The Creation of the fictional world of Dragonlance

The Creation of the World

Before the beginning there was Chaos.

Then the Gods appeared from Beyond, bringing Good, Evil, and Neutrality into existence. Reorx, the Forging God, struck his hammer amidst the Chaos. Chaos slowed and the sparks from his hammer became the stars. The Gods then created the spirits of all the races who would eventually people the new worlds born in the Great Forging. These spirits were the Children of the Gods.

The Gods began to quarrel over these spirits. The Gods of Good wanted to nurture the spirits in the paths of righteousness and share with them dominion over the universe. The Gods of Evil sought to make the spirits their slaves, to do their every bidding. The Gods of Neutrality sought balance: to give the spirits freedom to choose for themselves whether they would serve Good or Evil.

And so the All-Saints War raged among the heavens. The Good and Neutral Gods combined forces to keep Evil a final victory.

Then spoke the HighGod from Beyond, who decreed the Balance of the Wold. The Gods of Good, Evil and Neutrality would each be allowed to bestow one gift upon the spirits

The Gods of Good gave the spirits life and physical form. Thus the spirits gained control over the material world and became more like the Gods themselves. The Gods of Good hoped the spirits would bring peace and order to the worlds and lead them along the path to righteousness.

The Gods of Evil decreed that these physical beings would hunger and thirst, and have to work to staisfy their needs. The Gods of Evil hoped that through hunger and suffering they could subjugate the races.

The Gods of Neutrality gave the spirits the gift of free will, to choose freely between Good and Evil. Thus did they preserve the Balance of the World.

And so the Gods created the world of Krynn as a dwelling place for the spirits. The HighGod decreed that each could choose his or her own way through life. Then would come death, the passage from Krynn to the next state of existence.

The Races of the World

Many races were created from the spirits. First were the elves, most favored by the Gods of Good. Elves are the Shapers of the world, who possess good magic to bend nature to their will. They have the longest lifespan of all the spirits although they change the world, they themselves change very little.

The human race are most favored by the Gods of Neutrality, although the souls of men are coverted both by the Gods of Good and Evil. Humans can choose most freely between Good and Evil. Their shorter time in the world are spent in striving for power and knowledge. They are quick to consequences. Thus men gice the world motion.

The race of ogres are most favored by the Gods of Evil. In the beginning, the ogres were the most beautiful of the races, but they could think only of their hungers. They were easily enslaved by their needs, and their beauty vanished as their hungers devoured them. The ogres are selfish and cruel; they delight in inflicting pain and suffering upon the weak.

The HighGod created the fourth class of beings: the animals. He created them with a balance of Good, Evil and Neutrality, and they were born of the world itself. Dragons are the lords of the animal kingdom. As with all other beings, they are free to choose among the alignments of the gods.

The Age of Dreams

The Age of Dreams was the first age of Krynn. It is shadowed in myth and song, and little is known of the earliest days of the world.

This Age began when the world was created, and ended when recorded history started about two millenia ago. The most comprehensive record of those days is contained in the Lifescroll of Song compiled by the bard Quevalin Soth.

In those days was founded the first elfrealm, Silvanesti, and construction of Kal-thax, the great kingdom of the dwarves was begun.

The dragons of evil were the dark force in those days, making war upon theother races to enslave them. Many and horrible were the wars of those centuries, but always the dragons were beaten back.

Tragedy struck the other races as well. The great Kinslayer War between elves and humans lasted for fifty years until a peace could be negotiated. The Swordsheath Scroll ended the Kinslayer War, but many elves left Silvanesti to seek new homes. They traveled west and fonded the nation of Qualinest.

The human empire of Ergoth was the greatest kingdom of the age. Founded in ideals of peace Vinas Solmnas, head of the imperial guard, led an army to the east to quash a rebellion, but found that the rebellion was justified. He was converted to the side of the rebels and commanded the army that won freedom for the eastern states of Ergoth. He created the Order of the Knights of Solamnia to protect the freedom of the people.

