Magically crafted and bred by ancient wizards, rune giants are anathema to and tyrants among their own kind, who were given power to command and magically control other giants. The rune giants themselves served even more powerful masters-potent wizards known as runelords-and in so doing commanded entire armies of giants on behalf of the runelords' empires. In the eons since these empires collapsed, rune giants have persisted as a people of their own, though to the outside world they're little more than fabled horrors whispered of late at night by superstitious giants. Rune giants usually dwell in the most remote and rugged of towering mountain ranges, but they can also be found in immense ruins atop lost islands, glacial valleys, or even more remote or magical regions.