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About The Qualinesti
Under the leadership of the heroic Kith-Kanan, a new and mighty elven kingdom rises in the wake of the Kinslayer War
Kith-Kanan, the leader of the renegade elven society called Qualinesti, has fought long and hard to eradicate slavery in the elven lands and to achieve a harmonious society where all can live freely and equally. When he learns that a secret slave trade is underway in his own city, he sends his warrior daughter, Verhanna, to lead a battalion against the slavers.
As the fight for freedom continues and Verhanna sends word of her findings, Kith-Kanan forgets his many great deeds and is haunted only by his failures. The unfathomable behavior of his son and heir—and the ever-present factions between the elven people—forces Kith-Kanan to deeply question the society he has worked so hard to create.
Review
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga review episode. It is Kirinor, Holmswelth the 14th. My name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review of The Qualinesti by Tonya C. Cook and Paul B. Thompson. 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.
The novel opens at the commencement of the building of Pax Tharkas with King Glenforth Sparkstriker of Thorbardin and Kith-Kanan, Speaker of the Sun shaping the cornerstone together, Qualinesti has existed for eighty years at this point. Kith’s kids are presented with Verhanna showing the utmost respect and Ulvian being a whiny brat. When shards of the stone strike Ulvian’s cheek, he runs away screaming and crying. We immediately see, as we were led to suspect in the last novel, that the next heir to Qualinesti is a bitch. There’s no two ways about it. He is a spoiled brat who abuses his station. Kith Kanan announced that he will retire and his heir will become the next speaker when the citadel is complete.
Then we flash forward half a century or so with the completion of the citadel of peace, Pax Tharkas, just a few years away. Kith’s daughter is a captain in the honor guard, and his son is a degenerate gambler and ne’er-do-well. Kith demands that his honor guard round up the slavers that are persistently operating in his borders. As Verhanna leads the hunt she realizes that Ulvian is one of the slavers! She captures him and has him brought to his father the speaker. Kis father puts him on house arrest, not knowing what exactly to do, but wanting to keep it secret. His trusted confidants in the Thalas Enthia suggest beating him, or sentencing him, but he cannot be the next speaker. Kith, takes time alone and is presented with an avatar of Hiddukel in the guise of a sorcerer names Dru. The god tells Kith he will deliver another heir to him if he allows the slavery to continue. Kith refuses and Hiddukel warns Kith of calamity to come.
Kith was shown Hermathya chained at the ankles to prevent her from leaping off her balcony after her love, Kith left and her son was hobbled in the war. This makes him reflect on his first love, and how she turned into a tree with their baby inside of her. Kith decides to send his son to Pax Tharkas to work as a slave, to learn what it is like, to give him perspective and shame. Then the warnings come. First in the form of darkness for three days, then three days of lightning and finally as three days of red rain. As Verhanna is still searching for the slavers, she comes across a Kender named Rufus Wrinklecap, who she takes as a scout. She breaks her party into two groups as the slavers’ tracks split up. The majority of the force follows the larger group, and she takes two guards and Rufus to follow the others. ThHey are ambushed and left for dead. As they continue through the crazy weather they come across an elf slaver pretending to be a bard. He tells them a story of lightning striking an ancient oak and an elf exiting it with green hands. The other elves confirm this as true but their behavior leads Verhanna to suspect the elf is a slave, and she frees the others as she captures him.
They begin to head to Pax Tharkas to deliver the slaver when they are attacked by goblins, and Verhanna is poisoned. Rufus saves her and leads them to other elves who are with Greenhands. He heals Verhanna, and says he needs to find his father so he’s headed west, but doesnt know who his father is. Back in Qualinesti, the Thalas Enthia learns of the Prince being taken to Pax Tharkas and splits between the new landers who want to get the prince back and the Loyalists who trust Kith’s judgment. Kith explains everything, but the senators conspire behind his back. Discord rises to fever pitch in Qualinesti as the aberrant weather destroys crops and terrifies the populace.
In Pax Tharkas, Ulvian is beaten and nearly killed by a falling stone. An elf sorcerer named Drulethin saves him with magic before the foreman takes his magical artifacts. Dru schemes with Ulvian to escape and reclaim his homeland. Ulvian is initially hesitant, but after so many beatings, he wants revenge and agrees. We see Hiddukel is involved as the patron saint of Slavery, and Greenhands is clearly Kith’s son, and would be the ideal heir since Ulvian isn’t worthy of the role. I am interested to see where this goes, as I don’t remember any of this from my childhood.
Ulvian and Drulethin move forward with their path. Ulvian collects the spell components Dru needs to summon a clay golem which begins destroying the interior of Pax Tharkas. This is the distraction Uliie needs to collect the magical necklace for Dru. He faces off against the dwarven foreman but the clay golem falls apart at the end of the spell, on top of the foreman. Ullie and Dru flee and head toward Dru’s tower. They evade everyone, but Ullie refuses to give the whole amulet to Dru, knowing he will be of no further use to him. He tries to make a bargain with Dru, and Dru transforms into an eagle and flies them to his tower. Therein he traps Ullie until he hands over the amulet, or after his death he will find another to give it to him. It is protected by a charm.
