In this thread over at the Dragonlance Forums, there is a discussion going on about The Gargoyle King. Beware of spoilers!
The reviews are a little mixed, but since I have not read it yet, I will refrain from any comments at this time. However, it seems like The Gargoyle King will be the last Drago nlance book I will ever buy, so any which way I look at it, this book will be a little special.
I liked the other books in the Ogre Titans trilogy, so hopefully Dragonlance will go out with a bang.
The arcane library of Tarsis is actually two buildings. It consists of a tower, which is inhabited by Norrin Cahill (w18) and the library itself. Both buildings are made of white marble and are covered with golden runes of power and protection. The buildings are also crowned with golden domes that sparkle in the sunlight. The compound is surrounded by a huge stonewall, which has a single silver wrought gate. Inside the inside the wall any visitor is greeted by a beautiful garden with small streams and ponds as well as many different fruit trees. Sets of double doors are the only entrance to the library. The tower has no visible entrance. The city guard of Tarsis patrols the walls.
The tower of the white mage
As mentioned before, the tower is the dwelling of the white robed wizard Norrin Cahill. He is the creator and overseer of the library, as well as a valued advisor to the city rulers. The tower contains his most valuable possessions as well as a personal library and laboratory where he conducts his arcane experiments. The tower is also a meeting ground for the Cabal when Norrin hosts the meetings. The tower is protected by many powerful enchantments and anyone who wishes to enter must have a special permission to do so.
The lower levels of the tower are reserved for the apprentices and henchmen. These people have luxurious rooms of their own, which they can use freely. Norrin’s apprentices usually accompany him when he conducts his arcane research. His apprentices also work as Norrin’s messengers and can often be found in Tarsis. Norrin has three apprentices, all wizards of the white robes level 3-6. One of his apprentices is a female elf hailing from Qualinesti and she is in charge of communicating with the elven kingdom.
Norrin spends most of his time in his tower but he can also be found walking the enormous halls of the library.
The Library
The library consists of five different buildings connected via long halls. There are bookcases everywhere filled with old books and scrolls. This place has one of the highest concentrations of knowledge and information pertaining to Krynn. The second floor is reserved for small study cells where anyone seeking knowledge may study in peace. Scribes who spend their time working on new volumes or restoring old ones inhabit the third floor.
The library does not contain spell books but holds numerous volumes about almost every subject imaginable. The building is open day and night and often visitors can see mages of all colors pour through the tomes. There are also many non-mages who make use of the library’s facilities.
Studying in the Grand Library of Tarsis
There are two primary guardians of the library. Charged with the outside defenses is the Zhakar dwarf Dwaars whose plague Norrin cured. In return Dwaars was more than happy to be in charge of the outer defenses. Dwaars (fighter 9) has his own quarters in the library where he occasionally will spend a quiet evening. To outsiders Dwaars appears like the stereotypical dwarf. He takes his job very serious and will do whatever he feels necessary to carry out his tasks. He maintains a good relationship with the apprentices, albeit these relationships are rather superficial. His only real friend is the elf in charge of the interior of the library Tyslin-San with whom he spends many a quiet evening in their private quarters.
Tyslin-San is a male Silvanesti dark elf. He is a wizard of the black robes (wizard 8) who was banished from his homeland by the Silvanesti elders for practicing the dark arts. After winning his black robes Tyslin-San traveled Ansalon searching for a place to settle down. For many years he was on his own until he met the white robe Norrin Cahill who instantly recognized the elf’s talent. Norrin offered Tysli-San the position of caretaker of the grand library. Tyslin-San accepted and finally found a place to settle down for good. The elf spends most of his time in the library overseeing the defenses. He also spends time in the tower where he has his own quarters including a fully equipped laboratory where he can conduct his magical research. Tyslin-San is not very approachable and visitors will find him a difficult man to deal with.
