Join me as I review The Dragons of Chaos edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, live! Share your thoughts on this third ‘Dragons’ anthology, released by Wizards of the Coast on January 1, 1997. You can buy a copy here: https://amzn.to/3WV3ero
The Chaos War Rages
For fans of Dragons of Summer Flame, this is a new short-story collection, featuring the brave heroes, dark villains, differing races, and all varieties of dragons of one of the most popular fantasy worlds — Krynn.
Edited by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, this volume highlights familiar and beloved characters (and creatures), filling in some intriguing gaps of lost Dragonlance history.
This story was about a blue dragon named Clamor who suffered from PTSD after fighting with her late rider Sir Jerne Stormcrown in the Abyss during the Chaos War. Jerne leaped off her back to attack a Daemon Warrior atop his Fire Dragon and they both plummeted to their doom. Clamor fought the Fire Dragon, after it clawed her leg, letting chaos seep into her and corrupt her. She witnessed the end of the Chaos War and flew back to the Kharolis mountains, tormenting the elves and ogres around there. Going village to village taking souls to placate the chaos that was poisoning her. She felt tremendous guilt about her rider’s death and wanted to bring honor to his name in his absence, but inside she knew it was not honorable. In the end she let death come to her as elves and ogres teamed up to kill her. She saw Jerne in a river calling to her, and she went to him in death. As I write this is incredibly more sad than reading the story was, and knowing about the War of Souls that wasn’t a thing when this was originally written, I know her soul will not find Jerne in death, and that is even sadder. But I enjoyed the short story none-the-less.
This was another sad tale. A Knight of Takhisis named Kal was headed up to meet the dragon of redstone to regain his glory after the vision left him with the gods at the end of the Chaos War. he came upon a Knight of the Rose named Brinon who was blinded and was also headed up to the dragon of redstone to slay it, proving his honor and that would bring Paladine back. The knights share a repast and Kal left to find the dragon. On his way up the mountain he loosed a boulder which crushed his leg and started an avalanche. Brinon found him and helped him. They decided to go up the mountain together. Kal would try to join with the Dragon and if he refused Brinon would slay it. It seemed the blind and crippled needed each other. One the way up the mountain we learned about their backstories. Kal was a beggar before Ariakan and he is afraid that he never had honor, just the vision, and without that, only the memories of those he killed. Brinon ran from battle and only saw the dead and horrors of war in his eyes so he blinded himself. They finally reached the summit and began attacking what they believed was the dragon only to have it revealed as a stone formation that looked like a dragon from a distance. Then Brinon believed he needed to fight Kal for his honor and Kal wanted none of it. Brinon eventually killed himself by using Kal inadvertently and thanked him. Kal walked away with the thought that without the gods, we were left to our own devices, to suffer or find meaning as we will. Its a devastating idea, yet the reality I believe we all share in real life. We are what we choose to be as The Iron Giant film tells us. And I personally love the notion.
I don’t understand this short story. It leads up to something interesting then just stops. Calarran is the senator Idron’s assistant and met up with renegades who were operating with the Tessioe, the group Alhana Starbreze and Porthios led in Qualinesti as resistance fighters to the Dark Knights. He was supposed to meet with Porthios but the Dark Knights attacked. He was terrified and ran for his life. He stumbled his way through the forest back to the camp where the rest of the survivors were leaving. He demanded to know about Idron, but they said he was captured. They were leaving to meet with Porthios. Calarran went after Irdon with a Kagonesti named Daraiel who also survived the Dark Knight attack. They initially hated each other but slowly grew to respect each other as they snuck into the camp to rescue Idron and were caught. It turned out that Idron was working with the Dark Knights to save Qualinost in return for Porthios’s life. This news shocked Daraiel and Calarran and they lit the tent on fire to escape. They evaded the Dark Knights as the fire spread and came to terms with their feelings about each other. Then they started to untie their bonds and the story ended. Abruptly, just like that. They did not return and share the news about the traitor senator, they didn’t get recaptured, nothing. I mean, the story up to this point was building into a very interesting narrative. It’s so aggravating.
