He is one of the most complex characters who struggles with the role of leadership thrust upon him. Not to mention the polar opposites of women that dominate his life. Let’s learn more about Tanis Half-Elven. Buy The Art of the Dragonlance Saga: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17389/The-Art-of-the-Dragonlance-Saga?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
He is the personification of balance being pulled in two opposite directions. Let’s learn more about Tanis Half-Elven.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Tanis Half-Elven. 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 many sourcebooks and novels for this information. If you feel I have left anything out, please leave a comment below.
Discussion
Tanis Half-Elven was one of the three characters developed by Tracy and Laura Hichman that would encapsulate the theme of Dragonlance. The balance of the world between Good, Evil, and Neutral and how that balance needed to be maintained in order to keep the clockwork of the world in motion. This is witnessed in Tanis’ relationship with Laurana and Kitiara. This is a lot to put on any one character, but it added a depth and relatable humanity to the character. It is the basic urge we all feel, that we struggle with what is known and comfortable and what is exotic and unknown at the most basic of levels. Even as he was married to Laurana at the end of the Blue Lady’s War, he would still think of Kit. In Dragonlance Adventures it is characterized as follows: There is always in the back of Tanis’ mind the fantasy of Kitiara-just as Kit knew there would be when she aided his escape from the Temple at Neraka. Much as Crysania is in love with an ideal of Raistlin that can never possibly be, so Tanis is in love with an ideal of Kitiara. And though he had to let her go to Lord Soth, he still held her in his heart, as I believe we all do, for those we have made intimate connections with, even if they hurt us in some way.
More than the love triangle, Tanis was at war with himself. He is an incredibly introspective character that is constantly questioning his ability to lead and the soundness of his actions. He questions his friends’ behavior and honestly cares about them, even in disagreement. He suffers from severe self doubt and depression according to the authors and I believe his actions speak to that chemical or trauma based imbalance. It is echoed in his racial makeup as well between his elven mother and human father. He was born in a catastrophic time and depending on the backstory, born of violence or unfortunate circumstance. In either case he was not accepted and was reminded that he was half-human, less than Elven, his entire life. This would cause emotional trauma for anyone, and I believe we can all relate directly or indirectly with his experience. He was by blood, the nephew of the Speaker of the Sun Solostaran Kanan, through the marriage of his mother Elansa Sungold and the Speaker’s brother Prince Kethrenan Kanan.
Though there are different tales of his background, one of violent rape, the result of an impossible situation Elansa found herself in with her captor Brand, or simply a bastard adopted by Solostaran, the facts are outlined in novels that he was a member of the royal household who was raised, educated and when he and Lauralanthalasa pledged themselves to each other, he was reviled by the brothers he knew his whole life. He left Qualinesti at the age of eighty to search for a friendly Niedar Dwarf toymaker named Flint Fireforge he had befriended in his youth. Tanis suffered from an early wanderlust, traveling for years never finding a home until he found himself in Solace with Flint where he lived for twenty years. He would return to his homeland of Qualinesti from time to time, always swearing to never return after receiving the same negative treatment from his ‘family’. It was in Solace where he met the innfellows, most notably Kitiara. Tanis believed he was rescuing Kit from hobgoblins and she was furious about his intervention. They fought which turned to wrestling which turned to, well taking off their boots. Tanis was fascinated by the wild, darkly beautiful Kitiara Uth Matar.
Their relationship continued, with Kit hiding her mercenary details. She found her opposite in Tanis, and admired his quiet introspection. She believed as her father that Power is the only truth, and this idea was foreign to and worried Tanis. Kit would leave him for extended periods, always returning to his arms as though no time passed. Tanis would melt under her crooked smile, laughing eyes and familiar touch. When the companions chose to separate, Tanis was heartbroken. Sturm and Kit traveled North, and he, knowing his relationship would end in tragedy due to their disparate lifelines, claimed to need time alone. After five years, Tanis had found no sign of the gods and had come to the conclusion that he didn’t need them. This is a belief he would hold throughout his life, finding frustration with the gods’ involvement in mortals’ lives.
This brings us to the innfellows return to Solace sans Kitiara, which saddened Tanis. Even after such a long absence his heart still pained for her. This is a pain that he would feel his whole life, as mentioned before, but he would be reminded of another pain in his travels. That of the growth of love from one that is wholly devoted to you. Tanis was frustrated with Laurana’s childish ways until he saw that she was not the child he remembered in his youth and repeated visits home. Laurana had blossomed into a capable, intelligent elf maiden who didn’t need him, as much as she wanted him. It is when the companions liberated the prisoners from Pax Tharkas that he started to grow feelings of affection and love for her. This is the moment of his true pain. He finds that he loves Laurana, but wants Kitiara. When they split in Tarsis during the dragonarmy raid, he suffered in King Loracs dream in Silvanesti which presented an image of Kitiara to him, stoking the fire already inside. When Kitiara found him in Flotsam, Tanis was an emotionally handicapped man, torn asunder. He hid his affair with Kit from his friends, betraying them, and they fled across the Blood Sea where they sank fleeing Kit.
They awoke in the remains of Istar beneath the sea, rescued by sea elves, and Tanis convinced Apoletta of the dangers of the Dark Queen. When they were transported to Kalaman, Tanis learned of the transformation of Laurana from the elf maiden he was growing love for, into the Golden General for the Whitestone Armies. He discovered that she gave everything up in an attempt to retrieve him and was captured, so he decided he needed to do the same. He loved Laurana and would never repeat his mistakes with Kit again. He finally knows what he wants, and he will travel to the heart of Neraka to get it. The bitter irony is that when he succeeds in his subterfuge with Kit to rescue Laurana, Laurana no longer trusts him. I will not repeat my thoughts about this, as I explained them in detail in the Lauralanthalasa Kanan episode, but when he is denied by Laurana and chases after her, it is his final rejection of Kitiara in front of Laurana where she sees the length Tanis traveled for her, and they eventually live to marry after the War of the Lance.
Kitiaras attempt to poison their relationship only worked as she was always a part of Tanis because of their shared history, and when he was faced with having to let her go to Lord Soth, though it pained him to do so, he did. Laurana and Tanis would have a sickly boy named Gilthas that Tanis never spent enough time with and struggled to relate to. When Gilthas left to Qualinesti and he was lost to Tanis, Tanis was devastated. Caramon would approach Tanis with a woman who was said to raise Sturm Brightblade and Kitiara’s son. They traveled to Storm’s Keep and learned of the threat of the Knights of Takhisis. Then they kidnapped Steel and took him to his fathers tomb beneath the High Clerists Tower where Sturm’s ghost gave his son the Starjewel and Brightblade. Sturm asked Tanis to protect his son, and when the Knights of Takhisis assaulted the High Clerists tower in the Summer of Chaos, Tanis did just that, stopping an attack on Steel, which left him vulnerable, and he was killed from behind by a Tarmak warrior. Tanthalas Half-Elven was laid to rest in the Tomb of the Last Heroes.
He struggled with his identity his entire life. He fought on the side of good, ever trusting in his friends and ultimately the love of his life Laurana, and gave his life for his friends son. Tanis is a flawed hero in every sense of the word and I absolutely love him as a character. I am devastated by his inability to connect with his son, inspired by his love for his wife, and encouraged by his devotion to his friends and a better tomorrow.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about Tanis Half-Elven. Do you feel he lived up to the expectation of his Innfellows? Would the Dark Queen have won without his intervention? And finally do you feel like he had an acceptable demise? Leave a 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, remember:
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