Tyslin-San of the Black Robes
The sage of Tarsis resides in the grand library where he has his own chambers. He showed up the day before the completion of the compound and was instantly welcomed and afforded his own quarters. The sage is obviously a powerful wizard of the white robes but no one seems to know him prior to his appearance at the library. His knowledge concerning the history of High Sorcery is immense and he displays an acute sense of detail. The sage appears to be an elderly yet vigorous man with almost silver looking hair and white robes. He enjoys stimulating conversation and can often be found roaming the great halls of the library at night.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the grand library, the sage is in fact an ancient silver dragon named Mercury. He is a very skilled magic user and historian, which is why he chose the library as his residence. He will not reveal his true nature unless another dragon attacks him. Mercury will defend the library using his spells if attacked; however, he will remain in his human form. Mercury has his own quarters where he conducts his experiments. He will gladly talk to anyone but he never invites people to his own quarters. He is known for spending the evening with Norrin discussing matters of wizardry and philosophy.
Additional defenses
Unlike the Towers of High Sorcery, the Grand Library is not surrounded by a magical grove. Instead, the library is surrounded by a white wall with protective runes. Within the compound itself there are several streams and small waterfalls in which many water elementals are hidden. The elementals will rise out of the water and attack any intruder when so commanded by their master. Roaming the grounds is also a large number of air elementals who are virtually invisible. They patrol the skies above the compound and report directly to the dwarf Dwaars.
Dwaars the Keeper
In the middle of the courtyard a fountain is situated. Unbeknownst to any except for the master and the guardians of the compound is that the fountain is a secret passage to the Watermere. Norrin has dealings with Forcasion Omidai, the Master of the White Robes (wizard 15) and they use this portal to travel to each other’s domains.
Guild of Wizardry in Tarsis
As could be expected, the Wizards of High Sorcery are not as powerful as they used to be. Guided by the three moon gods, Solinari, Lunitari and Nuitari the wizards have devised a strategy, which will restore the glory of their organization.
Nor surprisingly, the power of the wizards is concentrated in their towers. The Conclave does not currently command the power to build new towers, but in time they plan to erect a minimum of two towers; one in Daltigoth and one in the Khur area. Evidently these plans are in the future, which is why the Conclave has setup numerous mage guilds in most of the major ansalonian cities.
The buildings used by each guild varies from area to area, however, they are all magically fortified. The guild master is usually a senior mage level 13+ who has the responsibility of preserving the existence of the guild as well as recruiting new apprentices. The guild masters do not have a seat on the ruling conclave but most of the masters are considered next in line and are expected to step up when there is a vacancy.
In terms of knowledge, the guilds are nowhere as resourceful as the towers, but they do carry a large assortment of spells, which members can learn.
Some of the guilds have grown quite powerful and some of them are even beginning the preparation for construction of a new Tower of High Sorcery. One such example is the guild in Tarsis, which is one of the more powerful guilds in Ansalon. The reason why the guild in Tarsis has grown so strong is primarily due to the newly built Grand Library. The library has attracted many mages and its creator Norrin Cahill is an influential figure among the rulers of Tarsis. This has turned the guild into a fairly strong political force in the city.
The Tarsan guild is located a few blocks away from the Grand Library. The building is a multistory mansion surrounded by a large brick wall, which is patrolled day and night by armed guards. The building contains numerous laboratories and living quarters as well as a great meeting hall. The guild also contains a grand library, which has an impressive selection of spells. The library has attracted many mages from the south western part of Ansalon and Tarsis is slowly but steadily becoming a place where trade flourishes. The marketplace boasts of many shops that specialize in exotic ingredients needed for arcane spell casting. The city even has a Three Moon Shop located in the business district. Generally the businesses have prospered from the guild due to an increase in demand. The lords of the city are already dreaming of restoring Tarsis’ pre-cataclysmic greatness.
So, this is not exactly an adventure hook, but rather a little story about how we included Ravenloft in our Dragonlance setting back in the good old days. Hopefully, somebody can find some inspiration from this post, or at least be a little entertained.
