The Illustrated Dragonlance Reread

[warty goblin]

Welcome all, to my reread of the Dragonlance novels! I'm starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, since it is the first Dragonlance novel ever written, and the first book of the Chronicles trilogy, which is probably what most people know best.

The plan is that I'll read a chapter or two, then post a summary and some commentary. I will discuss how elements of the current chapter impact or show up later in the series; however I will confine these discussions to clearly marked spoilers in each section. So if you don't want spoiled, don't read the spoilers. I'm not sure what the update schedule will be yet, certainly several times a week but until I get a better sense of how much time a good update requires, I don't know what days of the week will work best. Also, most chapters are pretty short (and there are a lot of chapters), so I'll probably do a couple at a time pretty often, just to keep things moving briskly.

Finally, because Dragonlance was conceived of as RPG product, it is probably one of the most lavishly illustrated fantasy series out there. If it happened in the Chronicles Trilogy, there's a good chance there's a Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, or Clive Caldwell painting of it. Hell, Elmore probably painted it twice. I plan to take ample advantage of this throughout, and include illustrations as they occur in the story.

So without further ado, let us get started.

DragonLance by Larry Elmore, for the 1985 Dragonlance calendar, showing Tanis, Tika, Tasslehoff and some characters we meet later. In his 2013 autobiography/art collection The Complete Elmore, Elmore says this is the first Dragonlance painting. The Annotated Chronicles has some interior plates of early, internal Elmore sketches as well.


Dragons of Autumn Twilight

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Matt Stawicki. Tanis, Flint and Goldmoon, with the Inn of the Last Home in the background

Canticle of the Dragon
The novel opens with a two page narrative poem by Michael Williams, which gives a sort of 10,000 foot view of the history of Krynn, the world where Dragonlance happens. Most important for our immediate purposes, it relates that an army of dragons tried to conquer the world, but were defeated by a knight named Huma, wielding the Dragonlance. Then everything was happy, until somebody named the Kingpriest got paranoid and caused the gods to unleash a Cataclysm on the world, leading to the present Age of Despair.

The Old Man
Tika Waylan is preparing the Inn of the Last Home for the night's business. The inn is old, and not everything is in the best shape, but well loved and carefully maintained. While working Tika discusses the problems afflicting the town of Solace with the innkeeper, Otik. It seems that the town is being run by a group called the Seekers, who worship 'new gods' and are getting a bit abuse towards the population.

They are interrupted by the arrival of an old man at the door. This is definitely odd, because, like all the buildings in Solace (except the blacksmith's) the Inn is built high up in a valenwood tree, and nobody heard the old man climbing the stairs. The old man invites himself in, rearranges some furniture, and settles himself as if expecting a party. Which, he tells Tika, is exactly what he's doing, expecting a "party such as the world of Krynn has not seen since the Cataclysm!"

Also, he knows Tika's name, without anybody saying it out loud.

1: Old Friends Meet. A Rude Interruption
(Like every chapter of Chronicles, this opens with a small pen and ink sketch. In this case, of a goblin. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find these online, or I'd include them.)

Flint Fireforge the dwarf is taking a rest in the evening sun after a long day of walking. He's about to start carving something, when he's interrupted by the arrival of his old friend, Tanis Half-Elven. Tanis is graceful as an elf, but muscled like a human, and with a red beard that marks him as half-elven, since elves can't grow facial hair. The pair have not seen each other in five years, and apparently Tanis grew his beard out during that time to hide his elven parentage; a lot of the world doesn't like elves. They discuss the rumors of the Seekers in Solace abusing their power; Tanis is worried, Flint is grumpy and thinks people would be fine if they minded their own business.

The real meat of their discussion is why they left Solace, five years ago. Both apparently went looking for the 'ancient true gods' and both have come up empty. The various religious orders of the world all worship false gods, or are deliberately cheating people for profit. Apparently before separating, Tanis, Flint and their other friends spent time exposing these charletans, with the help of a wizard named Raistlin, and his twin brother.

This discussion is interrupted by an uncanny whistling noise, and a voice taunting Flint about an apparently lethal drinking competition. This ruckus out to be made by the kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot whirling a sort of oversized slingshot on a staff over his head. Tas immediately steals Flint's dagger, but their scuffle is interrupted by the arrival of a hobgoblin riding an ashamed-looking pony, and goblin guards.

The hobgoblin introduces himself boastfully as "Fewmaster Toede" and orders his guards to arrest our three heroes, and to bring him the blue crystal staff if they have it. In the resulting fight, one of the goblins reveals that they don't really work for the Seekers in Solace, but gets himself killed before saying who they do work for. Tas kills one of the goblins using Flint's dagger, which Tas finds amusing because apparently you can't get the goblin smell off.


Commentary
Most importantly, this book has a minor villain named "Fewmaster Toede", which is just marvelous.

At first glance, there's a lot about Dragonlance that is so cliche it's sort of unbelievable. Opening poems, elves, dwarves, evil goblins and so on. Particularly given the Serious Business About Oppression And Trauma (with wizards) that modern fantasy writing has often become, it seems just too quaint, predictable and well, silly. And indeed a lot of Dragonlance is, often deliberately, very silly. But my contention is that this sells Dragonlance short; it actually does a lot of fairly unique and pretty interesting things with its vocabulary of knights and robe-wearing wizards, and I'll try to point this out as we go.

