The giants were the indigenous species of Cornwall, but were driven to extinction by humans. The first British, named for their king, Brutus, were emigres from Troy: just like the Romans. Cornwall is named after Cornieus, Brutus’s general. The war with the giants ended with King Magog dead, and the giants’ war leader, Gogmagog, a prisoner. Cornieus wrestled with him then threw him to his death from Gogmagog’s Leap at Plymouth Hoe. Magog’s people fled across the ocean, or were gradually hunted down. The spriggans that guard Cornwall’s megalithic sites claim to be the ghosts of giants, defending their lands and treasures from the usurping humans.

Insert: Every Realm has giants

In Cornish folklore, there are giants from every realm. If something is historical, a giant turns up eventually. There are gigantic saints, elemental creators, ghostly faeries, and wrestling demons.

The Ruined Castles of the Giants

Before the humans came, the giants had feuding kingdoms. Each was centred about a fortress, but these have fallen into disrepair, so they are little more than earthworks and megaliths. Two of the castles sit above ancient tunnels, in which the giants stored their treasure. Monstrous guardians also inhabit the tunnels. These sites have strong faerie or magical Auras, making magic easier.

Plot hook: Founding a covenant

The strong auras, and reusable building material, found at these ruins make them tempting sites to found a covenant. The gravest problem is that if a creature is already inside when the Aegis of the Hearth is raised, it is not forced outside, it merely has its powers dampened down. There is also the problem that if the tunnels are deep enough the Aegis may not penetrate to them (depending on if you see the Aegis as a cylinder or a sphere).

Plot hook: Subsidence

A covenant falls, and when the player characters investigate, they discover it was founded on top of one of these tunnel complexes. Can they rescue and of the covenfolk who have been added to the larders of the horrors that live within the hills?

Trecrobben Hill

Here I might as well quote Hunt, who sells it entirely “On the summit of this hill, which is only surpassed in savage grandeur by Carn Brea, the giants built a castle the four entrances to which still remain in Cyclopean massiveness to attest  the Herculean powers by which such mighty blocks were piled upon each other. There the giant chieftains dwelt in awful state. Along the serpentine road, passing up the hill to the principal gateway, they dragged their captives, and on the great flat rocks within the castle they sacrificed them. Almost every rock still bears some name connected with the giants…The treasures of the giants who dwelt here are said to have been buried in the days of their troubles, when they were perishing before the conquerors of their land. Their gold and jewels were hidden deep in the granite caves of this hill, and secured by spells as potent as those which Merlin placed upon his “hoarded treasures.” They are securely preserved, even to the present day, and carefully guarded from man by the spriggans, or trolls, of whom we have to speak in another page.”

Plot hook: Sacrificed to what?

Who, or what was the god of these giants, and is there a mystery cult or infernal taint here?

Plot hook: Literally tunnels filled with monsters and treasure.

This site might provide a comfortable environment for groups familiar with other roleplaying games, first learning the Ars Magica system.

Plot hooks: Holiburn of Cairn Galva

Hunt again : “Holiburn of the Cairn…was a very amiable and somewhat sociable gentleman ; but, like his brethren, he loved to dwell amongst the rocks of Cairn Galva.  He made his home in this remote region, and relied for his support on the gifts of sheep and oxen from the farmers around he, in return, protecting them from the predatory incursions of the less conscientious giants of Trecrobben.”

Holiburn could be the source of the Giant Blood Virtue in some characters. His descendants would be particularly prized as grogs.

His little home in Cairn Galva may contain treasures, but a character ransacking them gains the enmity of his extended clan of humans.

At one point, when Henry III was short on funds, he commanded his brtoher to break open the mounds in Cornwall to search for treasures. That’s unwise on many levels, but it also places him at odds with the desires of the Holiburn clan.

Plot hooks: The giant of Nancledry

This giant also opposed those at Trecrobben, but ate babies. He also carried boulders in his pockets, to throw at his rivals. This means he invented pockets thousands of years before humans did, and they might discover this most useful of inventions at the ruin of his house. This giant’s house is odd, in that it’s made of cob (packed earth). Giants in Cornwall live in caves or castles: this is the only one recorded as having built himself a house. What other odd inventions and anachronisms might the player characters find in the ruins of his dwelling?

Saint Michael’s Mount

A castle was built here by a married pair of giants, Coromoran and Cormelian, who carried cubes of granite from far away to build the walls. While Coromoran slept, Cormelian decided to sneak a bit of local greenstone into the building, carrying it in her enormous apron. Cormoran awoke, saw what was happening and kicked his wife, snapping her apron string so that she dropped the schist.

