D&D: An Adventurer’s Guide to the War of the Lance
The War of the Lance changed the course of history for Dragonlance’s world. No other event, save the Cataclysm, comes close.
The world of Krynn is marked with epic stories and songs. Heroes that loom larger than life do battle with equally towering villains, all to try and seize the reins of destiny. And yet, no story seems to have called on the people of Krynn as much as the War of the Lance.
But what was it? Aside from the source of the eponymous Dragonlances, what was the War of the Lance? How did it come to be, and who was fighting?
War of the Lance – Prelude
While the War of the Lance officially began in 348 AC, the events that set it in motion begin almost fifty years before. Takhisis, Queen of Darkness and goddess of evil brought the ruins of the Temple of the Kingpriest, destroyed in the Cataclysm some three hundred years prior, into her realm in the Abyss.
Takhisis had been banished long ago. But the destroyed temple of the Kingpriest was her way out. Using her powers, she corrupted it, converting the temple into a gateway. A gateway that connected with Krynn.
As Takhisis schemed to enter Krynn, she also sought to prevent the good dragons from entering the next war. So she orchestrates a great theft.
Her forces, known as the Dragonarmies, were an evil alliance comprising ogres, chromatic dragons, goblins, hobgoblins, and humans.
steal clutches of eggs from good dragons, and hide them away in secured redoubts. The Dragon Queen brokers an accord, known as The Oath. If the good dragons stay away from the war, she will return their eggs safe and sound once the war ends.
The good dragons agree, but this too was part of Takhisis’ scheme. Her Clerics and Wizards corrupt the eggs, breeding a new race, the draconians. The newly bred draconians quickly joined the forces of the Dragonarmies, making them formidable indeed.
In AC 348, War Was Beginning
The War of the Lance began in 348 AC, with the invasion of Nordmaar. Dragonarmy forces invade, quickly overrunning the ill-prepared city and claiming its largest port, Valkinord. From there, they allied with the Khur tribes to secure allies and quickly conquered their neighboring human and kender nations, Balifor, and Goodlund respectively.
They surrounded the Silvanesti elves, but their Speaker of Stars made a treaty, delaying the invasion and giving both sides respite. During this time, Takhisis’ forces prepared. And one year after the Silvanesti treaty was signed, they broke their oaths and invaded.
The Dragonarmy took heavy casualties during their invasion, but their approach was relentless. And the elves could not repel the evil forces. So Silvanesti was evacuated. Not even the elves’ magic could lessen the onslaught of the Dragon Queen’s fury.
And while all of this was happening, the Dragon Queen’s forces grew. Until there were many different Dragonarmies: Red, Blue, Green, Black, and White. Red and Blue were invasion leaders, while the other three took responsibility for holding conquered lands for Takhisis.
Over the next three years, the Dragonarmies began an invasion of Solamnia and Abanasinnia, taking aim at splitting the armies of good, so that they could not unite and support each other. And for a long while, the strategy worked. The forces of good were losing the war.
Companions Gather
Five years after the beginning of the war, a group of heroes known as the Companions meets in the Inn of the Last Home in Solace. If not for this fateful meeting (blessed by the gods of good in secret), Krynn might have been conquered by Takhisis.
Instead, the party of heroes, including brothers Raistlin and Caramon Majere, the Que-Shu warriors Goldmoon and Riverwind, and Tanis Half-Elven gathered with a mission most dire. Their task is to recover artifacts known as the Disks of Mishakal.
And though they would ultimately end their mission captured by the Red Dragonarmy and sent away as slaves, they would soon escape. Along the way, the Companions discovered the true nature of the Dragonarmy’s goals. To find and enable the return of Takhisis to Krynn.
As they race to try and stop this, they are embroiled in significant events of the war, but it all comes down to a last-ditch, desperate attempt to stem the tides of Takhisis. Deep in the Abyss, Raistlin and Caramon fight to seal away Takhisis, and as the gate to the Abyss is shut, the temple of Neraka begins to crumble.
The war is over as the last ashes of Neraka’s temple fall to the ground.
At least for now… but that was not the last maneuver by Takhisis, not by a long shot.
