Making your own character is one of the greatest joys of role-playing.
Who is your Hero of the Lance?
What stories will they share around the campfire?
In the dark heart of the Dragon Empire, a Council of Highlords is called in the Temple ofTakhisis. Some come fresh from the
frontlines of conquest, others from occupied provinces fully cowed into
submission, but the one thing they share is that they number among the most powerful people on
Ansalon. Five figures sit at a grand
table in a circular chamber, four of them in front of a colored flag
representing their army; one seat is empty. The figure who stood beneath the terrible statue of the five-headed dragon goddess, clad in black plate mail with a crimson cape and a bright gold crown, is none other than Emperor Ariakas.
A man with stern features weathered by the
hands of his desert homeland, the Green Dragon Highlord is the first to
speak. “The rebels of Pashin are no
more, My Lord. Our aerial cavalry and
the wizards’ Black Robe Regiment saw to it that they’ll disturb the occupation
effort no more.”
The Emperor's eyes gave movement as they laid upon the Gree Dragon Highlord. “And this means that your Khurish brethren now
know their place?” he asked.
The Highlord sighed. “Unfortunately they are but one of the many
dissident groups agitating revolution.
Every son and daughter killed by the Empire will see another clan mate
pick up their sword and continue the fight anew. After the Silvanesti Campaign my resources are
stretched thin as it is!”
The Black Dragon Highlord, an imposing mountain
of green muscle and spiked monster hides, let out a laugh. “You haven’t been doing it right,
Salah-Khan!” he exclaimed. “The populace
of Eastern Ansalon are thoroughly cowed by my warriors, even as my reserve
units are sent to supplement the rest of you.
Oh you can fight all right, but you can’t strike fear into the hearts of
the people like my ogres can!”
The Emperor raised a gauntleted hand, and then
the room fell silent. “Highlord
Salah-Khan, we cannot afford any more discord to spread among southeastern
Ansalon. If you feel that you are not up
to the task of controlling your own people, then you can always step down so
that I can find a worthier candidate to don your armor.”
“That won’t be necessary, sir!” Salah-Khan
said. “I’ll wipe out the last of Khurish
resistance by the end of the year!”
“Very good,” the Emperor replied, his hands
bridged over as he contemplated visions of war and conquest. “What is the progress of the Solamnic
invasion, Highlord Autenberg?”
The Blue Dragon Highlord struck a pale and
willowy frame, one which seemed out of place at this meeting were it not for
his piercing glare. “My forces have all
but conquered northern and eastern Solamnia, my Lord. The only hints of significant rebellion were among the Knights of
the realm, who in spite of their disgraced status cannot contemplate
surrender. The peasant communes and
petty barons who dared stand against us thought twice once they
saw the power of dragonfire. Those who still live surrendered or fled deeper into the heartland. It is only due to Solamnia’s size that the
Empire hasn’t claimed it whole yet, but that time will shortly come to pass.”
This left the chair of the Red Dragon Highlord
empty, still presided over by armored draconians in spite of his absence. As though to answer the lingering question on
the lips of Takhisis’ faithful, an overweight hobgoblin wearing ill-fitting chainmail
stumbled into the chamber, out of breath yet still stuttering to form a
sentence.
“You dare grace this sacred ground
unannounced?!” Highlord Lucien exclaimed as his hand moved to his clockwork crossbow.
“Show some respect in front of the Emperor, worm!”
His concealed visage expressing no hint of
approval nor disproval, Emperor Ariakas merely rose from his throne and locked
eyes with the hobgoblin.
“Speak quickly, hobgoblin,” he said. “Where is Highlord Verminaard?”
“You see…your graciousness…um, er, he’s
dead. We were to invade Thorbadin, but
he died fighting…umm, it was some adventurers responsible for the slave revolts
in Abanasinia. I saw him cut down with
my very eyes by a gnome clad in a smoking metal frame, and a red-robed elven maiden summoned spirits to scatter the Theiwar loyalists!"
The hobgoblins was short of breath. "One of the dwarves even wielded magic of the old
gods! A medallion which shined, much
like our warpriests of Takhisis, only this one…it had a different symbol…one of
silver and blue.”
The crackling flames which still burned within
the five-headed statues’ mouth glimmered hues of white, black, red, blue, and
green upon the Emperor of Ansalon. There
is a long silence, as all the Highlords look to their Emperor. Then he spoke.
“So the Gods of Light decide to show their
hand. No matter, they arrived far too
late; the peoples’ hearts still remember the hammer that brought down Istar and
plunged the realm into chaos for three hundred years. They will not honor the gods who plunged a golden era into the Age of Despair. They will honor the Goddess who took the
relics of old Istar back to the people. Once Her Empire stretches from the
islands of the Bloodsea to the sick old kingdom that is Ergoth, they will see
how the devotees of Takhisis forged a new Age of Might upon Krynn. It will not be the hand of Light which brought renewal, but the specter of Darkness
instead.”
“So…should we move to claim Thorbadin then?”
Salah-Khan asked.
“No,” Ariakas answered. “If there’s one thing I learned about the
devotees of Light from old Istar, it’s that they have an incessant need to
spread their word to all corners of Ansalon. They will not remain in Thorbadin
for long, they will likely come to Tarsis or Ergoth to find a home for the
refugees, or Solamnia. Each of you send
word out to your officers to keep alert for any new religions with priests
bearing medallions of faith, and to make an example of those who wear the
symbols of the old gods. This meeting is
over now.”
The Highlords and Toede saluted in unison. “Tiamat Aeterna!” they exclaimed before
exiting the chamber.
Dragonlance is one of the oldest, and most controversial D&D settings out there. Although it has its fair share of problematic elements (*coughkendercough*), it really is a unique and innovative setting. For its time it was revolutionary, bringing a story of Epic Fantasy to the game when almost all adventures revolved around dungeon-delving for gold and glory. Its book series drew in millions of readers, it brought about the concept of subraces and dwarves/elves/etc having their own cultural groups which did not always see eye to eye.
In spite of its linearity in places, the appeal of your PCs being the scions of hope in a desolate world, bringing knowledge of the Gods back to Krynn, recovering the fabled Dragonlances and being astride the beasts of legend to fight the Dark Queen's empire? There is plenty of great story seeds within the original Dragonlance Chronicles, enough that I want to take the original adventure and revamp various elements to be more accessible for modern generation of gamers, both old-school and new, as well as smoothing out some story and mechanics-related problems.
The Dragonlance Chronicles has the potential to be a great adventure series. Yet they take a lot of work and modification by the DM to be fully enjoyable. Be it the narrow confines of the artificial railroad, aspects of the game which don't translate well across Editions, or the lingering moral quandaries of the Cataclysm and good-aligned elven racists, I hope to address as many as I can. For the times where I focus on system mechanics, I'll give out suggestions based on the Editions/retroclones I am most familiar with: Basic D&D and 3rd Edition/Pathfinder, and how one might adopt Dragonlance to these rulesets.
Love it or hate it, Dragonlance is a campaign setting unlike many others, and I do hope to run it at least once in my life. Stay tuned for my next post where I discuss character creation and some over-arching modifications.
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