Gigantia, Part One

GIGANTIA

Guys, are you big and fat?

Really big, and really fat?

Are you getting bigger?

Are you getting fatter?

Perhaps, you dream of being even bigger, and even fatter?

Does your partner think that the fatter you get, the more handsome you are, that the fatter you get, the cuter you are, that as your girth grows, so does your attractiveness?

Well then, take a trips with us in the imagination to a land where the all the guys are big and getting bigger, fat and getting fatter, and where the bigger and fatter a guy is, the more admired they are!

Gals, if the really, really big boys are the ones who 'turn your crank', then come with us to the land where every woman agrees with you, and the men - well, they're all growing to meet their partners' dreams.

(And gay guys who prefer the fatter male form, you're not forgotten....)


Gigantia, The Land of Male Girth

Part One


Gigantia is unlike any other current society on Earth. Although Gigantia has been formally described as "an industrialised, resource rich, constitutional monarchy ruled by a ceremonial king," that description hardly does it justice, as it mentions not at all the things that make Gigantia distinct.

Firstly, Gigantia is a matriarchal society, so it is run chiefly by women. In this sense, it more closely resembles the traditional aboriginal societies of North America and some parts of Africa than any other industrialised country.. However, today Gigantia is unique on Earth as a society where men do not lead and are not in control, but are rather celebrated, cherished and desired for their physical attributes - specifically, for their size. Gigantean men are far larger, in general, than Gigantean women; despite this, they hold a secondary place to women in Gigantean society.. Gigantean mean are rather like beautiful buildings or appealing art as far as Gigantean society is concerned - while useful, their most important aspect is as ornament.

Gigantia is physically isolated from its neighbours by a chain of steep mountains that form its natural land boundaries; this isolation allowed for a high degree of independent social development. Its first human inhabitants seem to have arrived in the Neanderthal age, with no great later in-migrations known, although in more modern times, occasional explorers and lost travellers wandered in across the mountains, or were blown onto the seacoast and made their way inland. These occasional travellers and their descendants contributed a more modern brain, a broader variety of physical shapes and sizes, and other hybridization advantages to the mostly Neanderthal-based Gigantean gene pool. Some of these contributed traits produced social or physical advantages for the males carrying them, and were sufficiently advantageous to have spread by reproduction, so that modern-day Giganteans are clearly Neanderthal-Cro-magnon hybrids - traits that show most clearly in the men.

While in western societies there is the concept of a "trophy wife" on the arm of a wealthy man, in Gigantia there are "trophy husbands" for the fortunate women who can afford them. This makes sense in a matriarchy, as women seek to show their success in society or improve their social status by marrying a "physically attractive" male.

Throughout recorded Gigantean history, "physically attractive males" have not been at all what the current Hollywood film industry or Western advertising would consider "attractive"; no, physically attractive males in Gigantia are and always have been the bigger, husky, fat guys; and this preference has grown, so to speak. Gigantean women now look for guys who are well beyond "husky"- today's most "physically attractive" and desireable Gigantean men are enormous, vastly obese fellows. An "ordinary" Gigantean male today will average 400-500 pounds or more, once his adult weight stabilises (if it ever does).

The desirable men, though, the social prizes, the "trophy husbands" that so many Gigantean women seek, are bigger specimens of manhood; 700 pounds would seem to be a minimum. This drive for huge men shows most fully around the Gigantean Royal Throne. The Gigantean Kingship is not hereditary, but earned by 'merit' - and what merits the Kingship is sheer size and raw girth mated to power - awesome mass plus mobility. By tradition the (ceremonial) Gigantean King is the biggest of the big, the hugest of the huge, the fattest of the fat, the heaviest of the heavy Gigantean men; the King is considered to symbolize all that is Good about Gigantean Manhood - hence modern Gigantean Kings are gigantic, obese behemoths, of earth-shaking size.

This Kingship by merit of mobile mass is for a one year term; who will be king is decided by the age-old method of weighing prospective candidates in competition. In the last decade, all the winners of that competition, bar one, have exceeded 1000 pounds, and the lone exception was just seven pounds shy of the half ton mark - and was up to 1000 pounds by the end of his week-long coronation feast!

A half ton of bodyweight is now the normal minimum starting weight for a Gigantean King - and most grow considerably bigger while on the throne.

Gigantia: Geography and Resources

Gigantia has a large central plain with rich, fertile soil, and a mild climate. This plain is surrounded by the aforementioned mountainous boundary, including a rocky seacoast of low mountains. Gigantia has moderately rich on-shore natural mineral resources, chiefly metals and gemstones recovered in the foothills of the boundary chain. Off-shore oil and gas reserves were discovered in early 70s, with serious development of these reserves following soon after; further massive reserves were discovered in the early 80s, leading to a great increase in oil revenues.

With the offshore oil development, Gigantia is now seeing the beginning of the development of its rocky seacoast, thanks to a new railway tunnel through the mountains, and the rapid expansion of its lone existing seaport, Port Anton. Port Anton is home to Gigantean cruise lines, about which more in the leisure section. There are some limited areas of sandy beach along the rocky shore north and south of Port Anton, which are now being developed into tourist resorts for Giganteans and those lucky foreigners who qualify for Gigantean tourist visas.

A Matriarchal Society

Why is Gigantia a matriarchal society? Women were the farmers in early Gigantia, and thanks to the mild climate and rich soils of the inland plain, farming was in general much more successful than hunting as a food supply. The success of families and communities depended on the success of the agriculture practised by the women farmers, rather than on the male hunters. Control of food supplies allowed women to take control of society.

