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Review
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. It is Palast, Paleswelt 30th, my name is Adam and today I am going to give you my Spoiler review The Second Generation. 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 my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. This is my perspective only, and if you have any thoughts or disagree with mine, I invite you to share them in YouTube chat.
Kitiara’s Son is about Steel Uth Matar Brightblade and his identity as a Knight of Takhisis, a new organization Ariakan Ariakas has formed after witnessing the fall of the Queen of Darkness’ forces at the end of the War of the Lance. With the Knights of Takhisis he is attempting to change the ‘Evil destroys itself’ paradigm. Steel’s foster mother Sara Dunstan, doesn’t want him to join the order, and reaches out to Caramon Majere to tell him about Steel being the son of his half sister Kitiara Uth Matar and his friend Strum Brightblade. Sara told the tale of how Kitiara and Strum traveled north together when the companions split for 5 years to search for the gods, and she grew to dislike Sturm, resolving to corrupt him in the only true way she can, through her body. It took time but she seduced him one night and mocked him, leaving him afterward. She came upon Sara Dunstan’s property, pregnant, looking for a cure. She was too far along for an abortion so she stayed to have the child, befriending Sara and sharing it’s origins with her, then left the child with her as she continued to seek fame in battle. Sara convinces Caramon to take Steel to the High Clerist Tower to see his father’s body in the Tomb of Paladine and Caramon travels to collect Tanis Half-Elven for support. Also to see if the child is really his, as no one believes her story about Kitiara and Sturm. They travel to Storm Keep via Sara’s blue dragon. She is a trainer there to watch after her adopted son. They drug Steel and take him to his fathers tomb. Sturm Brightblade appears as a vision, granting the sword Brightblade and the Nightjewel to Steel. Steel, Caramon and Tanis fight their way out of the tower and Steel leaves them to join the Knights. Takhisis says she wants Steel to keep the knight jewel saying she will have his soul in time.
The Legacy centers around Palin Majere, Caramon and Tika’s youngest son. He is a magic user, though his family took longer than they should’ve to enroll him in his studies, and because of that, he has struggled to catch up to his contemporaries. Caramon is insistent that Palin will never take the test of High Sorcery, but the Conclave of Wizards feels differently. They could sense his strength in the Art and his potential to be even greater than his uncle Raistlin Majere, so they devised a ruse to allow Palin to unknowingly take the test. They summoned Caramon, Sturm, Tanin, and Palin to the Tower of High Sorcery in Wayreth, and approached Caramon with the idea that Rasitlin was still alive. Caramon was insistent about him being dead as he had a vision granted by Paladine about it, but the wizards were concerned that if Palin took the test that Raistlin would try to capture his body as Fistandantilus captured Raistlin’s. They convinced Palin and Caramon to travel with Dalamar the Dark to the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthus to see if they could sense Raistlin. The ruse was that if Raistlin lived he would enter Palin’s body and Dalamar would have to kill him. When in the Tower, the guardian gave Palin alone the key and he entered the portal to the Abyss’ room. He witnessed the spellbooks of Fistandantilus and Raistlin, then he saw the Staff of Magius glowing and picked it up. Then he swept aside the curtain blocking the portal to the abyss, which activated itself and pulled Palin inside. He witnessed undead dragging Raistlin to a wall, where he was chained and disemboweled by the Queen of Darkness. Palin was terrified and puked repeatedly at the sight. Raistlin called to him and as he came near, Palin’s love began to hear Raistlin’s wounds. They left through the portal as the Queen of Darkness approached and Palin wanted to close the portal but Raistlin shared his approval and love of Palin. Telling him he could be his apprentice and rule over this world together, as it would be his gift for allowing Takhisis to enter through the portal. Ultimately Palin was tempted but chose to defy Raistlin and close the portal. Raistlin attacked him and as Palin was out, Raistlin revealed that this was all an illusion test by Dalamar for Palin, but that Palin’s love woke him from his slumber, and actually brought him back. It would also have pulled him from death had Palin agreed to his terms. Raistlin granted Palin the staff and the guardian delivered it to him after the test to Dalamar’s shock and dismay. The spirit of Raistlin awoke.
“Wanna Bet?” is a tale with two purposes. First it is meant to unify the sons of Tika and Caramon Majere in purpose and respect. Sturm and Tanin have always been curt and commanding over Palin, but through the course of this adventure, they find mutual admiration and respect for eachother. The second is to unleash the Greygem of Gargath upon the world again, leading into Dragons of Summer Flame. Reorx, in the guise of a flamboyantly dressed dwarf named Dougan Redhammer, met the brothers in an inn and made a bet with them that whoever stayed conscious the longest drinking Dwarven Spirits, would win the aid of the others. Naturally the young men lost to the god, and woke with massive hangovers, tied up on a ship. Dougan needed them to enter the Tower of Gargath on the Isle of Gargath to reclaim the Greygen he lost ages ago. They are on a gnomish vessel which breaks down as they approach the island. They are met by tribal human warriors who are more concerned with their children than defending the island as their women have been taken by Lord Gargath. In truth the greygem has everyone captured in an effort to conceal and protect itself from Reorx.
They lose all of their armor and weapons as Dougan bets it all away and they enter the tower with makeshift spears. They are immediately accosted by every woman from the island’s villages and struggle to resist the temptations flooding their minds from the Greygem. They eventually enter the wizards chamber that has the greygem trapped, and Lord Gaargath is being continuously polymorphed as a form of torture it seems. Ultimately the greygem realizes who Dougan is and calls the women, wizard and brothers to kill him. He commands them to all stop and makes a wager with the greygem, which is ultimately a ruse to allow his hammer to break its shell, allowing Reorx to reclaim it. They all leave the island only to find that Reorx lost it in a bet and it is once again loose on Krynn.