As regards the chapters at hand, I've always really liked this opening. The set-up of returning home to find things have changed for the worse is instantly grabbing to me. Solace is, well, supposed to be a solace, where you're safe and happy. But it isn't, which gives a sense of, if not decay, innocence lost to the world. This plays into the choice to have the heroes all be adults, because this sort of displacement at a lost home is both a rather adult feeling, and expressed in adult terms. Flint grumbles about how his house is probably a wreck because he's been gone so long, which frames the characters in terms of responsibility to a place. It also meshes perfectly with the tone of the Cantacle, which sets us up in the infinitely cheery sounding Age of Despair, and Tika's struggles to keep the old inn working. The world, and the characters' place within it, are explicitly unsettled and broken, or at risk of breaking.


Also of note, the amount of attention paid to matters of religion. Generally I think fantasy doesn't do religion all that well; it's simply not a dramatic axis that the authors find very interesting and so it ends up as window dressing. Something the peasants and bit characters worry about, while Prince Protagonist and Lady Heroine are off doing political stuff. Here however the world is immediately framed in terms of the divine; the gods caused the Cataclysm, and the characters are clearly concerned with understanding and finding the gods. This is probably because Tracy Hickman is Very Mormon, but it's still a really fascinating dynamic for a novel to have. The driving question of the novel, at least so far, isn't "will the character find acceptance" or "will she have sex with the hunky werewolf" or even "will the dark lord be defeated" but, in some sense, what the metaphysics of the world are.

And, because this is a D&D tie in, can the metaphysics of the world heal you for 1d8+3 HP? But more on that later.

[Forum Explorer]

Cool start. I'm actually rereading the series at the moment. Let's see if you can catch up.

[JadedDM]

I always wish they had gone with their original design with Flint. He was going to be a much more colorful, flamboyant, and gaudy character. (They later reused that idea for Dougan Redhammer instead). But at the last minute, they chickened out and made Flint a stereotypical 'grumpy dwarf.'

[Rodin]

When I re-read the series (gosh, must at least 10 years ago now), I remember being very amused that all of the characters meet in a tavern. At least they did know each other beforehand!

There's so much about these books I've forgotten. Very interested in following along and recalling it all.

[Kitten Champion]

When I re-read the series (gosh, must at least 10 years ago now), I remember being very amused that all of the characters meet in a tavern. At least they did know each other beforehand!

There's so much about these books I've forgotten. Very interested in following along and recalling it all.

I had a similar reaction. I never had the personal experience of characters meeting in the Coloured Animal Tavern/Inn to begin an adventure in my games, but I do recognize it as a widely joked-about cliche. When I first picked up Dragonlance it kind of felt like the fantasy version of... oh, something like Forbidden Planet. Ya'know, that kind of pulp SF where they unironically have robot-y robots and space adventurers who smoke and stuff. When I got through the first few chapters and realized they were really doing that whole tavern meet-up + character exposition thing it delighted me beyond reason.

One thing I can say about Dragonlance, the love the Dungeons & Dragons experience is writ large through the fiction.

[warty goblin]

I always wish they had gone with their original design with Flint. He was going to be a much more colorful, flamboyant, and gaudy character. (They later reused that idea for Dougan Redhammer instead). But at the last minute, they chickened out and made Flint a stereotypical 'grumpy dwarf.'

There's an illustration of the concept in the Annotated Edition, it's great.

Though I actually like the grumpy old dwarf archetype. It fits pretty well with a number of older, craft-oriented sorts of guys I've known.

I had a similar reaction. I never had the personal experience of characters meeting in the Coloured Animal Tavern/Inn to begin an adventure in my games, but I do recognize it as a widely joked-about cliche. When I first picked up Dragonlance it kind of felt like the fantasy version of... oh, something like Forbidden Planet. Ya'know, that kind of pulp SF where they unironically have robot-y robots and space adventurers who smoke and stuff. When I got through the first few chapters and realized they were really doing that whole tavern meet-up + character exposition thing it delighted me beyond reason.

One thing I can say about Dragonlance, the love the Dungeons & Dragons experience is writ large through the fiction.

That's an excellent way to look at Dragonlance; a maximally enthusiastic approach to its source material.


Anyway, on with the reread! Only a short chapter today, because a ton of things happen in Chapter 3, so it needs its own post.

2: Return to the Inn. A shock. The oath is broken
The chapter opens with a mini infodump about the town of Solace being situated on trade routes between the elven kingdom of Qualinesti to the south and the human city of Haven to the northeast. Tanis, Flint and Tas head to the Inn of the Last Home, which is packed with people nervous over the recent trouble in town. The friends are greeted with suspicion instead of recognition, putting Tanis in a glum mood. When he had left, the Seekers (we seek the new gods) had been probably misguided, but fairly innocuous, but have become power hungry. The three notice heavily armed guards - human, not goblin.

Tanis wonders if their other friends will be there. Flint says they took a sacred oath, five years ago, to investigate the spread of evil in the world, and return here to report their findings. They finally get into the Inn, where (except for the location of a single table) nothing has changed, and are greeted by Caramon. Caramon is a very large man, at least six feet tall, and built like an ox - Tanis has to remove his bow before Caramon smashes it in a hug. The big man's clearly moved to see his friends again, there's tears in his eyes. Tanis asks about Caramon's brother, Raistlin, who is sitting by the fire in a red robe.