Wow, this was a wild story I did not expect. Lord Stoddard is fighting a Chaos Dragon which defeats him and most of his men. In true Knaak fashion, he passes out, thinking he would be killed by the Chaos Dragon. He wakes nearly healed fully to his men and a young boy. His men toll him the dragon defeated them and is headed to the nearby town. The young boy says he is Liam of Eldor, Human’s son. He said that Paladine wouldn’t let Huma intervene in mortal affairs until Chaos was released, and then his son, the product of his and the Silver Dragon Heart’s union who dwelt in the heavens, also came to kill the Chaos Dragon. Clearly no one believes him, and he insists he has an original dragonlance and needs to be allowed to fight. The knights refuse and the only dragon left is a wounded bronze named Razer. Stoddard claims the lance from Liam and mounts Razor, flying to the town to try to intercept the Chaos Dragon. They are ambushed by the dragon and Razor dies, while stoddard once again passes out, only to waken with Liam over him in ancient Knight of the Crown armor. He takes the lance telling Stoddard that he has to do this. He rides off on his massive steed toward the dragon, who warps reality the closer you are to it. Liam ends up in the air, falling and once he hits ground transforms into a silver dragon and hurls the dragonlance at the Chaos Dragon. He then flies into it, pushing the lance deeper when lightning strikes the chaos dragon over and over again until it explodes. Stoddard couldn’t believe what he witnessed, but was too weak to investigate. He was discovered by the town militia who brought the corpse of the young boy. They said he rode the bronze dragon and lighting killed the Chaos Dragon, but Stoddard knew better. He witnessed a miracle and the son of Huma fulfilling his destiny. This story reminded me of being a child myself and wanting to be able to worship Paladine like a Knight of Solamnia. I wanted so desperately to have some grand destiny or purpose, one that I found in being a husband and father. One that is much messier than any hero’s mythical life, but one I wouldn’t trade for anything.
This was an abruptly ended short story as well, and equally unsatisfying. It began with an assassin being charged by a cleric of Takhsiis to kill a thief. The charge was a black dragon who hired two assassins unknown to the cleric to help him. He monologued about whether an assassin cannot have any personal interest in the target or it always ended badly. This is a foreshadow. He observes the thief meet up with two other assassins and tells them to find the black dragon and kill him, that he too was hired by the cleric of Takhisis. The black dragon was double crossed. The two assassins had dragon bane weapons. The black dragon tasked his assassins to kill and collect the weapons for him, and he chased down the thieves. He defeated him and just before killing him, the thieves said to kill him like he did his brother. Now this became personal, and the black dragon didn’t kill him. Just returned to his assassins to collect the dragon’s bane weapons and presumably off to kill the evil cleric. That was the whole tale, making me want more but not actually satisfying me. This is the second story where an evil creature walks away from a kill because of personal feelings. This does not seem to be consistent with Dragonlance lore. Evil feeds on itself, not learns from itself.
This was a very odd short story that had a bunch of twists that were not properly set up or executed. An elf is approached by a Thiewar dwarf to retrieve a Dragon’s Eye, a gem, from Ashton Manor and deliver it to him to get his wife back. The elf is a warrior who used to have magic before the chaos War. He knows Ashton Manor is avoided by thieves and the like so getting the gem will be difficult. Only, it really isn’t. This elf warrior flies through every challenge. He comes across a basilisk and deals with it, a few traps, no problem, a giant spider, killed, though he is poisoned, it doesn’t seem to actually affect him at all. Then he faces off against an odd looking human guardian of the eye who can communicate telepathically to him. It doesn’t explain what this being is really so there is no real threat, and the elf defeats him readily. He then takes the Dragon’s Eye and returns to Palanthas and works his way to the thieves guild, he gets attacked by a guard and defeats him, then enters the guild to discover a chaos spawn holding his wife hostage. He coated the gem with paralytic poison so the chaos spawn drops instantly, then its revealed an ogre is his ally in the guild, and mara his wife, is a man and his companion. They are all dragonsbane and are assigned to hunt chaos spawn. They are taking this one to the Tower of High Sorcery for inspection, but the elf is returning the eye because he isn’t a thief. What? It is so odd, why even get the gem? Why not just poison anything and give that to the Chaos Spawn? Why is there no actual dragon in the story?