The whole story started with the Tower of High Sorcery of Istar. In our campaign the tower was transported to the demi plane of dread, Ravenloft, shortly before the Cataclysm struck Istar. My DM got the story hook from one of the Dragonlance comic books.
My black robed wizard found out that the tower wasn’t destroyed in Cataclysm, and after many dangerous adventures, he was able to locate it in Ravenloft. Hen entered the tower, and basically had to pass his Test of High Sorcery again. Long story short, he passed the Test and became the Master of the Tower.
The Tower still included the original portal to the Abyss, but since the Tower was located on a different plane, and since there was no white robed cleric around, the Portal opened up in Scull Cap back on Krynn. This little nifty trick allowed us to run a campaign that spanned across the Dragonlance and the Ravenloft setting.
Shortly after I more-or-less retired my character since he had attained level 23 or something like that. The character was used as a high level NPC, who could help the party travel between planes.
I have never been a huge fan of 5th Age Dragonlance. After finishing Dragons of Summer Flame, I was left very disillusioned because I thought it was a huge waste to leave the world godless. I felt there was finally an opportunity to move the world forward without Raistlin and the other inn-fellows.
Fortunately, Dragons of Summer Flame prompted a friend of mine and me to rewrite Dragonlance the way we wanted to. The funny thing is, that we actually debated killing off Takhisis and Paladine.
Anyway, I pretty much left Dragonlance after reading Dawning of a New Age. I still kept in touch with what was going on in the community, but we never played in the 5th Age or bought any of the products that were released.
Years later, I am the only left of my old group, who has even the slightest interest in Dragonlance, or role playing games in general, and I see Dragons of a Fallen Sun released. Needless to say, the War of Souls trilogy brought me back to Dragonlance, and I even purchased some of the new rule books, the best ever made I might add.
See, I never even enjoyed the War of Souls. For me, it was a question of finishing up the series, so the world could move forward with the remaining gods, magic and everything else that make up the Dragonlance setting I enjoy. This is also the reason why I never reread the War of Souls trilogy, unlike every other Dragonlance series I have bought. Until now that is.
Honestly, Dragons of a Fallen Sun is still not my favorite. I don’t get that familiar Dragonlance feeling when I read it, which I got when I read Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. However, I do enjoy reading it this time around.
I guess the 5th Age was a good thing for the setting, It presented a a much needed reboot of the setting, and it produced some of the best rule books ever made. Heck, we even got a kick-ass Taladas trilogy, that was the perfect backbone for a Taladas rule book. Alas, the license was never renewed thanks to Wizards of the Coast, and in a few short months, the novel line will end. In other words, Dragonlance will officially be dead as disco.
Of course, the passionate community will ensure that Dragonlance will never truly die, and maybe one day Raistlin will find our world, and bring us there.
I for one will go on reading Dragons of a Lost Star, and maybe even get around to finishing up the rewrite project I started during my Christmas break 1995.
Since I finished Hourglass Mage, The Legend of Huma and The Fire Rose, I have been looking for the right fix to cure my newly found Dragonlance addiction. The bad thing about having this addiction is, that Dragonlance is more or less dead. Before I nail the coffin totally shut, I know there are a very few releases planned, so if you feel more comfortable saying that those releases constitute actual life in the setting, do not let me ruin your day.
Anyway, I started The Second Generation, which I have always kinda enjoyed because it moved the setting forward. My favorite short story is of course The Legacy, which was originally featured in The Magic of Krynn. So, if you haven’t read this collection of short stories, go get it here.
The Dragonlance Forums have a thread about the Raistlin Chronicles. Now, don’t get too excited, because it is just a reprint of The Soulforge and Brothers in Arms.
The cool thing is the artwork, which, even though it is not entirely canon, is quite cool. At least I like it quite a bit, Weis does not, and some of the people over at the Forums do not either.
Check it out here.
By the way; did you sign up for the Wizards’ community?
…and there was much rejoicing.
