The War Between the Giants and the Humans was an unexpectedly short conflict. The giants were so evidently physically superior to humans that their Emperor thought it would obviously be an easy conquest. But what was thought to be the apocalyptic end of Humanity turned out to be a proof of human resilience, ingenuity and cunning.

First, while the giants constituted a single unified empire, a single political unity, the humans fought in a coalition of more than fifty independent political unites, from kingdoms to dukedoms and counties and city states. The giants could conquer a city and the humans simply fell back to another of their territories and waited to take it again. Human assassins would dispatch a giant general and their advance would halt by months. A thousand human generals could die in battle and ten thousand more would replace them.

The humans outnumbered the giants a thousand to one and used their numbers as an advantage. The giants, being slow and imprecise in their movements, could not keep up with the agile human armies. Human mages cast their spells from mobile chariots that could outrun even the faster of giants, as they lacked cavalry. Human pegasus riders could land in the shoulders of the giant soldiers, and quickly strike at an exposed artery with poisoned blades, bringing the titanic soldier a swift death.

While the giants made great initial advances, they soon found out that the war wasn't developing exactly in their favour. The giant nobles, who made up the entire body of the army's officers, were growing impatient with the Emperor and were also growing tired of seeing their favourite sons and daughters returning in coffins, their necks struck by poisoned human blades.

The Human Coalition's leader, King Theodoric, was keenly aware of that. He realized that the humans could win the fight just by keeping a policy of fierce resistance and soon the giant nobles would force the invasion to stop, either through politicking around the court of the Emperor, or through civil war.

What happened wasn't exactly what Theodoric had expected, but it was certainly favoured by the humans. A certain noble, part of the general staff of the Emperor and known for her constant opposition to the Emperor's foul war policy staged a coup supported by the nobles, killed the emperor and sent the royal family into exile. Her name was Alais of Thera, and after the coup rejected the title of Empress, opting instead for that of 'Regent' and refused to sit on the throne and occupy the royal palace.

Alais ordered the army to retreat to their consolidated positions in the human realms and immediately sent diplomats to the Coalition. Citing her “wish to end the senseless conflict between our peoples, born from the lunacy of an incompetent ruler” she offered the humans peace.

The giants would retreat their armies back to their empire, and immediately end the occupation of human lands. Humans and Giants would respect each other’s territories from now on, and, as a show of good faith, they would exchange hostages. Alais offered the young prince, heir to the throne, and demanded in turn, the heir of Theodoric.

The King knew what was going on, Alais simply wanted to get rid of the prince to secure her own position, her wanting his heir, in turn, was just a logical way to make it seem more like a deal instead of a dirty political move. Yet, there was something more to it...

Alais was known to “like” humans, Theodoric only knew the broad strokes and rumours, but as far as he knew, the Regent didn’t think lowly of the humans. And while she wasn't stopping the war because she disagreed on the Emperor's view on humans but merely because she knew the war was impossible to eventually win, and while she was fairly diplomatic and seemed to respect the humans, there was no way of knowing exactly what she liked of humans. Would she use the hostage situation to gain an ally, a friend or a pet?

However, stopping the war was his upmost priority, and besides... his heir was... well...

She was vile.

Princess Gwyndolin was a known manipulator, seducer, schemer... some even said the girl was pure evil.

She had destroyed at least four friendships in the court, caused no less than seven duels over her hand (she never crowned a winner though) and it was said that in one occasion planted evidence of adultery in one of her rival's room, just to gain a hook on them. Had Gwyndolin done it to secure her position as heir or just for fun? Theodoric believed his daughter to be no sociopath, after all, who didn't scheme in a royal court? But he swore there was something more to Gwyndolin...

So when the day came, after they rode to the border, after he had exchanged pleasantries with Alais, after he had signed the treaty to thunderous applause of a crowd of giants in one side and humans in the other, while he was riding back to his lands without his daughter but with a gigantic prince at his back he thought:

“Have it your way Alais! Have your pet, but beware, left unchecked, you yourself might become a servant of the Princess!”

This is the story of Princess Gwyndolin and Alais of Thera, of how they lived, of the challenges both endured, the bonds they forged and mostly, how they both fought, seemingly unendlessly, needlessly, and to some observers fruitlessly and stupidly, to define who truly was the Master, and who was the Pet.