The Winged Ones reside on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain in the Land of the Green Isles. They are like human people with wings.[1] They are a race that pride themselves in their simple yet elegant architectural style and intellectual abilities. They see other races as inferior to their own. Alexander was one of few humans who has ever seen the Winged Ones. By ascending the Cliffs of Logic, an accomplishment never completed before, Alexander was highly regarded by the Winged Ones. They are also thought to be the descendants of a winged race, created by the Ancient Ones.
Background[]
The Winged Ones are the inhabitants of the Isle of the Sacred Mountain. Towering to a height of six to seven feet, the Winged Ones are by far the most impressive creatures in the Land. Each one of them, male and female alike, is surprisingly beautiful. Their bodies are muscled and athletic and gleaming with health. From their broad backs mighty wings emerge like secondary limbs, strong and webbed, and covered with large white feathers.[2]
Some believe that the Ancient Ones's obsessive interest in flight and their secret knowledge enabled them to create a winged race, the descendants of whom are the Winged Ones.[3]
They live in the Winged Ones city, a strange and haunting place whose architecture combines the two overriding elements of this culture: aviation and the classical. The city seems built to exclude those poor creatures whose lot it is to crawl like insects upon the ground, for each edifice towers into the sky with no connection to the next or to the ground itself save by flight.
Travelers are completely dependent on greeters for travel about the city or even to leave, which limits visitors ability to explore the island. This is likely the intent of the Winged Ones, for the culture of the Winged Ones is a private one. Winged Ones on the surface are extremely polite, but their formal words of welcome do not ring true. The race holds a disdain of common humanity, a haughtiness.
Despite this innate sense of superiority, the Winged Ones are valuable members of the kingdom and provide many important skills. Incredibly intelligent, the Winged Ones are master logicians and mathematicians, precise architects and planners. They disdain magic and the daintier arts, being far too logical for such goings on. Even the palace of the Winged Ones city has a sparseness, a sense of functionality that denotes their contempt for artistic ornamentation.
The Winged Ones culture is old, and they make frequent references to the "Ancient Ones," their forefathers, whose ruins and great works still abound on the island. The Isle of the Sacred Mountain is ruled by a lord and lady, who exist as monarchs on their own island but owe allegiance to the common Crown.
Inside a cave of the island, dwells the sacred Oracle, the philosophical head of the community. It is said that the Oracle is centuries old, ultimately wise and can read the future. She is consulted by the lord and lady on every facet of the city`s life, and even advises the king and queen. Few see her, and most Winged Ones citizens regard her as an almost mythical being. The greatest honor any Winged Ones citizen might hope for in his or her long life is to be granted a meeting with the Oracle, for her cave is a place reserved for only the most worthy souls. Like many lofty ambitions, most of the Winged Ones never achieve this end.
Physiology[]
In form the Winged Ones are much like any other humanfolk of Daventry--save that they tower over any human ever born, and that two great white wings grow from their shoulders. It was with the aid of these, and not by any magic, that the Winged Ones obtain the power of flight.[4] In general, those that Alexander encountered appear to be a foot more more taller than he.
Behind the scenes[]
The King's Quest Companion describes the Ancients as the precursors of the Winged Ones, suggesting that the Winged Ones may have descended from the Ancient Ones, rather than being made by the Ancients.
The Ancient Ones are also described as "forefathers" which also may suggest the Winged Ones descended from the Ancients.
Early in the development of KQ6, the Winged Ones were intended to look like living statues with blank eyes, resembling ancient Roman white marble sculpture (note ancient Romans likely painted their statues so it is more representative of neo-classical). This idea was later dropped, and in the final game the Winged Ones have human-like pink skin and dark hair, modeled on the traditional physical traits of the inhabitants of Italy.