Wizards has just started a public beta test of their new community, which replaces the old horrible message boards. Taking a page out of the Facebook playbook, Wizards now allow you make more personal profile as well as adding friends. There’s also a blog engine, which I personally found pretty interesting. Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to be working, so I will stick with Blogger for now. To be honest I am not sure I will leave Blogger at all, since this old crappy blog engine is starting to grow on me.
I am really excited about this new community, because I feel that we really need a strong online presence, if our game is to survive. The Greyhawk people have done it for years, and the Dragonlance gang is rooted in the Dragonlance Nexus and the Dragonlance Forums. I really hope this signals a renewed interest in our game.
In the coming months I will blog a little bit more about the Wizards community and how I see the Interwebs as a catalyst for renewed interest in D&D.
By the way, I am McJuel @ Wizards so go add me as a friend.
So we finished the first gamin session in about a year last night. It was not the longest session, which suited me fine. To be honest, it has been years since I pulled an all nighter.
So, we wake up in a wrecked ship with no recollection of how we got there. My wizard had no spell book, and none of the fighters had any armor or weapons. We are stranded on a little island with a light house, and true to our adventuring spirits we start to explore the island. I am not going into all the details here, but suffice to say here is that we found our equipment and and some magical swag. Furthermore, we ran into some sort of cult, which we decided to leave alone. We were outnumbered two to one, so we just let the worship whatever foul demon they wanted.
I accumulated enough XPs to advance to level 2, so now I have to actually fill out a character sheet and pick feats and skills. I am looking forward to it, since it always helps me to get a feel for my character. Unlike last time, I think this one will have to be somewhat of unlikeable guy.
Funny thing though. It turns out I was the only one who didn’t cheat with the dice rolls for the stat block. All the others had several 18s, while I have not a single one. The good thing about the 3.5 rules is that you get to enhance your ability scores as you progress.
All in all a fairly enjoyable evening, which we will repeat in about a month. And now I have two magic missiles pr. day. Good stuff.
I am getting my gaming on tonight. For the first time in about a year and a half, my gaming group is meeting up again. As usual, we are playing in Mystara using 3.5 rules. I always likes the 3.5 rules, and Mystara is a classic setting, so I am happy.
The group is nowhere nearly as good as my original group(s), but it is all I can get, so I guess I am thankful for being able to play. The style is very hack and slash, with absolutely no role playing aspect to it. These guys have a computer game approach to the game, where it is all about the stats, the levels and the magical items. Fortunately we usually have a pretty good time, and who knows, maybe things will change a bit now.
I am playing a 1st level wizard from Glantri but since I haven’t played in years I cannot remember what spells are good. Being 1st level kinda solves that problem though, considering I only get to pick one or two spells. Anyway, hopefully I will be able to hide behind a bunch of big fighters and suck up some XPs.
I was thinking about keeping a gaming journal as we progress, but since I am due back at work in a week I am not sure if I will be able to keep it up. Here’s to hoping.
Now that I am done with Dragons of the Hourglass Mage, I have stated reading The Legend of Huma for the umpteenth time. It is by far one of my favorite Dragonlance books, and it seems like a good choice to “come down” from the high of Hourglass Mage.
As I was looking through my book collection, I happend to find our charger for the digital camera, and I took some pictures of my bookshelves. I always enjoyed seeing other peoples stash, which I know is terribly dorky but what can you do?
The pictures are not really that good, because I can’t really fit the whole thing into one frame due to limited space in our home office. I will try to make a Photosynth at some point, but for now this is all I’ve got.
Well, I finished Dragons of the Hourglass Mage in less than 24 hours. The book is really excellent, and it does tie up a lot of loose ends.
I am taking a couple of days to digest it, but I will have a blog post about it up at some point.
Sad though, that is the last Dragonlance book…
With a little luck I might get my filthy hands on a copy of Dragons of the Hourglass Mage today. My sister’s boyfriend works close to my local book pusher, and he will get it for me – provided they have it in stock.
