Welcome back to the Dragonlance Reread!
Last week Kitiara got down and dirty with Tannis, while Derek and Sturm just got on each others’ last nerve. This week, Sturm barely keeps his anger in check, and Tas goes for a bit of a plot-development wander…
“A kender’s curiosity. The Knights ride forth.” and “Death on the plains. Tasslehoff’s discovery.”
Summary
After Sturm’s knighting, he and Flint walk the battlements of the High Clerist’s Tower. Flint’s filling his knightly friend in on the adventures he missed. Sturm is understandably sad to have not seen Huma’s Tomb, but Flint reassures him that they’ll go back ‘when this is all done’.
Flint prattles on (poor Flint doesn’t get many lines, and, in this scene, he’s largely a backdrop). Sturm contemplates Palanthas, and their lack of fighting spirit—the city is much more defensible than the Tower.
Their shared melancholy is interrupted by Derek, who is now full-on frothing bonkers. He rants about about Sturm and Gunthar and their conspiracies and how Laurana is Sturm’s mistress and their testimony was bought and the Moon landing was fake and where’s Gunthar’s birth certificate anyway, huh?
Sturm holds back from chucking Derek over the side (well, Flint holds him back), but then Derek shares the real point of his visit: he’s leading a charge tomorrow morning. No more ‘skulking’—time to take the fight to the Dragonarmies.
Meanwhile, Tas has a wander. The High Clerist’s Tower, we learn, has some fairly cryptic architecture. There’s a solid (whew) octagonal wall on the outside, but there’s a troubling lack of internal defenses. In fact, there are three great big doors, all practically welcoming people into the heart of the Tower. This central bit—the old part of the Tower—is almost entirely abandoned. The Palanthians extended the defenses with a more modern addition, and that’s where everyone hangs out. Being abandoned, the Tower itself is somewhat ‘off limits’. Except for Tas, who is always good for a bit of plot-poking.
Tas wanders through one of the three big doors and finds himself in a long, wide hall, with a strange combination of jagged columns and odd portcullises and, well, dust. Tas wanders further and further into the heart of the Tower and finds a single, very odd thing in the center. (CLIFFHANGER)
Meanwhile, the next morning. Derek lines up a hundred knights and a thousand footmen, the bulk of their forces. Sturm and Laurana watch, aghast, as Derek readies them for battle against overwhelming odds. Alfred, still kind of useless, tried to change Derek’s mind overnight, but failed—and being bound by the Measure, feels he needs to go along with this crazy plan.
Sturm gives his own men a choice—since he orders them to stay, they can avoid the battle without losing their own honour. But as Afred points out, if Derek’s men do carry the field, Sturm will be executed. Sturm adds that he’d willingly die that death.
In the Highlord’s camp, handsome Bakaris is awoken by a minion—the Knights are taking the field. Rubbing his proverbial hands together, Bakaris marshals his own forces.
We’re spared sight of the battle, instead, the narrative sticks with Laurana in the tower. While they wait for word of the battle’s outcome, a messenger arrives from Palanthas. The road is open, which is good news, I suppose. Laurana refuses to leave, as much as she secretly wants to—she insists that Sturm needs all the help he can get. The two have a long talk about, of all things, Tanis. Sturm misses his best friend. Laurana wants to impress him, even in his absence—she can’t abandon her friends (or his), else he’ll never respect her. Sturm is worried because the dragons are coming—they’re already outnumbered, starving and surrounded. But as soon as the dragons arrive, they’re completely overwhelmed.
Another messenger approaches later, at night. This time, it is Bakaris. (He’s handsome.) The battle was a complete rout, and he’s bringing back the bodies of Alfred (headless) and Derek (nearly dead, but not quite). Mostly, he wants a chance to gloat. Bakaris is kind of a tool, and Laurana shoots him in the arm to make a point that she could’ve shot him in the head. As far as diplomacy goes, it is a little lacking, but it is very satisfying for everyone concerned (except Bakaris).
