Jotunn Lineages
Lineages
Etanon
Etanon families live in the roots of massive trees along the great rivers on the continent. The roots protect them from angry or hungry wild Ampte or other large predators in the forests. The mother also uses her pheromone glands to mark her home as a place Ampte should never venture. Her husband also marks their home with tufts of velvet from his horns to prevent wandering or hunting Dwarves from entering their home. The pungent, dwarf-specific smell keeps them away. They both use their wide sense of pheromones to keep their family safe from the wilderness's many creatures when they must travel or hunt.
Etanon females have great influence over many creatures in the land, but their specialty are Ampte. They can enter an Ampte mound and walk among them, using her antennae to smell and pheromone gland to convince them she is one of them. They can even convince a colony she is their queen. Amptes that have become familiar with her and accept her as queen will come to aid when she calls or do her bidding. But unlike Skulus who domesticate Ampte, Etanons work to gain an Ampte's trust.
Etanon males generally work alongside their wives. They too have incredible connection to creatures, especially Ampte, however they do not have pheromone emitters and so cannot pass as an Ampte on his own. His horns enable him to navigate and negotiate with Dwarves. He prevents Dwarves, who desire the depths to which Ampte mounds go, from exterminating colonies of Amptes. He uses his horns to interpret Dwarfish runes, body language, and other more physical methods of communication to gain an understanding of Dwarves so their desires can be negotiated while, paramountly, keeping nature in its balance.
Ividja
The Ividja live in large, roaming family units. They have a strict order of dominance within their families. The matriarch of the tribe leads and it is only by her consent that mating, hunting, or relocation occur. She and her husband are the primary child bearers, but she may allow other couples to produce children when their numbers are dwindling.
In most Ividga tribes, the matriarch has set herself up as queen of a Beowulf den. The creatures are free to hunt and do as they will but usually Ividja and Beowulf hunt together. The Beowulves also allow Ividga tribes to roam great distances and travel to various terrains. The Ividja females often act as scouts when hunting as well as in travel to identify prey and to avoid other tribes.
Ividja males are the initiators of a tribe's coordinated attack. They will drop from their Beowulf mounts or approach with their mount to attack a prey. The males, with their large, clawed hands and hooked tusks, are deadly accurate and capable at severing a creature's spine.
Like Etanon males, Ividja males can communicate with the law beings, but they communicate best with Kobolds. Kobolds are usually seen as blunders who doggedly pursue their goal. Ividja males work to keep those blunders from harming the natural world. They even help the Kobolds learn methods of achieving their goals by working with nature rather than destroying it.
Risi
The Risi are a slow-moving people. They wander the wilderness often digging their long, thin fingers into the earth. After pausing a moment, they stand. With little to no communication, they wander off in a seemingly random direction. Even without stopping to dig their fingers into the earth, they tilt their heads this way and that and then beginning travelling another way.
Of all the Jotunns, Risi can detect the most pheromones, vibrations, and other physical communications and sensations. They can identify even the faintest of signals from great distances with their large fuzzy antennae. The other Jotunns know that when a Risi seeks shelter, so should they.
Risi males are specialists in remembering where they have been. They can create maps of the area and its physical attributes or describe it in near perfect detail. However, these maps often have cryptic sketches of creatures and landmarks that are not found in the area. However, the places prone to the most natural calamity is where these strange sketches are marked.
Risi females are usually the ones leading their tribes in their random wanderings. They may take a tribe across the surface of the land or through the meandering tunnels of the Bitela. The females calm the skittish Bitela not only with their pheromone glands, but with the chirps and song their tusks help them to create that match a Bitela's wing rustle.
Gygr
The Gygr, of all the Jotunns, are the best at calming all creatures and being recognizes as a part of their colony, pack, or kind. Both have pheromone glands that allow them to do this. However, their antennae are only useful when close to a creature or group of creatures, and their other senses are less fine-tuned than other Jotunn. This makes them particularly prone to the dangers of wild beasts. They often live in trees where the limbs are thickest to decrease the amount of creatures that can access them.
A Gygr tribe relies on their males the most to notify them of danger. They have better sensory distance. They are essential for tribes that wish to travel. Gygr males are also adept at locating other Jotunns. They can sense females quickly that are within their sensory range and will almost unerringly identify the matriarch of the tribe. He uses this ability to gain the assistance of other Jotunns when his tribe travels or negotiate symbiotic relationship with other tribes.
Female Gygr are the primary defenders of their tribe. Though they rely on their husbands or other males to notify them of danger before it arrives, they use their quick ambush style of combat and their sharp claws to shred the danger. Besides fighting, Gygr females are quite jovial, especially in their style of leading their tribe.