If I get it today, I expect to read it in a day or two, although I am going to try and savor it for as long as possible. However, knowing my track record I seriously doubt it.
Anyway, back to doing garden work…
Nuff said. I am getting it on Monday hopefully.
Did you pick up yours yet?
Thalintas over at the Dragonlanceforums just posted a review of Dragons of the Hourglass mage. He has an early release of the book, which means that it is still not in stores yet, but it does give him the opportunity to provide us with some insights into what the book is about.
The post is actually kind of sad, since he bids farewell to the original Dragonlance world created by Weiss and Hickman. I couldn’t agree more with Thalintas, so here’s a short excerpt form his post and a link.
…Dragonlance as a series may continue in some form or another. But Dragonlance as the child of Weis and Hickman, the novel series born in 1984 with a group of friends meeting up in an Inn--that series ends with Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. The novel takes 25 years of plot development and setting growth, and synthesizes it into the endcap to the Holy Six. With it, all questions, all loose threads, all storylines that stem from the Heroes of the Lance are finally complete. And if you can close that final page and put that book down without tears in your eyes, well sir, you're a better man than me.
Source: Thalintas @ Dragonlanceforums
I hope the book reaches the northern shores soon, since I am itching to get my filthy hands on it. Of course, it will most likely be the last Dragonlance book I ever buy, so it is a bittersweet sensation. However, for the time being, I will focus on the positive side of things, and look forward to the most anticipated Dragonlance book ever, as far as I am concerned.
It has been a while since my last post, but considering how busy I am proclaiming the death of Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonlance in particular, it makes perfect sense :-).
Anyway, I was reading the Dragonlanceforums boards, when I found a link to Wizards’ home page, where they have posted the first chapter of Dragons of the Hourglass Mage.
There are also a couple of wallpapers for your PC or Mac, so I can really only add a link to this post and say: “Knock yourself out”.
Personally I really like the chapter, because it picks up right after Raistlin has discovered the truth about Fistandantilus. So basically we meet Raistlin before he becomes an über mage, and I assume we get to follow his rise to power between the time he leaves the Companions in the Blodsea of Istar till we see him as the black robed wizard in Neraka.
I almost forgot; there is also a the Illustrated Dragonlance Guide ready for your downloading pleasure. Have fun.
In case you didn’t know, and if you are a Dragonlance fan I am sure you do, Dragons of the Hourglass Mage will be released on 4th August.
I am on vacation when the book is released, so I am planning taking a couple of quit days in the shade reading it. Since it will probably be the last Dragonlance novel I will ever buy, I plan on thoroughly enjoying it.
If you plan on purchasing this book, I recommend that you do it through The Nexus, this way you can help keeping the Dragonlance community alive.
And while I remember, The Nexus has a fan page on Facebook along with a blog. Good stuff.
This is pretty old as far as I can tell, but I thought I would post it here anyway. Our good friends from Wizards of the Coast invite to test drive D&D version 4.0. Personally I am not sure new rules will save our game, but kudos to them for keeping the rules alive.
I haven’t tried it myself, so if anybody out there has tried it, please drop me a line. Link below.
Well, the weather has been nice in Denmark, so I have not uploaded the files I initially expected to. However, if I can sit long enough in front of the computer one of these days I will definitely upload some of my old Dragonlance work.
Now I just need to find the files and edit them a bit…
When I started this blog, it was meant as a past time thing. I never really expected to keep blogging here, but for some reason I have kept posting over that past couple of months. Not that I really write anything worth reading, but still…
I recently installed Google Analytics on my blog, and now I can actually see that I get some hits. That really surprises me. I guess this means that I should publish some of my homebrew game material on the blog, so hopefully I can post something this weekend. Friday is a holiday here in Denmark, so I don’t have waste time at my incredibly exciting job as an e-business consultant.
Anyway, stay tuned, I might just post some content in the upcoming days.
I just started a mini project here on the blog that will never die. I am trying to find as many interesting RPG blogs as possible, and syndicate them here on my own blog. Hopefully I will one day have enough to create an OPML file for your downloading pleasure.
