The Qord'ik are a proud people of the Free Isles, distinguished by their dark brown skin, exceptional height, and powerfully built frames inherited from the giant line that founded them. Standing head and shoulders above most other humans, they are natural sailors whose massive frames allow them to handle the rigging and cargo of the great ships that ply the southern seas.
Equally skilled as traders and fighters, the Qord'ik have built a reputation for fair dealing backed by the implicit threat of their formidable physical presence. Their island homes have made them master navigators, and their trading vessels are welcomed in ports across Alaria - though few would dare to cheat a Qord'ik merchant.
The harsh life of the islands and the constant struggle against fierce storms and sea monsters has bred a people of incredible resilience, both in body and spirit.
The making
What sets the Qord'ik apart from a merely tall family of humans is that they made the giant in them the whole point. The Free Isles were once a waystation for giants working the southern coasts, and one of those giant lines married into the island households and stayed rather than moving on. The cross held, and the Qord'ik descend from it as a genuine half-giant people, not a stock of unusually large humans. They could have let that settle into a story about big grandfathers. Instead a people who had to crew the great southern ships and stand off raiders built their whole identity around the inheritance, until height, reach, and the weight behind a handshake were not incidental to a Qord'ik but the thing a Qord'ik child is raised to be. The giant blood is real, it carries to every child born to the line, and they have never once let an outsider forget it.
Aspects
- Giants' blood runs in my veins
- The sea is in my bones