Back then, the giants of Mount Saint Michael and Trecrobben Hill were friendly, and had only one cobbling hammer between them. They’d just fling it to each other as they needed it. One day, a poor throw by the giant of Trecrobben struck Cormelian on the forehead. She died, and the giants buried her under the schist. A chapel has been placed there since, so it is called Chapel Rock.

Plot hook: So, that’s corpus vis, then?

Can you mine despite the Dominion Aura on the chapel?

Plot hook: Raising the giant

The grave of the giantess is ransacked, and the Quaesitores ask the player characters to investigate. They think it is likely a magus, or folk magicians, merely wanted the vis contained in the body. They are mistaken: giants, as magical beings, can be bought back from death by ritual magic. A group plans to raise this giantess, to interrogate her for information about the defences on the treasures at Trecrobben Hill.

If they succeed, the giantess becomes the focus of a complicated web of intrigue. House Tytalus wants her, to allow the development more powerful Titanoi magic. The Muspeli want her, to help end the world. If these two groups use elemental spirits to feud in Cornwall, the disruption could be tremendous.

Cormoran was, according to 18th century folklore, killed by a farmer’s son named Jack, during the reign of King Arthur. He lured the giant into a pit, then lodged a pick in his head. For this he was awarded the giant’s land and treasure. Ever after he was known as Jack the Giant-Killer.

Plot hook: The Hunters of Giants

People like Jack, who had an almost magical skill at murder, were recruited by House Tremere during the Schism War. The descendants of most of those traditions are called Hunters, and live near the centre of Tremere’s power in Transylvania. A separate group might be found in Blackthorn Covenant, or may have left sufficient records to allow their tradition to be revivied.

Other folklore says that when the final giant of the Mount became very old, he would wade across to the mainland to steal a cow whenever he felt hungry. The Lord of Pengerswick became annoyed at this reivery. He petrified the still-conscious giant, left him for a cold night, and then horsewhipped him soundly. The giant waded through the sea, back to his home, the salt stinging his wounds, and has not been seen since.

It is said that the a family from Guval became rich from this. Tom, the Giant of Lelant , took one of the women of this family to sell the giant eggs and butter, which he paid for with treasures from vaults beneath the Mount.

Plot hooks: seeking the heirlooms of the egg lady

One of the most important tools for piercing the magical defences of the hoards of the giants are Arcane Connections to the vaults. The treasures this family traded for might suffice. Most will have been spent, but is there a keepsake that has been handed down? If it is buried in the churchyard with the lady who sold the eggs, do the player characters wish to tempt Divine wrath to dig it up? Can they gain the assistance of the Church’s authorities, to mitigate the supernatural harm? What does the Church want in exchange?

Treryn

Time to quote Hunt again “The giant to whom all the rest of his race were indebted for this stronghold was in every way a remarkable mortal. He was stronger than any other giant, and he was a mighty necromancer. He sat on the promontory of Treryn, and by the power of his will he compelled the castle to rise out of the sea. It is only kept in its present position by virtue of a magic key. This the giant placed in a holed rock, known as the Giant’s Lock, and whenever this key, a large round stone, can be taken out of the lock, the promontory of Treryn and its castle will disappear beneath the waters. There are not many people who obtain even a sight of this wonderful key. You must pass at low tide along a granite ledge, scarcely wide enough for a goat to stand on. If you happen to make a false step, you must be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. Well, having got over safely, you come to a pointed rock with a hole in it ; this is the castle lock. Put your hand deep into the hole, and you will find at the bottom a large egg-shaped stone, which is easily moved in any direction. You will feel certain that you can take it out, but try! Try as you may, you will find it will not pass through the hole ; yet no one can doubt but that it once went in…no one has ever yet succeeded in removing the key of the giant’s castle from the hole in which the necromancer is said to have placed it when he was dying.”

A slightly different version has the necromancer transform his wife into the Lady Logan Rock as he dies, stabbed and drowned by her lover. A logan rock is a huge stone that can be rocked like a cradle, with just the strength of a hand. There are many in Cornwall.

Plot hook: Portable castle?

Is Treryn just a regio, with an entry pinned open, or is it, in some sense, portable? If you knew the rituals, could you use the key to make the castle appear anywhere you needed it by constructing a new lock? Are there keys to similar places? Are people or things in them? Whole communities?

Plot hook: Rocking the rocks

The Logan rocks are said to have played a role in Druidic ceremonies. They might be Rego vis related. What happens if you rock all of them at the same time, as would have happened on festival nights during the pre-Christian era?

