Ok, so spelling aside, I was wondering if anyone had any rough ideas how a giant, around 30-50m in height, could be taken down and/or killed in a late medieval setting (cannons are commonfold, as are guns, but they're relatively useless against them aside from provoking them). I have a few ideas, but want to stick with something original, and not ripped off (ie the maneuver gear in Attack on Titan). The giants will be bipedal humanoids, but don't resemble humans entirely, and are deformed to an extant. I was thinking of a hybrid of something similar to pinning/tying of the legs (think AT-AT in Empire Strikes Back) and climbing the giant itself (Shadow of the Colossus) to pierce various vulnerable spots. I have other ideas, such as luring them into traps, or jumping off of high distances (this is in a mountainous area), but I feel like it's a little incomplete. In general, are there any fictional stories that touch upon the killing of giants? Something that's somewhat original in their approach? Maybe just a creative/cool idea in general? Any advice would be great. Thanks!
Poison them. This could be via covertly introduced poison (food, water) or overtly introduced through impregnated cutting edge weapons, swords, spears, knives, etc. For longer distances, a trebuchet launching spiky things with poison.
Are they being taken down on a battle field? 30-50m tall is ginormous! Can you make them a bit smaller? I suppose if you knew they were coming, and had sufficient time, you could excavate areas underground while the surface appears undisturbed. Then they haphazardly fall into an equally ginormous hidden pit. Perhaps you can roll large boulders down the mountain and take their legs out. Long hidden trip-wire. Boulders dropped from equally large eagles/birds/dragons/creatures. Burning oil / fire would hurt any living creature not covered in massive scales. Aim for the eyes!
Meet chain shot. It has had two uses in the real life military. Removing the legs off of horses and the torso of the anyone vaguely close, and slicing through the masts of ships. It focuses a lot of force into a very narrow area, and could be able to wound them, or aid in the tying up aspect. Might need to alter the scale though.
At 30-50m high I'd have thought a cannon would have at least injured them. Unless they have scales or something, or course. What about a bolt thrower (ballista), even if it wasn't enough to kill them it could be used like a harpoon.
Something that big is going to weigh a lot. I'm guessing balance wouldn't be one of its strong points, speed certainly wouldn't be. Once it tries taking a step forward, a cannonball to the face - even if they're somehow resistant to huge balls of metal crashing into them with ridiculous force - should be more than enough to drop them onto their bottoms. Failing that, cut the tendons behind the creature's knees. It drops to the floor and gives you the perfect opportunity to hack and slash and boom your way to victory. All this assuming they're humanoid.
Maybe they have an immobilizing fear of cats, or of mirrors. Maybe red-headed female virgins are the only ones that can rebuke them.
Depends on the poison. Lot's of things are lethal to humans in what are relatively small amounts, all things considered. Arsenic is lethal to humans in a dose that's similar in weight to a medium strength over-the-counter analgesic like Tylenol™. Go grab a Tylonol™ or Panadol™ pill. If that were arsenic, that single pill would kill you, and remember that most of that pill is filler and binder. It wouldn't take buckets of poison to kill a giant. Hand-fulls would do.
Hot liquids, fire, pit traps and lots of archers. Douse and light them up in open areas, but beware of giants careening through your fortress. Ugh, I made a dumb mistake of having fire near my brewery and it somehow detonated and took out three levels and took care of one problem, but made a bunch of others. The fire spread like crazy and yes, it holds off your standard humanoid giants and colossi, but even armored foes hate explosions. If you are talking above ground, then you cannot have as many good traps at your disposal and you need to be a bit more crafty. Ballista work well, but weighed traps do wonders since they do not even need to be "deep" to work against unarmored foes. If you are dealing with little preparation then channels and upright posts will render the ground difficult to cut through. How to engage and defend is really all based on the enemy's armament or lack thereof. Though fire usually is great for any encounter.
Punji sticks, tree sized, set into a camouflaged pit. This would injure/wound them. Cause them to fall, which might make them vulnerable. Could they be poisoned as mentioned above? What about catapults throwing burning pitch? Being set alight in other manners to injure and wound? These methods may not kill immediately, but it could drive them off.
Or sufficiently incapacitate them so as to tip the whole they're huge; we're tiny dynamic back to something a little more even as regards chances of success, at which point the coup de grace (if one were wanted) could be delivered by more conventional means.
If the people could bring one down, or could scale the creature while it's asleep, possibly a trained animal, like a dachshund, or a small monkey, could be used. Strap an incendiary device to the dog's back with a set fuse, and send the dog up the nostril of the giant/titan. Probably won't end well for the dog, but a minor explosion or a napalm-like gel on fire in the nasal cavity or further down the lung? Can't be good. Why not send a half dozen of the dogs in at a time?