So far I have only managed to find three blogs, that are serious about as well as remotely relevant. Well, considering the authors I guess one could argue that they are very relevant. So anyway, if you have a good RPG blog, or know of one, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email, or leave a comment.
When my last gaming group called it quits about a year and a half ago, I assumed that this was the absolute last time I would ever get to play Dungeons & Dragons. Everybody in the group has a career, family and all those thing, so I figured we would ever ever get together.
Then what happens? The former DM sends out an e-mail, where he explains that work has sucked for him in a long time, and that was why he had to call it quits. Now things have calmed down quite a bit for him (thank you economic crisis) so he thought it could be good to get back together and role the dice. Everybody was enthusiastic and it seems that we will start a new campaign this May.
Unfortunately, we are not playing Dragonlance, but Mystara. I really like Mystara, because it was the first gaming world I ever knew, and because there is some really good material published for that world.
Anyway, I have to figure out what character to play, so if anybody out there has any good ideas let me know.
Of all the people over at the Dragonlance Forums, how many actually play in a group, like we all used to. And how many just miss playing in a group, and therefore hang around the forums to remember the good ol’ days?
I guess we will never know. I belong to the latter category, although it looks like my latest gaming group in rising from the ashes to begin again.
I was looking at my Twitter stream just now, when I see one of the top searches: “Dave Arneson”. to my great sorrow I learn that the last of the “Founding Fathers” of Dungeons & Dragons has passed away.
As many of you mist likely know, Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax back in the 70’s. Despite heavy criticism from the crazy Christian right wingers, the game became immensely popular, and although it is more or less dead today, spawned the whole fantasy genre.
Many of us probably remember the Basic Set, the red set as we used to call it, with the red dragon in the cover and featuring the evil wizard Bargle. I can’t beging to imagine how many hours I have spent playing D&D with my friends; and all because of the ideas of Arneson and Gygax.
Most people will probably refer to Dungeons and Dragons as the ultimate in escapism, but to me and my friends, D&D was the ultimate in socialization and abstract thinking. It provided us with an opportunity to imagine things, and be creative in a manner that I have never seen since.
Here’s to remembering two great people. Rest in peace.
INTO THE HEART OF THE DARK QUEEN'S EMPIRE
The Companions are back and the balance of Krynn is at stake, in the magnificent conclusion to the Lost Chronicles.
The world celebrates Spring Dawning. The War of the Lance is nearing its end -- for good or ill. The wizard, Raistlin Majere, has become a Black Robe and, using the dragon orb in his possession, he travels to Neraka, the lord city of the Dark Queen. Raistlin ostensibly plans to work for her, though in reality he means to further his own quest for power.
But Raistlin realizes that if Takhisis wins, he will always be her slave. And so he resorts to a dangerous and deadly game. He acts as a double agent, offering his services to both the side of darkness and that of light, working for Emperor Ariakas and for the resistance movement in Neraka.
Takhisis plans to destroy the gods of magic on the Night of the Eye, when all the wizards will be congregated at the Tower of Wayreth. Raistlin has to find a way to thwart the plot, even though this means doing battle with his own sister, the Dragon Highlord Kitiara, and her terrifying ally, the death knight, Lord Soth.
And still he must overcome his final foe: the archmagus Fistandantilus, who seeks to kill Raistlin and steal his soul.
Krynn's future has been written. People think they know how the story ends. But one night and one fateful decision by Raistlin Majere may change it all.
Source: Wizards of the Coast.
This looks very promising. It seems like a fitting end to the Dragonlance era. Considering the eminent death of the setting, it is pretty cool that we get a book with all the bad guys going at each others throats. Nice.
Greyhawk is een more dead than Dragonlance these days. Actually, Greyhawk has been dead as a gaming world since the end of the 90’s if I remember correctly.
Fortunately, there is a tiny, but very dedicated fan base, which means you can still find Greyhawk resources on the Internet today. The web sites are horribly designed, and old as hell, but they contain excellent information on the World of Greyhawk.