Plot hook: A clue to raising Lyonesse?

A Merinita magus wishes to examine the stone in the Giant’s Lock. They need magical assistance ot deal with the enviromnetal dangers. They hope to learn how to recognise a similar lock, or series of locks, which could be used to restore the sunken kingdom of Lyonesse.

What happens if they make a key, misunderstand the underlying system, and instead of raising Lyonesse, they just draw up a headland filled with faerie giants?

Independent giants

Aside from the three great castles, there were giants who lived either alone or in fortified houses with their immediate families. I’ve listed them here by the geographical feature they are associated with, except Tom of Lelant, who has so much material I’ve moved him to the end of the section. In addition to these there are many other village giants, some of whom are buried in hallowed ground. Giant graves are everywhere in Cornwall, and are even more prevalent in the Scilly Islands.

Land’s End: Trebregan

The ancient name of this headland was Bellerian, named after the giant who built the first castle here. No trace of the castle exists.

A village near Land’s End, Tebregan, is named for a giant buried there. Oddly, for someone so clearly dead, he is used as a bogey to gain the obedience of children. He was so large he could pull sailors off ships. He ate children every day, preferably after frying them on a certain flat rock, near a cave which was said to be his lair. Tell children in Mythic Europe a bogeyman will come for them, and you create a story a faerie will fill, so presumably something is in his cave.

Saint Agnes’s Beacon : The Giant Bolster

“The giant Bolster became deeply in love with St Agnes, who is reputed to have been singularly beautiful, and a pattern woman of virtue…He followed her incessantly, proclaiming his love, and filling the air with the tempests of his sighs and groans. St Agnes lectured Bolster in vain on the impropriety of his conduct, he being already a married man. This availed not ; her prayers…were also in vain… Agnes appeared at length to be persuaded of the intensity of the giant’s love, but she told him she required yet one small proof more.

There exists at Chapel Forth a hole in the cliff at the termination of the valley. If Bolster would fill this hole with his blood the lady would no longer look coldly on him. This huge bestrider-of-the-hills thought that it was an easy thing which was required of him, and felt that he could fill many such holes and be none the weaker for the loss of blood. Consequently, stretching his great arm across the hole, he plunged a knife into a vein, and a torrent of gore issued forth. Roaring and seething the blood fell to the bottom, and the giant expected in a few minutes to see the test of his devotion made evident, in the filling of the hole. It required much more blood than Bolster had supposed still it must in a short time be filled, so he bled on.

Hour after hour the blood flowed from the vein, yet the hole was not filled. Eventually the giant fainted from exhaustion. The strength of life within his mighty frame enabled him to rally, yet he had no power to lift himself from the ground, and he was unable to stanch the wound which he had made. Thus it was, that after many throes, the giant Bolster died!

The cunning saint, in proposing this task to Bolster, was well aware that the hole opened at the bottom into the sea, and that as rapidly as the blood flowed into the hole it ran from it…The hole at Chapel Forth still retains the evidences of the truth of this tradition, in the red stain which marks the track down which flowed the giant’s blood.”

Vis sources

This seems likely to produce Corpus vis. There’s a similar story told in Goran, where an ill giant is bled to unconsciousness by a doctor, using the same strategy, then rolled off a sea cliff.

Portreath : Ralph (or Wrath)

There’s a sea channel here called Ralph’s Cupboard. There was a giant here, long ago, who lived in a cave, from which he ventured out to catch fishing boats, and tie them to his belt, before walking home and eating the sailors. After his death, the roof of the cave fell in, leaving the current cutting. There’s a second story that says Ralph was just a smuggler, who spread the story of the giant to keep people away.

Plot hook: Smugglers and their tales

In Mythic Cornwall, both stories can be true. Smugglers tell the story to keep people away from the cave, but once the tale becomes widespread, a faerie takes up the role.  How do the player characters deal with a giant large enough to kidnap ships?

The Giant of Morva

Hunt: “This great man, on the first day of August, would walk up to Bosprenis Croft, and there perform some magical rites, which were either never known, or they have been forgotten. On this day, for ,when thus engaged the giant was harmless, thousands of people would congregate to get a glimpse of the monster ; and as he passed them, all being seated on the stone hedges, every one drank ” to the health of Mr Giant.” At length the giant died, but the gathering on the 1st of August has never been given up, or rather, the day shifts, and is made to agree with Morva Feast,  which is held on the first Sunday in August.”

