Kamishiro_Rin Posted March 15, 2023 Clone Share Posted March 15, 2023 (edited) War Comes to Krynn The world has ended, and it’s ending again. Three hundred years ago, the Cataclysm brought ruin to the world of Krynn. In a single day, an age of wonders came to an end. Countless innocents died, the face of the world was reshaped, and the gods themselves faded into legend. Through ages of struggle, the peoples of Krynn survived, but the world isn’t what it was. Those nations that remain linger in the shadows of their ancestors’ wonders. Only slowly have they begun to push back centuries of darkness and rediscover how the world has changed. Then came the Dragon Armies, legions of soldiers devoted to the wicked god Takhisis the Dragon Queen, and the world faces ruin once more. The War of the Lance has begun, and in a conflict between gods and dragons, a wounded world hangs in the balance. History of Krynn While every world’s history is vast and fractured, with missing pieces and forgotten perspectives, Krynn’s tale has been shattered by the global catastrophe called the Cataclysm. The world of Krynn was forged and destroyed, yet—broken and scarred—it continued on. Most of its people, seeking merely to survive in their slowly healing lands, care little for eons past. But the sages who piece together fragments of the past focus on three periods: before the Cataclysm, the Cataclysm itself, and the dire age since. Scholars and soldiers across Solamnia spread warnings of sinister forces rising beyond their nation’s borders Before the Cataclysm Takhisis the Dragon Queen in Her Human Guise Krynn’s earliest centuries have passed into mythohistory. The story begins in the Age of Starbirth when the gods forged the world from primordial chaos. This period’s records are mere legends and scriptures, and few credit their details as fact. Next came the Age of Dreams, a time when heroes battled the forces of evil. Many modern cultures and institutions saw their origins in this era, including the Knights of Solamnia, the Mages of High Sorcery, and the dwarven kingdom of Thorbardin. Ironically, these cultures often dismiss one another’s foundational stories as baseless myths while fiercely insisting on the veracity of their own. During a terrible conflict known as the Third Dragon War, the knight Huma Dragonbane was granted the first of the fabled dragonlances. He used it to defeat the evil god Takhisis the Dragon Queen and end the war, forcing the god and her dragons to leave Krynn. The good dragons of Krynn soon departed as well, leaving the world to mortals and the remaining gods. During the thousand years before the Cataclysm, known as the Age of Might, several human nations flourished, conquering vast swaths of the continent of Ansalon in the name of good. But the triumph of the Age of Might sowed the seeds of its downfall. Over the centuries, the city of Istar in eastern Ansalon grew into a continent-spanning empire, thanks in part to a military alliance with the Knights of Solamnia. Istar came to be ruled by a series of kingpriests who declared Istar the center of the world and themselves the holy messengers of the gods of good. Under their leadership, Istar declared war on actions, peoples, and even thoughts the kingpriests considered evil. Increasingly rigid and theocratic, Istar reached its apex of power just before its apocalyptic fall. The last kingpriest undertook ever more audacious magical feats, culminating in a ritual to attain godhood and rule Krynn forever in the name of good. At last, the gods acted, united in their condemnation of Istar. The Cataclysm As a last effort to avoid mass destruction, the gods sent the Thirteen Warnings, a series of signs meant to deter the kingpriest. Trees wept blood, fires raged unnaturally, and cyclones struck the gleaming Temple of the Kingpriest. The gods also warned a few chosen mortals, reasoning that if any of them reached Istar and prevented the ritual, the world might not be beyond redemption. But the messengers failed—the kingpriest and his followers dismissed the warnings as the work of evil and continued on their path. As the hour of the kingpriest’s ritual to attain godhood arrived, the gods whisked away their most devout followers and unleashed punishment on all who remained. A mountain of fire fell from the sky, destroying Istar. The Blood Sea—a new ocean that split eastern Ansalon—consumed the empire. Coastlines shifted all over the world, sundering nations, drowning whole regions, and stranding ports miles from the sea. Though some lands escaped the worst of the destruction, none were spared divine wrath. The gods and their blessings then faded from the world, and in time, even their names were all but forgotten. The Dragon Queen’s Return Even as Ansalon healed, a new threat grew. The Dragon Queen Takhisis—known as Tiamat on other worlds—was banished from Krynn over a thousand years ago. Since then, she had waited patiently, plotting her return. Unbeknownst to the other gods, she planted a piece of the kingpriest’s ruined temple at Neraka—hidden in the volcanic Taman Busuk region. There it grew into a baleful shadow of Istar’s greatest edifice. Though this allowed the Dragon Queen to influence the world through a portal opened there, a fragment of the temple’s foundation stone was missing, preventing her from fully returning to the world. She called on the evil dragons who served her, long withdrawn from the world, and began once more to plot the conquest of Krynn. Chromatic dragons, acting on their god’s orders, stole the eggs of good metallic dragons. The metallic dragons reluctantly pledged