Raistlin lowers his hood to reveal that he has been hideously transfigured. He is thin, nearly skeletal, with strange, metallic golden skin and eyes with hourglass pupils. His voice is a hoarse, cynical whisper, as if he can hardly force air through his lungs. Raistlin explains that, five years ago, Par-Salian, the head of the conclave of Wizards, invited him to take the Test in the Tower of High Sorcery, a great honor for one so young. He passed the Test, but nearly died. An obviously upset Caramon starts to describe the Test, but Raistlin cuts him off angrily. The Test is responsible for his golden skin, and the hourglass eyes, through which he sees the passage of time, so everything in his sight is withering, dying. But he says it was worth it, because he gained magical power, and the Staff of Magius, a magical staff topped with a crystal held in a golden dragon's claw.

Tas appears with Tika, the barmaid, who was fourteen when the companions left. Tanis and Flint can't recognize her, being long lived they don't have an intuitive grasp of how rapidly humans age. Apparently the intervening half decade has turned her into something of a bombshell however. Tika delivers a message to Tanis, who reads it with evident distress. It's from Kitiara, saying she isn't coming to the meeting. Flint declares that the oath is broken, which is bad luck.


Dragons of Spring Dawning 1994 cover by Larry Elmore, showing Caramon and Raistlin. Personally I've always pictured Caramon as way bigger compared to his brother.


Commentary
Remember how last time I said there's a bunch of original stuff in Dragonlance that it never gets credit for? Well, this chapter is not one of those. It's a bunch of adventurers meeting in an inn. On the other hand, you've got to get your adventuring party gathered up somehow, and a pre-arranged meeting time is, if nothing, else a pretty economical way to do it.

We meet two major characters in this chapter; the twins Caramon and Raistlin. They're immediately framed as opposites, Caramon is big, absurdly healthy, emotional and decked out in a shiny golden dragon helmet, so he's a fighter. Raistlin is skinny, sickly, withdrawn and mocking in tone, and a wizard, so on the other side of the great wizard/warrior fantasy divide. We also see Caramon being attentive and concerned with Raistlin's health, and Raistlin being coldly dismissive of his brother. And although Raistlin explains where the golden skin and hourglass eyes came from, he clearly doesn't want to to talk about the Test - or for Caramon to talk about the Test - any more than the bare minimum.

There's a couple interesting notes in the Annotated Chronicles in this chapter. The name Caramon derives from "caring man" and Raistlin from 'wasting man," both of which fit the characters quite well. Raistlin's personality apparently came from an early playtest session, when one of the playtesters adopted the creepy whispered affect; Margaret Weis has a note suggesting that Raistlin mostly does this for effect. He doesn't have to whisper, but doing so forces people to listen to him on his terms; like everything he does it's a power play.

A later note reveals that the whole golden skin and hourglass eyes was something the visual design people cooked up because it looked cool. So the writers had to come up with a reason. If that's the case, I have to say, it works really well for Raistlin's character, as we'll see later on.

Spoiler: Future Book Stuff

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Raistlin's Test is one of the pivotal events in Dragonlance, although its most substantial ramifications don't play out until the Legends Trilogy. Short version is that the Test was going to kill him, but he traded his soul to a Lich named Fistandandilus who's spirit was floating around in exchange for survival. Bits of it have also been retconned like three times at least, most notably whether the golden skin/hourglass eyes resulted from having a soul timeshare with a crazy evil wizard, or were punishment from the head of the wizard's conclave, meant to teach humility. The Soulforge attributes the different versions of events to deliberate information and/or sensationalism, but claims that it recounts the true version of events.

This chapter also includes the first example of Tanis being a total wet fish about Kitiara. Get used to that, it's gonna be a theme for, oh, the next three books or so.

[Kitten Champion]

Caramon's the main reason I didn't like Raistlin's whole grumble-pants anti-hero/villain protagonist shtick from the get-go. Coming from other works of fantasy where buff fighters tend to be Conan-esque toxic masculine type, Caramon was refreshing as this big affectionate puppy and... Raistlin just walks all over him with sneering contempt.

[JadedDM]

The Test itself has gone through a few retcons, as well. Early on it's implied (or perhaps outright said, I can't remember) that it was optional and served little purpose beyond bragging rights. Later, it became canon that the Test was mandatory for all mages, failure was death (as in, they kill you if you fail) and anyone who tried to weasel out of it was hunted down (although if you resign yourself to a life of never learning stronger spells than 2nd level, you're left alone).

Anyway, I thought Raistlin was cool as a kid. Now I think he's just an entitled jerk with a chip on his shoulder who thinks intelligence makes him superior to everyone around him.

Or to put it another way, I used to think Raistlin was cool, because he reminded me of myself. Now I think Raistlin is not cool, because he reminds me of my teenage self. >_>

[Forum Explorer]

Caramon's the main reason I didn't like Raistlin's whole grumble-pants anti-hero/villain protagonist shtick from the get-go. Coming from other works of fantasy where buff fighters tend to be Conan-esque toxic masculine type, Caramon was refreshing as this big affectionate puppy and... Raistlin just walks all over him with sneering contempt.

Well he is a villain. If he was an emotionally balanced being who could get along with other people there wouldn't be a second trilogy.

[Kitten Champion]

Well he is a villain. If he was an emotionally balanced being who could get along with other people there wouldn't be a second trilogy.

