The War of the Lance would only last five years, but its planning goes back a millenia. Let’s examine the War of the Lance Timeline. Buy War of the Lance: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3164/War-of-the-Lance-35?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Within five years, the Queen of Darkness had near total control of Ansalon, let’s take a closer look.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the War of the Lance Timeline. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this 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. I am referencing DL11 Dragons of Glory, Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home, and War of the Lance sourcebooks for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
The first event that pops into the mind of anyone who knows Dragonlance must be the War of the Lance. It’s the seminal event that introduced us to the campaign world, its colorful cast of characters and for some the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. But as much as is known about the War of the Lance, many are not sure when it started, what events preceded it and exactly how it ended. For example, if you are a gamer, there were many possible endings, with the journey to them filled with a continent of exploration and danger, mass combat with the Battlesystem supplement and immersion that has never been fully realized up to that point in AD&D. For novel readers, you got one ending which excluded much that the modules presented so as not to spoil the possible AD&D encounters. Because Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is now out, I would like to explore the official War of the Lance timeline and hopefully educate those who are new to the world in the process.
The seeds of the War of the Lance were planted at the end of the forty-two year long Third Dragon War in The Age of Dreams at The Time of Knights in 1018 Prae Cataclius, when Huma banished the Queen of Darkness. He extracted a promise from her to forever leave the mortal realm and take her dragons with her to the Abyss. She complied, and to maintain balance, as it is an essential world element of Dragonlance, the good dragons also left, returning to the Dragon Isles to sleep. As Dragons traveled into the realms of myth, an empire rose in the absence of the Dark Queen’s shadow. The great empire of Istar led by their Kingpriest rose to prominence and for the next thousand years, righteousness would reign. Well, almost. In the absence of the balance of evil, good will inevitably look for evil, even if it has to manifest it. They began with racial groups, then classes and eventually the edict of thought control. The gods of every alignment were upset by this and ultimately joined by Takhisis who saw her opportunity to return and dominate the world, they sent a mountain crashing into Istar, punishing those who believed themselves to be better than the gods themselves.
The Queen of Darkness needed a gateway to reenter the world, and at the center of Istar was the Temple of Istar. This holy structure held the inherent power to allow her to pass through the Gate of Souls, creating a portal to the mortal realm. Just as the mountain reigned down on Krynn devastating the continents of Ansalon and Taladas, the Dark Queen stole the Temple into the Abyss, and planned to raise its mirror in Neraka, a region of darkness, filled by warlords and her own mortal creations, the Ogres. For the next three hundred and forty-one years, disease, famine, war and despair would descend upon Krynn as the gods left their mortal creations to their own designs. Could you imagine the immense folly of Istar that the Age of Despair was its balancing act? In 141 Alt Cataclius, the Dark Queen planted the sacred Foundation Stone, the core of the Temple of Istar in Neraka and for the next decade, she wandered the land in disguise, waking her dragons in secret. In 152 AC two siblings would come upon the Foundation Stone, and as Berem the brother was stealing a green gemstone from the Foundation Stone, he accidentally killed his sister Jasla as she tried to stop him. This trapped Jasla’s soul into the Foundation Stone, and the gemstone became magically embedded in Berems chest, granting him immortality. With her gate now closed, Takhisis would send her minions searching for the Everman so she could once again enter Krynn. In the years that followed the Foundation Stone grew into a twisted version of the Temple of Istar, calling out to all the evil in Krynn. The Dark Queen woke and threatened the Good Dragons with their Eggs, that if they stayed out of the coming war, she would return their eggs, which her minions stole, as the good dragon slept. Fearful for their offspring, the good dragons relented. This gave Takhisis’ minions resources with which to experiment on, and eventually they perfected the ritual and Draconians were born, infusing her army with seemingly unlimited troops.
