Race: Flay Creech
City Name: Kethitic
The Flay Creech are descended from a group of islanders who were inadvertantly affected by a great magical catacylsm. The magical energies warped their bodies and minds, turning them into man sized vulture-like creatures capable of clumsy flight and perfect for survival in even the harshest landscapes. These changes also made them quarrelsome and fractious, although they retained sufficient social tendances to live in large flocks and group together under sufficiently charismatic and powerful leaders. Their magical origins left them with an unstable and unpredictable magical ability that rarely manifests and can never be truely controlled. Most Creech see this ability as more of a curse or burden than a gift due to the unpredictable magics, but with training the magics can be directed to achieve a goal, although the exact methods by which that goal is achieved are less than reliable. The Creech have no real religion, they accept that gods either do or do not exist, and if they do then they clearly do not care about the Creech, either way it doesn't matter. The Creech prefer to live in and on islands, preferably ones with nice cliffy sides to provide a good place from which to launch into flight. While they are capable of flight it is extremely clumsy and ill suited for more than basic locomotion from point A to point B. Furthermore the Creech require either a long run-up or a short drop to build up sufficient speed to launch into the air, hence their cliffside aeries. Most of all however, the Creech are survivalists, tough and stringy they require very little food and are fully capable of eating, digesting and surviving on almost any organic matter, no matter how foul and rotten it may be. Fish, meat, plants, other Creech, they don't care. If it's edible, they'll eat it. If it isn't edible, then it probably is edible for the Creech.
Theme: Magical vulture-people, fractious, foul and able to eat anything.
The Flay Creech were born of magic, and death. For some areas the Age of Ashes was literally true; for fires raged across the forests and fields and the land itself fell into the shadow of great ash clouds hurled into the air. Entire plains and cities were buried beneath a thick layer of soft ash.
As the fires raged, a desperate mage convened a council. With the might of a thousand seventh circle mages; the greatest gathering of magical power in known history, the wizards attempted to save themselves from doom. They had not counted on their energies failing, backfiring and running rampant across the land. The fires of wood and grass were overpowered and replaced with the ominous green fire of magical energies.
Most died, many horribly; the magical energies warping their bodies and destroying their souls, leaving vast tracts of land twisted out of shape and populated only by horrific monsters. But as the energies petered out they washed over a small village perched upon a rocky island off the coast. The people in this village were taken by surprise, and forever changed.
The energies invoked a change in them, twisting their minds and bodies into new forms better suited for survival, they became thinner and hardier, sprouting great wings and coats of feathers, they became capable of eating almost anything, indeed, they became like great vultures.
For a time the Flay Creech, as they called themselves, lived alone on their little island, out of sight and out of mind, easily able to support their little needs by scavenging from the bountiful seas. But recently the Creech known as Yalthax has been stirring up a great lust for power and wealth in his people, and the Flay Creech look ready to found an empire.
Town: Kethitic sits at the approximate center of a large crescent-shaped archipelago north-east of a major landmass. The island of Kethitic is in fact a large inactive volcano (as are most of the islands), and the Aerie of Kethitic is situated inside the volcano itself. Creech homes and workshops ring the inside of the magma tube, creating the perfect drop to get a Creech into the air. The land around the volcano is fairly fertile thanks to volcanic soil, although somewhat lacking in anything other than thick grass and thicker trees. The islands in the archipelago stretch off to the north-west and south as far as the eye can see, and vary in size from less than a city block to several thousand square kilometers. On average the islands are approximately 8 - 12 hours flight for a healthy Creech, while the mainland is nearly 3 days flight from Kethitic.
How's that?