Gigantean women farmers valued larger men for their strength and ability to do heavy farm labour, and tended to look for bigger men who thus would be better workers on their (and their daughters') farms. Naturally, they tended to marry these larger men, not only for their work ability but also hoping that they would beget large sons who would also work around the farm. Smaller, weaker men were seen as less capable of heavy work, and were less likely to get married, and less likely to father children. Social traits that included a lack of taboos about polygamy and polyandry further promoted bigger men as the fathers of children in Gigantia, as many women would have more than one husband, fathering children by the biggest one. This tendency was further enlarged by the tendency for many farms to be run by groups of sisters or female friends, and whichever woman had the biggest and most capable husband would often lend him around the other womenfolk of the farm as a "breeder", so they could help ensure that their own sons would be big, capable men.

Family life in Gigantia remains highly communal; this is an outgrowth of the system of extended families that worked farms in Gigantia's rural areas, and remained universal even as the merchant class developed. This system pooled resources as well as labour, allowing even a relatively poor extended family to chose a male child chosen from among family group for special "attention" while growing up, and to concentrate resources to snag one particularly big husband.

In the rural agrarian past, prime husbands were bought, sold, married (for dowries), and even stolen. A"male rights" section of the human rights code eliminated the worst of these abuses, giving men the right to a say and a veto in their marital status. Husband trading does continue, but at a lower level, and with the consent of guy concerned. The push to have the biggest husband a woman would marry, buy or steal was driven by one of unique social mores of Gigantia's matriarchal society: the social status of a woman depended to a sizeable extent on her husband's (and her son's) size.

Why are big men seen as so desirable in Gigantia? In general, Gigantean society considers that, with respect to the size of men:

"bigger = stronger = more handsome = all around better"

When seen through the prism of Gigantia's largely agricultural past, this makes perfect sense. Heavy manual labour on farms tended to demand bigger, stronger men, which was the origin of the desire for a big husband, for someone who could do all the heavy labour needed to provide a living on the farm; a good fat store was an advantage, as well, in doing the manual labour of sowing in spring, when overall food stores could have run low. The necessity of actually doing hard manual labour on farms limited the overall size men could reach, and generally kept most men from becoming very fat.

Gigantean society developed settlements (trading and religious centres, many of which developed later into towns) and a merchant class at the same time; as trade grew, artisans settled into the towns along with the merchants, the settlements grew, and the merchant class grew steadily richer. As wealth accumulated in the developing urban centres, the social desire for a large man took on a newer, urban form. It started almost accidentally, as the richest merchant families would sometimes have a man or men engaged as clerk or accountant, whose duties would be chiefly non-physical tasks. These men, blessed with the same substantial frames and hearty appetites as their warehouseman brothers and farming cousins, but not having to do the attendant heavy physical labour of those vocations, ballooned into fatness, much to the pleasure of their merchant wives and employers. These occasional fat men soon became the sign of a profitable trading house; their superior girth serving as proof of the trading house's profitability. Status conscious merchants started specially exempting a man from physical labour, and keeping him well fed, as social "proof" of the success of their houses. His substantial presence was physical proof that the Merchant, and her House, were wealthy enough that they could afford to keep a man - or if even better off, men - of whom no physical labour was expected.

Soon, every trading family was trying to have at least one truly fat man in their trading house - and his size was to demonstrate their profitability and improve their social standing. If a son showed above average early growth and had an aptitude for writing or numbers, he would be quickly designated to learn clerking and accounting instead of animal husbandry or agronomy. Even in the smaller and poorer families, such an "early grower" would be kept out of the warehouse whenever possible, and kept on sales counter; sparing him the heavy physical labour his brothers were performing would let him grow bigger.

It's worth noting that all trading house lads were usually fatter than their rural farming cousins; they would typically carry less muscle and more fat, as the physical demands and load of their urban lives was lighter than those who toiled on farms. While the farm boys could add a lot of fat over a heavily muscled working frame, an urban lad the same size would be carrying a lot more fat over a lot less muscle, and would thus be fatter than a farm boy of the same mass. Many Gigantean female merchants found this extra fatness attractive - it suggested financial success, that a family could afford to keep a man so fat. The social trend to urban male fatness developed to the point where most merchants began to encourage all their husbands and sons to become fat, even if they did have to do physical work - even the hardest working warehouseman could carry "a few extra" pounds of flab over his muscles - a few extra like, maybe a hundred!

Thus, while big fat guys first appeared on Gigantean farms, the earliest appearance of extremely fat men in Gigantia was as the status-improving sons and husbands of wealthy merchants. Among the wealthiest female merchants there slowly appeared a fashion to keep a favoured male at leisure just for his size, assigning him only the lightest of clerking or retail jobs, or no job at all, in order that he could maximize his growth and girth; the merchant who thus "spared" him would ensure that this favoured man had a very public role of some sort, perhaps as head clerk or salesman or even doorman. (Some occupied a role that would be described today as being in public relations, or perhaps as being "chief publicist"; this role would be as a town-crier, developing a stentorian voice for advertising goods in the public bazaar.) Some big men from larger farms, or farms having on-site food processing, became commercial negotiators, as they had a quiet ability to negotiate well behind closed doors. A few merchants with financial interests, having fattened up well-muscled men in their mid-life, would use them as "Mr. Big" on their collection teams.

