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First Post
This here is exactly why I have never been able to truly like Dragonlance. The abysmal fluff for the "comedic relief" races plays its part, of course, but the fact it touts this claptrap as part of its background lore, it just incenses me.Just over 350 years ago, a great civilization sprawled across the eastern portion of Ansalon. This nation was known as Istar, and it was ruled over by the Kingpriest of Istar, a man devoted to the God of Light known as Paladine (also known as the Platinum Dragon). He began eradicating the evil races of Krynn, killing off Ogres and Goblins, forcing many of the “impure” races (like Dwarves, Gnomes and Kender) into hiding, and forcing a war against the orders of Sorcery. As the Kingpriest’s laws became more and more forceful and sterile, priests began to lose their powers. Those who were still able to heal began disappearing. The Kingpriest, thinking that it was some evil plot, demanded that the Gods eradicate all evil from the world.
The Gods answered in a most spectacular fashion.
Because the balance had swayed too far toward good, and because the Kingpriest was so arrogant that he felt he was equal to the Gods and that he could demand anything of them, the Gods retaliated. What was described as a fiery mountain fell from the sky, striking the nation of Istar, sinking it beneath the sea. What was left was a swirling vortex known as the Maelstrom in the center of a great sea known as the Blood Sea of Istar (the water here is as red as blood).
This was known as the Cataclysm. All time from this point forward is recorded using A.C. (After Cataclysm).
The face of Ansalon was changed forever. War, sickness, and death ravaged the land. The Gods of Krynn left the people of Ansalon to their own devices…not that the people of the world would pray to them, anyway…not after the death and destruction of the Cataclysm.
I can't honestly be the only person who sees how morally messed up this is, right? I can't be the one guy in the D&D world who sees "The Balance had swayed too far towards Good" and goes "What the flipping (Censored)!?" - in what freaking world are you living in where racial pogroms, mind-reading inquisitions, and general persecution are somehow "Good" just because the people responsible believe they're serving the greater good?
I mean, hashbrowns on a stick, I hate to invoke Godwin's Law, but that's literally like saying the committers of anti-Semitic pogroms throughout history were well-intentioned extremists! They thought they were doing God's Work by exterminating the heretics who murdered Our Lord And Saviour Jesus Christ, after all!
Oh, and, somehow, it's the mortals' fault that the gods went away after the Cataclysm and we should feel bad that they left and we should want them back! From where I'm sitting, it looks pretty much like the opposite! Why the hosannah should we want the victim-blaming, self-righteous, moronic deities back if the Cataclysm was honestly their idea of the best way to handle the Kingpriest and his cronies?
I know that D&D alignment has always been a messed up tangle of worms and that getting rid of it was the best thing that 4e and 5e did, but seriously, if Dragonlance really is a look into the moral beliefs of its authors, that's actually kind of scary...
Or, you know, you could just presume the canon characters don't exist and your party is taking their place? I mean, who wants to be small potatoes next to some NPC? That's precisely one of the major complaints about Forgotten Realms throughout its history; the feeling of being second fiddle to characters like Elminster and Drizzt.If you give the players the first trilogy to read, they should get excited.
Then you have to let them down: YOU are not going to follow that path. You have to go deal with the dangling threads that Tanis &c. leave behind, or take care of other stuff entirely.
I can see a successful campaign set near Solamnia, defending the nation against draconic attacks both covert and overt.
One of the trilogies has Raistlin travel back in time a bit, before the War of the Lance. That period sounded like it had potential for adventures, much like the IRL Fall of the Roman Empire.
DragonLance does have potential, but you have to figure out how to get away from the iconic plot line to do it.