Raistlin being a power-hungry amoral wizard would work better for me in a work specific to him. Here however, he's a pretty vile emotionally abusive bully in a party of otherwise mostly-decent heroes on this epic quest of there's... that both they and I are forced to tolerate having around for his abilities and because they like his brother.

It just feels dissonant with the general tone of the story, and it gives him undue significance as the jerkass in the party like how Wolverine often was situated in 80's X-Men.

[Rodin]

I've always found Raistlin very interesting as a character, because when I initially read the books as a kid I was coming straight off of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, where wizards(and Jedi) were mysterious old men who knew far more than they were letting on and always had the hero's best interests at heart. Raistlin rather destroyed that expectation, as a guy who has obviously been broken by the pursuit of magic and wants to seem mysterious and all-knowing but is obviously making a lot of it up as he goes along.

[Keltest]

I always thought they went a bit over the top with Raist being rude and disrespectful towards people in the original trilogy. Yeah, he's a rude and disrespectful person, but he's also smart enough that he should know better than to antagonize the other party members. Let it show in his dealings with Tass, who deserves it, and Caramon, who he has a good reason to be openly resentful towards. But don't antagonize Tanis, who is tentatively his friend, or Flint and Sturm who are at least somewhat respectful towards him even though they make no secret of their dislike for him.

[Forum Explorer]

I always thought they went a bit over the top with Raist being rude and disrespectful towards people in the original trilogy. Yeah, he's a rude and disrespectful person, but he's also smart enough that he should know better than to antagonize the other party members. Let it show in his dealings with Tass, who deserves it, and Caramon, who he has a good reason to be openly resentful towards. But don't antagonize Tanis, who is tentatively his friend, or Flint and Sturm who are at least somewhat respectful towards him even though they make no secret of their dislike for him.

I don't think he was over the top. Not to Tanis or Flint anyways. Strum is openly hostile to him, so I feel that's more reciprocating a bad opinion. Most of the time he's a jerk, but not a particularly awful one. It's only really Caramon and Tika that he's out and out awful towards.

Raistlin being a power-hungry amoral wizard would work better for me in a work specific to him. Here however, he's a pretty vile emotionally abusive bully in a party of otherwise mostly-decent heroes on this epic quest of there's... that both they and I are forced to tolerate having around for his abilities and because they like his brother.

It just feels dissonant with the general tone of the story, and it gives him undue significance as the jerkass in the party like how Wolverine often was situated in 80's X-Men.

That's pretty realistic honestly. Raistlin didn't bother me so much, but I admit I read Soulforge first, so I already had a in depth view of the character beforehand.

[warty goblin]

Really good discussion, let's keep it going!

Caramon's the main reason I didn't like Raistlin's whole grumble-pants anti-hero/villain protagonist shtick from the get-go. Coming from other works of fantasy where buff fighters tend to be Conan-esque toxic masculine type, Caramon was refreshing as this big affectionate puppy and... Raistlin just walks all over him with sneering contempt.

The Caramon/Raistlin dynamic is all kinds of messed up. I mean Raistlin's flat out abusive towards Caramon a lot of the time, but Caramon clearly gets some sort of weird kick out of soaking it up and being all self-sacrificing. It'd be really unsatisfying if this was just left as-it-is in Chronicles, but, well, they did write an entire trilogy to sort that mess out.



Right, on with the reread. Approximately all the things happen in this chapter, so strap in.

3: Knight of Solamnia. The old man's party.
The chapter opens with Caramon and Raistlin exchanging a meaningful glance about Kitiara welching on the meeting. It's revealed that Kitiara is their older half sister. Tanis, in Maximum Awkward Mode, tells the others that Kitiara says she can't come because her new lord is keeping her busy, and she sends her love to her brothers and - Tanis cuts himself off. Flint steps on Tas' foot to keep him from further embarrassing Tanis; it's abundantly clear at this point that Tanis + Kitiara was a Thing in the past.

Tika explains that the message was delivered by a man wrapped in cloth from head to foot, concealing even his face, and who spoke in a strange, hissing voice. At this point another old friend turns up; Sturm Brightblade. He's dressed in antique plate armor and chain mail, adorned with symbols of the Knights of Solamnia. This causes a certain amount of low-key hostility in the Inn; apparently the knights are generally not well thought of these days. Sturm takes the hostile stares as signs of respect.

He is accompanied by a pair of people unknown to Tanis and the others; a very tall thin man, and a woman in a hooded cloak carrying a wooden staff. Both look exhausted, and are dressed in the leathers of the barbarians of the Plains of Dust. Tas tells the others that the barbarians' clothes identify them as being from the Que-Shu tribe. Sturm, ever the perfect knight, bows as the woman enters the Inn. Tanis and Sturm embrace; Tanis thinks his friend is fairly unchanged, a bit more careworn, but he's still rocking the same old epic mustache.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Larry Elmore. Tanis, Goldmoon and Sturm, rocking that 'stache. Somehow I always pictured Goldmoon as bit more... austere, and bit less like she's about to hit the club? I think it's something to do with the way she's throwing her hip in this picture.