This trend to having a really fat man in the family as a sign of wealth slowly spread to other well-off city dwellers - professional artisans, administrators, religious officials - and gradually out into the richer areas of the countryside. Richer farmers, eager to prove their wealth by city standards, also started to spare a favoured son or husband from heavier physical labour, and feed them more, encouraging them to fatten up as a status symbol to rival the 'townies'. Having a very fat husband or son - one too fat for general farm labour - became proof of the wealth and success of a farm. The fatter this special man, the more successful the farm would appear. Whenever the farmer would travel into the city, she would take her ‘fattened man' along, as tangible proof of her farm's wealth and stability.

Despite the dramatic changes in Gigantean society that have come with increasing modernization, including the mechanization of farms and the ongoing urbanization of much of the Gigantean population, the basic social impulse that having a big fat man "on the farm" proves that you're successful still drives much of Gigantean social thinking.

Every woman in search of status, and every company and organisation in search of visible proof of success, is in search of a big man - whether as husband or son, chief spokesman or public figure. Companies want fat men in their advertising to instill confidence in their wares. Firms and organisations want fat men as their spokespeople, to represent stability and success. Women want a fat man on their arm to improve their status and prove their success (social, financial, in business, whatever).

Bigger men usually eat more, and those who have big appetites generally grow bigger (and keep growing). Because increased body size is generally connected to higher food consumption, Giganteans consider a bigger appetite and greater food consumption also to be marks of prestige. Gigantean men are encouraged to have a high food intake, as this is a way to encourage (it is hoped) the addition of further desirable weight to their bodies. This trend is further reinforced by the connection between conspicuous consumption and available wealth. In an agricultural society with occasional food shortages, the wealth to spare a man from heavy labour and feed him enough to keep him very fat was highly desirable, and a family could best demonstrate its wealth by publicly keeping a man of great size and high consumption. Having such a great man showed that they were so rich they could literally afford to let him eat their wealth. The very wealthiest could manifest their riches by having more than one man of great bulk. Often, the sons of the farm's great man would be watched for early signs of enormous growth, and the fattest and fastest growing boy would be encouraged to follow in his father's footsteps.

Even today, in Gigantia's rural agricultural regions, most farmers follow the tradition of choosing one husband and one son to particularly "fatten up". Of course, with mechanization, farming is physically less taxing than it used to be, so all farm husbands and farm boys are a lot fatter than they used to be, but still the tradition continues.

On the Fatton farm, for example, we find Steve, who at age 16 is a whiz with the farm's dairy breeding records and finances - and who at 16 is also already 615 pounds! Marguerite, the matriarch of the farm, together with her sisters and daughters, believe in keeping to the "one fat husband, one fat son" tradition, so we find Steve following in the tradition of his uncle Rufus, who at 40 is a comfy, and enormous, 828 pounds of farm-fed lard. Rufus hasn't fathered any children, so Steve is the son of his cousin, Jeremy. Now, Jeremy is no slouch in the size department - while not Rufus sized, Jeremy is a very big, very strong man, in the Gigantean rural tradition.

Marguerite has been known to remark of Jeremy that, "We probably should have fattened him up too, but we didn't. Don't know what we'd do with two lardy lads the size of Rufus, but it would have been fun to see what size Jeremy would have grown to."

Jeremy, at 42, is no lightweight, with his 510 pounds of rippling flab and heavy muscles. His muscles are kept well developed by his role as chief mechanic for the farm's fleet of equipment. He is proud of his son's blubbery progress, and has modified several trucks, tractors and other pieces of gear to better suit Steve's (and Rufus's) enormous backsides. Not that Rufus gets out to do much tractor work - as their biggest man he's their chief salesman and spokesman - and also the farm's accountant!

Jeremy also modified and strengthened the ATV that Steve uses to get around around the farm, and to get to and from the schoolbus stop - walking long distances not being something Marguerite sees as compatible with having Steve grow to 'trophy' size.

Steve and his oceanic, flowing teen belly get on the school bus everyday, using the man-lift at the rear, after a quick ride on his ATV from the farmhouse - because Marguerite isn't prepared to have him possibly burn off any precious bodyfat walking down the farm lane to the bus stop. She occasionally drives him all the way to school when he misses the bus due to farm work, or (more often) when his enormous appetite keeps him eating breakfast past the bus's arrival. Steve is very popular with the girls at his small local high school, where his physical attributes - his thick, tree-trunk thighs, hefty "boss butt" and weighty "Buddha" belly - compete with his astronomical appetite (and sense of humour) for the girls' admiration.

Walking down the school corridor to the cafeteria for lunch, Steve presents a fine sight for the girls of his school - mammoth belly swaying back and forth gently as it bounces off his thighs, cute chain of wood and metal beads on a black thong around his massive neck, short cropped hair and long dark sideburns framing plump cheeks and a sensuous full-lipped mouth. Steve's arrival in the school cafeteria for lunch is an "event", as his female admirers gather round, then all line up at the counter to run a shuttle of food trays to keep up with his ravenous appetite. Steve goes through the cafeteria line once on arrival, "for show" - then for the rest of the lunch hour, his tray is kept filled by his "fan club".

Like many Gigantean teen males, Steve is a fan of the "classic look" in clothes - and certainly the body-hugging white spandex/cotton t-shirts he favours team up well with the latest in low-rise "stretch" blue jeans to beautifully show off his gargantuan flowing gut, as well as the rest of his fat-inflated anatomy. Steve is very proud of his gut - at just over than seven feet around, it is already bigger around than he is tall - but his butt, two round globes of fat and muscle, and thickly padded legs also attract many of his female fans. His big, powerful butt and thick, powerful legs are the secret to his success on the school's wrestling team - though his more-than-ample weight doesn't hurt his performance either! He is the heaviest wrestler in his school, and one of the heaviest wrestlers in his age class in the country.