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the maddened Derek rambles on a bit about how the Dragonarmies ran before him and the Knights won the day. He then dies, with Sturm (quite kindly) saying that he goes ‘bravely—like a true knight’. (Actually, that could be serious sarcasm, but that doesn’t feel very Sturm.)
Tas confesses to Laurana what he’s found in the tower—another dragon orb. He then shares even more—he knows how they work. Gnosh told him that there are words that appear in the orb, and Tas has his magic glasses. So he could, probably, use the orb. Somehow. Laurana stresses that if even a single dragon arrives, they’re doomed, so with that encouragement, Tas dons his glasses and gets to orbing…
Notable Quotes
‘Why insult the door’s purpose by locking it?’
–Kender expression. This made me laugh.
“Where has the Measure gotten us? Divided, jealous, crazed. Even our own people prefer to treat with the armies of our enemies! The Measure has failed!”
–Sturm doesn’t throw a tantrum often, but when he does, he makes it count. Well done, Brightblade!
“I’m staying. It’s what Tanis would do—”
“Damn it, Laurana. Live your own life! You can’t be Tanis! I can’t be Tanis! He isn’t here!”
Monster(s) of the Week
The assorted hordes of darkness. (offscreen)
Jared’s Take
I find Krynn’s rich history fascinating, especially as it only ever occurs as the occasional plot-point. Everything everyone does, everywhere they go, they’re surrounded by ruins and lost magic and broken cities and relics. But the sense is that it is all forgotten—that civilisation has fragmented. The gods are gone, the magic is lost; there are entire structures that sit in the middle of trade routes that no one even visits.
The absence of history hurts. It gives Krynn the feel of a world in decline. The characters are constantly being reminded of their own ignorance, surrounded by objects and powers and mystical artifacts that they can’t use, all made by more knowledgeable people in the past. The balance of Good and Evil is also interlinked: while cities like Palanthas ignore what they ‘should’ be doing, the Dragonarmies gobble up isolated cities and territories, all of which are the shattered fragments of larger, ancient empires.
And, yet, where there is a sense of history—of connection with the past—it can also be counterproductive. Sturm’s rant against the Measure—and the foolishness of the Knighthood—is one strong argument. The Knights stick to tradition, often without even considering the alternatives. Their fixed behaviours and attitudes are dragging them down. The Elves as well are living more in the past than in the present, too busy thinking about their ancient role to meet modern challenges.
Functionally, this feels like one of the side effects of Dragonlance’s simultaneous development as both a game work and a series of novels. The landscape needs to be littered with adventure hooks, mysteries and ‘dungeons’. Thousands of tiny plot hooks. The richer the world’s history, the more nooks and crannies there are to explore.
But thematically, this is also rich territory—we’ve written in the past about how this is a series about rebellion; trusting individuals, not institutions. But it is also a fantasy that explores our connection with the past, and how, although we need it, we can’t risk being defined by it.
Mahvesh’s Take
Jared always makes it so hard to follow up with something equally clever! He’s right, as usual—the world of Dragonlance was created to work as a boardgame would—each roll of the dice must lead us to a new twist, a different turn, a change of scene. But that’s me saying that now, as someone who knows that this was part of a game. I didn’t back then, and so the world of Dragonlance to me was just this mysterious sprawl with much, much unexplored territory that was home to many adventures to be experienced. There’s always a new place when you need one, and an ancient source of magic and power waiting around in some ruins to be discovered. Sure—we don’t really have a single unified canonical history (do we?), but even this world in ruin, this sprawling Krynn of destroyed towns and fragments of old civilisations is exciting an
Just in these chapters alone, we have mention of the Tower of the High Clerist, the Westgate Past, the Habbakuk Range of mountains separating Solamnia from Palanthas, the Gates of Paladine, the Age of Might, the Vingaard Keep—and all this just in a couple of paragraphs! Sure, we don’t really have details on all this in any straightforward infodumpy way (though let’s face it, Dragonlance isn’t a stranger to infodumps), but how intriguing are even just the names alone? Just the potential of these incredible places, the suggestion of this mysterious history and the centuries of ancient civilisations and gods and heroes and monsters and warriors who have made up Krynn…just the suggestion used to take my teenage breath away. And it still does in some ways—I love suddenly meeting new groups of people, randomly coming across bits of magical antiques, running into strange creatures, all of it. I love finding out about the past in pieces, putting it together and realising that no, it still isn’t everything Krynn is, but it’s what made the characters I love who they are, and that’s enough for me.
