OK, so... this is probably not the best place for this question, but I can't think where else to ask.

Yea long ago, back in the '90s, I played GemStone and Dragonrealms on AOL. I just discovered today that both still exist on the Web. Obviously, some things have changed. I recall the winged race being able to fly, for instance, whereas it now says they're flightless. There's another thing, though. One of the things I remember liking best about these text-based fantasy games I played on AOL is that one of them had a race that were basically dragon-kin. They started out mostly human-looking, but there was a rune based magic system of some sort that I vaguely recall where you learned specific runes and then combined them to create different results. If you played the same character for a long amount of time - IIRC, it took an RL year or more - your character would eventually grow scales (people looked forward to finding out what color they were, as I recall) and wings and so on and eventually they'd essentially be a small dragon. There was a special naming convention, even, though I don't recall it clearly... I think the name changed to be like A'something, or maybe Something'a?

Thing is, I can't find any evidence now that any of this was ever a thing. I thought all of this was in GemStone but I can't find any mention of it anywhere, nor in DragonRealms. And I remember a lot of stuff from both games, and DragonRealms in particular - the S'kra Mur, the Prydaen. Skinning rats. LOL. Point is, I can't figure out why so many other things I remember about these two games are accurate, but I can't find any mention anywhere of this dragon thing. The only thing I can figure is it must have been a third game whose name I've forgotten, or it was gotten rid of so long ago that no information about it exists anymore.

If it was a third game, anyone who played DR or GS at the time probably played or was aware of the third game, too. If so and you remember the name, please help me scratch my brain itch by reminding me! If it was indeed an old, now-removed feature from DR or GS, does anyone else remember it? I need to know I didn't just... like... imagine all of this somehow.

>I recall the winged race being able to fly, for instance, whereas it now says they're flightless.

The Aelotoi were released lore-wise in 2003, playable in 2004, and were never able to fly in game. These probably aren't what you're remembering if you last played in the 90s.

>If it was indeed an old, now-removed feature from DR or GS, does anyone else remember it? I need to know I didn't just... like... imagine all of this somehow.

What you described wasn't ever part of Gemstone III or IV, to my best knowledge. Sounds neat, though.

---
Walsor Gryhm says, "Hmm, a most impressive weapon of note. I'll give you 16 silver coins for it."
You think to yourself, "This deal is getting worse all the time."

Interesting. Maybe what I'm thinking of was also in this other game, then.