Meanwhile Greenhands, Rufus, and Verhanna are traveling toward Pax Tharkas when they are robbed by Centaurs looking for food. Greenhands leads them all to a massive tree that has sprung up in his passing over the land. He carries with him ancient elemental magic from the land, like wild sorcery in the fifth age, or the ancient scions before the gods controlled magic. The centaurs rejoice and become friends sharing a song fortelling Greenhands ascension to rulership over elves. We all know this is the throne of Qualinesti. Then Greenhands diverts course, convinced he knows where his father is, and Hanna and Rufus follow. Hana is becoming attracted to this strange elf.
Kith Kanan, hears reports from Pax Tharkas of Ullie’s treatment and befriending of Dru from the foreman, and travels to Pax Tharkas to intervene, but then learn of their escape. He leads his men to track them down, and finds the tower. Kith enters and becomes trapped alone with Ullie, and they try to fight Dru to no avail. The other warriors are thrown out of the tower and cannot reenter, but then Greenhand and party arrive. He walks right in, and tells Kith he is his son. Kith cannot disbelieve him because he looks exactly like Anaya, his first wife, and believes this was the great event being foretold. They fight Dru together, and Dru reclaims the amulet and turns into a giant Wyvern. It battles with the elves, and Ulli e finally awakens and is told to flee with Greenhands by Kith who stands to fight. Ullie runs out, and Greenhands fights with Kith, wounding the Wyvern. They all run out as the warriors are running in, but this tower had many tunnels.
They end up defeating the Wyvern, slash Dru, and burn his corpse and fallen elves. Ulvie is awoken by the amulet calling to him from the flames, which he claims from the pyre. Kith tells his kids about Greenhand being his son, and will explain everything in the morning, but everyone is exhausted and crashes for the night. They all sleep for a couple of days and the first morning they are all awake Greenhands is asked by Hanna to summon the Centaurs to carry them all to Qualinost, and he does so. It takes nearly a full day for them to arrive, but they deliver the group to a welcoming populace in six days.
All the while Ullie is conversing with the amulet, scheming to become the next speaker. Kith presents his son, now known as Silveran, to his subjects to thunderous applause as the centaurs destroy the palace in their celebrations. Then Kith presents Silveran to the Thalas Enthia. I have always appreciated how the Qualinesti senate mirrors our own seemingly feckless and self interested US Senate. Representatives of the people, even in fantasy tales, crave power and don’t actually care at all for the people they serve. It just feels like I live in Qualinost some days. In either case the already split senate continues to be split and confounded by this new heir, and Kith announces his intention to have Silveran succeed him.
Darkness is in the house of the Speaker of the Sun however, as Ullie is manifesting visions of Dru to Silveran, driving him crazy. He nearly attacks Hanna with a crossbow before they lock him up for his own protection, fearing that he has gone mad. Ullie is doing this to discredit his new brother and to claim the throne for himself. It feels like a Vincent Price horror story, as Silveran descends into madness. The time comes where the vision pushes Silveran too far and as Kith comes to talk to his son, Silveran crushes Kith-Kanan’s skull in with the hammer gifted to him by the King of Thorbardin. Kith isn’t completely dead and Silveran is unconscious.
This leads Kith to traves to Anaya’s spirit before death, and it reminded me of my friend visiting me when I was battling a rather severe time of depression after he had committed suicide. Needless to say, the moment in the novel made my shed some tears in memory, but the idea of a world between worlds where you are able to communicate with the dead is a fascinating concept. Anaya tells Kith that his sion Ullie make Silveran attack him, and that it is time for Kith to pass on to the next life. He awoke stating that Silveran will be the next speaker, that he is innocent of his attack and that Ullie made him do it with the amulet of Hiddukel. He forbade anyone from harming Ullie and to forgive him, as few can resist a god’s schemes.
This enraged Hanna, but she obeyed. Then they all witnessed Kith-Kanan’s death, and I couldn’t help but shed a couple more tears. Kith was a brilliant commander, a compassionate mortal and a true leader. He wasn’t afraid to go toes if he had to and he knew how to take it on the chin when necessary. He is truly a great character and I can’t help but miss him. How silly is that? In any case, the novel ended with Tamanier Ambrodel’s son, now a general at Pax Tharkas, asking Silveran to ask his sister Hanna if she would marry him.
Life goes on, and I can’t help but be faced with the reality of Qualinesti falling really far from its founding to the Age of Despair. At least we can rely on the consistency of corruption in the Thalas Enthia, if nothing else…. I think everyone should read this novel and I demand the powers that be to make a House of the Dragon style series out of this trilogy, so get on it!
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Qualinesti by Tonya C. Cook and Paul B. Thompson. Do you like the idea of Kith’s son Silveran coming back to lead the nation? Was the inclusion of the Kender Rufus, just a Dragonlance trope? And finally can we ever have a representative government that actually represents the will of its people and not those in power? You can email me at info@dlsaga.com or 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 Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).
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