Recap on Krynn

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 18897

Eddie Dean

"Okay, that is a bit ironic and I see your problem here," my friend says slowly, thinking.

Okay, by now I'm sure some of you probably are scratching your heads and wondering just what Slith has a problem with here. Maybe you're wondering what the problem is here.

Well, let Uncle Eddie tell you about it. To do that, you need to know a bit of background about the world that my scaly friend was born into here.

That's right, the dreaded background stuff! Now, I'm sure that there will be some avid AD&D players out there who'll scream blue murder with this, but . . . . .

Now, Krynn is basically a sword and sorcery world with the forces of good and evil had been going at it since the very beginning. Sort of like a giant boxing match in a sense, really. In one corner we have the forces of evil, headed up by a "goddess" --note the quotes--named Takhisis. She was also known as the "Dark Queen" of Krynn, and that names implies what her future plans were as far as career goes. Not a very nice person, this Takhisis. The color of this camp was black (reflected in the dress of her mages and the color of the invisible, now vanished moon in the sky) In the other corner, headed up by a "god" of good called Paladine (an entity that, according to Slith when he looked back in retrospect, actually at least lived up to a bit of the hype). The color of this camp was white (reflected in the dress of his mages and the now vanished moon dedicated to that cause). Of course, in any conflicts, there are neutral parties, and in this supposedly eternal conflict was a faction of neutral "gods" (the dwarven "god" named "Reorx" being the most notable)".but like back on my old Earth it seems that the "neutral" seem to side more with the forces of "good" (which were on relatively friendly with the "neutrals") to the forces of evil (which were hostile to them). Uh, never mind. The colors of the dedicated moon and the mages are both red.

Well, you can see the factions that had been in play on Krynn?

Well, the thing here is that the struggle between the parties had been going on for a long time, and quiet fiercely at times. At one point when Takhisis was getting an upper hand the forces of good actually razed an entire continent with a meteor shower (called "the Cataclysm" and the even used as a dating system afterwards by the local mortals). In one of the more recent battles, the Battle of the Lance, Takhisis had the eggs of the good (metallic) dragons captured and used as hostage to keep them out of this conflict. Terms were basically "keep out and your children won't be harmed". Well, that worked for a while and the forces of Good were getting pushed back and back without the aid of the metallic dragons. Then, it came to light that Takhisis had basically lied to the metallic dragons when the draconians came into being. See, the dark forces had taken the unborn embryos inside those dragon eggs, used magic on them, and caused them to mutate and split into dozens of beings known as draconians (humanoids with dragon features). The draconians were to be used as shock troopers and such. Disposable, pliant weapons to be dealt with easily as soon that war was over, the draconians were to be. Only . . .

Only the draconians turned out to be much smarter than expected. Smarter and more powerful than what the human commanders of Takhisis forces wanted. Seen as an eventual possible threat to humanity and the other races.

To keep them in check, the means of the draconian"s continuation was put into play. Originally, the magical ritual that made the first batch of draconians produced both male and female draconians (with all that implies). For the sake of control, the female draconians were not allowed to hatch and their existence covered up. Instead, the magic ritual creating draconians from metallic dragon eggs was modified to make only male draconians. The world at large thought that the draconians were sexless creations, with only the means of the "corruption ritual" as a means of making more draconians"with only rumors of other means (like the unborn female draconians or some kind of magical gem that Slith mentioned in passing . . .a tall tale). That "corruption ritual" was the only game in town for my scaly friend"s species continuation, and I see how it could be a means of blackmail to keep the draconians in line with their human commanders. Not that blackmail was really needed, honestly, to keep them in line and loyal to Takhisis herself, but"you get the idea.

Now, you gotta know that draconians had lousy role-models for parents and knowing only what they"d been taught, they fought and killed for the glory of Takhisis. They did it out of a sense of . . .well . ..what I could only say was love for the Dark Queen. That or sense of obligation and loyalty for the being who created them. Okay. To put it into simpler terms, the Draconians saw their side"as being the good guys".and Paladines forces and such as the ones in the black hats (i.e. the villians). Any questions at certain tactics and dark allies of Takhisis were put off as using the best tools in a bad situation, I guess, if the young, naive Draconians bothered to think at all about it.

