Kanictak

The Kanictak were a race of giant, toad-like creatures that lived during the Mage Wars. Like many such strange machinations, their exact origin is unknown, and they were considered extinct by the first century of the Golden Age. They were never particularly wide-spread, and no known population centers exist.

Description

The Kanictak were large and rather grotesque, though most contemporary accounts indicate they were, quite literally, just giant toads. They were not bipedal and lacked opposable digits. Some would manipulate objects with their forepaws, but most used their long, sticky tongues in place of hands. This, as one would expect, did not lead to them being well-accepted by most civilizations. Their relative scarcity and purported poor manners did not help.

Personality

Most contemporary accounts describe Kanictak as smooth talkers. Supposedly they were quite charming, often times even taking wives from other species (biologically they were hermaphroditic, but all known accounts indicate they identified as male). They were also known as particularly shrewd traders, with many working as merchants.

Merchants, wizards, and teachers seemed to be their primary vocations: lacking usable limbs they were not much good as tradesmen, though some accounts tell of them working in such fields by employing humans.

History

Kanictak were relatively common during the First Chaotic Period and were considered powerful mages. At the time they lived longer than most humans, and often made a living as teachers. The creatures had a surprisingly good memory. This alone made them skilled as mages, and often sought after in early schools of magic.

Precisely where the Kanictak began remains a mystery, but they were widespread around the beginning of the Chaotic Period. Kanictak lived isolated lives, with usually only or two to a region (nearly every city had at least one, but it was exceedingly rare to see two together).

Little mention is made during the Dynastic Period, but many Kanictak were still found during the Second Chaotic Period. However, it seems nearly certain that by the close of the Mage Wars, their species was extinct.

Foundation Records

Though rare during the days of the old Gudersnipe Army and long extinct by the founding of the Gudersnipe Foundation, there are still numerous extant records. At least one hundred twenty two specimens of Kanictak were known and studied by the Foundation, including thirty-one autopsies.

Later study of the findings would lead the Foundation to rule that the Kanictak were definitely sentient (and numerous contemporary accounts point to them speaking many languages easily). The Foundation also determined they were essentially genderless, and reproduced asexually. This accounts for their widespread, yet solitary nature. A single individual could lay and fertilize its own eggs, though nothing of their life cycle was ever directly observed.

Specimens

In the late Fourth Age, the publication of the Accepted Histories prompted a major resurgence in interest. The public clamored for more information, but after so many thousands of years, all anyone had were copied-down written records.

The Foundation responded by removing 18 specimens from its archives and placing them on traveling displays. Massive crowds gathered at every showing, and the different specimens continued to be circulated through museums for the next three centuries. All of the biological data was also released, though very few scientists outside the Foundation were allowed to study the remains directly, and then only under very close supervision. The Foundation indicated that this was because of the serious scarcity of the samples, they had only 122 specimens, and if a sample were lost or destroyed it could never be replaced.

Cloning Attempts

In the late Fourth Age when preserved Kanictak examples were first placed on display, many questioned why the Foundation did not simply clone the beings, thus allowing science to learn from living examples. The Foundation released a statement indicating that the preservation fluid used to keep the specimens intact for four thousand years had long since destroyed any DNA, and that cloning was not possible. When this statement was challenged, the Foundation responded by re-releasing it, this time in bold (the same statement would go on to be released, word for word, a third time in all capitals).

Conspiracy theories abounded, but inside sources indicated that while a complete genetic map probably did exist, the Kanictak's status as a sentient life form forbade any such research. The Foundation's directives on such matters were strong and irrevocable. Since the Unicorn Trials.