This was a bit of a fun story. It’s about a town which is preparing for their Midyear Day festival, as strangers slowly enter the town making a fuss about being refugees from neighboring towns as dragons have attacked and killed everyone. They stir up the town residents so that they are all ready to abandon their homes and flee into the mountain caves nearby until the dragon passes by. The innkeeper doesn’t want them to leave as he has his batch of beer nearly ready for the festival and sees an opportunity. He could lead everyone to the cellars to safety and will be seen as a hero and can charge more for his ale the following day during the festival. He leads everyone to the cellars and the newcomers lock them in. It turns out there was no dragon, the nearby town just ran out of ale during their celebration and this group known as the Cobbin Brothers is coming to rob the town of their ale. The innkeeper’s daughter even takes the innkeeper’s ale recipe as dowry and leaves with one of the men. It’s a great way to capitalize on fear and dragons in a time when you would be foolish not to listen to this type of paranoia.
This was a really great palette cleansing story. It had nothing to do with dragons, but it was during the battle in the abyss, and Maq and crew were taking to the Blood Sea to transport supplies to the Monotaur Isles. The gnome Lendle had his machine below and was complaining about hearing tales about the end of the world in a tavern, and that they shouldn’t leave to the blood sea isles. Maq was having none of it and they set sail, they immediately encountered a massive storm and this is where the story felt real. I have read a lot of classic literature about sailing and storms and this felt as genuine as any of them. They battle the storm and are losing the Perechon as they abandon ship. Maq is tossed into the ocean and Kof is going after her. Lendle is going below decks to get his machine. THe storm seems to die out after Maq is saved, and they all reboard the ship to see a huge gaping hole in the ocean like a waterfall. They man the oars to try to get around it but the storm and current is too much. They end up being propelled across it by the gnomes machine and live to sail another day. They take another job, at the complaint of Lendle who heard about another tavern tale they should listen to. That was the story. It was great having Jean Rabe write a fun tale and to return to Maq was great. We don’t get a lot of good sailing stories but this was definitely one of them.
This story kills me. I am both angry and sad. Its about a really old man who used to be a town weaver but in his advanced age has started talking about dragons leading him to water. He digs massive holes all around the town. The town is in a massive drought, and desperately needs water. Everyone thinks the man is crazy, but the town crier decides to follow him on ebay and reports to the mayor that the old man had found mud. Apparently someone fell in one of his wells and got hurt, and he demands satisfaction. The crier goes to tell the old man his dragons are in the town square and they see him approach and start complaining. The hurt man says they should ban him from town. The old man simply walks away to go dig more. He has a vision of the dragons telling him finally where to find water, and the following day he goes to find it. He starts digging and the townspeople gather at the top of the well and stone the man. The mayor runs up to him, and cradles him in the hole, the old man says he found water like the dragons said he would and dies in his arms. The mayor tells everyone he found water but that none can drink it now, since it is tainted with the blood of the old man. This reminds me of MAGA. They are actively supporting leaders who are hurting them with their policies, making everyone else suffer in addition to them. Their stupidity is hurting all Americans, just like this town hurting the one old man who is trying to help. And when help comes, it’s too late.
