The origins of the Flying Citadels do not begin and end with Lord Ariakas. Let’s travel to Taladas and look at the true inventors of the first Sky Citadels. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16960/Time-of-the-Dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
You may believe Ariakas invented Flying citadels, but that would mean ignoring thousands of years of history…
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Flying Citadels. I am referencing the Time of the Dragon boxed set in addition to the War of the Lance sourcebook primarily for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.
Discussion
Flying citadels are a huge visual icon to Dragonlance, from Kieth Parkinson’s first painting for Dragonlance to the Blue Lady’s War. They are in essence the absolute aircraft carrier of troops, most being able to house around three thousand troops at once! But how are they crafted and where do they come from? Most of our first introduction to the Flying Citadel is from the Siege of Kalaman in the Chronicles trilogy. They were first truly highlighted in the Blue Lady’s war, as mentioned already, but historically, a flying citadel was the cause of Hylo being founded. You will recall that in twenty-six hundred Prae Cataclius, a clan of Kender came across a flying citadel, became trapped and ended up taking it for a bit of a joy ride, ultimately crashing into the Sentinel Mountains in what would come to be the Empire of Ergoth. But where did that flying citadel come from?
Between the Time of the Dragon and Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn boxed sets, we are introduced to the Smiths, who were originally transported to Taladas by Reorx himself in the Age of Light, and the Gnomoi and the Minoi, who were cursed by Reorx. The Minoi are the Gnomes we know from Ansalon. The Smiths were masters of elemental magic, this predated the three gods of magic. In this Age of Dreams, the Smiths would craft truly amazing structures and inventions under the tutelage of Reorx. They crafted amazing machines that traveled the land, sea and air! Now this is a bit of conjecture, but I believe this is where Sky Citadel’s were first crafted! Of course the Smiths were truly obsessed with building what they referred to as the Great Machine, a sort of war machine that was powered by the Greygem. And we all know what happened when they were tricked into locating it. The elemental magic of the Smiths waned with the foundation of the Orders of High Sorcery, and they ultimately lost their magic as they knew it, and were cursed by Reorx. This is the point where we are first introduced to the Gnomoi, or Gnomes of Hitehkel.
The gnomes of Hitehkel divide history into three periods: The Birthing Age, from that moment Reorx created them to the releasing of the Greygem; The Cursed Age, from the releasing of the Greygem to the Cataclysm; and Reorx’s Gift, the current age. Though the timeline records the creation of the Sky Citadels in the early years after the cataclysm, is it a stretch to believe they were trying to recreate their ancestors’ machines from ages past? Machines that not only flew in the skies, but could travel to space! The gnomes of Hitehkel, not unlike Spelljammers, used a combination of magic and technology. They learned to harness this art and a faction of them believed they must leave Krynn itself. After trial and error, as they no longer could manipulate elemental magic as their ancestors did, they crafted giant, floating rocks they called sky citadels.
Because of the immense difficulty in crafting them, only a few sky citadels were ever created. They demanded entire mountaintops to be carved away in a laborious and painstaking process. First you must locate a suitable peak, then raise a town to house the workers around it. Then you would begin the excavation and installation of machinery and magic. The final step would be the undercut of the mountain, and if crafted correctly, the sky citadel would hover gently in the air. This was not always the end result. In some cases, the citadel would crumble under the weight, or in rarer cases, shoot straight up into the sky.
In all, the Gnomoi crafted seven sky citadels. One was destroyed by a volcano, another disappeared into the heavens. One was swept away in a mighty storm, later appearing in Ansalon! The fourth immediately crashed on its maiden voyage, the fifth and sixth were successful and can still be found in use today, and the last can be seen as the half carved peak of Mt. Whiterock, long abandoned by its builders, and home to foul creatures. It is the third one that I believe was discovered by the Kender clan who ultimately founded Hylo, even though the timelines do not match up. We find throughout Dragonlance history, reinterpretations, errors in dates and times and in some cases thousands of years in error. This, in my head-cannon, is one such case.
Of course, knowledge of Taladas’ Sky citadels would last until Highlord Ariakas’ planning of the Dark Queens war some three hundred years after the cataclysm. After discovering the scattered notes of dwarven clerics of Reorx in fallen Thoradin, Ariakas would embark on months-long planning, preparation and construction of his own flying citadels which he used as mobile command bases during the War of the Lance, most notably in the Siege of Kalaman. His citadels would be crafted between a Black Robe wizard and cleric of Takhisis, as is common to all Dragonarmy creations it seems. The installation of the Wind Captain’s Chair in the Wings of Stone chamber is the final step after the engineers, architects, and excavators have completed their work. The Flying Citadels are piloted by a single Wind Captain.
Again, this is not entirely unlike the Spelljammer’s helm. If you can suspend disbelief in a flying castle, why not take one step further with a flying ship with its own generated atmosphere?
The art of crafting these structures was not only known to the Dragonarmies however, as we see the descendants of the Smiths after their second migration back to Ansalon, and the founding of the Dwarven kingdoms. The dwarves of Thorbardin called back to their own ancestor’s technology, much like the Gnomoi before them, in crafting Derkin’s Tomb. Huma’s tomb in the Vale of the Dragon also featured a floating temple in ages past. In all, whether the knowledge is directly taken from the Smiths, the Gnomes or the Dwarves, it seems the true blame lies on the god Reorx. It was he who nurtured curiosity and invention in the ancient races of Krynn. It was his capturing of chaos in the Graygem that changed those people irrevocably, and his worship that kept the dream of flying war machines alive throughout the centuries.
Flying Citadels may not be the most effective troop transport machines, as they seem to have one fatal flaw, that arguably all life on Krynn suffers from…. Kender! An interesting side note, did you know Kieth Parkinson secretly added Dr. Who, K9, and the Tardis in the painting?
Outro
But that is all I have to say about Flying Citadels. I hope you enjoyed the information. Do you believe they were effective in their application? Have you ever used them in your games? And finally if you were to transport troops, would a gigantic flying rock be the best way of doing so? Leave a comment below.
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Most of us walk in light and shadow but there are the chosen few who carry their own light to brighten both day and night.
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