Plot hook: Ancient Magic

This giant is performing ritual magic, or alchemy. Can the player characters find a way to raise his spirit, to learn these techniques he was using? Are his memories preserved in a spriggan? The characters are aided, accidentally, by the people of Morva: their feast is a huge Magical (or possibly Faerie) ritual that has been performed for thousands of years, and it makes the local Aura spike on the appopriate day. The player characters can make plans so they have a private space near the fairground on the day.

Mazarion (Tom of Lelant)

Tom of Lelant is a folk hero from the area near Mazarion, although his story is known in much of Cornwall. In a saga, he could be a historical figure, a contemporary, an ancestor or a faerie following a role. Tom has a best friend named Jack, who is pretty obviously an avatar of Wayland Smith.

Tom of Lelant was a giant, although small for that race, perhaps only twice the size of a man. He was a lazy fellow initially, but got a job delivering beer from a brewer in Mazarion. A giant, Blunderbuss, built hedges (which in Cornwall means unmortared stone fences) across the road. Tom confronted him, and when the giant pulled up a tree to use as a club, Tom pulled the axle off his cart, and used a wheel as a buckler, and fought the giant.  Tom thought this a fair thing, because the giant had a reputation for eating his wives.

During the combat, Blunderbuss demonstrated a disgusting power: the blood that fountained from his wounds was so excessive that it baulked Tom. After pulling the axle out of the giant, Tom demanded that, in fairness, the larger giant put his hand over the hole until the battle was over.

The giant liked what a sporting fellow Tom was, as seen in this quote, when he was dying “I have no near relations. There is heaps of gold, silver, copper, and tin down in the vaults of the castle, guarded by two dogs. Mind their names are Catchem and Tearem. Only call them by these names and they’ll let thee pass. The land from this to the sea is all mine. There is more head of oxen, cows, sheep, goats, and deer, than thee canst count. Take them all, only bury me decent.”

Tom claimed the castle, and no-one knew that the giant was dead, save a little human woman named Jane, the giant’s most recent wife. She flirted with Tom, and he thought her quite a catch, so they pretended the giant had survived, and lived comfortably on his treasure for a few years.

Plot hooks: Giant Blood source

Tom and Jane had many children, and are the ancestors of a line of people with a touch of giant blood in modern Cornwall.

After a few years, a tinker named Jack came to challenge the giant for hedging the road, and Tom, pretended to be the giant’s son. He fought the man at singlestick but lost badly. Jack taught Tom the finer points of fencing and they had dinner together. They became friends over time, and the tinker told Tom that he came from a far land (although not across the sea) where there were many giants that mined for tin. Wise men came from further away with tools for the giants, and they had taught Jack his trade.

Jack had been travelling south and heard of Blunderbuss. The story in Jack’s land was that the larger a giant, the more gentle he was, so he decided to seek him out.

Plot hooks: the giant who is not there

A group of magi who turn up to fight the giant may have the same experience, of having Tom pretend to be his toddler son.

Jack taught Tom how to till a garden, the first in Cornwall. He also taught the arts of malting and brewing to Jane. The tinker was also the first man in Cornwall to skin a beast as a single piece of hide, and taught the arts of leatherwork made possible by these large pieces.

Plot hooks: What happens when a Jack comes back?

Jack turns up and wants to teach people a new skill. It could just break up the current patterns of commerce. If, for example, he teaches the making of alkali out of seaweed, then that wrecks the Venetian monopoly on alum for glass making, which they’ve enforced with war in the past.

What if he does something more radical?  What if he teaches them how to make steam engines, power automata, or grow potatoes?  The problem here is that faeries can only teach skills humans,. somewhere, already know. The mythical creatures that can teach absolutely novel abilities are the Grigori, a type of demon that now acts as the warders of Hell.

When they were throwing quoits, Tom broke the surface of the grass on the green banks about the castle, finding dark stuff beneath. Jack identified it as tin, and told Tom he was now rich. Tom had all he desired, and didn’t know how to dress tin, but the tinker offered to do it for him, in exchange for a share of the money.

When they had dressed the tin, they took it to Mazarion, where the tinsmelter, who was also the mayor and the brewer, gave them a very fair price. He was such an outstanding man that he’s still used as a byword for honesty today, The tin was so good a deal for all around that he broke open a barrel of beer and declared a fair (a courant, in the local terms) which was so loud it attracted the Lord of Pengerswick.

The mayor, who was also the smelter and brewer, was an ally of the Lord of Pengerswick.  He introduced Tom, who then invited Pengerswick to his castle. Pengerswick teleported them all to Tom’s house, and wouldn’t tell Tom how it was done, but was clear Jack knew.  Pengerswick tried to fool Tom into telling him where the tin was, but Jack was onto him and politely deflected the conversation.