In the eight years following 332 AC, the Dark Queen formed the Dragonarmies with promises of wealth and dominion. At its head, she placed a former black robe wizard and ruthless warlord, Duulket Ariakas. He would command her Dragonarmies which were presented with the Draconian troops in 342 AC. They controlled the Taman Busuk and Estwild regions by 337 AC. Ariakas sent emissaries to Kern, Khur and the Blood Sea Isles, and in 348 AC, the Red and Green Wings invaded the nation of Nordmaar which fell in less than two weeks, and the Blue Wing into New Sea for a future invasion of Abanasinia. In 349 AC, the Green Wing invaded Khur. Shortly thereafter Goodlund and Balifor were subsumed by the Black and White Wings. That spring saw the Dragonarmies breaking their truce with Silvanesti. For the next year, the Dragonarmies experienced their bloodiest exchange with the elves before King Lorak Caladon sent his people into exile in Southern Ergoth and used the Dragon Orb to defend his city. This did not go over well and after losing control to the Orb, a nightmare rose and overtook Silvanesti forcing the Red, Blue and Green Wings to abandon the elven nation. The next year saw the Dragonarmies regrouping, consolidating and establishing supply lines. The White Wing was sent south to Icereach, and the Black and Green Wings were assigned as engineers, sappers, and supply duties.
In Spring of 351 AC, the Blue and Red Wings mobilized west. The Blue Wing entered the Dargaard Mountains, taking Kalaman, Hunterlund and Nightlund. The Red Wing moved into Throt and Lemish. This led to Solanthus and Thelgaard being sacked. By summer of 351 AC, the Red Wing crossed New Sea and occupied Xak Tsaroth and Pax Tharkas. By Autumn Qualinesti fell seeing the Qualinesti elves retre ating to Southern Ergoth like their Silvanesti cousins. By winter of 351 AC, the Dragonarmies held much of Ansalon, from Nordmaar to Kalaman, and from Goodlund to Abanasinia. The Whitestone Forces were faced with a seemingly insurmountable task in overcoming the Dark Queens forces. It would be the rediscovery of the Dragonlances and the knowledge of the fate of the Good Dragons eggs that would be their catalyst for hope.
Faced with the return of holy clerics and a unified Whitestone Force, and the death of many of the Dragonarmies Highlords, Ariakas demanded that Planthas should be conquered at any cost. The Blue Wing descended on the High Clerist’s Tower, and were defeated by the Whitestone Forces’ use of a Dragon Orb. The sacrifice of Sturm Brightblade and the revelation that the High Clerist’s Tower was a dragon trap revealed the first true victory for the Whitestone Forces. With the Dragonlances in hand and the return of the Good dragons, the Whitestone forces would go on to retake Kalaman in the Spring of 352 AC, and turned their focus south to Neraka across Estwilde. In an act of desperation the Blue Wing captured the Whitestone General, halting the Whitestone forces, as the Golden General’s companions continued on to Neraka. Ariakas summoned his Dragon Highlords to Neraka to witness the triumphant return of Takhisis but what transpired was anything but. Tanis Half-Elven would kill Ariakas with the aid of Raistlin Majere, who would then go on to see the redemption of Berem, stopping the Dark Queen’s return for good. The temple that was the heart of her return exploded and her millenia long plans were foiled by the Whitestone forces and the Heroes of the Lance.
This would be far from the end of the Dragonarmies and war, but the War of the Lance was ostensibly concluded and balance restored to Krynn… for a little while at least.
Outro
But that is all I have to say about the timeline of the War of the Lance. What do you think of the story? Were it not for Berem, do you think Takhisis would have been successful? And finally is it fair to give credit to any Golden General when it took the return of good dragons and the Dragonlance for the Whitestone Forces to turn the tide of the war? 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:
Understood her? Admired her! Like I myself, she was meant to rule, destined to conquer! But she was stronger than I was. She could throw aside love that threatened to chain her down. But for a twist of fate, she would have ruled all of Ansalon!
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