Join me as I review The Kagonesti by Douglas Niles, live! Share your thoughts on this first novel in the Dragonlance Lost Histories series, released on March 1, 1995 by Wizards of the Coast. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3NIZN3i
About The Kagonesti
The Age of Light
Forests cover Ansalon. Under the legendary Silvanos, the elves of Krynn begin to tame the wilds and raise their crystal cities. But as the Elderwild Kaganos journeys toward a mystical encounter high in the mountains, he knows that, for his tribe, the woodlands must remain their eternal home. As centuries pass and Dragonwars rage, the tribe of Kaganos battles encroaching humans and the minions of the Dark Queen, aided by a potent lgacy guided by revered pathfinders…. Until the wild elves stand upon the brink of the deadliest challenge of all – a challenge that marks a choice between annihilation and survival. The Lost Histories Series probes the historical roots and epic struggles of the heretofore little – known peoples of Krynn.
Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Holmswelth the 28th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Kagonesti by Douglas Niles. 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.
Book One is set during the First Dragonwar, before the elves were unified under Silvanos. We are following Kagonos as he is racing through the wilderness to look upon a goat that he has spied on in the past. He sees a Silvanesti named Quithas has struck the goat with an arrow from atop his griffon and before he can kill the goat, Kagonos steps in. He refuses to let Quithas kill the Goat and they struggle, with Kagonos besting Quithas and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t back down. He then takes Quithas’ ax, a gift from Silvanos, and Quithas leaves, upset. I was bothered by this because the Elven Nation Trilogy says the elves didn’t use Griffons as mounts till Kith-Kanan. Yet in this book we’re led to believe there are many griffon riders to fight the dragons. This would be a simple fix if Douglas Niles only recalled the book he wrote in the Elven Nations Trilogy about that very event! The lack of consistency is maddening to me.
Kagonos approaches the Grandfather Goat which actually speaks, thanking him, and he nurses it back to health. The Goat transforms into a massive silver dragon named Darlantan. The dragon tells Kagonos that he is the True Pathfinder of the Elderwilde, and he will be honored if he swears to never take a wife or enter the Silvanesti territory. Darlantan wants Kagonos to lead his people. Kagonos agrees and is given one of the horns from the Grandfather Ram. He is instructed to use it when in danger and that the silver dragons would come to his aid. This binds the Elderwilde elves with the Silver Dragons for all time.
Then we fast forward to the war efforts, and a blue dragonstone was taken by the Dark Queen’s ogre forces. The elves were trapping the dragons in them to win the war. Kagonos goes after the blue dragonstone and leads a raiding party into the ogre encampment, ultimately getting it back, when Quinthas, now a general in the war, arrives to collect it for Silvanos. Quinthas hates Kagonos, and is in a worse mood as he lost his son in the war. He threatens him, takes the stone and leaves. Then Kagonos goes to meet with Silvanos who offers him a place in Silvanesti as House Servitor, which Kagonos refuses. Then he is summoned to Darlantan who is dying. Kagonos reinforces his pledge to the wyrm and Darlantan dies from his wounds in the war. Quinthas then arrives telling Kagonos that he is going to die and his people are being welcomed into Silvanesti.
Enraged, Kagonos fights and beheads Quinthas and races back to Silvanos. He tells them what happened and they are beside themselves. He refuses to join the Silvanesti again, and blows the horn. Every elf that approaches has their tribal paint burned into their flesh as tattoos and Silvanos tells Kagonos his people will now be known as the Kagonesti. I love how they depict the struggles between the elves, even while they are at war. And the foresight of Kagonos of the enslavement of his people by the SIlvanesti. Liberty is never given, it has to be taken, and it takes a vigorous democratic system to maintain. The Kagonesti knew this and though they use their passion for the old ways rather than a political system to maintain their liberty, it is so nice to see the price being paid.