Next week: less waxing lyrical from us, more shrieks and yells and blaring of horns from the dragonarmies.
Mahvesh loves dystopian fiction & appropriately lives in Karachi, Pakistan. She writes about stories & interviews writers the Tor.com podcast Midnight in Karachi when not wasting much too much time on Twitter.
Jared Shurin is an editor for Pornokitsch and the non-profit publisher Jurassic London.
Did Derek seriously just try to argue that marrying an eternally youthful badass princess who is also the most beautiful woman in the world would be a punishment?
At any rate as ridiculous as Derek is made to look in these chapters, I still have a problem with what Sturm does here by refusing to commit his troops to Derek’s attack. While soldiers are obligated to disobey unlawful/immoral orders, Sturm wasn’t being ordered to do anything illegal or immoral. Sturm was given a lawful order by his commanding officer. It may have been a foolish order, but military organizations cannot function if subordinate officers feel they can freely disobey any order they think is foolish.
Derek’s plan also wasn’t inherently unreasonable. Yes, he’s giving up the defensive advantages of the tower walls by taking the field, but as is pointed out in these very chapters, the walls are pretty much worthless if the enemy brings up their dragons. As such it makes more sense to attack the enemy army now while they don’t have any dragons around then to give the enemy time to bring their dragons up. Nor is there any real reason to think that a heavy cavalry charge wouldn’t work against a draconian army. Heavy cavalry charges are very difficult to resist for all but the most capable of troops, and what we’ve seen of the draconians so far doesn’t give us any real reason to believe they would be able to stand up to such a charge. (The almost completely untrained Tika has been able to hold her own in battle against draconians, so I don’t really buy Sturm’s argument that the draconians are such fearsome opponents that there’s no way a cavalry charge could work.)
Now obviously the attack did fail, but maybe the reason it failed is because Sturm kept half of the Knights from participating. Sturm has 100 knights under his command. That’s a powerful contingent that Sturm kept out of the fight and an additional 100 knights might well have changed the outcome of the battle. (For want of a nail and all that.) Thus I just can’t see Sturm’s actions here as praiseworthy.
Anyway while we’re on the subject of controversial actions by our Heroes, I’ve seen people argue before that Laurana committed a war crime by shooting Bakaris while he was under a flag of truce, but I don’t buy that argument. Bakaris was effectively torturing a prisoner by hauling a badly wounded Derek up to the tower just to score propaganda points against the remaining defenders. The protections of a flag of truce last only so long as you do not initiate hostile action. Committing a war crime (prisoner abuse) certainly qualifies as hostile action. Thus Bakaris forfeited any right to protection he had under the flag of truce and was a legitimate target. (And in fact Laurana would have perfectly justified legally, ethically and morally in killing him outright.)
@1 I could make some counterarguments:
Admiral Nelson, IIRC, disobeyed a direct order at the First Battle of Copenhagen, in 1801. And no one seems to condemn him for it. He rationally and correctly believed he was in a better position to judge the situation than his superior.
And Bakaris was probably acting within medieval law, which might be more applicable to Krynn than modern international law. Back in the day, captives had no rights as such. It was chivalrous to refrain from torturing or killing a captive at your mercy, but it certainly was not a legal requirement.
Actually, I think Sturm was entirely correct in refusing to leave the strategic advantage of the Tower.
If it was the entire Blue Wing under Kitiara that was attacking and not simply one of its component units then Derek was completely insane to even consider it.
ONE Flight would consist of enough troops to outnumber the defenders 3 to 1; if the entire Blue Wing (minus some troops left behind for security/control of captured territory) were attacking as is indicated, then the numbers would have been beyond overwhelming.