Ergoth was divided into independent states, and the nations of Istar, Solamnia and Goodlund were born. The Knights of Solamnia ruled justly for many centuries, and peace settled over the land.

Then came the Third Dragon Wars, the most terrible challenge to the balance of the world. It lasted nearly three hundred years.

Huma Dragonbane, a Knight of Solamnia studied with a holy man and prayed to the Gods for aid. His quest for aid took him to many lands. In his travels, he met a silver dragon in human form, who fell in love with him. The silver dragon gave Huma the secret of the Dragonlance. Paladine, the greatest of all the Gods, came down to the dragons from Krynn and battled Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, with the aid of the world and cast them into darkness

Thus ended the Third Dragon Wars and with the banishment of the dragons, the Age of Dreams came to an end.

The Age of Might

The Age of Might was the golden age of Krynn. It lasted nearly a thousand years. It was a time of power, glory, peace and achievement.

Following the banishment of the dragons, the ogres, now without their powerful allies, overestimated their own strength and attacked the dwarves of Kal-thax. The Ogre Wars lasted nearly a hundred years, and ended with the total defeat of the ogres and their enslavement by the other races of Krynn. Although bands of renegade ogres lurked in the mountains and occasionally attacked settlements, the ogres as a nation were completely dead.

Ergoth, weakened by its fragmentation into independent states, declined as a major power. The nation of Istar took its place as the dominant political power on the continent of Ansalon.

The independent kender states united with Istar in a treaty know as the Kendermeld. Silvanesti also joined the Empire of Istar in the Treaty of Elfmeld. Under heavy pressure from neighboring states, the dwarven kingdom of Kal-thax agreed to the Dwarfmeld. Finally, Solamnia and Ergoth submitted to the Greatmeeld. The Empire of Istar had created the first government to rule all Ansalon.

The glory of Istar had now triumphed. An unlimited future of peace was at hand. The forces of Evil seemed to have been completely vanquished-dragons were no more, and the Age of Might, the High Kingpriest of Istar decided to rid the land of even the vestiges of evil by summoning one of the Gods to do his bidding.

The Cataclysm was the result.

The Cataclysm

The Gods were angered at the pride of the High Kingpriest, as a parent is angered by a willful child. The Gods may sometimes give aid, but must be approached with humility instead of pride. And so they determined to teach the people of Krynn a lesson, since it is a parent's duty to correct a child's willful behavior.

A fiery mountain was flung from the heavens to destroy the city of Istar. The very face of the land was changed. Mountains were raised up and lands sunk into the sea. Thus did the Gods punished the behavior of their children, and so did they hope that their children would return to the paths of righteousness. But the peoples of Krynn did not understand the lessons the Gods taught. They did not see that their pride had brought on the catastrophe. They saw only the wrath of the Gods. Feeling abandoned, the people of Krynn turned from the worship of the true Gods and searched for other gods. Men came to worship false gods and clerics lost the power to work magic. Everywhere the people of Krynn turned on their champions. Even the once-noble Knights of Solamnia lost favor because they could not undo the Cataclysm.

Chaos reigned throughout Krynn in the dark years that followed the Catalysm. The dwarves of Thorbardin, blaming humans and all other races for the tragedy, shut the doors of their kingdom against all, including their own kin on the outside. The wizard Fistandantilus, the most powerful mage of his time, led the armies of hill dwarves and humas in the Dwarfgate War. When his defeat became certain, he let loose a spell of such destructive power that both armies were destroyed. And so the doors to Thorbardin were shut and their location lost in the changed land. The elves also withdrew from contact with humanity, and the lands of Silvanesti and Qualinesti were shut to all but a few outsiders.

Those were the shadow years. False gods were better than no gods at all and a variety of faiths sprang up. Ancestor worship was common among the peoples of the plains. The scholars of Haven and Solace founded the Seeker movement, initially a gathering of seekers after the old truths--or at least new truths that might work. In time, the intellectual Seeker movement turned into a political movement and the Seeker Theocracy came to power in Abanasinia. They adopted "new" gods and abandoned the search for truth.

