Grolantor, evil patron of the hill giants and ettins, is one of Annam the All-Father's younger sons by an unnamed sky goddess, and one of his greatest disappointments. While very strong, the Steading Lord is also very stupid, although he can be cunning in combat and ambushes. He excels in hunting and eating, and considers himself unsurpassed at these activities. In many respects, Grolantor is a degenerate version of his father; where Annam is said to have many beautiful wives and mistresses, the Steading Lord is said to have consorted with a great many evil female goddesses and monsters.
Grolantor is strong and willfully stupid. He teaches his followers to persecute "lesser races" — that is, those smaller than hill giants. His hill giant shamans stubbornly refuse to admit they are smaller than any other giant breeds.
Ettins worship Grolantor in a dual-aspected manner, and their dogma differs from that of the hill giants in many crucial respects, often preventing alliances between the two races.
The most important thing for a follower of Grolantor is to never admit weakness, and to crush the weak.
The church of the Steading Lord is despised by most followers of other giantish gods, finding them crude, stupid, and unpleasant to be around. Priests of Grolantor will never be found in tribes that primarily follow one of the other Jotunbrud gods, except for those following Memnor. However, even amongst them, the Grolantans receive little respect, although the Memnari are careful to disguise it. Within their own tribes, the priests of the Steading Lord act as advisers to their chiefs, although they will never admit to being subservient to them. If the issue comes up, they act as if they're aloof from the power structure.
Weakness is intolerable to the priests of Grolantor. They seek out the sick, weak, and cowardly amongst their tribes, and attempt to put them into situations where they won't survive, such as scouting an area known to be inhabited by large numbers of dwarves. While they claim the experience will make the giant a stronger, more valuable member of the tribe, in reality they just want them slain by hands other than their own. They also constantly try to convince their chieftains to launch raids to slaughter nearby "weakling" races, particularly goblinkin and dwarves, as well as inciting wars against other creatures that are formidable enemies, such as dragons.
No priest of Grolantor may back down from a direct challenge (this applies only to direct challenges, not to battle in general). Doing so will result in a complete divestment of his clerical abilities until undergoing atonement, which usually involves charging into a dangerous battle. They may never treat any other giant as superior, considering themselves the equal of even the strongest storm giant. They are likely to attack any giant who repeatedly treats them as a servant or otherwise inferior.
Priests of Grolantor take any opportunity to instigate gluttonous revelry, such as successful battles and hunts. Hill giants and ettins regularly try to out-eat any other giants in their tribe, while frost giants try to out-drink their fellow giants. The followers of the Steading Lord also pride themselves on their ability to cook and eat just about anything, and are likely to have done so with everything edible within their hunting range. They also prefer flavorful and strongly spiced food to the "bland" fare of humans. While not actually a competition like the eating competitions, they do frequently compete to create new dishes, with the winner gaining accolades from his fellows.
Vestments
The Steading Lord's clergy tends to wear whatever trophies they can earn, find, or steal when called upon to perform any sort of ceremony. They have no formal robes or raiment and the closest thing they have to a ceremonial color is dark brown, simply because all hill giants, ettins, and mountain giants tend to wear garments of that color. If a tribe has had lengthy contact with other giant races, particularly cloud giants, they may attempt to emulate their priests by adopting patchwork robes made up of the ruined clothing of human and demihuman victims. Priests do not use a small icon as a holy symbol; instead, they must use a full sized wooden club to focus their spells.
Priests of Grolantor are indistinguishable from other members of their tribe when they are met in combat or another non-ceremonial role (i.e. adventuring). They may wear trophies or adornments symbolizing their position and power, but so will the chief and other powerful warriors.
Temples
Grolantor's priests do not build temples; their only religious sites are small shrines within their steadings and encampments. These shrines are private affairs and only the Steading Lord's priests are allowed to worship at them.
Grolantor's priesthood is too disorganized to have an overall hierarchy; individual priests receive titles based on their individual exploits (or lack thereof). There is no distinction between novices and full priests, as each priest's status is based solely on whom amongst the existing clergy they can best in whatever sort of challenge the tribe prefers. Specialty priests are known by a name in the Jotunhaug tongue that roughly means "those who thump their foes' skulls with their great clubs," but that is quite a mouthful, and the lazy hill giants usually simplify it to "thumper."
Rituals
Grolantor has no particular holy days, and is unusual among evil deities in that he demands no sacrifices. The closest thing to formal ritual among his worshipers is eating and drinking contests.
Never show weakness. Crush the weak underfoot and smash them with your club. Feast on the spoils of your hunts. Eat to grow strong, and the more eaten, the more strength is gained. Never back down from a challenge. The sons of Annam have the right to rule all the worlds, with none subservient to another.
Grolantor looks like a 25-foot tall giant with dark tan skin, most typically the form is of a hill giant, but he may occasionally appear as an ettin, or very rarely as a frost giant (in which case his skin is snowy white). He has a low sloping forehead capped with short, dark stringy hair, and his eyes are black. He typically wears several belts of woven dwarf beards. He wields an over-sized club named Dwarfcrusher.
Grolantor never sends omens or messages to his priests. He occasionally shows his favor through the form of an incredibly loud and fragrant belch after a priest has gorged himself on food in celebration of a great victory in battle.
Grolantor is one of the third generation of giant gods, disdainfully called the "runts" by their elders - the other is Karontor. His mother is an unnamed sky goddess. He was banished to Fury's Heart by his father Annam All-Father for allying himself with treacherous Memnor, but now that Annam has retreated from the rest of the multiverse, the ban no longer applies. He now splits his time between Fury's Heart and the Abyss.
Grolantor is evil second and stupid first, disowned by his brothers for his foolishness and relative weakness. Some say he created the race of hill giants by collecting and interbreeding the runts of earlier giant broods, then further polluted this stock by mating with various serpents, medusa-like hags, and the goddess Cegilune.
The god has had to flee the wrath of his sister Hiatea on many occasions. He also has many enemies among the goblinoid and dwarven deities.