After school, Steve generally returns home on the school bus and enjoys a second massive "lunch" before beginning his work around the farm, where his primary responsibility is keeping up the computerised dairy breeding records. He also helps with the insemination process, and often gets involved in other things. His grandmother Marguerite occasionally tries to restrict his activities to things that "aren't too strenuous" (in her words), but her attempts to prevent him from doing physical labour are usually met by his protest that working will be "good for his appetite". Steve enjoys doing anything around the farm where his massive strength and humongous weight can be put to good use. Buillding projects, and helping hold animals for shots and veterinary work, are among his favourites. His assertions that such physical exertions are good for his appetite appear quite true - any day he's been "out and about" the farm he comes in for a more-ample-than-usual late supper.

On those days that Steve does not return home directly after school - the days he stays for wrestling or weightlifting practice - he visits the after-school cafeteria, or a nearby burger joint, for a post-class "snack", normally in the company of a least a couple of female admirers. Matriarch Marguerite makes sure that he has a lift home after practice.


Men's rights.

The quest for "trophy husbands" in Gigantia reached a peak in the 1950s, as Gigantean society industrialized and became richer. Kidnapping of men considered to be superior husbands began to occur, and some women began swapping or trading men as husbands, reducing some men to mere possessions of their wives. In the late 1960s, a civil rights movement swept Gigantia, and men's rights were introduced as part of a general move to human rights legislation, which among other things forbade the selling and trading of husbands without their consent. Polyandry, however, remains legal.

The Kingship

The King's role, once heavily religious, is in modern Gigantia highly ceremonial and symbolic. The King is seen as promoting the best qualities of Gigantean manhood - astronomic size, awe-inspiring strength, and unbounded consumption. Three centuries ago, it was not unknown for a king to double his weight while on the throne - from, say, 350 to 700 pounds. For modern Kings, who ascend the throne already near the 1000 pound mark, such a doubling is near impossible; but some still achieve a similar 350 pound gain - about a pound a day.

The traditional religious view of the kingship is that holder of the office is a semi-deity - that man who assumes the Kingship it is subsumed into the earthly role of deity of harvest, growth, and abundance, hence only those who can best exemplify abundance, though their own personal vastness, are fit to serve. While they reign, the deity enters into them, conveying to them semi-divine status, which is made manifest in them by a great augmentation of their physical bulk, and appetite; an arcane imperative to grow and to consume. Religious belief holds that a King who grows significantly on the throne is the harbinger of an excellent harvest - a King with a good appetite is seen as filled with the deity's spirit, and is encouraged to consume ever more heavily. The resultant weight gain is seen as predicting or mirroring the fruitfulness of the land.

When the King’s role was first codified in the early stages of the agricultural civilization of Gigantia, Kings seem to have ruled for longer periods of time - the concept of replacing the King annually seems to have come about as a means to ensure that the King was always actively growing, after a number of years of bad harvests coincided with Kings who, several years into their reigns, had stopped gaining weight. Several such Kings who were seen to have failed their people in this way seem to have been cast out of the Kingship - darker tales tell of some Kings being sacrificed to appease the gods, in the earliest days. Out of this came first a practice that the King would leave the throne whenever he stopped actively gaining weight, which eventually settled into the King being enthroned for only one year - one harvest cycle - at a time, and not permitted consecutive years on the throne. In the past, this has led to some Kings having more than one term as King, but non-consecutively. Most modern Kings serve only one term; having “reigned and gained” once, they do not try again - many, in fact, have become so obese as King that they cannot pass the mobility test again.

A secondary reason for replacing the King annually was to avoid having the King die while on the throne - which was considered a very bad omen. In the early days, such incidents were rare, but as royal weights began to climb, they became more frequent. Regular replenishment of the throne assured Giganteans that they would always have a healthy, growing King. And former Kings usually made good husband material, for those women who could afford them and their food bills.

Traditionally, the King was the heaviest man in the land. When the previous King’s term had ended, a gathering of all the heaviest men in the Kingdom would be called, and each man would be weighed against others, with the heaviest becoming King. As Gigantia progressed, candidates for the Kingship got fatter and fatter, heavier and heavier, and began to be quite restricted in their mobility. This was not seen as desirable by all - lack of mobility suggests a lack of strength, and Kings must not only be enormous, but enormously strong as well. It was also noted that the least mobile Kings were more prone to dying while on the throne - it takes a strong man to perform the duties of the King, while gaining sufficient weight to uphold the fertility of the land. A proof of strength was instituted, which has evolved into the mobility requirement.

Today, the King is still chosen through an annual weigh-off between the biggest men in the realm, but it is the heaviest man meeting the mobility requirement who is declared King, and he serves only a one year term. Having a male relative - son or husband or brother - become King is seen as a great honour for a woman. Kings and former Kings are prime husbands and fathers.

There has been a continuing increase in the weight of the candidates for the Kingship in recent years, and increasingly it is the mobility requirement that sorts out the contenders, by disqualifying increasing numbers of immense but immobile contenders. Gigantean Kings now weigh, on average, 1000 pounds on accession to the throne.