Asking your troops to suicide against such numbers is just as likely to get you killed as refusing to obey; Sturm had the bigger game in mind as they were the only forces in the area. Their loss of Palanthas’ harbor would have lost the Knights everything east of the mountains and likely all the way to the shores in Coastlund as well. (because the Knights and Kayolin dwarves were holding a stalemate in the south around Caergoth. Additional pressure would have tipped the balance)
That would have meant losing the mainland and the Knights being trapped in Ergoth and Sancrist with resistance to any beachhead they might try.
They can be very difficult to resist in the right conditions. In other circumstances, heavy cavalry are dogmeat. Charging the front of heavy infantry unsupported while being hopelessly outnumbered? Sounds like dogmeat. Especially when any infantry they do kill explode or turn to stone or whatever. They’d never be able to carry a charge home and once they stopped moving, they’re dead.
@2 The Elves appear to disagree with that proviso of medieval law.
@2: Admiral Nelson, IIRC, disobeyed a direct order at the First Battle of Copenhagen, in 1801. And no one seems to condemn him for it. He rationally and correctly believed he was in a better position to judge the situation than his superior.
Admiral Nelson was in a position where he had information that his superiors did not. Sturm isn’t in that situation. He has exactly the same information Derek has.
And Bakaris was probably acting within medieval law, which might be more applicable to Krynn than modern international law. Back in the day, captives had no rights as such. It was chivalrous to refrain from torturing or killing a captive at your mercy, but it certainly was not a legal requirement.
Maybe, but doesn’t that cut both ways? If the chivalric standards for treatment of prisoners are only guidelines, then it would seem that the chivalric standards for respecting flags of truce would also be just guidelines, and thus Laurana would still be justified in shooting Bakaris.
@3: If it was the entire Blue Wing under Kitiara that was attacking and not simply one of its component units then Derek was completely insane to even consider it.
ONE Flight would consist of enough troops to outnumber the defenders 3 to 1; if the entire Blue Wing (minus some troops left behind for security/control of captured territory) were attacking as is indicated, then the numbers would have been beyond overwhelming.
I rather doubt it was the entire Blue Wing. For one thing this is wintertime and it seems unlikely Kitiara would station her entire army in one location since that would cause her major supply problems. And for another when the Blue Wing forces launch a conventional attack on the tower, the 100 or so remaining defenders are able to repulse the attack. Even with the tower walls I doubt the defenders could have fought off an enemy that had them outnumbered 100 to 1 or worse, so it must have been just a fraction of the Blue Wing’s total power that attacked.
Asking your troops to suicide against such numbers is just as likely to get you killed as refusing to obey; Sturm had the bigger game in mind as they were the only forces in the area.
But how is Sturm’s strategy any more likely to be successful. Derek’s plan is high risk but also potentially high reward. Sturm’s strategy is lower risk, but with no real prospects of reinforcements, it has no real chance of reward either. Time is on the Dragonarmies side here. The Knights are running out of food, their morale is terrible, and the tower is only defensible until the enemy dragons arrive. They are pretty much at the point where they are going to have to start taking some risks if they want any chance of winning. Playing it safe will drag things out for a while, but it is ultimately just buying defeat on an installment plan.
@@.-@: They can be very difficult to resist in the right conditions. In other circumstances, heavy cavalry are dogmeat. Charging the front of heavy infantry unsupported while being hopelessly outnumbered? Sounds like dogmeat. Especially when any infantry they do kill explode or turn to stone or whatever. They’d never be able to carry a charge home and once they stopped moving, they’re dead.
Well the Knights aren’t exactly unsupported since they do have a large force of infantry with them. And if Derek is right on his history the Knights have apparently defeated armies of ogres using the same tactics they intend to use here. Would draconians really be more difficult to break than ogres? (Besides which it’s not as though the entire Blue Wing force is made up of draconians. It has large contingents of human and goblinoid troops as well who should be easier to rout.)