Join me as I review Firstborn by Tonya C. Cook and Paul B. Thompson, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Dragonlance: Elven Nations Trilogy released on January 1, 1991 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3LQTM2g
About Elven Nations Trilogy
Return to the Dragonlance universe with this classic story about the rise of Krynn’s eleven nations
Silvanos Goldeneye, the august founder of the united eleven nation known as Silvanesti, lies buried in a crystal tomb. Now, the leadership of the clans and households falls to his son, Sithel, who is himself the father of rival twins Sithas and Kith-Kanan. Both brothers represent different emerging factions among the Silvanesti: While Sithas allies himself closely with the court and encourages the elves to withdraw from contact with other races, Kith and his Wildrunners forge connections and trade goods with the humans of Ergoth.
When Sithel is assassinated—and Kith is vaguely implicated—the tensions between the two brothers escalate to dangerous heights. As the world of Krynn watches, a new elven nation rises from the strife . . .
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Fleurgreen the 17th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of Firstborn by Tonya C. Cook and Paul B. Thompson. I will be spoiling the story, so if you don’t want to know it, stop watching now! I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this YouTube 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. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
We open with Sithel, Speaker of the Stars leaving his wife Nirakina after she delivered his twin sons Sithas and Kith-Kanan. Sithel approaches Vedvedsica, the servant of Gilean to read from the Tobril and tell him the future of his sons. Vedvedsica recounts that they will both wear crowns, confusing Sithel. Then we fast forward to Kith-Kanan riding his Griffon Arcuballis returning from an adventure. We get the impression that Kith-Kanan is the adventurous twin, where Sithas is the dutiful reserved one. Kith rendezvous with his lover Hermathya, an elf maiden who refuses Kith’s request for marriage, instead loving the thrill of their secret affair.
Kith returns to the tower and his father calls him and his brother to announce his brother’s betrothal to none other than Hermathya! This tears Kith apart but he doesn’t want to admit his secret affair with her. He storms out, and on the announcement day he draws his sword, breaking the law, and demands Hermathya leave with him. She instead chooses Sith over Kith, and infuriated, Kith leaves. We learn that Hermathya is more interested in growing power in her family and herself through her new husband and future Speaker than staying true to love.
Kith leaves and gets lost in the deep woods. His mount is stolen by an Ergothian woodsmen and he is discovered by Mackeli, an elven boy who saves Kith from quicksand. On the way to Mackeli’s home, they are presented with the forestmaster who tells Kith that he must join Mackeli and his friend to rid the forest of interlopers. Kith accepts and becomes friends with Mackeli. Kith learns some forest passage techniques and Mickeli leaves to scavenge and Anaya arrives, Mackeli’s friend. She is a Kagonesti elf who also trains Kith after verifying his story with the Forestmaster.
Together they leave to find Mickeli who hasn’t returned after days, and they find woodsmen sent by Lord Ragnarius of Ergoth. Anaya is captured and Kith saves her and Mackeli, then is nearly killed by Voltorno, a half-human who ensorceled Arcuballis. Mackeli saves Kith and they fly off to collect Anaya. Back in Silvanesti, elves from the village of Trokali report that Ergothian humans with Kagonesti elves are terrorizing and enslaving residents, forcing the survivors to abandon their villages so Ergoth can claim the land. Ergoth is in a state of expansionism and it just hit Silvanesti’s borders. This sets up skirmishes to come between Silvanesti and Ergoth.
This first third of the novel is a wonderful introduction to the Silvanesti perspective, and how even in elven cultures, they are seen as the city dwellers while the Kagonesti are much more nature loving than even them. I love the differences in culture and the set up for political and military conflict to come!
The relationship between Kith and Anaya develops into love, which Anaya initially rejects and hides away from Kith and Mackeli. She eventually returns and accepts Kith’s love, they even get pregnant, but since her connection has left the forest and focused on Kith, her connection to the forest and her abilities begin to wane as well. She accepts this as the price for her love however. Snow falls and for the first time, her forest is covered in it. The three of them struggle through the winter and on the other side of it, an old enemy returns.
