Dragonlance has evolved throughout the game platforms that birthed it, and magic is no exception. Let’s find out who magic is granted and accessed on Krynn. Buy Dragons of a Vanished Moon: https://amzn.to/3GoqTWW
Transcript
Cold Open
Does magic come from the gods, Krynn, within yourself or all of the above?
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the magic of Krynn. 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 link. I am referencing the appendix from Dragons of a Vanished Moon for this information. If you have any thoughts on how magic works in Dragonlance leave them in the comments below!
Discussion
As presented in the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules, Magic was gifted by the Gods to mortals. Divine magic was unavailable, as man had turned their backs on the gods since the Cataclysm. With the end of DL1 Dragons of Despair, Divine magic returned with Goldmoon and the Discs of Mishakal being delivered to Elistan, who would become the first priest of Paladine Alt Cataclius. Henceforth, once again, the true priests of the Gods were granted magic through their Holy Symbols. Arcane magic was granted to those willing to devote their lives to the art, but it was structured and controlled by the Orders of High Sorcery. This was a straightforward presentation of how and why magic existed on Krynn. This changed slightly as the campaign world grew in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. As the history of Krynn was being further detailed, the boxed set Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn presented ideas of elemental magic that was inherent in the planet that the Smiths could tap into and use. This magic would ultimately disappear with God’s continued influence and control and by the time the Graygem was lost, elemental magic was completely gone. Though the Scions as a result of the Graygem were able to still practice elemental magic. Whether this was a magical gift from Chaos or their ability to continue tapping into elemental magic lost to the Smiths is still yet unclear. Many of these Scions were slaughtered by their jealous kin, and of any still exist, it is only in hiding.
Then came the Summer of Chaos, and the true absence of the gods. In this Fifth Age and the SAGA System, Krynn was stripped of all Divine and arcane magic. Palin Majere would ask Fizban the Fabulous if any magic remained in the world just before his departure, and Fizban replied: “Not as you know it. There may be other magic. It is up to you to find it.”. What Palin would come to discover is that when the gods crafted Krynn, they imbued it with magical energies. This divine power is what grants all magical creatures their abilities and as it was dormant in the planet itself, mortals could learn to tap into it in the forms of Mysticism and Sorcery. Now, whether this ‘new’ magic was in fact just the Elemental magic of old, or if it was something separate was never clarified in the time, but it is certain that there are two distinct areas from which the denizens of Krynn draw magic from. The Gods or the planet itself.
Then came the War of Souls, and it all changed again. A new understanding of the Fifth Age in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition was made as Takhisis had stolen the world, the gods didn’t depart it, and it was her who granted magic to all, in the form of Mysticism and Sorcery. While the spirits of all who died remained, bringing her magical power, making her even stronger. Whether this was just Takhisis’ way of manipulating the people of Krynn or if it was the truth was clarified by Tracy Hickman and Matthew L. Martin in the appendix of Dragons of a Vanished Moon. In the section Glory of the Gods: The Four Powers, they outline that it is due to mortals’ actions and death that they lend power to the gods, and that the gods then return power to their living followers. Confused yet? Here, hold my drink….
The balance so important to Krynn, and by extension those who inhabit it, is outlined in the Tobril. The gods benefit from this as much as the mortals, as they benefit each other by playing the roles set out for each other by the High God. There are again, two kinds of power that exist on Krynn, the power that is granted by the Gods in the form of Divine and Arcane, and the power that is inherent to the creation of the planet in the forms of Mysticism and Sorcery. Not to get into the weeds too much, but even that can be seen as a gift from the gods as it exists because of their creation of the world. It is the cycles of Faith and Creation that connect the gods and mortals, affording a sort of symbiotic power flux to exist between them. There are inherent flaws to this idea such as, if the gods don’t have followers, do they still have power, or by extension power to give prospective followers, but then we’re getting a little too close to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods territory. Even the Wild magic is a result of the Mortals relationship to Krynn, so you could say, mortals are the magical element to, well… magic.
The ambient elemental or creative energy within Krynn is disrupted by Chaos, in the form of the Graygem, and Evil. As attempts to unbalance the planet and disrupt the natural order have dramatic effects on the give and take of magic itself. The same can be reiterated in the harmony between the gods and mortals, as not all gods are equal, neither are all mortals, so the great cosmic struggle continues both above and below. This is perfectly personified in the Fifth Age where Takhisis, bereft of worshippers, and too weak to present herselt, draws power from the souls trapped, unable to continue to the higher plane after death. But even this was not enough for the Dark Queen as she sent the souls out to drain casters and items of their magic. The balance is lost, and magic suffers. Rather than being an open circuit of souls entering the world, worshipping the gods and the gods feeding the energy back to mortals until their death, where they move onto another plane, Krynn becomes a closed circuit, empowering and unbalancing the world even more.
With Takhisis drawing power from the trapped souls and her followers, and the other gods bereft of both, she became increasingly more powerful by comparison. But again, the High God wrote in the Tobril, the Cycles of Faith and Creation, so when an imbalance is created all of the Gods and Mortals ultimately suffer. It is a rather simplistic, and if we’re honest, Abrahamic inspired outline that ties together the original inclusion of an existing game system with which birthed the campaign world, and the hard left turn it took when it jumped game systems in the Fifth Age. From Advanced Dungeons & Dragons to SAGA System and back again. In the post War of Souls Age of Mortals, the gods are increasingly reliant on mortals for influence in the heavens and on Krynn, as the mortals have a choice where they draw magic from. This presents an even more godly influenced game world than Krynn was to begin with… the Greek and Roman pantheons have nothing on Krynn!
Dragonlance certainly wears its stretch marks of growth on its sleeve, but as a fan of all of the systems, I like to believe it shows them with pride. Though Dragonlance may have taken wrong turns more than once, it seems to always correct itself in one way or another because we fans refuse to give up on it.
In this way, we are simply repeating the cycle outlined in the Tobril, in our world, but giving an incredible amount of power to the campaign world, even when it’s out of fashion, forcing the powers that be to cycle back and give us even more. I for one could do without the Abrahamic dogma of the Cycles of Faith and Creation, but if I am being honest, they do end up adding even more flair to this already exciting and engaging world. So if I have to take a bit of salt with the sweet, bring it on!
Outro
But that is all I have to say about the magic of Krynn. Is this presentation of magic new for you? Is it much different from how you perceived it before? And finally, are you interested in how magic works in the lore at all? Leave a comment below.
I am able to create these weekly videos because of your attention and support. If you are not already a member of this YouTube channel, I would like to invite you to consider becoming one. If you would like to pick up any edition of Dragonlance gaming materials, feel free to use my affiliate link in the description.
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, remember:
The dark crimes that stain my soul, brother, you cannot begin to imagine.
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