During their reign, Kings traditionally have gained considerable weight, due to the aforementioned Gigantean religious beliefs that connected a growing King to richer harvests and the general success of the nation. These beliefs led to a traditional “palace code” that the King should not need to exert himself, or even lift a finger - merely concentrate on growing his body to its fullest potential, plus preside at royal and national ceremonies, and procreate widely, to pass on his obviously superior bloodlines. This palace code, in the days when most Kings came to the throne from active, working lives, produced enormous increases in the royal weight - which were seen as boding well for that year's harvest. A fat, happy, growing King was the nation's psychological security blanket for the coming year.

As Gigantean social mores have changed to emphasize more than just mass in men, the traditional palace code has evolved into a modern “royal programme” during each King's reign that is designed to increase not only the King's weight, but also his mobility, and his appetite. While only traditionalists and the very religious still regard the King as semi-divine, the Gigantean nation still expects its King to exemplify the three most desirable qualities of the ideal Gigantean male: monumental mass, stupendous strength, and an astronomic appetite. Achieving these three qualities requires that modern Kings - who start their reigns at much higher weights than their forebears - pay much more attention to their overall health and mobility than their bygone predecessors. While some traditionalists protest, most modern Giganteans find a mobile 1200 pound King much more awe-inspiring than an immobile 1500 pound King. And such a demonstration of colossal strength and mobility along with epoch-making mass and limitless appetite simply proves the value of such a mighty King as the father of their nation (figuratively and literally, as the King is officially a behemoth “national stud” while on the throne, with a national lottery for women to win the chance to sleep with the King - ex-Kings are pursued as studs after their reign).

The Annual Royal Weigh Off is held in the public reviewing area in front of the royal palace each year. Men wishing to become candidates must submit an application, specifying their official weight, at least a month in advance, and the thirty men with the heaviest official weights who otherwise meet the rules (Gigantean citizen, etc.) receive letters inviting them to the Royal Weigh Off. The thirty heaviest candidates for the Kingship are required to present themselves before the royal reviewing stand (on the palace forecourt) on a Saturday morning before 9 am, wearing the approved candidates’ outfit of singlet, shorts, and sandals. A long single row of benches is provided for candidates, and a particularly fattening complimentary all-you-can breakfast from the royal kitchens is served to the candidates on tables in front of the benches from 6 am until 9:30. (Most candidates arrive early to chow down and thus improve their chances.) At 9:30 sharp the tables are removed, and the show begins!

Candidates are weighed on a huge pair of balances, set up with a seat on either end, and carefully set to a neutral balance while the candidates are chowing down on breakfast. The heaviest candidate weighed on the scales will become king - but to get to the scales, candidates have to cover a 100 m course on foot, as proof of their strength and mobility. The course has its starting line near the benches and its finish line close to the balance scales. The first candidate gets up from his seat and goes to the starting line; on the signal, he has four minutes to walk the 100m distance course (which is a flat straight line across the palace forecourt - passing in front of the royal reviewing stand, and lined on both sides with stands of cheering spectators and television cameras). If the candidate completes the course in four minutes, he then seats himself on one side of the scales. The next candidate then proceeds along the 100m course, and if he is able to complete it in four minutes or less, seats himself on the other side of the scales. The lighter of the two candidates then gets off the scales, and the third candidate proceeds along the 100m course. This continues until all of the candidates have attempted to cover the 100 m course and the successful ones have sat on the scales. The heaviest successful candidate is then declared to be the next King, and feted.

The Royal Weigh-Off is a huge public event in Gigantia, attracting vast numbers of spectators, and broadcast live. The visuals of the ceremony are a feast for lovers of big men, as the reigning King is on the Royal Reviewing Stand, surrounded by a number of notable former Kings, and more former Kings and other notable fat men (such as sumos and eating champions) are given special places in the stands just below the Royal Reviewing stands. The spectator spaces in other stands are chosen by lottery.

Once the Weigh-Off is over, the new King is taken to an external open glass elevator on the Royal Palace wall and is lifted up to the Royal Reviewing Stand to be presented to the ruling King and, as important, to the people. After his formal presentation, he is taken into the Palace to be officially measured and fitted for his new, Royal, clothes. He is then introduced to the palace and its staff. That evening, he presides at his first Royal banquet. The next day, after having consumed a (hopefully) staggering amount of food, he is crowned King, at a coronation ceremony presided over by the outgoing King, who will put the crown on the new monarch’s head.

The new king then spends the rest of his Coronation Week alternating between sleeping, being introduced to palace routines and evaluated by palace staff, and being publicly feted and stuffed to the gills in a series of huge, televised, royal feasts designed to get his Kingship off to a broadening start. The palace staff generally expect that a new King to put on about ten pounds in his Coronation week; one King a few years ago put on twenty-five pounds in his first seven days as King.

Gigantia: The Men, their lives, their bodies

Gigantean men are, by the standards of the men in most countries, hulking fat monsters. There are some individuals in other countries who rival them in size and bulk, but in terms of the average size of the general male population, Gigantia stands alone. Modern genetics has confirmed what Gigantean medical folks have long supected: Giganteans are the descendants of a cross breeding between Homo Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens that occurred very late in human history, so that Giganteans have far more Neanderthal DNA than any other current human population.

Their Neanderthal DNA gives Giganteans many of their bodily features; broad, deep ("barrel") chests, longer arms, shorter legs, heavy and somewhat sloped foreheads, and a generally massive skeleton and muscling. These features, of course, are part of the reason why Gigantean men can carry such enormous total weights so well. The one aspect where the Homo Sapiens DNA is dominant is in height; Gigantean men are above average there as well. Heavy Neanderthal frames combined with Sapiens height makes for men of superlative size.

