With the All-Dragons and First Dragon Wars influenced by the appearance of both dragons and magic, let’s learn how it all informs the Second Dragon War! Buy Dragons of Krynn: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/28592/dragonlance-campaign-setting-3-5?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
The dragon wars have always been about two things, and one of them was magic.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today I am going to talk about the Second Dragon War. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, 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. I am referencing Wings of Fury, The Dragonlance Campaign Setting and Dragons of Krynn sourcebooks for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
I misspoke at the end of the First Dragon War episode about Aurican dying as it was the great females of his brood, not he who died. Aurican was the great patriarch of the powerful wyrmlings in the absence of the female metallic dragons. As they grew, this generation’s independence truly shone. For they spread out all across Ansalon, losing touch with each other, and at times, ever warring with each other. It would be centuries that these dragons were able to practice their magic and explore the world in the absence of the chromatic dragons. The chromatic dragons might have been lost to time forever had the dwarves not arrived in the Khalkists. This new delving was called New Hope, or Thorin. This new kingdom of the dwarves was the very place Silvanos hid away the Dragonstones during the First Dragon War, and it didn’t take the dwarves long to discover them.
Once her children were discovered the Dark Queen woke Crematia. Crematia had a nest of her own in Darklady Mountain, and when she woke, so did her eggs. The first was Deathfyre who would prove worthy of his matriarch’s crown. Not only did Crematia reunite the ogre clans, she also recruited the ancient lizardfolk, the Bakali. With these two forces under her power, all she had left to do was reclaim the dragonstones. She laid waste to a full company of royal dwarven guards, then made her demand for tribute. She demanded her dragonstones, but in truth the Thane only found the white one. He handed it over and demanded she return in a century for the next. Thi provided the dwarves time to locate each and in time, Crematia had them all.
Crematia needed to release the dragon’s souls from the dragonstones and used ancient bakali shaman in sacrifice. When both were plunged into Darklady mountain’s volcano it exploded, raining destruction over hundreds of miles and subsequently formed the Lords of Doom. The immense forces which were unleashed allowed Takhisis to reach into Krynn and tore them asunder, and ultimately the dragons were released. The initial onslaught which marked the beginning of the second dragon war was vastly more brutal than the first. Great legions marched against the elves in their forests laying waste as dragons soared overhead, pulverizing all resistance.
The three long-lived brother mages from the first dragon war used theri potent magics to slow the onslaught and aid in evacuation, but they couldn’t stop it. The race of elves was nearly wiped from Krynn until they fell back to Silvanost and did what in the Fifth Age would be their undoing… They erected a massive magical barrier around the city and they were forced to remain trapped as their forests were raised around them. Aurican knew the metallic dragons were no match for the more mature chromatics, and their magic was not as strong. So in an act of desperation, the gold Aurican faced the dragon hoard himself. While the younger metallics remained in the grotto, Aurican decimated many of his chromatic cousins, eventually facing Crematia herself. The dragon battle was like none ever witnessed on Krynn, ending with Aurican finally destroying the red menace.
As Aurican returned to the grotto, he discovered in his absence that Deathfyre had led the chromatics to the High Kharolis Mountains and brutally slaughtered more than half of the young metallics. In the end only ten metallic dragons escaped the slaughter with Aurican dying in the battle. This left Silvanost vulnerable. Knowing they could not hold out forever, the three brother mages approached Silvanos with a plan. They used the assistance of a Scion and unleashed magic from within the bowels of the world. Sorcerous power such as Krynn had never seen was unleashed and swept across the land. It pulled the dragons from the skies and petrified them in their graves, but it didn’t stop there. The wild magic twisted some trees into writhing serpents, melted others, and left even more as lashing tentacles in the land. The forest itself turned against the elves just as it turned against the chromatic’s ogre and bakali armies.
The brother mages vanished along with the Tower of the Sun in a great cyclonic storm. This saved them from a mob of enraged elves for what they had wrought. The five surviving pairs of metallic dragons vanished from the knowledge of history for several centuries. Callak and silver Daria fled to the high mountains of Southern Ergoth. The gold Auricus, and his mate Blythelan disappeared, probably taking the form of human scribes in Palanthas. The bronze laired in the southwestern coast of Ansalon, and the brass and coppers sought warmer climates in the north. Worse yet was the fate of the chromatic dragons. All of them were destroyed save for Deathfyre and his clutch of eggs. The magic unleashed forced him into slumber beneath the Lords of Doom however, and it would be over a thousand years before the world heard from him again, though in the darkness he would grow, and dream of revenge.
This marked not only the end of the Second Dragon War, but the formation of the Orders of High Sorcery. I would recommend watching that video if you are interested in the outcome of the three elven brother mages. In the time after the second dragon war, the metallic dragons were able to secure their foothold on Krynn while the other mortal races secured and grew their own empires. Every metallic dragon in the Fifth Age of Krynn can trace their lineage to these five surviving pairs forming a legacy that would last millennia. The dwarves would discover the ancient dragon grotto in the Kharolis and form Thorbardin within it. Ergoth rose and split forming Solamnia. The elven nation of Silvanesti split, forming Qualinesti. The brutal civil wars between these nations only cemented the fact that their connection to the dragons of old was gone.
The Dragon Isles would be discovered by the dragons and the city of Aurialastican, the City of Gold would be founded. The dragons would work in secret, aiding the mortals of the world, secretly allowing them to build up their empires and history. The Orders of High Sorcery spread across the continent, and for a time, everything seemed right in the world, or as right as it has ever been. With the fledgling empire of Istar rising, and the Time of Knights in its zenith, it was only a matter of time before the Queen of Darkness would awaken Deathfyre.
Outro
But that is all the time I have to talk about the Second Dragon War. What do you think of Deathfyre surviving the wild magical surge? Did the elves doom their ancestors with that magical barrier, as Cyan Bloodbane would slowly kill them with it in the Fifth Age? And finally, have you ever visited the Dragon Isles in your home campaigns? 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 one eye is fixed upon thy destination, there is only one eye left with which to see the way there.
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