There's introductions all around; Raistlin clearly enjoys how much his appearance freaks people out, although Sturm's too well mannered to really show it much. Flint says that this means they are all there, and Sturm expresses surprise that Kit isn't coming. Tanis was hoping Sturm could explain, apparently five years ago Kit and Sturm journeyed north together, but Sturm just shrugs and says he hasn't seen her since. Sturm went to Solamnia looking for his relatives, but all he found was his armor and a magnificent two-handed sword that, legend says, will break only if he does. Tanis' thought stray to Kit, who he's fallen for pretty hard in her absence.

Caramon asks Sturm if he's a knight now, and Sturm ignores the question. Tas asks about the barbarian man and woman who came in with Sturm. He explains that he found them exhausted on the outskirts of Solace, and brought them to the Inn where they could get food. The talk turns to the state of Solace; apparently the Seeker guards are questioning everyone about the blue crystal staff. Caramon says that they tried to confiscate Raistlin's staff, but he scared them off. Raistlin says that if they had taken the staff, they would have died horribly, while also implying that his brother is an idiot. Sturm mentions rumors of armies of inhuman creatures mustering in the north.

Tas is getting bored again, so goes to pay attention to the old man, who's telling stories for local children. The barbarians are also listening, the woman has removed her hood, revealing a statuesque face and long silver-gold hair. Also listening to the old man, and looking less than pleased, is Hederick, the High Theocrat; apparently the old man is telling stories of the old gods. One of the children asks if his stories are true, the old man says they are, and that the barbarians "carry such stories in their hearts". The boy asks the woman for a story, she demurs, claiming she isn't a storyteller. The old man addresses her as "Goldmoon" and "Chieftain's Daughter", produces a lute, and asks her to sing.

Goldmoon sings a song relating how "Goldmoon the princess/Loves a poor man's son". Her father did not approve, and requires Riverwind to go away. He returns after many months, carrying a blue crystal staff. The chieftain mocks him and orders him stoned. Goldmoon rushes to his side, there is a flash of blue light, and they disappear.

The old man then starts to tell a story about the great god Paladine. The boy interrupts, saying he's never heard of Paladine. The old man says that people turned away from the old gods after the Cataclysm, blaming the gods instead of themselves. He goes on with the story, which involves Paladine sending a white stag to guide the knight Huma back to his homeland, when Huma was lost in the wilderness.

Hederick, the (very drunk) High Theocrat declares this story blasphemy, and goes to seize Goldmoon. Riverwind pushes him away, he trips over his feet and ends up head first in the fire. He catches fire and starts to run around in understandable panic. The old man grabs Goldmoon's staff and hands it to Tas so he can knock the Theocrat over and they can smother the flames. Tas does just that and -

The flames go out instantly, and Hederick is completely healed, as the old man helpfully shouts to the entire tavern. The plain wooden staff is now made of blue crystal! The old man starts yelling that the barbarians came in with the Solamnic Knight, and all the companions should be arrested. Hederick declares Goldmoon a witch, and sticks his hand back in the fire to cleanse his soul of her evil magic.

Tika tells Tanis they have to get out of there; that hooded men have told the Seekers that they'd destroy Solace if anyone was caught harboring the blue crystal staff. People have called the guards, but nobody's particularly eager to pick a fight with the companions, who are very well armed and react quickly to danger. Tanis persuades Goldmoon and Riverwind to go with them; Riverwind is clearly very protective of Goldmoon and skeptical. Everybody's ready to go, except Sturm, who's still sitting at his table, drinking ale. Tanis tell him they have to get out of there, to which Sturm replies "Run? From this rabble?" Tanis points out that there's a lady in peril, which Sturm considers a valid reason to vacate the premises.

Getting out of a building 40 feet up a tree isn't trivial, but they go out through the kitchen, where there's ropes for raising and lowering supplies. They all shimmy down the rope, except Raistlin, who uses magic to float down. Tanis nearly slips, and peels most of the skin off of his hands on the rope. Tika tells them to go to her house and lay low. Tas knows the way there - notably Tanis doesn't know how to get there on the ground, since people in Solace generally walk everywhere on rope bridges between the valenwood trees. They get to Tika's house, climb back up the tree, and Tas picks the lock.

The Escape, by Larry Elmore. Tanis, Sturm, Caramon's head, and Tika looking ready to deck somebody with a skillet. Look, I said there's a painting of everything in Dragonlance.

Tanis asks Goldmoon about the blue crystal staff, and how it healed Hederick. Goldmoon says she doesn't know how it did that; apparently she hasn't had it very long. Tanis holds out his hands, and Goldmoon touches them with the staff, which heals them instantly. This is true healing, and clearly a most unusual thing.

Commentary
Clearly we need a counter for all the times Raistlin is horrible to Caramon. So far we're at 2.

Let's talk new characters. First up: Goldmoon and Riverwind. We get their entire backstory presented in extremely condensed form via song in this chapter. This is at least somewhat unusual, but I rather like it. It also shows one of the advantages of the team approach to authoring Dragonlance; all the poetry's by Michael Williams instead of Weis or Hickman, so there's a larger talent pool to pull from. It's actually a pretty good bit of poetry too, with three major blocks delineating spring, when Goldmoon and Riverwind fall in love, summer, when Riverwind is banished, and ends with the arrival of autumn, when they leave, expressed through the color of the grasslands. This also sets up their previous adventures as being in the very recent past, since it's early autumn now.

We also just met Sturm this chapter. He's in some ways a pretty straightforwards character; his goal is always to be the perfect knight; courteous, brave, kind, the works, even when it makes him miserable or is inconvenient as hell. This is at once extremely archetypal, but also somehow kind of unusual in modern fiction; it's like we've attained such an advanced state of cynicism the idea of a character who's central motivation is adherence to his moral code just doesn't compute.

