by Ed Greenwood

From the Trail Notes of Raujur the Ranger:

Ettins, commonly known as the 'twoheaded
giants', are a brutish, aggressive
race of carnivores who dwell in caverns,
disused mines, and the like, emerging to
raid the upper world only by night. They
hunt prey well in darkness¹ and subsist on
raw flesh of all sorts; however, only rarely
do they fight among themselves, and an
ettin will only eat the meat of its own kind if
it is badly wounded or sorely in need of
nourishment, and no other food supply is
readily available. As befits their crude and
cruel behavior, ettins will typically hammer
their food to a pulp, either with a weapon or
by flailing the carcass against rocks, before
eating it.

Ettins are largely solitary; they have no
particular preference for the company of
any other creature type, and the feeling is
apparently mutual. A mated pair will typically
stay together after mating until the
offspring is born and has grown to self-sufficiency.
Otherwise, ettins will only seldom
gather together and live in small
groups, in circumstances where an individual
shows itself to be more strong-willed or
more intelligent than others of its kind.
Members of the leader's group will cooperate
with the leader, and among themselves,
as long as they perceive some gain from
doing so. If the leader of such a band
leaves, or is killed || discredited, the group
will dissolve and each member will go its
own way.

Ettins are generally stupid, but can be
cunning in matters of chasing, ambushing,
and fighting prey. They are wary of all
other creatures -- even other ettins -- and
slow to trust.

One fact known by everyone, of course,
is that ettins have two heads. This strange
property affords them some obvious benefits
in combat situations; fortunately, however,
their low intelligence prevents them from
taking full advantage of this 'blessing.' The
head on the right-hand side of an ettin?s
body is always dominant; despite folk tales
and ballads to the contrary, an ettin never
"argues with itself."2

Also contrary to certain lejends, an ettin cannot regrow a lost
head; however, a one-headed ettin is well
able to survive its loss and carry on a normal
life, albeit without the aforementioned
combat advantages and most probably
without receiving any trust or respect from
its fellow creatures, who will look upon the
one-headed ettin as deformed. The former
disadvantage is minimal in most cases, since
even a one-headed ettin is a formidable foe
in physical combat. The latter disadvantage
is not considered important either, because
such creatures generally do not solicit or
value the trust of their fellows in any event.
Typically, these creatures are not especially
fluent in any single language, but use
a smattering of words and expressions from
whichever tongues are most predominant in
their vicinity -- usually orcish, goblin, and
the common speech. Most of them know at
least a little of the CE dialect, and
ettins often consider this their 'own' language.

In some areas of the world where
ettin populations have established themselves
and resided for a long time, the creatures
have developed a debased dialect of
the orcish tongue into a language that can
truly be called their own.3

A female ettin will bear a single offspring
seven months after mating, and such young
typically grow to full size in little more than
a year.4

Female ettins are always longhaired, <do female Ettins have 4 tits?>
and generally more full-bodied than
the males, whose frames are relatively gaunt
and wiry except for the exceptionally broad
shoulders which are (for two obvious reasons)
a hallmark of the species. Neither the
male nor the female takes any care over
personal appearance, but females like to
wear jewelry as a status symbol -- perhaps
to display their hunting prowess and
thereby prove themselves attractive to a
prospective mate; females may gain their
finery from prey they vanquish, or as gifts
from male ettins during the crude courtship
ritual they practice.

Aside from the uses described above,
ettins keep treasure to bargain with and to
purchase the services of others for specific
tasks, such as hiring a band of orcs to build
a wall or a trap near an ettin lair.
An ettin has pink to brownish flesh, with
calloused hands and feet that carry a yellowish
tinge. Its complexion often looks darker
than it actually is, because the creatures are
habitually covered with dirt && filth. The
clothing of an ettin, if such a term can be
used, comprises nothing more than
scraggly, filthy animal-skins. The creatures
care nothing for the appearance or odor of
such garb, and wear it only for the warmth
and comfort it affords them when sleeping
on cold, rough stone. Such garments never
have sleeves or other accessory parts, for
ettins don't want to be hampered in a chase
or a battle by mere sleeping-furs.5

Ettins have no finesse, or the desire to
have any, when it comes to physical combat.
They fight with crushing && battering
weapons such as spiked clubs and iron bars. <spiked club: as morningstar, iirc. cf. MM> <iron bar: ??>

They have been known to throw rocks6
if no other weapon is immediately at hand, and
they will not hesitate to rip apart furniture
or uproot small trees to fight with. Their
outlook on combat is as crude as their tactics
tactics;
ettins know nothing of honor, fairness,
or truces.

