The following piece is a fragment of backstory or world history from an unreleased role-playing game. It was written by Cindy Vanous, copyright Sierra On-Line, 1998.

The Raaktichik (Nation: World-crest)

One of the oldest recorded nonhuman species on Athyr is the avian race who called themselves Raaktichik. The meaning of the word is lost to the ages, as is the rest of their language, their beliefs, their culture, and the Raaktichik themselves. But remnants of their art remain, carved and painted onto the remote reaches of World-crest's highest peaks. On the barest of ledges or above the tiniest clawfoot-gripped cracks, the vanished people have left their legacy -- beautiful depictions of everyday life. Foraging, hunting, child-rearing, crafting, building, and more are represented in painstaking, perfect detail. It is tragic to think of how many Raaktichik works must already have been lost to wind, weather, and rockslides.

The avians were known among the Arcana'dir as the Sorrowful Ones, as the human scholars witnessed their sad decline and fall. The sorcery which had created the Raaktichik from human slaves and mountain raptors was insufficient to maintain their aerial form over generations. After nearly four centuries of soaring and dreaming in the skies over World-crest, the avians began to revert to their terrestrial origins. Offspring took longer to develop flight-sized wings, their bodies became heavier, their keen eyesight weakened. In the end, the Raaktichiks' humanoid characteristics became more prominent than the avian, and their wings became merely rudimentary, effective at first only for gliding, then losing even that capability. Desperate and disconsolate, the Raaktichik searched for a sorcerer who could restore to them the skies and freedom for which their hearts longed. But true sorcerers are rare, and none was alive in the world at that time. The Raaktichik began to decline, whether from inability to adapt to their new environment or simply from overwhelming grief. The last recorded member of this race was given to the Arcana'dir as a youth, that she might be raised as a scholar and record the history of her people. With her eventual death, so passed the Raaktichik.

And, to paraphrase a Mequali funeral proverb, "the world is smaller for their lack".

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