If you like Gygax’s novels (RIP) check out this site, for a comprehensive run down of events in his Gord the Rogue series. Impressive work.
Now that we are about to put Dragonlance to rest after 30 years, I really hope the community is up to the task of keeping the setting alive. The Hawkers did it, and so can we.
Very nice indeed. I Can’t wait for the release of this book.
Check out the full size at Tracy Hickman’s homepage by clicking the image below.
There has been at least one more cover floating around out there in cyberspace, but it turned out to be the wrong one. Margaret Weis confirms over on the DragonlanceForums that this is indeed the right cover.
I think it looks pretty damn cool. What do you guys think?
The Dragonlance writer with the coolest name, Lucien Soulban, will see his latest book hit the shelves next month. I never read any of his books, but the guys over at the DragonlanceForums seem to like him quite a bit.
He engages a lot with the community, so he has big plus in my book. Unfortunately it will probably take forever before the book is released here in little Denmark, so I will just have to wait. It seems like a really interesting plot, so I will definitely have to check it out once Renegade Wizards is released.
I have been looking for a preview chapter to link to, but to no avail. If anybody knows of such a chapter, please let me know.
So, I decided to create a Google Alert based on Dragonlance around the time I started this blog, which is about two weeks ago. I also created an alert for Greyhawk, but that just resulted in a lot golf stuff, which I am not really in to. Anyway, during the past two weeks I have received on alert about Dragonlance, and that was two postings about downloading e-books and one from CDon.com about audio books. That is pretty sad. I honestly expected more hits, since I figured we had a pretty active community. I guess I was wrong…or Google alerts just suck.
Hopefully that will change soon. There are so many guys out there doing really cool homebrew stuff I wish they would publish it online. Well, there's always the Nexus.
I guess I managed to write one more blog post before abandoning this little Dragonlance project of mine. The following text is a collection of information about Fistandantilus that I have been able to find in various novels. One of the cool things about The Dark One is that his history is so obscure, so my take on him is by no means meant to be definitive history of Fistandantilus.
I expect to create a PDF version of this blog post at some point for your downloading pleasure.
The first time we hear about Fistandantilus is in Dragons of Autumn. Raistlin Majere finds one of his old spell books in Xak Tsaroth and at the same time establishes that Fistandantilus wore the Black Robes. Furthermore, it is established that he was the most powerful wizard in Krynn.
In Dragons of Winter Night, Fistandantilus talks through Raistlin Majere after the destruction of Tarsis. He recounts the creation of the Dragon Orbs, indicating that he was one of the creators. If this is indeed true, Fistandantilus was truly ancient. In order to participate in the creation of the Dragon Orbs, he would have had to be powerful, which means that he could not have been a young man at this point.
According to Test of the Twins, Fistandantilus tells Raistlin Majere that he used to wear the Red Robes. He must have spent the better part of a lifetime, before he besieged the Queen of Darkness and was allowed to don the Black Robes. It was at this point in time that he was given the Bloodstone of Fistandantilus, which would ensure his eternal life. The same section in Test of the Twins, tells us a few details about the Citadel of Fistandantilus. The location is never disclosed, but given his reputation, it is doubtful that it was situated in a highly populated area. Furthermore, it seems fairly logical that he did not reside in a Tower of High Sorcery. One might be tempted to think that Zhaman was the residence of Fistandantilus; however, in War of the Twins, Raistlin Majere claims to never have been there, although he retains the memories of Fistandantilus. If this was the place where Raistlin Majere defeated Fistandantilus it is likely that he would have remembered. According to Wizards’ Conclave, Fistandantilus carried a staff, which was topped by a dragon. However, Legends describe Fistandantilus as a mage who had no
need for staves, familiars etc. he wore unadorned black robes with a hood, which only revealed his beard. An unnatural cold radiated from his body. Considering how many times Fistandantilus used the Bloodstone it is plausible to believe that he looks nothing like he used to. This same book describes a cave, which is guarded by a green dragon that leads to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth. These tunnels are allegedly created by Fistandantilus.