Raistlin’s Daughter is included as it ended up being a wonderful set up for the Irda in Dragons of Summer Flame. Originally I believe it was meant as a tall tale. Raistlin and Caramon are leaving Wayreth forest from Raistlin’s Test of High Sorcery, and stop at The Wayward Inn, an inn that appears and disappears with the forest itself. The inkeep is a greedy man who never has rooms unless the price is right, and due to the fact that there is a blizzard this night, the twins insist on stopping. After them a cloaked, hooded and wrapped individual enters and asks for a room and meal, paying handsomely. A ne’er-do-well from a group of hunters by the fire approaches the individual after discovering it’s a female. He makes an advance on her and she pushes him away, leaving to her room. He pursues with the intention of raping her, and his group of hunters plan on following him in the act when Caramon steps in to defend her. Caramon takes on the hunters as Raistlin knifes the assailant in the ribs and catched the woman on the stair. Her face covering falls and Raistlin is enamored by her beauty and she is fascinated by his appearance. They immediately connect with what is called the Valon in the Irda tongue. It means that Amberyl, the woman, must have Raistlin’s child. It was an act made to ensure the survival of the Irda race, but it shouldn’t happen on a human, save that Raistlin is a body with two souls. Amberyl makes a note of this so I wonder if she is infact attracted to Fistandanitlus, and not Raistlin here… Anyway, she is confused, and Raistlin is dumbstruck. He feels his lifeforce dwindling and after having retired to his room with his brother, he commands Caramon to bring Amberyl to him. Caramon opens the door to discover her eavesdropping on them. She gives no explanation for the mysterious connection they share, so Raistlin kicks her out and leaves the inn in the blizzard with Caramon in tow.
They enter Wayrath forest, taking shelter from the blizzard in a cave. Caramon leaves to find firewood, chasing a spell from Amberyl who has followed them and explains it all to Raistlin, save for explaining what she is. She sleeps with Raistlin, becoming impregnated. She leaves in the morning, changes shape to a human and enters the employ of the Wayward Inn as a barkeep. She dies in childbirth and her brother and, I assume, father arrive to collect the child who has golden eyes. A trait that has never happened in their race. They leave Amberyl’s corpse as she chose to live among humans, and they disappear with the infant. Again, this is all meant to set up Dragons of Summer Flame, and there was much debate on whether this happened, and if Usha was Rasistlin’s daughter or not when it was released.
The Sacrifice is the most emotionally resonant story with me in this collection. When I originally read this story, when it was initially released, I was a young man. My parents divorced and my mother remarried when I was a child. I felt I had no connection to my father, and for the majority of my youth, I tried to find and connect with him, forsaking my step dad in the process. When I did finally connect with my father we made a paltry attempt to reconnect but he didn’t agree with my life choices and had no issue telling me so. We stopped speaking on bad terms. I would join the U.S. Army and I was informed of his death while in boot camp. I know what it is to not feel connected to or to feel withheld from your family, to be an outcast. My wife and I had our son while I was stationed in Germany and I swore I would never make the mistakes my father made, and instead be a positive influence on my son. Now that my son is grown and we are raising my daughter, the same drive guides me in raising her. Because of my life experience, reading this story in a very different mindframe, that of a father, I connect intimately with both Tanis Half-Elven and his son Gilthas. I know their perspectives and drives as I share and experienced some of them. The Sacrifice is Gilthas giving up his life of autonomy because of the example his father set, even knowing it is giving up his freedom and in the service of the Dark Queen’s patsies in the Elven senate. The Dark Queen is marshalling her forces, and when she learns of a peace treaty being made between the humans, dwarves and elves, she corrupts the elder Qualinesti and Silvanesti elves’ minds, turning them against Alhana and Porthios’ attempts at peace, thereby keeping the races of Krynn at odds.
The elves arrest Alhana and Porthos in opposing kingdoms and reach out to Dalamar the Dark to assist in the luring of young Gilthas to become the puppet Speaker of the Sun. He does so at the price of being able to spend a month in Silvanesti. He then connects with Tanis who chases after Gilthas who left in the night with invitation from Rashas the traitorous senator, unbeknownst to Gilthas. A ruse making Tanis think Gilthas was captured by Draconians connected him with Dalamar who told him everything, and they attempted to rescue Alhana after she was branded a dark elf, and Gilthas just before he swore the vow to become the speaker.
Gilthas is doing what he can for his people in the limited power he has as the senate is corrupted, and Alhana, Samar, Dalamar, Tanis and ultimately Laurana will go to rescue Porthios and try to undo this mess. It ends in an emotional goodbye between Tanis and his son Gilthas that I couldn’t help but see myself, my father and my son in, which brought me to tears. Cardamom Majere said, we raise our children to leave us, and as exciting a prospect as that can be as a parent at times, it is also our greatest fear. Fear that we didn’t teach them enough, fear that they won’t be ready, and fear that you as the parent are not ready to see them go.
I really enjoyed this collection more as an adult, even though I enjoyed it as a young man. My age and life experience brought me new understandings and perspective that I never could have grasped when I was younger. I know this is meant to be a bridge from the Chronicles and Legends to Dragons of Summer Flame, but I think it’s worth a read on its own, if for no other reason than to see how your favorite heroes are dealing with parenting, if not to learn about the next group of heroes. I highly recommend this collection to any Dragonlance fan.
Outro
And that’s it for my review of The Second Generation. Have you read the collection? Do you enjoy the reviews I am putting out there? Feel free to email me at info@dragonlance-saga.com or comment below.
I would like to once again invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link, all of which are in the description below.
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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