We also get a lot more of the religion theme. There's a clear divide established between the old gods, who send helpful white deer to get you out of trouble, and the new gods, whose followers are 1) jerks, and 2) apparently think that charbroiling their hands is a good move, spiritually speaking. Or at least will look like a good move to the locals they bully around. It's also extremely clear by now though that the Seekers aren't really running things anymore, and somebody's pushing them from behind the scenes.

There's also the matter of the old man, who clearly engineered this whole thing to get the returning companions out the door in a hurry with Goldmoon, Riverwind, and the blue crystal staff. I have to say it's surprising how fast that plot thread paid off; a lot of books would have strung it out for like a hundred pages. One thing you have to give Dragonlance, it generally moves along at a pretty good clip. We're not even 60 pages in, (almost) all the principle characters have been introduced, and there's already substantial things going on.

Spoiler: Future Stuff

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Since we just met Sturm, it's a good chance to talk about him a bit. First off, a totally irrelevant detail that's been bugging me for years: Sturm is consistently described as having a two-handed sword - sometimes even a greatsword, but he also carries a shield everywhere. Elmore clearly went with the sword + shield interpretation throughout, so whatever. Stick around for the bit in Dragons of Winter Night where I get offended by more misapplied martial terminology!

In this chapter Sturm tells two lies, albeit of omission, and one of them's a retcon. Most obviously he's not a knight, but this isn't going to stop him acting like a knight, and if everybody assumes he's a knight that's clearly just fine with him. This is probably the most morally compromising thing he ever does. Sturm Brightblade everyone; actually the world's best person.

The other is that he didn't just 'journey north' with Kitiara. Right before the companions went their separate ways, Tanis dumped Kit on account of her being a terrible person, so apparently out of a combination of boredom and bad temper she seduced Sturm. Since Sturm knew that Tanis and Kit were a thing, this is probably pertinent information, though "FYI, your literally sociopathic ex decided to use me for a bit of revenge sex five years ago" is a hard thing to work into casual conversation.

However, at this point in the story, that entire plot twist doesn't even exist yet. This plot wrinkle isn't introduced until, I think, The Second Generation/Dragons of Summer Flame, because Dragons of Summer Flame is the Aeneidto the Chronicles Iliad + Odyssey; i.e. the same story backwards and condensed into one book. Which means that somebody named Brightblade needs to die heroically at some point, so Sturm had to have a kid.

Yes, that was a classics reference in a Dragonlance reread. Do not try structural analysis of RPG novels like that at home kids.

[Keltest]

Spoiler: Sturm/Kit

Show

The exact event is later detailed in a book, because of course it is. Sturm and Kit did legitimately travel north together, but split apart soon after Kit seduced Sturm, because he naturally felt obligated by this and she didn't appreciate that. Kit was looking for traces of her father, and Sturm his. It wasn't quite revenge sex, because both of them were legitimately lonely and just generally tired at the time.

[Kitten Champion]

One thing I really like about Dragonlace - and they start doing it here - is that they make the divine magic feel actually kind of significant. Like, you've already got your wizard standing there and your clearly in a high fantasy world which is evident even if you aren't familiar with Dungeon & Dragons, so its very easy to make something like with what happens with Goldmoon and the blue crystal staff in this chapter feel pretty underwhelming. Another blase example of using superpowers, which we just naturally assume that our heroes will have to whatever degree.

In Dragonlance however, they do contextualize it well enough though with the plot, lore, and character reactions that you do get that this is special in a different way and is worth the time and attention of our heroes.

[Dragonexx]

Dragonlance art is all kinds of awesome. One thing that's probably not mentioned much is that the Plainsmen are Native American analogues. I'm not sure if that's all that common of a thing in fantasy settings.

[JadedDM]

It always bugged me, that Goldmoon is white with blonde hair and blue eyes, and is seemingly the only one of her people who looks like this, and no reason is ever really given for it. Because, as Dragonexx mentioned, the Que-Shu are clearly Native American stand-ins, and the rest of them all look like Native Americans, except Goldmoon.

[warty goblin]

Spoiler: Sturm/Kit

Show

The exact event is later detailed in a book, because of course it is. Sturm and Kit did legitimately travel north together, but split apart soon after Kit seduced Sturm, because he naturally felt obligated by this and she didn't appreciate that. Kit was looking for traces of her father, and Sturm his. It wasn't quite revenge sex, because both of them were legitimately lonely and just generally tired at the time.

Spoiler: More Sturm

Show

Which book? I'd be curious to read it at some point?

I was going by the description in Soulforge and Brothers in Arms, where we only get Kit's perspective, which makes it seem a lot more like she's just really pissed at Tanis. Those books' version of Kitiara is distinctly unpleasant, albeit in a sort of fun way, where you get why people want to be around her.

Dragonlance art is all kinds of awesome. One thing that's probably not mentioned much is that the Plainsmen are Native American analogues. I'm not sure if that's all that common of a thing in fantasy settings.

Ooh that's a really nice one, thanks. And a good image of Riverwind, who isn't painted all that much.