Poverty was now everywhere, for much of the wealth of ancient times had vanished in the Catclysm. Gold, the precious metal of history, was too common and useless for everyday living. Steel became the metal of value throughout most of the continent of Ansalon, for it was useful and practical. Soon, coins of steel became the basic trade material.

The elves remembered the times long past, but the short memories of humans caused the ancient world to be largely forgotten within a few generations. Dragons were thought to be simply creatures of myth, fit only to frighten childreen. The idea that clerics bould once work spells was blasphemy to the Seeker Theocracy. People were imprisoned and sometimes burned at the stakes for such claims. Slowly, Krynn began to recover from the Cataclysm, but soon reports of a greater evil were heard. Warlords in the north were conquering the lands of the ancient nation of Istar. Armies were on the march again. The broken forces of the scattered peopple were no match for the strange forces allied to these new "Highlords."

Soon, the people of the north knew the terrible truth. The Highlords had allies out of nightmare. The dragons had returned to Krynn!

The Dragons of Krynn

Dragons had not appeared in the world of Krynn for over a thousand years, not since the end of the Age of Dreams. Indeed, most people of Krynn, except for scholars and wizards, believed that dragons are but children's tales.

The origin of dragons seems to stretch back to the forging of the world itself. Dragons came into being not from the stars, as did men and elves, but from the very essence of the world itself. Thus the dragons are the life force of Krynn become flesh.

Dragons allied themselves with the forces of Good, Evil and Neutrality, as did all other races according to their natures.

Three Dragon Wars were fought during the Age of Dreams. In the final Dragon Wars, a young knight of Solamnia named Huma was given the secret of the Dragonlance. Flying a silver dragon, he battled the dragons in the skies. When the battle was over, the evil dragons had been defeated. To preserve the Balance the dragons of Good and Neutrality departed the world.

After the Cataclysm, reports of dragons increased. Soon, the lords of the land came to know that myth had become a reality: dragons had returned to Krynn.

What brought these dragons back to the world? None could say. The Dragons themselves seemed to be in the service of the strange Dragon Highlords. None knew how the Highlords acquired dragons, but all knew that the dragons and their allies had created the most formidable single army ever to march across Ansalon.

The wise saw an even greater mystery. If the dragons of Evil were stalking the land, where then were the dragons of Good? There were a few reports of good dragons being sighted, but they refused to fight against their evil cousins. Why did the Heroes of the Lance was far advanced that the reaasons started to become clear.

The Gods of Krynn

The gods of Krynn came from Beyond out of Chaos to forge the universe during the Age of Starbirth, as told in the Tale of the Creation. The origin of the gods is unknown, although it is believed that they came from a different sphere of existence. All of the facts of the Age of Starbirth are now heavily obscured in myth and legend, especially since the Cataclysm, when knowledge of the true gods departed from Krynn.

All the information in this section was gleaned from the Disks of Mishakal, which were found by the Innfellows in the ruins of Xak Tsaroth. If a person reads the Disks with the proper devout attitude, he can become a true spell-using cleric. Clerics of Krynn wear a Medallion of Faith engraved with the symbol of the god they follow. These medallions have only one power-they magically dupiclate themselves when a new cleric comes into being. The new medallion bears the symbol of the god the new cleric follows regardless of what symbol was on the original.

Only the gods themselves know their trues names, and certainly do not disclose them to mortals. The names given here were in common use in the years following the great Dragonlance Wars in the different cultures on the continent of Ansalon. The list is by no means complete.

There are twenty-one known gods of Krynn: seven gods of Good, seven of Evil, and seven of Neutrality. All the known gods are represented in the heavens. Six gods of Good and six gods of Evil make up the Zodiac. Six gods of Neutrality are represented by wanering stars (planets). The remaining three gods--of White, Black, and Red magic-are represented by the three moons that orbit Krynn.