While more a few Gigantean men aspire to be King, and some others are devoted to athletic pursuits, most men in Gigantia just live out their lives quietly growing bigger. Take Henry, 35. He spends his work time designing and testing industrial implements, but his avocation, the core of his life, is as devoted husband and 'food slave' to his wife, Sylvia. When Sylvia and Henry married, he was just 25, and only 360 pounds - he'd been an athlete, as well as a student, in college. Sylvia, a vivacious junior engineering manager at the same company as Henry, was 26. They had been dating for six months, though Sylvia says that she knew after the second date that Henry was the one.

Since marrying, Henry has added 165 pounds to his handsome frame, thanks to Sylvia's loving encouragement, and his own voracity. At 525 pounds, Henry is still a happy, bouncing hunk of a man, who swims, lifts weights, and plays a little football on weekends, when he's not spending time with Hank Jr. (age 9), Timmy (age 7) or Cassandra (age 4). At six feet tall, and six feet around the chest, he calls himself a "square" - which also goes with his quietly intellectual job.

Sylvia, well, she just calls her husband handsome. She enjoys feeding his five and a half foot (66 inch) waistline, and feeling his thick (27 inch) upper arms enfold her. As Gigantean men go, Henry's not all that big, or even all that fat (his chest is still bigger than his waist!) but he is still growing at a pound or two a month, and he and Sylvia both have hopes for little Hank jr., who is already showing signs of substantial early growth. Sylvia's Dad was a bigger and taller man than Henry, as is her older brother, so their hopes may be justified.

{b Economic development in Gigantia leads to bigger men

The discovery of offshore oil in 1970s proved a windfall for Gigantia, inflating the national income. Wisely, successive governments sought to invest the windfall for the future when the oil runs out, but the income from those investments is being used to promote development in Gigantia, both national and personal.

National development has included massive investment in education, and the encouragement of heavy investment in industrialisation and automation, producing a shift away from agricultural and industrial employment into the service and knowledge industries. While this change is typical of many industrialised societies, in Gigantia it was accompanied by a push for more leisure, particularly for men, to reduce their hours of work and leave them increasingly free to pursue their personal development.

All this national development then leads to personal development, and the Gigantean government is using the revenues from invested oil revenues to support personal development as well. In Gigantean context, personal development generally means men developing their bodies towards the Gigantean male ideals: maximum mass, supreme strength, and unchecked consumption. To promote this type of personal development, the Gigantean government has introduced a kind of social welfare program, of a kind that is unique to Gigantia: the Male Mass Stipend.

Introduced to aid poorer families with the food (and other) costs of men growing bigger, the Male Mass Stipend is a monthly income-tested payment available to all male Giganatean citizens once they reach 350 pounds.. (At introduction, the cut-off was 300 pounds, but this has been increased.) The amount of the Mass Stipend is based on body weight and income, and increases more-than-linearly with increasing mass. The Stipend must be applied for individually, and renewed annually. Initial applications and renewals are made through the income tax system, but Stipend payments are not made until the man has registered and submitted an official weight, through being weighed at an approved scales. The man's Mass Stipend for the following year is based on this registered weight. It is possible to request a mid-year increase, but this requires a supplemental weighing that shows a increase of at least 25 pounds since the previous weighing. The Stipend was intended to set poorer men free from the need to work full-time, so that, like their wealthier brothers, they would have the time and resources to develop more desirable physiques.

The Male Mass Stipend has driven an enormous boost in average male size in Gigantia.

The Mass Stipend has promoted more, and faster, change in the size of Gigantean men than even its most fervent promoters hoped for. In the first fifteen years of the Stipend, average adult Gigantean male mass climbed by more than 150 pounds, with the increase spread over all sizes and ages of men.

Where once the "average" Gigantean male would be expected to "top out" somewhere in the 400 pound range in his 30s, many now exceed 400 pounds while still in their 20s! The "average" Gigantean male now tops out in the high 500s in their late 30s. This increase is not due only to the Stipend - economic development has raised average Gigantean family income more generally, and with higher incomes families can better feed and clothe their "growing boys". The work week for the average Gigantean man has also shrunk, and the type of jobs they do has become steadily easier and less strenuous. Gigantean food production is up, but so are Gigantean food imports, as growing male food consumption drives total food demand to new heights.

The Male Mass Stipend is also made available to all serious Gigantean athletes, regardless of size, as a means of encouraging athleticism, as a strong athletic body makes a first-class platform for later massive weight gain. If an athlete weighs less than 350 pounds, then it is paid at the minimum rate, that for a 350 pounder; if the athlete weighs more than this, then it is calculated upwards; all athletes in addition receive a 50% premium above their Stipend to cover their extra food and training costs as athletes. This premium encourages some men to remain registered as athletes as long as possible, or to seek out new, size friendly sports as they grow. The premium is of great service in encouraging men to take up Sumo, for example. The Football League and its players also benefits. The Tug of War League is expanding into a full sports league, so that all its participants can register as athletes.

One surprising development, not (publicly) foreseen by the promoters of the Male Mass Stipend, is how it serves to promote extra size and independence among fat male teenagers. Or this was foreseen, given that the promoters did not place any age restrictions on those who would receive the payments, only citizenship and weight requirements. Regardless, the Stipend now flows to growing numbers of massive male teens. Even a few pre-teens have reached the necessary 350 pounds, and now receive the payments. As these teens generally have no other income, they receive the maximum stipend for their size.