The Second Book is set during the Third Dragon War centuries later, after Qualinesti has been built. We are now following the character Ashtaway who is the nephew of the new Pathfinder, Wallaki. Ash is looking to meet a girl named Hammana when he hears a horn call. He races to its source thinking it’s his uncle and sees Knights of Solamnia fighting Red Dragons in the distance. He continues on and meets Hammana en route, who also heard the call. They meet a silver dragon named Lectral. Lectral is wounded from the war and warns about the Dark Queen looking to reinforce her territory, as she fears a knight named Huma. Hammana is a healer, the daughter of the shaman, and takes care of the silver dragon as Ash goes off to hunt for food. He collects a deer for the dragon, and one for himself, and runs off to his village.
He discovers Bakali have raided his village and murdered many warriors. He draws their attention and begins picking them off through the chase, as he discovers his uncle going to collect the ram’s horn. He aids in retrieving it as the Bakali burn their village, and the Kagonesti flee their village together. They regroup and they argue about what they need to do. Look for a new Home, as the Bakali now know of their location, they will keep coming back, or enacting revenge on the Bakali. Iydaway, the Pathfinder, decides they will return to camp to enact revenge, then look for a new home. The warriors all return with the Pathfinder and begin slaughtering the Bakali. As they start to flee, they are met in their flank by a Knight of Solamnia.
This is the same Knight Ash had watched fight the dragons and seemingly die. But he helps the elves defeat every last creature. The Knight is named Sir Kamford Willis, Knight of the Rose. He tells the story about trying to find a way to Sanction with the Knights to destroy the supply lines of the Dark Queen. The elves, very distrustful of the Knight, are ready to murder him as he is a human, but Ash vouches for him, as he is impressed by the knights honor and skill. Then he is called to his uncle Iyadaway. He was wounded in the attack and is dying, but before he dies, he hears Ash’s story about the Silver dragon and its horn, and he grants the horn to Ash, who will be the new Pathfinder and leader of their tribe. Ash doesnt want it as he wants to marry Hammana, but accepts the charge.
He returns to the Knight and tells him that he knows a way through the mountains to Sanction, and will lead his knights. This sets the Kagonesti in alarm, but as he is the Pathfinder, they must respect his judgment. Ash makes plans to meet Sir Kamford and returns to Lectral and Hammana. She sees that he is the Pathfinder and grows cold, as Pathfinders cannot marry and she loves Ash. The Dragon is healing up well, and vouches for the Knights of Solamnia for being honorable and good. Many of the races the Kagonesti have hated for generations have good people among them, and the dragon tries to teach Ash this idea.
Ash meets the knights when they return one hundred strong, and leads them through the mountains into Sanction. You naturally have the arrogant knight interaction with Ash, but it is managed by Sir Kamford. They finally arrive in the mountains around Sanction and the knights enter the city and start destroying storehouses and any creature willing to fight them. Ash sees an ogre slaver whipping dwarves and kills him, freeing the Gully Dwarves who tell him of tunnels through the mountain. Then Ash sees dragons coming to protect Sanction. Many knights die before Ash directs them all to the tunnels and the gully dwarf agrees to guide them to safety as the arrogant knight sacrifices himself so they can retreat to safety.
All of this is ingrained in Ash’s mind as he grows more respectful and fond toward the knights and their tactics. Ash thanks the Gully Dwarf Highbulp Toofer and names him a pathfinder too. The knights, now on the other side of the mountains regroup with only sixty of them left and return to Solamnia. Ash takes a long time to return home, reflecting on everything he experienced. He decides to be a different pathfinder and evolve. He returns to Hammana and asks for her hand in marriage and says he will lead his tribe differently than past pathfinders have. Lectral respects the changes and Ash returns to his people with Hammana. They arrive and Ash asks Hermanna’s father for his permission to marry her. Everyone is thrilled by the news, and accepts the changes that the new Pathfinder decrees.
The final book in this novel is set a thousand years later, and a little over a dozen years before the Cataclysm initially. We follow the new warrior Iydahoe of the Whitetail village. Istar Legionnaires have destroyed the Silvertrout village, one of the four Kagonesti villages they each know of. He finds the Pathfinder dead, and the ram’s horn shattered. He collects the fragments of the horn and Iydahoe rushes back to his home to tell everyone, and his father Hawken, the shaman, is away on one of his regular spirit walks. The clan chief refuses to believe him initially, but Iydahoe chose him the horn fragments. The chief sends warriors to the other two tribes to see what they have to say.