The Gods of Good

Paladine, The Celestial Paladin

Other Names:Draco Paladin (Ergoth), Skyblade (Goodlund), E'li (Silvanesti), Thak (Thorbardin), The Great Dragon (Solamnia) Symbol:The Silver Triangle, also the Pinetree (Silvanesti) or ANcil (Thorbardin) Colors:Silver, white Sphere of Influence:Rulership and guardianship Many believe that the ancient hero Huma was actually Paladine in mortal form, when he drove the dragons from the land during the Age of Dreams. Paladine's constellation traditionally guards the Gate of Souls, keeping the dragons from returning to Krynn.

Majere

Other Names:Manthus (Ergoth), Mantis of the Rose (Qualinesti), Matheri (Silvanesti) Symbol:Copper Spider, also the Single Roase (Qualinesti, SIlvanesti), and the Mantis (Solamnia) Colors:Copper, red Sphere of Influence:Meditation, control, and thought Majere is the favored god of monks. He is said to give his followers symbols that, when cast upon the ground, become insects that fight for their owner.

Kiri-Jolith

Other Names:Corij (Ergoth), Kijo (Thorbardin), Jolith (Kharolis) Symbol:Bison's horns, also horned battle-axe (Thorbardin, Kharolis) Colors:Brown, white Sphere of Influence:War and battle Kiri-Jolith is a god of war, but not of battlelust. He is the favorite god of paladins and good-aligned fighters. His constellation seems to threaten that of the Queen of darkness in the night sky.

Mishakal, The Healer

Other Names:Ka-mel-sha, the Healer in the Home (Tarsis), Mesalax (Thorbardin), Meshal (Icewall), Mishas (Ergoth), Quenesti Pah (Silvanesti), Quen (Qualinesti), Skymistress (Goodlund), the Blue Lady (Balifor, Highlo) Symbol:Blue infinity sign Colors:SKy blue Sphere of Influence:Healing, knowledge, fertility Mishakal is found in nearly every known civilization of Krynn.

Habbakuk, The Fisher King

Other Names:The Blue Phoenix (Ergoth, Silvanesti, Qualinesti), Skylord (Balifor, Goodlund) Symbol:Blue bird, also blue phoenix (Ergoth) Colors:Deep blue, white Sphere of Influence:All animal life and the sea

Branchala, The Bard King

Other Names:Songmaster (Goodlund), Astra (Qualinesti), Astarin (Silvanesti), Bran (Ergoth) Symbol:Bard's harp, flute (Goodlund, Qualinesti, Silvanesti) Colors:Yellow, green Sphere of Influence:Elves, kender, forrrests, music Branchala appears in the form of whatever people he is visiting. He is considered the highest god of the elves and kender.

Solinari

Other Names:Solin (Ergoth), White-eye (Goodlund, Balifor), God's Eye (Thorbardin), Ivory Disk (Highlo) Symbol:White circle or sphere Colors:White, silver Sphere of Influence:Good magic Solinari is the white moon of Krynn. The influence of good magiv waxes and wanes according to its position in the heavens.

The Gods of Evil

The Queen of Darkness

Other Names:Dragonqueen (Istar, SIlvanesti, Ergoth), She of the Many Faces (Highlo), Mai-tat (Tarsis), Nilat the Corruptor (Icewall), Tamex the False Metal (Thorbardin), Takhisis (Dragonarmies) Symbol:Black crescent Colors:Black Sphere of Influence:Night, evil dragons, hatred The Queen of Darkness is worshipped by the Dragon Highlords, the draconians, and allied humans

Sargonnas

Other Names:Argon (Istar, Ergoth), The Firebringer (Highlo), Misal-Lasim (Tarsis), Gonnas the Willful (Icewall), Sargonnax the Bender (Thorbardin), Kinthalas (Silvanesti), Kinis (Qualinesti) Symbol:A stylized red condor, also a red fist (Thorbardin, Istar) Colors:Red, black Sphere of Influence:Deserts, volcanoes, vengeance, fire

Morgion

Other Names:H'rar (Ergoth, Istar), Gormion (Tarsis), Morgi (Icewall), Morgax the Rustlord (Thorbardin) Symbol:A hood with two red eyes, also an upside-down axe (Thorbardin), or a rat's claw (Highlo) Colors:Deep brown, black Sphere of Influence:Disease, decay, plague Morgion's followers meet in drak places of worship, and are very secretive in all things.