Maybe you can use the technique the South American fire ants have, go for the eyes. A blinded giant will likely fall so do it where there are a lot of sharp pointy rocks or burned out forest stumps or near a lake if they can't swim.
Hi, Thirty to fifty metres? That's ten to fifteen stories tall! You're talking about a walking building! Go down to your nearest city and take a look at a fifteen story building, then have another think would be my advice. I'm not surprised cannon can't kill them. They'd only scratch something that big. But how about loading them up with shot, and coating the shot something like a hemlock paste. Shoot and run. Cheers, Greg.
Looking at medieval technology, or well, lack thereof, I have a hard time believing any of these methods would work. The more creative ones anyway, rely on a ridiculous suspension of disbelief. The more realistic ones still wouldn't be able to kill a giant quickly enough. If we presume your beast has any sort of intelligence, it's going to spot any traps laid out from it's massively tall vantage point. If it's a dumbass, it might still be able to thrash out in anger or otherwise avoid snares by bulling through them. Even right before the renaissance, western medieval tech was basically cannons, crossbows, and maybe human-killing amounts of pitch and poison. Now since your story has giants, I'm fairly certain your readers will forgive another leap in logic, for the benefit of a creative story. Now you mention Attack on Titan, which is admittedly probably the best example of giant-killing in recent history. There's also Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus who slay quite a few giants. And there is Norse Mythology, where the biggest enemies (both literally and figuratively) are the Jotunn. In Attack on Titan, they use maneuverability and intelligence over the titans, in Heroes of Olympus, they use the combined strength of mortal and god, and in Norse Mythology, Jotunn fought the AEsir, gods. Taking all this into account, these methods are probably the best fictional ways of killing giants. If you want to be original, the best thing to do is brainstorm. But, here's an original idea to at least get the gears turning. People in this universe are sometimes born with giant-like traits, growing much taller, broader, and stronger than normal mortals. They're collected and trained into a giant-killing force, (you need numbers for this stuff) and they combat the massive foe with gigantic strength, speed, and a specially adapted lungs, trained to withstand low oxygen levels. So these fighting squads get the giants up high, which is going to affect the giants more severely and you have a pretty cool idea where giantspawn kick ass and fight for humanity. I leave it up to you to either come up with the glorious explanation of how giants and humans breed, or finding a more original idea more suited to your liking. -Kalleth
Wow, thanks for the replies! I have to head to work but I'll be sure to reply to each one once I get back home. Some awesome ideas here!
I was actually going to make them bigger, and may consider doing that. But I also wanted the effect that these things ate people, not primarily, but are more than capable of doing so and setting the fear of god into the populace. * I like that idea *Another interesting idea, though the boulders would have to be massive, and the manpower needed would be difficult being that the populace is fairly low in the particular region. People are spread thin and most labor intensive work is spent building fortresses and maintaining bridges/roads. *Could be interesting *I have large birds, but they aren't tamable, and are predatory. *Agreed, but these aren't necessarily alive, or dead. *True, but they have eyes in strange places as well, as they are deformed beings
Very, very cool. Their skin is pretty thick, but this could do some decent damage and distract them at the very least.
I was actually going to use that idea, a harpoon/chain type weapon used to hold them in place temporarily.
Archers would be worthless as their arrows won't pierce their skin. Fire and hot liquids typically do little to nothing, as they feel no pain, though that's not to say a fiery giant whose seemingly oblivious to itself being burned wouldn't be terrifying. I was thinking traps could be useful. Ballistas could pierce them but they'd barely notice it. Preparation is really the only thing that these people have, as they live high in the mountains (think Incas) and are able to strategize accordingly. Defense isn't so much of a problem as is offense. Farmlands, cities and trade towns/ports have been taken. Resources are low, so an attempt to take back these areas is critical. Of course, that's not to say preparation won't be useful.
Punji sticks would be interested, though it may not kill them, it can certainly trap them. Yes, they can be poisoned, I plan on having one monster having a blood-type that's fatal anything and everything, including giants. Setting giants on fire wouldn't do much, in time the fire would run out, plus they don't feel pain. Driving off would be ok for the time being, but it would prolong what is essentially urgent, which is taking back land for resources.
Well I definitely plan to have people scaling the creature, and attempting to find vulnerable areas, although it's completely random and not always a guarantee that one giants weakness will be another giants. These beings don't sleep, they aren't really alive, similar to golems almost. Well, I suppose if a dog could be trained to a climb a giant, it could work lol. I'll look into it, maybe a bird would be a bit more applicable.