Voltorno was not killed by the bolt Mackeli shot him with and he returned to the forest with troops to abduct Kith and sell him for ransom. It doesn’t go well, as the three fight them off, and Anaya goes full Rambo on them, murdering them in their sleep. Back in Silvanost, the political issues continue to rise. As more refugees arrive, Silvanos suggests they relocate the human and half humans to a new location out of the city. This spurs a revolt unintentionally caused by Miritelisina, the high priestess. She is tried once the revolt ends and sent to the prisons.
But with the temperature getting increasingly more difficult in Silvanost, Sithel learns there is a traitor in the council, as the contingent of 50 troops he sent to discover the source of the attacks are all murdered. Ambassadors from Thorbardin and Ergoth arrive to work through the issues, and it is suggested that Ergoth is secretly expanding its borders. Hermathya and Sithas grow increasingly distant as she misses her fertile time, blaming him. As trouble grows for the royal family from without and from within, there is no end in sight for the political drama.
The final third of this novel is as good as any episode of Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. Voltorno tries to spirit Kith away only to have his men picked off one at a time before Anaya kills him herself, but not before Voltorno deals a killing blow to her and her unborn son! This understandably devastates Kith, who takes her back to their camp with Mackeli. She ends up waking up and transforming into an oak. From Silvanos, Sithas calls Kith and Kith takes Mackeli with him to return home. He apologizes to his father and shares his experience. This changes the Ergoth position as Kith saw the deforestation and murdering of locals.
The political maneuverings are amazing, and I genuinely like the dwarf ambassador Dunbarth even if the authors and editors allowed no less than three versions of misspellings of his name to persist in the novel. Honestly people…. With Kith back and sharing his perspective, and the fight over the no man’s land between the kingdoms of Silvanesti, Ergoth and Thorbardin with no end in sight, Kith presents a shared militia consisting of the locals from the land and commanded by representatives of each empire to govern the free land. Everyone agrees and Sithas is jealous of Kith’s success. Hermathya tries to have an affair with Kith who refuses her, and she now wants revenge. Sithas suspects she, or Vedvedsica, is the traitor who recently saved the speaker’s life from a recurrence of an old fever.
Kith is sent to command the militia and assassins try to kill him en route to the territory. The assassins end up killing Mackeli and this also deeply scars Kith. His whole life in the wildwood is now a shadow of a memory. Sithel, the speaker, confronts Teralind as being the Egroth Emperors sister as she has been lying to him this whole time, and Ulvissen about working with Voltrono after Kith recognised him. He banned them from Silvanost. This set up his assasination I believe.
When he is invited to the territory Kith is working in, they all go for a hunt, and Sithel is murdered by a forester named Dremic who works for Ulvissen. They run the humans off when they threaten the elves, and Sithas, the new speaker demands recompense from the Ergothian emperor, knowing War is imminent. He sends Kith back out to the territory to protect Silvanesti, and he confronts Hermathya, his wife. She tried to assassinate Kith by hiring Vedvedsica, who then told Sithas. This leaves her a traitor and alone with the threat of prison if she doesn’t stand down. Sithas is now also alone. His father died. His wife is a traitor, his brother is far away, and his mother is in mourning. The state of the Silvanesti nation has never been more precarious since the Dragon Wars.
I really wish this was made into a series, because it is so good. I am not covering every single event that occurs, and I highly recommend you read this trilogy if you love Dragonlance, Elves or political and military drama. It is rich with passion, betrayal, loyalty and sacrifice. This is a brilliant novel!
Outro
But that’s it for my review of Firstborn by Tonya C. Cook and Paul B. Thompson. Do you like the Silvanesti culture, even its slavery? Would Kith Kanan make a better speaker than Sithas? And finally would you watch a series based on this trilogy? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).
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