With two distinct origins, the Disks of Mishakal are among the most divisive artifacts in Dragonlance, due to their inspiration from one of the author’s religious myths. Let’s learn more about the Disks of Mishakal. Buy War of the Lance: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/3164/war-of-the-lance-3-5?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Their fictional origins began before Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Disks of Mishakal. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Chronicles and Kingpriest trilogies as well as Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, War of the Lance, and Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebooks for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
The Disks of Mishakal were taken right out of Tracy Hickman’s religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons. This was stated directly by him in the Annotated Chronicles and Legends. Having grown up in a Mormon household, I was very familiar with the origin story of that particular religion, and while I do not find it any more ridiculous than any other origin myth from the myriad of Abrahamic faiths and other religions of the world, I do find it interesting that it would then be then ported into yet another fictional mythology: Dragonlance.
Like any origin story there will inevitably be variations on details or beliefs, but the Disks of Mishakal, or Parapas Mishakas in the Istarian churches tongue, has two very different origin stories. One from the novel Sacred Fire by Chris Pierson from The Kingpriest trilogy published in 2003, and one from the War of the Lance sourcebook by Sovereign Press printed in 2004. So which is correct? This is a common situation in Dragonlance. Conflicting information about the same events. It seems the authors refuse to acknowledge each other which only makes us fans confused, argue and choose whichever resonates more with us individually. It seems the more I try to find some semblance of canon in Dragonlance the more I am prevented by the very authors that even conflict with their own versions of history and events.
So if we accept that there is not a unified sense of history, we have to take each account into consideration, so let’s start with the more ancient of origin myths of the Disks, the one that is officially a single year older… ancient by social media and news cycle norms anyway. From Sacred Fire, the Disks were ancient in the time of Huma Dragonbane in the Age of Dreams in the Time of Knights, and that was a thousand years before the Kingpriest of Istar went looking for them, and over three hundred and fifty years before the War of the Lance. It is said that the goddess Mishakal herself penned the disks and gifted them to humans to inspire them to break out of their bonds of slavery by the ogres. They learned reading and writing from the Disks, and even this tale is shrouded in suspicion for accuracy.
The Disks were believed to have been lost in the Second Dragonwar, captured in the Battle of Gods’ Tears. They remained lost after the war ended until a villain and knave named Dario discovered a hidden tomb at the back of an abandoned goblin cave. The tomb was filled with charred remains of goblin’s bones. Among these bones were hundreds of beaten circular discs made of pure platinum, larger than a grown man’s hands. Each held finely engraved cuneiform letters in a foreign tongue. And yet as Dario stared at these disks he began to read them. He remained in the tomb for a month, subsisting off of his passion to complete the disks alone. When he was finished, he was gaunt, wild eyed and his hair had turned stark white. He returned to the city-state of Istar and arrived at his own funeral. His family believed him dead after such an absence. He immediately began preaching the gospel from these discs to the people at his funeral, and changed Istar’s history and tradition of ancestor worship to the worship of the Gods of Krynn.
Dario immediately abandoned his former ways and declared himself the first son of Paladine, founding the Holy Church of Istar. The Disks became the church’s first relic, and over the next hundred years the Empire of Istar rose. After the Disks were nearly lost in a barbarian assault, the current First Son, Amiad began to have the Disks translated and copied, but before it was complete Amiad’s successor stopped the practice with just over six hundred of the Disks thousand chapters copied. Of the seven copies, he destroyed all but one. That one was hidden away through much of the empire and copied at every stop so that it was reproduced in every major tongue. As the copies were all incomplete two groups emerged, the Completionists who wanted to complete the original translations and the Reductionsists who thought it sacreligious.
First Son Symeon, purified the original tomb they were discovered in and returned the Disks there, sealing them in. Symeon would become the first Kingpriest, and the Disks became lost to the ages until Beldinas, the Lightbringer, decided to unearth them in an attempt to locate a passage to command the gods with. The Disks were spirited away by his former general and protector Cathan MarSevrin the Twice-born to Xak Tsaroth with a tomb of Fistandantilus’ spells.
The second origin story states that the Disks were created in the Age of Might, and contained the mythology of the Pantheon of Light, only speaking of the Gods of Light. These were commissioned by Karthay Pah, who was crowned as the ruler of Istar. It was the scholar Erial Caladon nae Tempus and an unknown Silvanesti triumvirate of priests who actually created the disks. The Silvanesti took the Disks fearing for their safety. The Disks were stolen en route to Qualinesti, and lost until two hundred and fifty-five Prae Cataclius. The Disks were momentarily discovered by Zhakar dwarves and subsequently lost again. Over a hundred years later a Que-Shu named Clearbrook returned from a spirit quest with the Disks and delivered them to a temple in Xak Tsaroth.
Now, regardless of their method of being created and delivered to Xak Tsaroth, that is where the Disks were discovered by the innfellows, who delivered them to Elistan who then formed the Holy Church of Paladine. The discs remained in Palanthus until after the War of Souls with the absence and reappearance of the gods, yet again, and they currently remain in the rebuilt Citadel of Light on Schallsea Island.
The Disks of Mishakal consist of one-hundred and sixty separate circular plates at eighteen inches in diameter. They are crafted of solid platinum at only one-sixteenth of an inch thick. All Disks only weigh fifteen pounds, and are held together by a bolt which passes through them near an edge. Small engravings spiral inwards from their edge on both sides. Any evil creature which touches them is burned, as only those of pure heart can hold and read them. It became common for priests to travel and study from the original Disks, before being granted their H oly Medallions.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about the Disks of Mishakal. Does it matter to you that the author brought their religious beliefs into a fantasy novel? Which version of history do you prefer for the Disks? And finally, are Disks the best device to transport the word of the gods? Leave a comment below.
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Without the darkness we would never be aware that the stars exist.
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