the innocent. Fire Giants are rarely seen on the surface world, but they can reach the surface by riding lava flows up inside volcanoes. Indeed, the use of lava to travel is a common thread in Fire Giant life, with red-hot currents bearing their black-glass boats far and wide beneath the Earth, and obsidian ships cruising a sea of lava is one of those sights that will remain with you forever, if you are able to survive the finding of it. Fire Giants are not interested in slaves and plunder, directly. They are more interested in making long-term alliances with their neighbors from a position of strength, and then slowly grinding entire communities into economic thralldom. It is not unusual to find ogres and trolls and hill giants who have been serving a Fire Giant community for centuries, to the point that they really have no concept of life without their fiery overlords. In battle, Fire Giants are terrible foes, their weapons suffused with searing, painful heat and able to hurl blobs of white-hot lava. Even worse, they are able to catch their enemies alight with a mere word, the supernatural flames nearly impossible to extinguish if you do not kill the giant which inflicted them. In melee, they are very capable, and will seek flanks so they can strike down unlucky victims with a few massive strikes from their burning weapons. Fire Giant Soldiers are those members of Fire Giant society who have received special training in massed warfare. They are easily distinguised from lesser Fire Giants by the white-hot Fire Halberds they all carry, which makes them far more dangerous in battle. Given how regimented and martial the race is, the number of Soldiers in Fire Giant territory is...sobering. Fire Giant Soldiers are much like other Fire Giants, except for their Halberds and even greater skill in massed combat, and their comradeship in battle when they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow Fire Giants makes them into truly deadly military engines. Wise foes seek to break up massed formations of Fire Giant Soldiers...although how this feat can be accomplished is a task for the truly mighty.