This was a delightful story about a dragon who hid his hoard on a mountain and a wandering hero who set to finding it. He was met at an inn by ruffians who wanted to stop him, but he defeated them with the aid of a woman. She wanted to go with him for the money. He refused and knocked her out. Then he left and she ended up following. She kneed him in the groin, turning the tables and they ended up traveling together for a little while as ruffians followed them both they let off some black powder and a landslide. Then he killed them all as they left the dust. She was surprised but decided to continue on as they found a town. Turns out she is the sheriff of the town and wanted to hire him to find the treasure and kill the dragon who is rumored to come back to get it. They travel together, finding the markers to the cave and enter it. He has her go back to town to get a wagon and he is confronted by the dragon. She returns to use his powder to blow the dragon out of the cavern and wipe its memory. The powder worked and she tells him that he is not leaving with the treasure. The townspeople are outside the cavern and want it. He tells them they can have it, and she offers him a job. He reluctantly accepts and the tale ends. They have a great back and forth and the author did a great job of portraying neer do well personalities reluctantly working together and even suggesting a possible connection down the line. It was more complex than I am used to for short stories and it was well worth the time to read it.
Wow, what a story! It starts with Chaos roaming the open Sea, and comes across a fishing boat with two people in it. They are returning to Palanthas when the fire giant crosses them. It burns a half elf named Gullwing and he passes out from the pain, sleeping a whole day. When he awakes, him and his captain Hayrn sail into Palanthas but everything is different. The moon looks like an eye, sails all have eyes, the rocks that split in the Cataclysm near the port weren’t split, and there is an old man chained to them. They go into port and try to pay with steel and are refused. Nothing is as it was. People mention dominion of Ergoth, and the coins have a great eye on one side and a whole Ansalon on the other, as if the cataclysm never happened. They get into a tavern and meet a dwarf slave with no hands. He speaks kenderspeak a little and Solamnic. They talk a bit and pay with stolen coins. Then leave. They discover they are in the same year 383, but it is I.T., not A.C. They ask what that means and they say Istar Triumphant. The Kingpriest fought the gods and won, the cataclysm never happened. Not sure how they got here to this timeline, they return to the inn and the dwarf tells them they never should’ve come here. They relay their story about the fire giant and their timeline, and the wharf starts to respond when guards come and arrest them all. In their cell, the dwarf relays that the gods were made mortal by the kingpriest and were enslaved. He breaks them out and they all race to their ship to leave the mainland. The dwarf stops at the old man and asks for the gem. THe gets the Graygem and the sailors realise the dwarf is Reorx and the old man is Fizban. Reorx wants to be called Dougan as he is no longer a god and they sail for the Irda island. Dougan believes the Irda must have broken the Graygem in their timeline, releasing Chaos. That is how they were teleported here. Perhaps the Irda can help them return home. They arrive only to find the Godking waiting for them. He got here first and killed the Irda. The half elf makes a deal to return the Graygem to the Godking IF he leaves them in peace. He agrees and takes the Graygem and leaves. He told the Godking to open the gem, and when he returned to Istar, he did just that. Chaos started to destroy the world after killing the godking. Reorx regained some of his power and returned the sailors to their timeline. It seems Chaos sent them to unleash him in another timeline which would happen in all timelines so all Krynn’s would be destroyed. It’s a terrifying notion that fits in perfectly with Dragonlance and their multiple timeline situation. I really enjoyed this short story and the presentation of an Istar Triumphant alternate timeline.
This is set in Caergoth with the Dark Knights and Tarmak trying to root out the resistance that has been eluding them. They placed the city on lockdown until they could find them, and on one patrol they were ambushed by Gully Dwarves who infected many of the Tarmak and knights with some illness after biting them in the ambush. The dark knights captured one of the Gully Dwarves and tried to interrogate them to no avail. Then they decided they should let him go and have him inadvertently lead them to their hideout. Which they did. Once inside they cornered the Highmurf as this was the Murf clan, and finally got some information out of him about where the red robe who hired the gully dwarves for the resistance lived. They told him about a secret entrance in a house on the hill and you had to pull the blur book on the third shelf to enter it. When the Dark knights arrived, they pulled the third book and remembered that gully dwarves couldn’t count past two! It was a trap that started a massive fireball and started burning the dark knights home. It was revealed the wizard was the Highmurf and as they polymorphed the rest of the clan into their natural forms, the lone gully dwarf was rewarded with a shiny copper coin. This was a great short story about using gully dwarfs as resistance fighters in a fun and creative way, it gave great insight into the Dark Knights ranks and hierarchy while making them all feel like individuals with individual motivations. The gully dwarf bits were pretty humorous, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were funny. They did bring a needed levity to the tale though.