But the two-headed ones are not imprudent,
and will not take on obviously superior
foes if escape is possible. They will
bargain with all intelligent prey if they think
more food will be gained by doing so -- but
if the bargaining gets unpleasant or frustrating,
they may abruptly decide that a snack
in the hand is worth a feast in the bush. At
any rate, ettins do not feel bound by agreements
reached by bargaining -- they seek
only to get what they want, and as much of
it as possible, while incurring the least risk
to themselves.

Ettins worship a deity that is similar, or
identical, to the one the hill giants know as
Grolantor, though they usually do not call
the deity by this name. They view their
deity as a gigantic ettin of great intelligence
and wisdom (as well as superior fighting
prowess) whose two heads enable him to
maintain an eternal vigilance against all
who would seek to subjugate or destroy the
ettins. The similarity of their deities suggests
that ettins and hill giants had some
common social or cultural aspects at one
time, but the two species have no affinity
for each other nowadays. It is possible that
ettins and hill giants came from the same
stock, given their common religious background
and their larger-than-human size,
but ettins on the average are substantially
taller and thinner than hill giants. In facial
appearance and body structure, ettins seem
more closely related to orcs -- yet that
species only grows to half the size of ettins.
And, of course, neither orcs nor hill giants
have two heads; because of this unique
anomaly, it is quite likely that the genetic
background of the ettin will never be fully
known.

As my friend and fellow ranger Athscar
puts it: "An ettin is a nasty brute -- murderous
in a face-to-face fight if one is unlucky,
injured, or weighed down, but easy
prey to a well-armed band of three or more
who keep their wits about them and meet
the monster on ground of their choice."

Notes

1. Ettins have keen senses, well adapted
to night hunting: infravision out to a 9"
range, and a sense of smell sufficiently
developed to distinguish animal, unusual,
and specific, known-to-be-dangerous scents
from those of the surroundings within 3".
They dislike sunlight or other strong light
(continual light, but not a torch or a light
spell) intensely, but it does not harm them
or impair their fighting abilities. The dislike
comes from habit and conditioning, and
their self-preservation instinct; they inhabit
darkened, hidden places because of their
solitary nature. They greatly prefer to hunt
at night so as to take full advantage of their
keen senses, and to reduce the chances that
they themselves will be set upon by adventurers
or other adversaries. Apparently, the
orcish strain in their makeup is not strong
enough to require them to fight at a penalty
in lighted areas.

2. The ettin derives some unusual protection
from its dual brains. Spells of mental
control, such as sleep, fear, and any charms
or hold spells, will not completely affect an
ettin unless two spells of the same type are
cast upon it, either simultaneously or one
after the other so that both spells are in
effect at the same time. Of course, both
spells must succeed; for magics of this sort
against which a saving throw is allowed,
each head is entitled to a save against one of
the spells. If one but not both spells succeed,
the unaffected head will assume control
of the body without pause or internal
struggle, and the affected head will be held
powerless until it regains its normal state (at
the expiration of the spell?s duration). If the
affected head is the dominant (right-hand)
one, it will immediately resume ?control?
after returning to normal. During this time
of powerlessness, the arm closest to the
affected head will hang limp and useless; it
will not drop anything it is holding, but
cannot consciously use or wield such an
object and could (under the right circumstances)
be easily disarmed or disengaged
from the object by the application of some
force (a list or weapon blow, for instance)
against either the arm or the object.
Note that repulsion, mass charm, psionic
domination, and other ?group-effect? magics
and powers will affect both heads of an
ettin upon a single application; if a saving
throw is allowed in such a case, the creature
is only entitled to one.