According to Fistandantilus Reborn, the wizard was able to take part of his life force and imbue a magic item with it. He gave this item to an apprentice, providing Fistandantilus with extra life insurance. Additionally, the skull, which rests beneath Skullcap, still contains the essence of the lich Fistandantilus. Allegedly, these two versions of the ancient mage battled each other resulting in the essence of Fistandantilus being scattered through the River of Time.
The Kingpriest trilogy recounts Fistandantilus’ role in the Lost Battles. Allegedly, he gave the Kingpriest the power to penetrate the magical groves surrounding the Towers of High Sorcery in order to weaken the Conclave, which would oppose his bid for godhood. Furthermore, Fistandantilus carved out a laboratory for himself underneath the temple of the Kingpriest. The protective spells laid on this place were so powerful that they were able to withstand the destruction wrought by the Cataclysm.
In Legends, Astinus reveals that Fistandantilus wanted to enter the Abyss to battle the Queen of Darkness. In order to open the portal to the Abyss, Fistandantilus needed a priest of Paladine. Evidently he chose Denubis who was a priest in the holy temple in Istar. When Raistlin Majere became Fistandantilus, he chose lady Crysania over Denubis.
I just did a search on Twitter for Dragonlance, and let me tell you, it is not pretty. I suppose there’s no reason for thinking that there would be a lot tweets about Dragonlance but one can hope.
Considering all the social software tools out there, I find it a bit odd that all of the RPG communities I am aware of are still clinging to ye ol’ PHP forum application. I have no problems with forums as such, but maybe a Community Server installation would complement the forum?
Oh and another thing; how about getting Wizards of the Coast to let the community use the dragonlance.com nomain for e-mail purposes. It can be hosted for free via Hotmail or Gmail. What fanboy or fangirl wouldn’t love to have an @dragonlance.com e-mail adress.
Looks like our favorite Black Robed Wizard is scheduled to make yet another appearance. Personally I really want to read this novel, and I liked the other “Lost Chronicles” as well. Good stuff.
DRAGONS OF THE HOURGLASS MAGE SCHEDULED FOR SUMMER 2009
RENTON, Wash.—July 21, 2008 — Wizards of the Coast Inc., and New York Times Best-selling authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman today announced that Dragons of the Hourglass Mage is scheduled for a Summer 2009 publication.
Dragons of the Hourglass Mage is the concluding novel in the Lost Chronicles trilogy by Weis and Hickman and features many of the most popular characters from their extensive line of Dragonlance® books.
Source: Wizards of the Coast
I know this is really old news, but I am tweaking the blog, and I needed to post something. Anyway, I hope this book will hit the shelves here in Denmark by the time I go on summer vacation.
Well, it looks like I just might start blogging here after all. I never really intended to do anything with this when I created it, but now it looks like I just might start posting.
I think this blog will be the place where I blog about one of my former favorite past times – Dragonlance. I have played D&D for around 26 years, and until about a year ago I play fairly regularly. I have played in different groups, although there has always been an inner circle in terms of membership.
Recently I formatted my computer, and I found a lot of old files, that I started years ago. These files were intended to be more-or-less a rewrite of the Dragonlance setting, making it fit my needs at the time. As these things tend to go though, my group slowly but steadily dissolved, and I was stuck with all this work that I could use for absolutely nothing. I just put these writings in a folder on my hard drive, and pretty much forgot about them. Until now that is.
So, to make a long story even longer, I hope that I will find time and through his blog, as well as the DragonlanceForums, reengage with the Dragonlance community, and hopefully finish writing and editing my take on the Dragonlance setting and publish it here.
Don’t expect a lot of updates, as I do have a “normal” life, with children and a stressful job in the IT industry, but check back once in a while or subscribe to the RSS feed. Heck, you can even feel free to leave a comment if 
you’d like.
