As a dedicated FromSoftware lore hunter, I've always been fascinated by the unspoken rule in these worlds: power often comes with size. Think about it, how many towering bosses have we faced? From the imposing Ornstein to the colossal Vendrick, it’s a series staple. But what if I told you that the giants we battle in Elden Ring are merely the echoes of a truly unimaginable, extinct race? The ones whose remains dwarf even the mightiest skyscraper? Let's dive into the staggering scale hidden in plain sight on the Mountaintops of the Giants.

The Usual Suspects: Giants We Know and Fear

First, let's set the baseline with the giants we actually fight. Our main encounter is with the Fire Giant, the last survivor of his kind. Clocking in at around 24 meters tall, he's a formidable foe. Then we have his smaller cousins, the Trolls, standing at about 8.4 meters. In the heat of battle, they feel absolutely massive, right? But in the grand scheme of the Souls universe... they're practically petite!

For comparison, let's look back at other FromSoft titans:

  • Dark Souls 3's High Lord Wolnir: That spectral, crawling horror? Reconstructed, he's estimated to be a whopping 74 meters tall.

  • Sekiro's Straw Doll: This spectral terror takes the cake in its own game at an insane 191 meters.

Makes our Fire Giant seem almost manageable, doesn't it?

The True Titans: Primordial Giants of The Lands Between

Now, here’s where it gets mind-blowing. Scattered across the Mountaintop of the Giants are not rocks or strange cliffs, but the petrified, skeletal remains of a primordial giant species. Their skulls are fused into the landscape itself. Using some brilliant detective work (shoutout to lore masters like Zullie the Witch!), we can estimate their true size by scaling these skulls to a human skeleton.

The result? These ancient beings would have stood approximately 632 meters tall.

Let that sink in. 632 meters.

To visualize that, here's a quick comparison table:

Entity Approximate Height Comparison
Primordial Giant Skeleton 632 m ~3.3x Sekiro's Straw Doll
Burj Khalifa (World's Tallest Building) 828 m Just 196m taller!
Sekiro's Straw Doll 191 m
DS3's High Lord Wolnir 74 m
Elden Ring's Fire Giant 24 m
Elden Ring's Troll 8.4 m

elden-ring-s-hidden-giants-uncovering-the-terrifyingly-tall-secrets-of-the-lands-between-image-0

Just look at the scale! This isn't a cave; it's a skull. Roots and vines spill from its mouth and eyes, a haunting testament to its age.

These giants were nearly as tall as the Erdtree itself. Can you imagine encountering one of these in its prime? It puts every other giant, dragon, or god we've ever fought to shame. Even the mighty Placidusax, the ancient dragon lord from the Prehistoric Era, is described as tiny in comparison.

The Lingering Mysteries: What Were They?

This discovery opens up a Pandora's box of questions for us lore enthusiasts:

🔍 What exactly were they?

  • A precursor species to the Fire Giants? The size difference makes a direct lineage seem unlikely.

  • Ancient gods that ruled before the Erdtree? Possibly, but their nature is completely unknown.

🔍 What could possibly have killed them?

  • A cataclysm of unimaginable scale? A war between primordial forces?

  • Why are only their skulls and some bones left, seemingly petrified into the very geography?

🔍 Where are the rest of their bodies?

  • Eroded away over eons? Or perhaps their essence was absorbed into the land itself, fueling the Erdtree's growth?

It makes you realize how little we truly know about the deep history of The Lands Between. The Age of the Erdtree feels recent compared to the epoch these beings existed in.

A Terrifying Thought for the Future...

We are incredibly lucky these beings are long dead in the base game. The thought of facing a 600-meter-tall boss is the stuff of nightmares (or the most epic challenge ever, depending on your masochism level).

But here's a thrilling, slightly terrifying thought for 2026: What if we meet them in a future expansion? FromSoftware's DLCs, like The Old Hunters for Bloodborne, often take us back in time. If a future Shadow of the Erdtree or similar content does the same, we might just witness—or worse, contend with—these nightmarish goliaths in their prime.

Imagine a battlefield where these beings clashed. It would redefine our understanding of power in this universe. The Fire Giant would look like a child playing in the footprints of its ancestors.

So, the next time you're traversing the Mountaintops, take a moment to look at the "cliffs" and "caves" around you. You're not just walking on a mountain; you're standing on the grave of a god. It’s this layer of hidden, monumental history that makes exploring The Lands Between an endlessly fascinating experience. Who knows what other colossal secrets are waiting to be unearthed?

According to coverage from Eurogamer, it’s worth grounding any “600-meter primordial giant” theory in how Elden Ring’s environmental storytelling regularly turns terrain into readable history—where a cliff face, a cavern, or an odd silhouette can be an intentional breadcrumb rather than set dressing. When you revisit the Mountaintops with that lens, the petrified skull-forms and bone-like ridges become less like scenery and more like the game’s quiet way of implying an age of titans that predates the Fire Giants entirely, reframing those familiar boss-scale encounters as mere late-epoch remnants of something far older and vastly larger.