Magic in Ithkar 3 is a shared world anthology of fantasy stories edited by Andre Norton and Robert Adams.

[2] As described in the introduction by co-editor Robert Adams (identical to that in the previous volumes), the world of which Ithkar is a part has suffered from some past holocaust which wiped out an earlier, higher civilization.

Subsequently, the area which became Ithkar became a base for the explorations of three godlike visitors, who came to be worshiped as actual deities after their departure.

A temple and priesthood dedicated to them developed over succeeding generations, which held a yearly fair on the anniversary of the visitors' first arrival.

The historical background provided appears science fictional in nature; the war that destroyed the previous culture is related in terms which suggest a nuclear war, complete with radiation-derived mutations of life-forms in the vicinities of the nuclear strikes, while the story of the visitors resembles an expedition of interstellar explorers.