He was the last Kingpriest of Istar, known as the lightbringer. Let’s learn more about Beldinas Pilofiro and how he caused the cataclysm. Buy Legends of the Twins: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/3252/legends-of-the-twins-3-5?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
He went from obscurity as an orphan to infamy as the Lightbringer.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Kingpriest of Istar. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, and invite you to consider becoming a DLSaga member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Legends and Kingpriest trilogies, DLA Dragonlance Adventures, and Legends of the Twins sourcebooks for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
There are few characters as notorious as the last Kingpriest of Istar. In fact when anyone mentions Kingpriest, it is not the many Kingpriests that preceded Beldinas Pilofiro that they think of, but rather the Lightbringer himself. This is twofold. First and foremost, he was the last Kingpriest of Istar and the one that caused the Cataclysm! The entire campaign world is based around the Age of Despair, the three hundred plus years after the Cataclysm which rocked and fundamentally changed the face of Krynn forever. And when referencing the Kingpriest in Legends, he is a holy man shrouded in light, able to bring back the dead, and perform miracles while simultaneously being terrified of every shadow.
Up until the Kingpriest trilogy by Chris Pierson, we had no idea how this Lightbringer became the Kingpriest and how he brought about the Cataclysm, outside of challenging the gods that is. Chris Pierson contextualized and created the character of Beldinas, and gave us an epic story that lives up to the incredible tragedy of the known outcome. Beldinas, or Beldyn, grew up as an orphan in the streets of Xak Tsaroth. Somehow he developed the ability to heal the sick, and was discovered by a cleric of Paladine. The head of the church accused Beldyn of witchcraft, so the cleric took him into the Kharolis Mountains and they founded a monastic order together.
The First Daughter of Paladine followed a vision which led her to a prophesied savior, or the Lightbringer, and she found Beldyn in his monastery. They were traveling to Istar when the current Kingpriest died. The First Son of Paladine took up the mantle and with Fistandantilus whispering in his ear manipulating him, he craved the power of the Kinpriest and cast the First Daughter and Beldyn out of the church before they even returned home. The journey for them to Istar took a long time however and everywhere they went Beldyn was curing the sick and injured. He built up a following which journeyed with him to ultimately challenge Kurnos, the First Son and resident Kingpriest’s accusations.
Beldyn was able to recover the lost Crown of Power, the Miceram, with the aid of a devotee, and Kurnos tried to assassinate Beldyn, the first of many attempts at his life which would drive him into darkness as a ruler, but killed the first daughter instead. A second attempt took the life of Cathan, his dear friend. Beldyn raised him from the dead, and arrived at Istar and confronted Kurnos and took the throne. Beldyn became Beldinas Pilofiro, the Lightbringer, the Kingpriest of Istar and declared war on all evil. The Kingpriests reign began in glory. His success at rooting out evil with his knighthood, the Divine Hammer, was encouraging to him and his followers, but in a vacuum of evil, victories must still must be made, and lesser evils rooted out. He turned to the Wizards of High Sorcery which resulted in the Lost Battles and the destruction of two Towers of High Sorcery.
Then he began reading the thoughts of his people and arresting those around him with fleeting evil thoughts. And lastly he declared all neutral gods and their followers to be evil. His sway over the public was incredible, and terrifying. No one was safe, no one was holy enough, and no one could stop the Kingpriest. The craziest of all, is that most didn’t want to! It took his closest friend Cathan to rebuke his actions which revealed an insurgency within Istar but that only drove the Kingpriest to even more radical actions. He believed that Paladine was weak for allowing the corruption of good to exist, and deigned to demand that he the Kingpriest be elevated to godhood to take his place. The gods sent thirteen warnings which went unheeded. Paladine even offered redemption to Lord Soth in death if he would confront and battle the Kingpriest, but he failed to even make the journey to Istar. It seemed as though the fate of the world was sealed.
The vision of a fiery hammer striking Krynn that tormented Cathan, the Kingpriests former most devout follower and friend until the end came true, and it was revealed to him by Paladine that he, not Beldyn was prophesied to be the Kingpriest, and the First Daughter was swayed by Beldyn’s power and the obscurity of prophecy. His final act was to steal the Disks of Mishakal and take them to the place that started it all, Xak Tsaroth, for future generations to find. The seed of light was planted and the mountain fell on Krynn, sundering it. The Kingpriest was seen as a paragon of good by all. But in his heart he was a terrified, weak man. While the glory of Istar was more in its promise than actual execution as a nation, the power of the head of Istar, the Kingpriest, would not be rivaled until the coming of the Master of the Past and Present. But the lessons of the Kingpriest would not be learned.
The sin of hubris was perhaps the first sin the Kingpriest committed, and yes, Fistandantilus was manipulating the Kingpreists the whole time, but the choice to act was still on the shoulders of the Kingpriests. Beldyn, or Beldinas Pilofiro, or the Lightbringer, or the Kingpriest of Istar destroyed the world in the effort to purify it. His obsession drove his actions, and his blindness to the truth of existence sealed the world’s fate. It even falls on the people of Krynn who worshiped him, stood by and watched, allowing their freedoms to be taken, all in the name of good. While Dragonlance as a campaign setting is founded on the pillars of Good, Neutrality and Evil, and it is the unbalancing of any of those pillars that cause the others to rise up against it; it is understandable that good can never rule, inasmuch as evil could never rule.
I actually like to take this understanding and apply it to my life as well. As soon as your actions begin to affect others’ you need to reevaluate your behavior. Believe what you want. Whatever makes you feel content or happy within yourself. Live your best life, in the way you see fit. But as soon as your actions or beliefs begin to affect others’ freedoms, well, that’s when you are no better than the Kingpriest. Your fervent need to impose your view on the world, even if it comes from a place of good inside you, will inevitably be seen as aggressive and manifest as destruction. All you ever have to do is look at any period in our known history up to and including today to see how it is true.
The Kingpriest failed to acknowledge the most important aspect of life. The aspect which is enshrined in the American constitution and celebrated by all democratic nations around the world. To secure the blessing of liberty. Freedom. Freedom to think what you want to think, act how you want to act, live how you want to live as long as it doesn’t hurt another citizen. We step up, fight, and die for that security, to preserve its possibility. And we even find lessons in fantasy books to remind us of its importance.
Outro
And that is all I have to say about The Kingpriest of Istar. Do you think there was ever a chance the Kingpriest would have seen the error of his ways? Could Lord Soth have stopped the Cataclysm? And finally do you ever see the evil in those who purport to do good actions? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
When the gods wish a rare jest, they will answer a man’s questions.
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