Dragonlance Dragonlance: Solamnic Knights & Mages of High Sorcery Preview

WotC has shared another preview of the upcoming Dragonlance setting/adventure with a look at backgrounds and feats for Solamnic Knights and Mages of High Sorcery.

Feats include Squire of Solamnia and Initiate of High Sorcery. Interestingly, one prerequisite is "Dragonlance Campaign", which implies that the feats can't be used outside that setting.

Dragonlance Backgrounds and Feats: Answer the Call as Knights and Mages

Will you join the Knights of Solamnia or the Mages of High Sorcery? Each offers a unique background and feats for Dragonlance characters. Get a sneak pe...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I just checked and it does not go into nearly as much detail as Curse of Strahd does.

I have both and I don’t think you’re correct here. Curse of Strahd is longer yes, but it’s an adventure path and most detail is about adventure path. The Gazeteer had way more detail on culture, people, food, religion on the other hand, with adventure sites detailed as hooks in sidebars. Curse of Strahd doesn’t really present Barovia as a place existing outside the adventure really. (Why bother with such mundanities when we can just say most people don’t have souls lol)

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I searched in Dragonlance Adventures, Tales of the Lance, Dragonlance Campaign Setting, and Knightly Orders of Ansalon. There is no mention of the Solamnic Knights to be required to have a mustache. However they are typically depicted/described with one. This means it's simply a style of choice for the solamnics.

Can folks stop perpetuating this bit misinformation?

Also, Look at Female Knight of the Rose conferring with her peers of the Crown and Sword (from Knightly Orders of Ansalon). Can we stop the sexist bit too?

Women in the knighthood is a recent thing though, and also is the acceptance of non-humans, but there is precedent. The image is taken from Knightly Orders of Ansalon, which I consider the most complete and authoritative source on the subject.
View attachment 265049

It shouldn’t be an enforced rule, and I don’t think anyone’s arguing that. It should be present in art as a visual element which this image does but the 5e art does not. Visual style helps establish the feel of a setting. 5e has enforced a uniform art across its settings, which I feel is a mistake.

 

[pemerton]

Does DragonLance Adventures (1987) mention either moustaches or sex/gender for Knights? I just did a quick scan of it and didn't see either. In my encounters with DL I never got the sense that these were fundamental to the setting - as opposed to, say, the various meditations on loyalty, obedience, justice and honour.

 

[darjr]

Is this like the Jedi thing? Where one guy wore desert robes and now it's somehow Jedi Required Costume? Is it mainly because the one character depicted the most had those epic handle bars?

 

[Velderan]

Is this like the Jedi thing? Where one guy wore desert robes and now it's somehow Jedi Required Costume? Is it mainly because the one character depicted the most had those epic handle bars?

Pretty much every named knight is described with the mustache and most if not all the art depicts it.

It's been years since I've read the novel Legend of Huma and I thought it said he didn't have one which was something the other knights mocked him for but it's been years so don't hold me to that memory. lol

 

[wellis]

It's been years since I've read the novel Legend of Huma and I thought it said he didn't have one which was something the other knights mocked him for but it's been years so don't hold me to that memory. lol

He's described as having a mustache, though not as grand as the others:

Huma bounced as his warhorse stumbled in the mud. The visor of his helmet slammed down in front of his face, startling him. He reached up and raised it, allowing the cool wind to bite at his handsome, if somewhat weathered, features. Though his mustache was not as grand as that of Bennett or the High Warrior, there was some dignity in the slight gray that prematurely touched it and the rest of the hair on his head. His visage was surprisingly soft—so much so that the others occasionally commented on his youth, although not when he was nearby.

Also, mustaches seem to be "popular":

As they rode, the High Warrior glanced quickly at the rider to his side. They might have been from the same mold, with their hawklike features and the long flowing mustaches that were popular among the knights.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Also Lord Soth did not have one and he was considered one of the best Knights of the Rose.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

He's described as having a mustache, though not as grand as the others:

Also, mustaches seem to be "popular":

Apart from Gerard ugh Mondar I can’t think of a male knight who was clean shaven.

Strum, Sturms dad, Derek, Aaron, Gunthar, Kitiaras dad, Caramons sons (actually was Tanin Majere clean shaven?)… pretty much the vast majority. It was definitely the predominant fashion, like dwarves with beards.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Also Lord Soth did not have one and he was considered one of the best Knights of the Rose.

Yes he did, when he was alive.

Lord Soth was a tall and heavy-boned man, with a square jaw, prominent brow and high cheekbones, with deep-set and piercing steel-gray eyes and thick, pitch black hair with a shock hanging down over his shoulders in curls. He also had the traditional Solamnic mustache that was stylishly long and tapered.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yes he did, when he was alive.

Lord Soth was a tall and heavy-boned man, with a square jaw, prominent brow and high cheekbones, with deep-set and piercing steel-gray eyes and thick, pitch black hair with a shock hanging down over his shoulders in curls. He also had the traditional Solamnic mustache that was stylishly long and tapered.

Huh, the official piece of art of him while alive I have seen have him has him clean shaven.