As Iydahoe goes out to take young ones to fish he hears iron men and horses but sees no one, until an invisibility spell drops and a Gray Wizard is directing the soldiers. Iydahoe rushes back to his village and the battle is on. For some reason the Istar Legionnaires are exterminating the Kagonesti one village at a time. As many of the villagers are dying against the well trained, equipped, and insurmountable numbers of troops, Iydahoe flees with as many elves as he can find, to a hidden cove he discovered years ago.
There the remaining Kagonesti live for years. All of the four tribal villages were utterly destroyed, leaving Istar to believe they exterminated the Kagonesti. Rage consumes Iydahoe, as he frequently goes out to hunt the legionnaires as they enter his forest. He sees that the Istar troops have been marking the trees for some reason, and for years, he murders all of them. Iydahoe is called to another warrior who has a House elf, or Silvanesti as we know them, who was captured. He tells them that the Kingpriest is building a road to connect the world, and they want to build it through these forests, which is why he had all the local peoples killed. Then the house elf attacked them. Iydahoe killed him, and returned to camp to relay the story. One of the younger warriors joins him on a journey to hunt, and they find a massive caravan of Istar troops and house elves willingly with the troops.
They are on a journey to Istar to sing for the Kingpriest, until they are ambushed. The Kagonesti kill many of the troopers until the House elf cleric charms the warrior with Iydahoe, who enters the wagon. Then the gray wizard summons a fire elemental to find and kill Iydahoe. He evades the elemental, after realizing he cannot kill it, then when the caravan leaves and sets up camp, Iydahoe sneaks in, only to be caught by the wizard who was invisible watching him enter the wagon. He captures him with a web spell, and they plan to burn him and his warrior friend at the stake. The elven cleric wishes to grant them peace by learning of Mishakal, and as he is readying to tell him, the House Elf Loralon appears suddenly and takes the cleric away, saying Istar is doomed.
The wizard takes up a staff to kill Iydahoe as the young elf, the cleric’s daughter and singer, casts sticks to snakes on the staff. Iydahoe kills the wizard, and they all use his invisibility powder to escape the encampment. The female house elf’s name is Vanisia, and she agrees to join their clan, but when they return they find Iydahoe’s father, the shaman Hawkan was taken by Loralon as well. Then the sky and forest turn against them, as Vanisia explains Loralon prophesied all of this years ago. She doesn’t know the whole prophecy, only that there will be thirteen signs before the end. Then after days, an ancient elf appears outside the village. As Iydahoe approaches him, asking him to join them in the safety of his hut, the old elf tells them to seek their ancient pathfinder, then vanishes.
Immediately Iydahoe recalls the story of the Grandfather Ram, and they all race up into the mountains. When they reach the summit, they witness the mountain crash into Krynn, destroying Istar. They are all rocked and shaken by the massive earthquake and they stumble off as they see the sea rising, splitting the land into bits. They barely make it away to see the sea calming, as Iydahoe is led by a vision of the Grandfather Ram to a horn. He accepts the horn as the new Pathfinder, and the last Kagonesti tribe learns in the years that follow, other Kagonesti survive in isles to the west, and they return to their ancient ways in their forests.
This was a great series of stories about the foundation of the Kagonesti. There were errors in the novel itself that I felt should have been noticed by an editor, and the whole griffon riding inconsistency was off putting, but I really appreciated seeing the Kagonesti lifestyle and customs. It only makes me appreciate them more, and reflect on how peaceful and rage filled these more native elves could be. I reflect back on being a child and learning about Native peoples of the Americas. I was always taught they were nature loving, peaceful peoples, but after learning about their history as an adult, I learned they were slavers and warmongers every bit as bad as the Europeans who exterminated them. This is not to justify anything, only to compare and contrast on the realities of a people who are often misunderstood to their own detriment, much like the Kagonesti.
If you enjoy elves, or Dragonlance history, you will definitely appreciate and enjoy this novel.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Kagonesti by Douglas Niles. Did you like the three books focusing on three different eras? Did you have a favorite era presented? And finally will we ever accept that all people have the capacity of compassion and destruction, and acknowledge that they are both integral to what it means to be human? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or comment below.
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