It always bugged me, that Goldmoon is white with blonde hair and blue eyes, and is seemingly the only one of her people who looks like this, and no reason is ever really given for it. Because, as Dragonexx mentioned, the Que-Shu are clearly Native American stand-ins, and the rest of them all look like Native Americans, except Goldmoon.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is one of those things attributable to Hickman being Very Mormon.

[bguy]

One thing you have to give Dragonlance, it generally moves along at a pretty good clip. We're not even 60 pages in, (almost) all the principle characters have been introduced, and there's already substantial things going on.

True, though the absolute best character won't be introduced until the back half of this novel.

[Iruka]

Thank you for doing this! I never got around to reading the series (after learning about it because one of my favourite bands back in the day made a song about Raistlin) and probably would not find the time now. This is way better than reading dry wiki articles.

While a lot of that opening seems by the numbers for a fantasy story, the heroes being experienced adventurers reuniting stood out as an interesting change.

[JadedDM]

I think the book Keltest is referring to is Darkness and Light, the first of the Preludes series. Although many fans don't really consider it to be canonical, since it does involve them flying to the moon and all.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is one of those things attributable to Hickman being Very Mormon.

Yeah, me too.

[Lapak]

I think the book Keltest is referring to is Darkness and Light, the first of the Preludes series. Although many fans don't really consider it to be canonical, since it does involve them flying to the moon and all.


Yeah, me too.

Flying to the moon, encountering a living metallic dragon (which they fail to mention to anyone ever again)... that book was a trip.

It sticks in my mind as the first time I had ever encountered the idea of splitting rock by hammering wooden pegs into pilot holes and using water to make the wood swell, which struck me as monstrously clever.

[pendell]

Following with interest!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Saph]

Man, I'd forgotten how nice the Dragonlance paintings were. Though I hadn't seen a good half of them before opening this thread.

[warty goblin]

Thank you for doing this! I never got around to reading the series (after learning about it because one of my favourite bands back in the day made a song about Raistlin) and probably would not find the time now. This is way better than reading dry wiki articles.

Ooh, which band? Blind Guardian? Lake of Tears?

Flying to the moon, encountering a living metallic dragon (which they fail to mention to anyone ever again)... that book was a trip.

It sticks in my mind as the first time I had ever encountered the idea of splitting rock by hammering wooden pegs into pilot holes and using water to make the wood swell, which struck me as monstrously clever.

Clearly I have to get my grubby little paws on that, because it sounds amazing

Man, I'd forgotten how nice the Dragonlance paintings were. Though I hadn't seen a good half of them before opening this thread.

Glad you're enjoying them, there's plenty more!


And - on we go! It's a shorter chapter tonight; I was planning to do two this evening, but other plans intruded.

4: The open door. Flight in darkness
Raistlin comments that if Goldmoon is a fraud, she's a very good. Riverwind predictably gets angry about this, but Goldmoon tells him to chill, pointing out that they have no reason to trust her and Riverwind. Riverwind, quite reasonably, points out that they have no reason to trust the others, either.

Raistlin asks to inspect the staff, but when he touches it, there's a crack and flash of blue light, and Raistlin pulls his hand back with a cry of pain. This makes Caramon jump up, but Raistlin tells him it had nothing to do with Goldmoon, it's just the staff recognizing its own. He tells Caramon to touch the staff, which, wincing, Caramon does. Absolutely nothing happens.

Raistlin says that "only those of simple goodness, pure of heart" can touch the staff, scorn dripping from his voice. This, he says, proves that is a divine artifact, blessed a god, because magic items made by wizards don't have healing powers. Before anybody can think too much about the implications of that little bit of wisdom, they hear voices. Goblins are searching for them!

Everybody is quiet, as the two goblins approach the door. They're not allowed to enter if the door is closed, but some the door is ajar! Tanis could swear they locked it. One of the goblins knocks on the door, which swings open, revealing Raistlin sitting by the fire. The goblins want Raistlin's staff, he makes the crystal light up. Before the goblins can recover from being blinded, Caramon grabs them and knocks their heads together. With some chagrin, he realizes he hit them so hard he killed them.

Tanis realizes that at this point they should really get out of town, since this is another two guards they've murdered. As a complication, they killed these two in Tika's house! Not wanting to get her into trouble, they break some furniture and make it look like there was a fight, while Tas empties the pantry into his pouches.


There aren't actually any paintings of specific events in this chapter that I know of. So here's a picture of Tas, because I haven't really shown him yet. Yes, the fuzzy vest is canonical. Look, it was the eighties.

Tanis asks Goldmoon where they were headed; she says Haven because she hopes that there are people there who can explain the staff to them. Apparently the song was true, and really did save their lives. Tanis says that they'll accompany Goldmoon and Riverwind north at least as far as the crossroads; Raistlin snidely suggests that this is because Tanis is hoping to bump into Kit. Tanis blushes.

Goldmoon thanks him for risking his life for strangers. Tanis introduces everybody, and they head out. As they leave Tika's now slightly wrecked house, with the dead goblins on the floor, Tanis reflects that this is not the homecoming he had in mind. Goblins in Solace, no Kit, no long winter evenings around the fire with Kit... he senses change is coming to Krynn.

Commentary
Remarkably, Raistlin is really not directly horrible to Caramon at all in this chapter. I mean he sort of implies he's an idiot, but for Raistlin this is really minor. He embarrasses Tanis about Kit, but embarrassing Tanis about Kit is hilarious and so doesn't count.