Many of these fat boys are using the money to declare their independence from parents who they feel are too controlling. Some male teens feel that their parents are not supportive of their early gains; if these boys are lucky enough to have a girlfriend, boyfriend, or relative who is more welcoming of their growing size, they now may move in with that enabler.

This trend is particularly strong among male teens who belong to serious teen gainer groups - they declare their independence and move in with their feeder girlfriends, if their parents criticize their gainer goals and ideals. This teenage phenomenon will be examined in detail later on. For now, suffice it to note that getting to 500 or more pounds is no longer limited to adult Gigantean males!

Other social programs are limited in Gigantia. Universal healthcare insurance is provided, as is maternity leave, maternity care, and daycare.


The Palace Guard

While the surrounding mountains that cut Gigantia off from contact with its neighbours also mean that Gigantia has no history of war across its borders, it still has a palace guard - more an outgrowth of the historical social mores of defence against wild animals, and a security/police function. This today has evolved into a ‘Palace Guard’ section of the national police force, who like the Swiss Guards of the Vatican have a role that is more symbolic and touristic than anything else. The rest of the police force is known to refer to them - with a certain degree of awe - as “the fat boys”.

While some of the Palace Guard come from within the national police force - policemen who are steady gainers may have a placement in the Palace Guard suggested to them as a career option for promotion - the rank and file guards are also hired directly. On what basis are new Palace Guards hired? Well, as one group of transferees from the active ranks of the national police were told at their entry parade, by their new Sergeant at Arms (a man who outweighed the heaviest of his new recruits by at least 300 pounds):

“Men, the Palace Guard is an old and honourable unit. Our role is to protect the sacred Gigantean King and his Royal Palace from all who would seek to do him harm. We are the public front of the kingship - the reflection of the King’s glory to the world outside this palace. To do this best, we must strive to follow Gigantia’s highest ideals, just as the King does. These ideals will place a heavy burden on you,” he continued, his right hand moving from his side to rest atop his snugly uniformed, massively jutting stomach, “the burden of....looking good in your uniform!”

Laughter drifted from the assembled group.

“Heretofore as policemen you’ve had to obey standards for fitness and speed. Despite those standards, you have all grown to a goodly size, as noted by your commanding officers who nominated you for a transfer here. It’s my happy duty to inform you that, as members of the Palace Guard, you are hereby released from those standards. The physical standard you now must attain is one of palatial girth - a girth suitable for guarding our King and his Palace - and the ability to stand watch in uniform. Watches are run in half-hour rotation, except for those outside the throne room, which are on quarter-hour rotation. Is there anyone among you who cannot stand a half-hour watch?”

The group was silent.

“All of you can? That’s good, because none of you are big enough yet to join the throne room squadron! Are there any questions before I dismiss you?”

“Sergeant?”

“Yes?”

“The Palace is huge - how can we grow if we have to keep marching to our posts every half hour?”

“Oh you won’t be marching around this big old pile,” smiled the Sergeant. “Your long distance marching days are behind you. The most you’ll march now is a few metres! On that subject, that’s a good time to introduce you to your new mode of transport as Palace Guards....Corporals, bring in the transporters.”

At this command a quartet of smartly uniformed young Corporals - who were almost as big as their Sergeant - rolled in, two at the wheel of electric carts, the other two riding two-wheeled devices which looked like oversized Segways. The electric carts had a longitudinal bench facing outwards on each side, above a substantial running board. The heavy-duty Segways appeared to have car tires on each side of a wide platform, and an offset control panel.

“Guards, anytime you have any distance to go, you’ll be going on one of these!” remarked the Sergeant. “We have a fleet of the personal ‘Bigways’ that you’ll borrow as needed , and once you’ve outgrown those, you’ll get ‘cart’ service. All of the guard posts in the Palace have either a sentry rooms nearby, or pickup and drop off every half hour. From now on, you will not march - instead you will eat - and grow.”

The Sergeant dismissed the eight new recruits, who mounted the electric carts and were promptly whisked to the mess for a filling meal - brunch at 10 am!

Becoming a Palace Guard can seem less about 'guarding' the Palace than it is a male beauty contest. The welcoming Sergeant was not kidding when he told the new transferees that the first rule is that they are expected to look good in their Guards’ uniforms -i.e., fill their uniform, and then 'move up' to fill a bigger one! The fatter, the better!

The process of becoming a transferee or recruit to the Palace Guard is all about beefy, hefty, male Gigantean good looks - police commanders are asked to nominated their hunkiest and chunkiest officers, and the recruiters often ask interview participants to try on uniforms, to judge their suitability. Palace Guards are really showpieces for the palace - visibly on guard, yet immense, the Guards have guts and shoulders and arms and butts and legs that fill their uniforms. All this creates an air in the palace of overwhelming male bulk.

Palace guard uniforms are a mix of very traditional appearance - influenced in more recent times by traditional European military uniforms, as modelled in foreign films - and contemporary Gigantean garment making. The uniforms, in mixes of traditional serge and melton wool with spandex and stretch fabric linings and sections, skim every curve of the Guards's bulging bodies, outlining and emphasizing massive jutting bellies, bulging glutes and prominent pecs. Massive shoulders, thick arms and thick thighs and calves get equally emphasized.


SPORT

Historically, the preferred sports in Gigantia were those connected to social mores of defence and agricultural production - valued sports were those that showed skills of defence against wild animals, and sports that showed strength, endurance, and skills and abilities in farming.