If the ettin's dominant head is destroyed
or severely damaged in a fight, the creature
will be confused for 1-6 rounds, after which
time the single functioning head will gain
control of the "opposite" arm - but that
arm will only be capable of wild (emptyhanded)
flailing until the ettin learns to
control both arms with its single head. This
process takes 1-2 months to run its full
course, after which time control is perfect
and both arms can attack normally. Damage
figures for both arms (2-16 for the left, 3-18
for the right) will not change, regardless of
which head is controlling both of them.
Because of its low intelligence, an ettin
saves against all types of illusions at -1 --
but each head is entitled to a saving throw,
and if one or both of them are unaffected by
the illusion, the ettin will be enraged at such
a trick, not bewildered at its occurrence,
and will angrily seek out its perpetrator.

3. Any creature who is conversant in
orcish will be able to understand 60% of
what is said in this ?ettintongue.? Ettins
often howl and slobber in bestial rage when
in pain or frustrated by nimble foes.

4. The offspring of a pair of ettins has no
combat ability until it attains six months of
age. From that time until it reaches one
year old, the young ettin is size M (5? tall)
with 4 HD and does roughly half damage
on an attack with either arm ? 2-8 (2d4)
with the left and 3-8 (ld6+2) with the right.
of one year, an ettin is quite able
itself, and will either be aban-
At the age
to fend for
<fix here>
doned by its parents or simply treated as
another member of the group.

5. The skins worn by an ettin are uncured
and rotting, and typically carry parasitic
diseases; see the DMG under this
heading.

6. Rocks thrown by an ettin do 2-12
points of damage per hit, with range figures
of 2", 4", and 6"; each arm can throw one
rock per round. Note that this is not an
ettin?s preferred attack mode, and the monster
will always use some sort of hand-held
weapon if one is available.

7. See the DDG for details of Grolantor. The
deity is usually known by a slightly different
name, such as "Grolettinor" or ?Grelinor,?
among the ettins that revere or worship this
figure. A very few ettins rise in service to
their deity to become 3rd-level shamans; see
the DMG. p. 40. for details on what spells
are available to them.

LETTERS

Ettin addenduh
-
Dear Dragon,
In the article on the ettin (#92), it's stated that
"a one-headed ettin is well able to survive its loss
and carry on a normal life." How is this possible
when the jugular vein obviously had to have been
cut? Wouldn't the ettin bleed to death after this
has happened?

Sean C. Parry
Madison, Fla.
(Dragon #94)
 

Dear Dragon,
In issue #92, you emphasize the fact that the
right head of an ettin is always dominant. You
also said it could survive with only one head.
Would the ettin have any significant loss in
fighting ability, tracking, etc. if he lost his right
head?

Scott Sawson
Marion, Mass.
(Dragon #94)


A few words about the physiology of the ettin
(Duh what?) are in order. First, let’s assume that
an ettin can survive the serious injury, or even the
loss, of one of its heads. Because it has a head to
spare, and that head is capable of “running” the
body by itself, it can and often does survive such
an injury. Why doesn’t it bleed to death? For the
same reason that a chimera or a hydra doesn’t die
when one of its heads is put out of action. Maybe
all multi-headed creatures have some sort of
instinctive muscular or biochemical reaction that
shuts off blood vessels and nerve endings and
reroutes the circulatory and nervous systems so
that blood and nerve impulses go only to the
remaining head(s). (Our latest ecology article
proposes something like this; see p. 24.)

Does losing his dominant head make an ettin
dumber, slower, or less coordinated? Nope. The
article described what happens if one head is
rendered powerless by magic: “. . . the unaffected
head will resume control of the body
without pause or struggle.” It seems that the ettin
can throw some switches in its nervous system
almost instantaneously, so that one head takes
over while the other lies drooping on its shoulder.
This works the same regardless of which head is
incapacitated. If an ettin loses his right head,
that’s all he loses. The left head becomes the
dominant head, more or less by default. An ettin
is already born slow, dumb, and clumsy; let’s
leave bad enough alone.

-- KM
(Dragon #94)