The most important thing to happen in this chapter is Raistlin's reveal that the staff is a genuine divine artifact. At this point the book has been fairly cagey about what's going on with gods old and new, true and false. It's certainly clear that the old gods disappeared when the Cataclysm happened, although what the Cataclysm was isn't entirely clear yet. Definitely bad though. And the new gods, at least the Seeker's gods, are fakes. So the implication is that the old gods are the true gods, and therefore the blue crystal staff is an artifact of the old gods. It's not clear yet whether it could simply be left over from before the Cataclysm, or is something... new.

Also, the door being open. The old man in the Inn was clearly setting the companions up, but the door's decidedly more subtle. Weird things are afoot.

From a more meta perspective, the book's clearly having a bit of difficulty with the fact that all these characters are clearly the protagonist party, and the fact that they really shouldn't trust each other at all. Goldmoon and Riverwind in particular are from a pretty insular culture, so hanging out with a half-elf, a dwarf and a kender is a pretty big ask. Helping Goldmoon and Riverwind is clearly just the sort of thing Tanis and Sturm would do because they're good people, Caramon too. And Raistlin's along for some reason. I think the authors are doing a pretty reasonable job of showing somewhat sensible levels of distrust, putting the characters in a position where it really does make sense for them to stick together, without drawing the process out unbearably. Few things are as egregiously annoying as an author taking 40 pages to resolve a conflict to which we already know the outcome after all, even if it is 'realistic.'

Right, kender. Kender are one of Dragonlance's weirder features. Halfling are of course the usual 'thief race' but halflings are also kind of wimpy. Kender are basically kleptomaniac psycho halfings. They don't understand personal property as a thing, will pick up and cart off anything that interests them, and are utterly without fear. Aside from being small and nimble, their greatest talent is being really, really good at insulting people. One assumes they must also breed like rabbits, because their mortality rate must be astonishing.

Reactions to kender usually fall into two camps: they're funny, and kill them all with fire. I can certainly see them as being absolutely infuriating to play in a party with, and too much of them can definitely worsen a book. However my view is that a bit of kender in a story can liven things up. If nothing else they generate delightful amounts of chaos whenever the story would otherwise slow down too much. And it must be said that Tas gets the party out of more trouble than he gets it in.

[JadedDM]

Kender are also, in a way, another byproduct of the author's faith. He didn't like the idea of a 'race of thieves' (although I think calling halflings a 'race of thieves' is rather reductive, personally), so he created a race of curious child-like people who still took everything that wasn't nailed down, but out of curiosity instead of greed. They stole by accident, not with malice.

As someone who has DM'd a lot of Dragonlance games, my problem with kender isn't that they are annoying or disruptive, but all the same. Almost every player I've had who plays a kender just plays a watered down version of Tas, and it's so boring. Not every dwarf need be Gimli, not every elf need be Legolas, and not every kender need be Tas.

[Kitten Champion]

Why is Tas with them, anyways? I really don't hate Tasslehoff or anything. Inasmuch as one can truly like a Kender character, he does have a certain charm to him. Beyond wanting a rogue in their party is there a compelling in-story reason to why the others chose to associate with him?

Kender are also, in a way, another byproduct of the author's faith. He didn't like the idea of a 'race of thieves' (although I think calling halflings a 'race of thieves' is rather reductive, personally), so he created a race of curious child-like people who still took everything that wasn't nailed down, but out of curiosity instead of greed. They stole by accident, not with malice.

That's an interesting solution. Why... not just make the Halfling-related fluff more to his liking than inventing another race that compels PCs to kleptomania and general inter-party trollishness? It just seems easier.

I mean, I don't like the Orcs concept as mass-murdering rapists but I wouldn't replace them with not-Orcs that are now forced into doing roughly the same things only with less obviously sadistic intent -- however that would work. I'd just make them more like Eberron's Orcs.

[Forum Explorer]

Why is Tas with them, anyways? I really don't hate Tasslehoff or anything. Inasmuch as one can truly like a Kender character, he does have a certain charm to him. Beyond wanting a rogue in their party is there a compelling in-story reason to why the others chose to associate with him?



That's an interesting solution. Why... not just make the Halfling-related fluff more to his liking than inventing another race that compels PCs to kleptomania and general inter-party trollishness? It just seems easier.

I mean, I don't like the Orcs concept as mass-murdering rapists but I wouldn't replace them with not-Orcs that are now forced into doing roughly the same things only with less obviously sadistic intent -- however that would work. I'd just make them more like Eberron's Orcs.

At first to keep Flint from getting set in his ways and stagnating. Later because he grows on them because hey, he's actually pretty good at this whole adventuring thing and once you get past the whole kleptomania thing, kender tend to be incredibly loyal friends.


Because someone made a joke about their neighbor borrowing their stuff and never returning it, and they just ran with it. No really, I think that's how that happened. Anyways, I quite like Kender, and I think they are loads more interesting than halflings who almost end up being their opposites. Kender are almost all adventurers who go out and seek trouble, halflings are stay at home, peaceful, and are almost allergic to adventures.

[Rodin]

I think the reason Raistlin's along is that for all his cynicism and jerkishness he really does care for Caramon, and also did value his friendship with his former companions. He does get worse as the series goes on, though.

The first time I read these, I totally missed the significance of the old man. I don't think I've ever caught the significance of the door being ajar, which is a pretty cool detail now that it's been pointed out.