The metallic dragons and the forces of good kind of flubbed it, it seems, when trying to get the Draconians to see the truth of the matter. One doesn't get the best results by saying to those your trying to get on your side that they were perversions and only by coming over to the other side could their full, good potential be realized. Oh, I guess that the good guys meant well and used otherwise sound stragety and magic . . . but they utterly failed. No draconians converted and the grieving metallic dragons and many of the forces of good grieved, writing the draconians off as wholly evil and beyond salvage. That said, the forces of good proceeded to act as such. As such, hostilities between the two only served to re-enforce the propaganda of Takhisis with the draconians, and that was that.

Well, as in those fantasy novels the forces of good prevailed. Evil smited and driven back and all that. Slith told me that the reason why things fell apart at the end for the forces of Takhisis was that the human commanders were involved more in infighting and gaining prestige than the glory of Takhisis (or concentrating more on keeping the ground gained during the war).

Thing is, the draconians were still about, despite being on the losing side. Some turned to banditry and robbery, and were soon wiped out in mop up operations by the forces of good. Some, like Kang's group, saw that a breakdown in disipline and going down the road that the others had gone down was a sure recipe for disaster and stayed together as a military unit. Kang's regiment of draconians went out into some remote mountains (near a dwarven enclave) and set up shop there. While Slith and Kang didn't say it, I think they'd all gone out to that place in order to spend their remaining days of their lives there to live in peace and quiet. Where they'd occasionally raid their dwarven neighbors for needed supplies, making sure not to make too much of a menace of themselves so that the forces of good (who by this time were breaking back down into regular bickering kingdoms and such, business as usual) wouldn't sweep them off the map. They expected to spend their entire lives there, in their own enclave . . . and eventually die. Drepressing, ain't it? Probably was the reason why draconians drank so heavily (even that God awful brand of Krynnese "Dwarven Ale", stuff that stank so awful and tasted so horrible that Tarin Gazin, a Terra Prime dwarf . . . gagged on it!)

Then came another war. A different, horrible war that originally looked like something like the last one, but was actually a war for survival for Krynn.

Seems that, according to what a Scott Chen told them, the dwarven "god" Reorx goofed and freed an elder "god" from his magical prison. That elder had it in his head that Krynn would do well as a burning cinder and the Krynnese "gods" weren"t too keen on that. All those Krynnese "gods" got together to fight this elder (called itself "Chaos" by the way, this elder). Rough battle, this Chaos war. Assets and people were called out from everywhere, including Kang's gang. Takhisis used the existence of the female draconians to get Kang and friends to go out to kill a nest of super powerful Chaos dragons before Chaos could use them to defeat the Krynn forces. Takhisis revealed her true nature in the way she got Kang into this mess . . . and I don't think Kang or any of the draconians will ever forgive the Dark Queen that, despite the female draconians . . .

Just don't see it happening. If anything, I get the feeling that their hatred of Takhisis has not grown any less over the time we'd been away . . .

That aside, Slith"s now asking me (why me?) how he and the other Draconians should approach their unwitting parents, the metallic dragons. See, some metallic dragons who'd actually created the eggs that the draconians had come from had been keeping tabs on Kang's group. Seems that the parents had still thought their children were still lost beyond redemption (products of evil), but weren't able to let go and move on with life. Something like that, anyway, so they just kept . . . tabs, despite the forty something years since the creation of the draconians.

Well, seems that, from what Slith guesses, somebody had blabbed about the draconians turning over a new leaf or something. Parents desperately wanting to see for themselves if it was actually true (i.e. hoping against hope), had flown out to see . . . and almost gotten their ass handed to them on a platter.

Only thing that had saved them was a draconian patrol (in dragon form) coming out to investigate . . .

Who knows what those parents expecte? Perhaps they'd even thought that the kids had thrown off their old, warped "perversion" forms given them by Takhisis. Now they were actually metallic dragons again"

Uh, not quiet. How about draconians (who's scales shine like mirrors for crying out loud) who can assume dragon form? Would that be enough for them? "Uh," I say, "Look. Put it this way to them, but in a smoother . . . nicer way. Tell 'em that you all know the truth now about the side you fought for. Tell them . . . well . . . tell them that you know the truth about good and evil. Tell them that the forms you have now are what you were born to, and that nobody willingly will give up that. Tell them you are draconians . . . but not creatures of evil. Leave it to you how to exactly do it, but . . ."

"Yes, the truth is the only way," Slith says softly, "May the Goddess help us with them though I . . . "

Slith then tells me he"d been kind of asking me that question in order to figure out how to greet his mother and father, who are silver dragons".

Well, the only thing I can wish him is . . . good luck. That's something he's got to do himself and nobody else.

  1. Meanwhile, back with those from Midworld who'd been in deep discussion . . . .

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2/27/2002 6:46:24 PM

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