to not interfere in the coming war in exchange for the promised safety of their abducted broods. But the Dragon Queen’s servants secretly broke their promises. Takhisis taught her followers to corrupt the stolen eggs into monstrous warriors known as draconians, gambling that draconian armies will conquer Ansalon by the time the metallic dragons learn of this betrayal. Unrivaled by gods or dragons, the Dragon Queen unleashes her forces upon a shattered world. In their god’s name, these Dragon Armies begin their conquest of Krynn. The Dragon Armies The Dragon Queen’s forces are organized into five Dragon Armies. Draconians fill the ranks of each, though the armies’ numbers also include humans, goblins, hobgoblins, ogres, and others who seek wealth and a return to pre-Cataclysm glories. Each Dragon Army is supported by chromatic dragons and their smaller kin, such as dragonnels and wyverns. These winged terrors provide a staggering advantage not seen on battlefields for over a thousand years. The Dragon Queen has elevated her five most cunning and devout followers to the rank of dragon highlord, each commanding one of her armies. The highlords all report to Takhisis’s champion, Duulket Ariakas, but there is no shortage of treachery between—and within—the Dragon Armies. The Dragon Queen encourages these conflicts, trusting them to bring the most ruthless and capable leaders to prominence. The Red Dragon Army—the first, largest, and most powerful of Takhisis’s forces—is commanded by the fanatical Dragon Highlord Verminaard, but he has temporarily given control of many of its troops to his acolyte, Dragon Highmaster Kansaldi Fire-Eyes, tasking her with spearheading a daring attack on Solamnia. Meanwhile, Verminaard’s force follows whispers from the Dragon Queen into the southern lands of Abanasinia. The ambitious Highlord Kitiara Uth Matar commands the Blue Dragon Army. Second in power among the Dragon Queen’s forces, the Blue Dragon Army prepares to join the Red Dragon Army’s multipronged invasion of Solamnia. The Green Dragon Army recently came under the command of Salah-Khan, a Khur leader who united the region’s nomads under Dragon Army rule. The half-ogre Lucien of Takar commands the Black Dragon Army, whose focused force supports the other armies and occupies the lands they conquer, including Nordmaar and Goodlund. Finally, the small White Dragon Army is led by Highlord Feal-Thas, a Silvanesti elf and black-robed member of the Mages of High Sorcery. The War of the Lance As the Dragon Armies emerged from Neraka, they set into motion the events that will come to be known as the War of the Lance. Major events in the war are presented here. Each date occurs in the era after the Cataclysm (AC). Nordmaar Falls 348 AC The first true military test of the Dragon Armies was the Red and Green Dragon Armies’ successful invasion of the unprepared realm of Nordmaar. This victory convinced many neutral bands of hobgoblins and ogres in the Taman Busuk region to align with the Dragon Armies, though many holdouts remain. Khur Joins Early 349 AC The Green Dragon Army was dispatched to the steppes of Khur to subdue the tribes there. Rather than fight a protracted campaign, Ariakas allowed the cunning Khur leader Salah-Khan to defeat the Green Dragon Army’s original highlord in battle, then offered to make Salah-Khan highlord in his place. In exchange for control over Khur and the surrounding lands, Salah-Khan accepted and pledged his people to Takhisis, adding to the Dragon Armies’ ranks. Few can say whether he did so to further his own ambitions or to spare Khur a long, bloody conflict, but many Khur view Salah-Khan as a traitor to his people and fiercely resist the Green Dragon Army’s occupation. Balifor and Goodlund Absorbed Mid 349 AC Without substantial military resistance, Balifor and the Goodlund Peninsula fell to the Black and White Dragon Armies. Though the land’s residents are largely resigned to the Black Dragon Army’s ongoing occupation, the kender of Kendermore lead the region’s resistance, waging a guerrilla war against the occupiers. Silvanesti Campaign Late 349 AC through 350 AC The Red and Blue Dragon Armies attacked the elven nation of Silvanesti. The elves mounted a stiff resistance, and the siege stretched on in a brutal campaign. After a year of fighting, the Silvanesti elves evacuated from their ancestral home and sailed for Southern Ergoth. The elves’ leader, Speaker of the Stars Lorac, attempted to use an orb of dragonkind to protect his homeland but succeeded only in transforming it into a land of nightmares, useless to both sides. Dragon Armies Regroup 351 AC With virtually all of eastern Ansalon under their control, the Dragon Armies have spent much of the last year regrouping and consolidating their power. The Blue and Red Dragon Armies have returned to the Taman Busuk region, tasked with preparing to invade Solamnia. The White Dragon Army has ventured south to conquer Icereach, where its white dragons can fight effectively in its frozen lands. The Green and Black Dragon Armies focus on their occupied lands abroad. In Neraka, zealots and black-robed mages devise magical plans to empower Dragon Army forces. One such plot, involving the ruins of an Istarian city, captures the imagination of Dragon Highlord Verminaard. He tasks his devotee, Kansaldi Fire-Eyes, with claiming a devastating new weapon for the Dragon Armies. Edited March 17, 2023 by Kamishiro_Rin (see edit history) Name xDiceName xDiceResult xDiceString xDiceRolls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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