This was a bit of a science fiction story. Two gnome friends are watching the night sky as a light streaks out of the sky and falls to earth. They pontificate on whether the gods are from the stars and if the meteor is part of the gods as they go to retrieve it. They find a piece that is green and throbbing with light, but is not an intelligently crafted shape. One gnome takes it and builds a prediction machine. He tests it daily with his friend who is growing jealous of his success, but still supportive, and the machine seems to be sapping the life of the gnome inventor. The machine predicts coin flips, then weather, and as it continues to be correct, the community starts to gather for the predictions. The friends are having dreams which are scary, one insists he continues to build, and the other sees Takhisis. Finally the prediction leads to the machine exploding and burning the town down, and the friend collects the star shard and buries it, protecting others from the Dark Queen’s machinations. His inventor friend goes back to his regular life, and the town rebuilds. It reminds me of an almost Lovecraftian story. I like how intimate it is, really between two friends who are worried about their own success but also their friendship. This star shard also seems to be more part of chaos than Takhisis, but it was a fun story none-the-less.
This was a fantastic tale I have read before. I believe in one of the Member readings from a Dragon Magazine. In any case, it is about a town of Goodland, not Goodlund, where the people love playing chess, and are renowned all around the region for it. One day two men come into town, one tall and one small and they say they would like to play chess, and on the morrow anyone who would dare play against them could come and win the chess set. The set itself was a thing of wonder, beautiful beyond imagination. The fee to play was one steel piece and everyone tried, but no one could beat them. Then finally a man named Blackshanks came into town to play and beat them, demanding the chess set. The tall and small went into the tent and came out, one dressed as a Knight of Solamnia, and the other ready to weave a spell as Black shanks began to take his true form of a Black Dragon! The tall one started casting a spell to slow the transformation as the small one attacked. They eventually defeated the dragon who was the last in the family line of a black dragon lineage dating back to the third dragon war. The tall man revealed himself to be a silver dragon and they left the town after having succeeded in doing what they planned. They had to lure the black dragon out of his lair with chess. They were given the chess set minus the black dragon piece as they left town. It’s a fun story that makes you think creatively about how to defeat your foes. Why meet them on their turf, when you can trick them into coming to you?
I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t expect this. This is about a great white dragon named Keristillax who fought against Huma in the third dragon war. When the evil dragons were defeated, he was allowed to remain sleeping on Krynn by Takhisis. Now, thousands of years later before the War of the Lance, Keri saw Terrisleetix, or Sleet flying around. He approached her and she summoned him to the Lords of Doom for Takhiss’ coming war, sharing information about the Good Dragons Eggs keeping them out of the war, but Keris saw what the dragonlances did and wanted nothing to do with another war. Sleet left and in time, Keris went hunting and saw a seal diving in a hole in the ice. He stuck his head in and fell into a trap. A collar closed around his neck and the Dragon Highlord Salikarn stood there in his magical armor warmed by the sun, commanding Keris to be his mount. Keris tried to kill him, but each time more painful agony was wracked upon him by the collar. He soon relented and they flew around Icewall, getting to know each other and hunting. THey began to travel toward the Lords of Doom, and on one landing, Keris injured his wing. While they waited a massive storm hit and Salikarn couldn’t get his armor to recharge its heat with the sun, and ended up dying. Keris briefly mourned him, before the collar dropped from his neck and he returned to icewall while it was still his. I thought they might see battle, or learn to trust one another, or something, but it just ended with a frozen highlord, and a freed dragon. Kinda ended with a whimper. As the last story in this Chaos war trilogy, I was left wondering why there weren’t more Chaos War stories, and why this collection was even named as it was in the absence of them.