Eventually the Lord  tired of this and cast a spell to make everyone fall asleep. This did not work on Jack, because he was basically awesomeness on a stick, and instead he sat there “whistling like an old troll” which feels lovely and modern. Pengerswick tried to stab Jack, with a sly blow from a dagger of the finest Eastern steel. The dagger was turned aside by Jack’s leather clothes. Pengerswick then tried to use a cross on Jack, but Jack had a mirror under his jacket and pulled his shirt open, to reflect the power onto Pengerswick. Jack then seized his cross, and kicked Pengerswick from the castle.

Morva Fair

There’s a feast and fair in Morva which celebrates the anniversary of a wedding and a battle. When Tom’s daughter was of marriageable age, Jack asked for her hand, but her father would not grant it unless Jack dealt with a giant in the hills above Morva. This was the only ground between Hayle and St Just which Tom did not own. The giant was evil, and demanded tithes from the humans, so Jack didn’t mind.

Some of Tom’s distant relatives lived in Morva, and his son, young Tom, wanted to marry one of them. Jack proclaimed a day of wedding games around the entire country. When there was a huge crowd, they pitched quoits at the giant’s home. The giant threatened the crowd, and Jack taunted it to fight. As it ran down the hill toward the crowd, it vanished: swallowed by a pit trap Jack had dug the night before. The crowd then piled rocks on the giant, whose bones are still said to be there.

Notes on combat skills

Quoits, wrestling and slinging, the skills in Cornish games, are combat skills for covenfolk in Ars Magica.

Vis sources

A note on Herbam vis sources, from when Jack teaches gardening   “(Tom) had hitherto contented himself with gathering wild herbs, such as nettles, wild beet, mallows, elecampane, various kinds of lentils, and chick or cat-peas. Jack now planted a garden for his friends, the first in Cornwall, and they grew all kinds of good vegetables. The tinkeard also taught Jane to make malt and to brew beer ; hitherto they had been content with barley-wort, which was often sour. Jack would take the children and collect bitter herbs to make the beer keep, such as the alehoof (ground ivy), mugwort, bannell (the broom), agrimony, centuary, woodsage, bettony, and pellitory.

Plot hook: One idiot with a pen…

Giants may be extinct, but in the Thirteenth Century a new story starts to circulate. It’s about an Anglo-Norman knight called Guy of Warwick. He hunts dragons and fights a Danish giant called Colibrand. The Norman ruling class have a separate set of stories, different to those of the Cornish. Faeries flock to stories. Can one convincing bard bring the giants back, to the amusement of the distant Norman court, and the horror of the locals?

Hidden resources covenant hook: Treasure like Bluebeeard’s

“Jack wandered around the castle, and was struck by seeing a window which he had not before observed. Jack was resolved to discover the room to which this window belonged, so he very carefully noticed its position, and then threw his hammer in through it, that he might be certain of the spot when he found the tool inside of the castle. The next day, after dinner, when Tom was having his snooze, Jack took Jane with him, and they commenced a search for the hammer near the spot where Jack supposed the window should be, but they saw no signs of one in in any part of the walls. They discovered, however, a strangely fashioned, worm-eaten oak hanging-press. They carefully examined this, but found nothing. At last Jack, striking the back of it with his fist, was convinced, from the sound, that the wall behind it was hollow. He and Jane went steadily to work, and with some exertion they moved the press aside, and disclosed a stone door. They opened this, and there was Jack’s hammer lying amidst a pile of bones, evidently the relics of some of old Blunderbuss’s wives, whom he had imprisoned in the wall, and who had perished there. Jane was in a great fright, and blessed her good fortune that she had escaped a similar end. Jack, however, soon consoled her by showing her the splendid dresses which were here, and the gold chains, rings, and bracelets, with diamonds and other jewels, which were scattered around. ”

The Legend of Tamara

The nymph Tamara was born in a cave, the daughter of two potent earth spirits.  She loved the sunlight, so she could not stay hidden, and was beautiful, so she attracted suitors.

Two sons of Dartmoor giants, named Tavy and Tewrage, both desired Tamara, and she led both on. Eventually they tried to force her to choose between them. Tamara’s father, who hated giants, demanded she return home. When she refused, he turned her into the river Tamar.

The two giants awoke, and each was broken-hearted. Tavy’s father knew magic, and turned him into a river that eventually mingles wit the Tamara, called the Tay. Tewrage found an enchanter who made him into a river, but he mistook the path the Tamar takes, and so, to his sorrow, he pours away from her forever, as the Taw.

Plot hooks 

What happens if some fool turns them back into human form?