Frost Giants

"From a realm of cold and darkness came the Frost Giants. Threatening to plunge the mortal world into a new ice age."

- Odin

The Frost Giants are a race of humanoid giants that live on Jotunheim, one of the Nine Realms. Actually called Jotuns, the term "Frost Giant" was bestowed by the Asgardians.

History
The Frost Giants are the race of large humanoid beings that inhabit the frozen, barren realm known as Jotunheim. They are ruled by Laufey, king of the Frost Giants, who is also Loki's true biological father.

In 965 A.D., an army of Frost Giants invaded Tønsberg, Norway, attempting to subjugate the earth and plunge it into a new ice age using the Casket of Ancient Winters. However, they were opposed by Odin and an army of Asgardians, who, after a pitched war, drove the Frost Giants back into the heart of Jotunheim and took the Casket, forcing the Frost Giants into a peace agreement. Centuries later, during Thor’s coronation ceremony, a group of three Frost Giant intruders entered Odin's Vault, attempting to take back the Casket of Ancient Winters, but were dispatched by the Destroyer. Apprehensive of Odin’s lack of concern over the intrusion, Thor convinces Loki, Lady Sif, and The Warriors Three to accompany him to Jotunheim to confront Laufey. After a divisive battle, the group of Asgardians are saved by Odin, who exchanged a few heated words with Laufey before returning the travelers to Asgard. Odin then banished Thor soon after for his brash actions in this incident, which nearly restarted a war with the Frost Giants.

After Loki learned of his true origins as a Frost Giant, and took control of the throne of Asgard while Odin was in Odinsleep, he made a deal with Laufey to allow him to kill Odin and reclaim the Casket of Ancient Winters, in exchange for peace between Asgard and Jotunheim. However, as part of Loki’s true plot, he double-crossed and killed Laufey and set the Bifrost Bridge to destroy Jotunheim. Despite this, Thor’s timely destruction of the Bifrost ensured Jotunheim and the Frost Giants' continued survival. After the death of their leader Laufey and Loki's attack on Jotunheim, the Frost Giants were now a broken people. However, when the Bifrost Bridge was destroyed and chaos began to extend over the Nine Realms, they could sense that something had happened. Around 2014, one Frost Giant was a specimen being held in the Collector's Museum on Knowhere before its destruction.

Characteristic Traits
The Frost Giants are a race of humanoid beings that are taller and possess a larger, more muscular body structure than both humans and Asgardians. Frost Giants typically have blue-grey skin, bright red eyes, and usually have narrow ridges on their face or in a unique pattern across their body. Some may also have narrow, bone-like crests on their head.

Frost Giants are generally more adapted to, and favor conditions of extreme cold, not requiring any special clothing to protect them from the cold. They also favor forgoing the use of armor. While the Frost Giants have been shown to be able to move around freely and unhindered in the warmer climates of Asgard for an extended period of time, they however have been shown to use the Casket of Ancient Winters to permanently change the climate of an invaded territory to suit them.

Unlike other civilizations in the Nine Realms that rely on stone and metal as their primary raw materials, Frost Giants construct buildings using a combination of stone and ice and often create tools and weapons from solid ice as an extension of their ability to naturally form and manipulate ice. Although this ice is tougher than normal Earthly ice and can damage Asgardians, it can be shattered by Asgardian metals.

Frost Giants' body structure is not uniform throughout their species. Each individual is seen to have variations in body structure i.e. abnormally shaped limbs and bone or muscle protrusions. The Frost Giants can manipulate ice into armor that takes advantage of these differences to form unique weapons i.e. spears for arms or battering ram heads or spiked armor.

Frost Giants are considered to be brutish and unruly and their home realm is considered a barren wasteland by more advanced civilizations in the Nine Realms, like Asgard.

Powers and Abilities

 * Superhuman Strength: Frost Giants as a whole possess immense strength comparable to the Asgardian race, with the average Frost Giant appearing to stand taller and possess more muscle mass than the average Asgardian. While they eventually lost, the Frost Giant armies were shown to hold their own against the strength of the armies of Asgard as both armies, including their respective leaders, were able to engage each other in combat for extended periods of time.
 * Superhuman Durability: Frost Giants possess superhumanly dense skin, muscle, and bone tissue, giving them a high level of durability and resistance to injury. The forces delivered by Earthly weapons (i.e. guns and arrows) are too weak to damage Frost Giants, but given enough force Earthly materials can damage them.
 * Superhuman Physiology: Due to the Frost Giants advanced physiology, they possess greater levels of stamina, are more agile, and possess greater reflexes than humans.
 * Superhuman Healing: Their increased metabolism allows them to recover from injuries and pain at an accelerated rate.
 * Extended Longevity: Like the Asgardians, the Frost Giants are one of the long-lived races of the nine realms, with each individual capable of surviving for a life-span lasting several millennia. Due to this individuals like Laufey, whose interference on Earth helped shape Norse culture as early as 965 A.D., survived to the present century.
 * Ice Manipulation: The Frost Giants' most unique ability is their power to naturally manipulate ice and form ice from the moisture available to them either from standing water, the atmosphere, or possibly even their own bodies. Frost Giants are able to form and shape the ice into various tools, most commonly spiked or bladed weapons. In combat, Frost Giants are most commonly known to encase their arms in ice formed into large spikes to strike and impale their enemies. Through this power, Frost Giants can also inflict their enemies with a form of extreme frost bite through direct physical contact. Upon contact, the individual develops frost burns that turn their skin black, cause excruciating pain, and will slowly spread for as long as contact is maintained.
 * Cold Immunity: Frost Giants live their entire lives in Jotuneheim, a realm cold enough to kill a human, without being harmed at all.