Today, sport is valued especially for two things: its social function, and how it encourages boys and men to develop their strength, mobility, and weight carrying capacity, essential qualities in Gigantia, where society expects men to grow to ever larger, ever more magnificent sizes.

In the past, only a “leisure class” of relatively men could devote their time and energy to achieving the Gigantean male ideal of tremendous size. Most men were too occupied pursuing a living (in physically active occupations) to be able develop their full size potential, though they were very large compared to non-Gigantean men. In recent years, as the number of men employed in less physical and sedentary occupations has grown, as labour-saving technology has been taken over many physically active jobs, and as the amount of leisure time available to Gigantean men has grown - thanks to oil wealth and ongoing industrialization - the average Gigantean male mass has soared .

This great improvement has led to most Gigantean sports changing so that great physical size has come to play the leading role, with strength and skills playing secondary roles to the ideal of absolute bulk. This emphasis on sheer mass has led to, among other changes, the appearance and indigenisation of sumo wrestling, which is now the pinnacle of the Gigantean sporting world.

So, let’s begin this exploration of Gigantean sport with the ultimate sport for a male Gigantean: Sumo - the sport that is a religion, where size is (just about) everything.


SUMO

Gigantean sumo traces its origins and inspiration to Japanese sumo, and is close in spirit to its Japanese ancestor, but has been heavily modified to suit Gigantean tastes and society.

Initially, the promoters of Gigantean sumo tried to import the Japanese sumo “system” unchanged, as their initial thought was that Gigantean sumos would be able to compete with Japanese sumos in Japan. But Japanese sumo, with its arcane religious overtones and intricate rituals, was not sufficiently attractive to Giganteans to draw much following, particularly as early on, in order to permit hoped-for competition between Gigantean and Japanese sumos, the Gigantean sumo promoters actually sought to limit the size of Gigantean sumos. (A shockingly un-Gigantean thing to do! Imagine, trying to discourage a man from gaining weight!) Despite this effort to equalize the size of the sumo wrestlers, the Japanese absolutely refused to allow any competition between Japanese and Gigantean stables.

Eventually, the promoters realized that if they were to indigenise the sport in Gigantia, retain the attractive parts and useful principles and adapt the practices to Gigantean mores and tastes, they could succeed; with this realization came the ending of any hopes of Gigantean sumos competing in Japan. When a door closes, a window opens, as the Japanese say. A very big window, in this case! Gigantia has indigenised sumo, changing the sport so that it is convergent with Gigantean social mores about men and their size and growth; indigenised sumo has become a huge hit.

Gigantean sumo contains many of the principles of Japanese sumo, but the size of the sumo wrestlers has lost any limits - indeed, quite the reverse, Gigantean sumos are encouraged to grow to fill Gigantean ideals surrounding the “ideal man”.

The principles that Gigantean sumo carries over from its Japanese progenitor include:

- sumo is a religion of size and strength, expressed in sport,

- the bodies of sumo wrestlers are holy temples, demanding the best sustenance and care Gigantean society can provide,

- sumo wrestlers not only are the temples, but are the priests of their holy temples, and should be distinct in society,

- sumo contests are a metaphor for the primeval battle between want and plenty (or good and evil),

- sumo wrestlers personify the spiritual and physical state of the nation, therefore the size and magnificence of sumo wrestlers symbolizes and forecasts the size of the harvest and the economic success of the nation

Gigantean sumo wrestlers are divided into weight classes for competitions. The biggest sumo wrestlers, particularly those colossi who weigh over one thousand pounds, have become "pin-up boys" for thousands of Giganteans. Sumo wrestling tournaments are now the ultimate Gigantean male “meat markets”.

Professional Gigantean sumos are organized into "sumo stables" for training; these stables have facilities designed to encourage the maximum growth, strength, and appetite in the wrestlers. The stables’ facilities are fitted out so that, no matter how large a sumo grows, he can live, grow, practice and perform in comfort and dignity. Sumo stables have family living units as well, as unlike Japanese sumo, Gigantean sumo welcomes, even encourages, married sumos. The Sumo stables’ cafeterias are considered among the better eateries in the nation. Sumos and retired sumos are pursued as potential husbands, and seen as prime fathers, and many become candidates for the Kingship.

The Sumo League goes to great lengths to have its Sumos considered athletes; it ensures they are billed as such in advertising and news reports, refers to their "athletic accomplishments" inside the ring and out, and provides complete personal and competitive stats about them. This helps make Sumo attractive to other athletic Gigantean males, such as footballers and wrestlers who have ‘out-grown’ their old sports; it also makes Sumo attractive to the new generation of fatter boys who have always been too big and slow to play other sports.

There is an official minimum weight to join the League as a sumo wrestler: 300 pounds. However, this is hardly ever a problem for new sumos, as even the 18 year olds who apply to join are 400 pounds or more, and the “retired” footballers and others who apply are over 500 pounds (often massively over 500 pounds), or a whole size rank above the minimum. Speaking of sumo ranks, here are the minimum weight ranges for each rank in the Sumo League:

- Athlete rank: minimum 300 pounds.
- Champion rank: minimum 500 pounds.
- Hero rank (where the popular action is): minimum 700 pounds.

A new super rank is under consideration:

- Titans: minimum 900 pounds (though the League does not yet have enough sumos of this size for a full rank, it already informally separates these monumental grapplers from their lighter brethren).

Sumos over 1000 pounds form an exalted elite, and are growing in number; they are commonly referred to as "Half-tons" in the sumo and popular press.

On to part Two!