For all that mythological accounts of giants go back beyond history, the reality is that giants are the newest of the races descendant from the nephilim. One would think that the nephilim would learn something watching the mistakes of others:
- the dwarfs given the hereditary curse of transformation into goblins for the creation of trolls.
- the nephil girl given the hereditary curse of transformation into veela for the creation of doxies and fairies.
- the siren given the hereditary curse of transformation into merrow for the creation of leprechauns.
Unfortunately, Nephilim seem particularly resistant to learning.1 It is perhaps for this reason that when one wealthy but indolent family took a small mammal and used it to create the House Elves, they were punished in a particularly harsh way. Many scholars speculate that the intent of this punishment is to create an example that will finally create a lasting impression that some things are not to be done.
Church records show that the family was given, for lack of a better word, gigantic forms. Averaging twenty feet tall, with proportionately thick fingers, the newly created giants found themselves unable to manipulate books (for either education or entertainment) or tools of any kind. Not only that, and worse (from a nephil’s perspective) they were stripped of all magic except that necessary to keep these unnatural forms alive. Lastly, their intellects were so clouded that they are essentially incapable of rational discourse. In their now mentally crippled state, they quickly (and accidentally) freed their House Elf servants. Between their clumsy forms, clouded intellects, and quick tempers, they are unable to form any sort of civilisation beyond the crude hunter-gatherer tribe. When neighbouring families attempted to render aid, they found that the skin of this new race acts as a shield protecting them from all external magic, so that the example they form of why creating humanoid life is evil cannot be undone.
See the notes on Original Sin.↩︎