Chemosh

Other Names:Aeleth (Ergoth), Dron of the Deep (Tarsis), Chemos Joton (Icewall), Khemax (Thorbardin) Symbol:A yellow skull Colors:Black, sickly yellow Sphere of Influence:All undead Worshippers of Chemosh generally wear white skull masks and black robes

Zeboim

Other Names:Rann (Ergoth), Syr (Tarsis), Zebir Joton (Icewall), Bhezomiax (Thorbardin) Symbol:A turtle-shell pattern Colors:Green, red Sphere of Influence:The sea, undead sea races The name for Zeboim translates as "Sea Queen" in both Tarsis and Ergoth. Zeboim is unknown to most dwarven races.

Hiddukel

Other Names:None Symbol:Broken merchant's scales Colors:Red, bone whitte Sphere of Influence:Demons, damned souls Hiddukel is a deal maker whooo trades in souls. He controls all ill-gotten wealth in the world, which he uses to corrupt greedy men. He is the patron of evil businessmen.

Nuitari

Other Names:None Symbol:A black circle or sphere Colors:Black Sphere of Influence:Black magic Nuitari is the black moon of Krynn. Its existence is known only to astrologers, navigators, magic users, and others who watch the heavens, for it is knownnn only when it blots out stars and planets. The influence of black magic waxes and wanes according to its position in the heavens.

The Gods of Neutrality

Gilean

Other Names:Gilean the Book, Gray Voyager, the Sage, The Gate of Souls Symbol:An open book Colors:Gray Sphere of Influence:Knowledge Gilean holds a book, the Tobril, which contains all thek nowledge possessed by all gods. All truth is contained in that single tome--but portions of it are sealed.

Sirrion, The Flowing Flame

Other Names:The Alchemist, The Firemaster Symbol:Multi-ccolored fire Colors:Bright reds, yellows Sphere of Influence:Flame

Reorx, The Forge

Other Names:None Symbol:Forging Hammer, Dwarfven Hammer (Thorbardin) Colors:Slate gray, red Sphere of Influence:Dwarves, weapons, technology

Chislev

Other Names:None Symbol:The feather Colors:Brown, yellow, and green Sphere of Influence:Nature Chislev is nature incarnate. He/she is served by a large number of animated wooden creatures who carry out his/her wishes in the known world.

Zivilyn

Other Names:The World Tree, the Tree of Life (Qualinesti, Silvanesti) Symbol:A great green of gold tree, sometimes a vallenwood Colors:Green gold Sphere of Influence:Wisdom Zivilyn is said to exist in all times and in all lands, and possesses all the wisdom of all the planes of existence. He is te counterpart to Gilean, the god of knowledge.

Shinare

Other Names:Winged One, Gold Master, Walking Liberty Symbol:The griffon's wing Colors: Gold, silver, brown Sphere of Influence:Money, wealth Shinnare is a favorite god of the dwarves, and is the patron god of merchants and commerce.

Lunitari

Other Names:Luin (Ergoth), Red-Eye (Goodlund), Night Candle (Thorbardin) Symbol:Red circle or sphere Sphere of Influence:Neutral magic, illusionist magic All neutral magic and illusionist spells are governed by Lunitari, the red moon. The influence of neutrality and illusion waxes and wanes with the position of the red moon in the heavens.

In Conclusion

Quotes

• "One's name is everything."---Fizban the Fabulous
• "Night may surround us, but the stars guide our way."---Par-Salian

References

http://www.angelfire.com/la/