Dragonlance Dragonlance Creators Reveal Why There Are No Orcs On Krynn

Talking to the Dragonlance Nexus, Dragonlance creators Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman revealed why the world of Krynn features no orcs -- in short, because they didn't want to copy Tolkien, and orcs were very much a 'Middle Earth' thing.

Weis told Trampas Whiteman that "Orcs were also viewed as very Middle Earth. We wanted something different." Hickman added that it was draconians which made Krynn stand out. Read more at the link below!

Why are there no Orcs in Krynn? Weis and Hickman give us the answer! - Dragonlance Nexus

Dragonhelm gets the scoop from Weis and Hickman on why there are no orcs in Krynn. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

 

[GMforPowergamers]

the towers are not color coded…

white=good black= bad isn't color coded how?

 

[AnotherGuy]

a player wants to play one.

lets take a look at what the PHB says

then there are the mechanical bits no other race gets

then there is the astatic

okay no one asked for you to get it, just that you get some players want them in the setting.

Not picking on you, but using your post as an example for some posters.
I'm wondering if the posters who claimed the canon-side was focussing on the wrong things (i.e. the inclusion of orcs) for a DL setting are going to do the same with this post.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I mean given the fact WotC saw the Mages of High Sorcery concept as being interesting enough to make it one of their promotional videos, I'm going to guess it wasn't intended to just be a footnote.

teh towers as I hear WotC say are NOT color coded for your conviance... you can be a good black robe and or an evil white robe.

 

[Micah Sweet]

white=good black= bad isn't color coded how?

The order is color-coded. The Towers themselves are not (although several leaned one way or another).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The half-orc was a mistake. The author didn't get the memo.

but it didn't mess anything up. It was still krynn. The very fact that a writer, a line editor, and a story editor made it through without noticing any issue shows that the presence or lack of one of orcs doesn't change Krynn

 

[Micah Sweet]

it does the moment they are no longer in charge

So this is just a matter of who owns the IP? If that's your argument you should just say so.

 

[Velderan]

I can't beleive in 2022 we still think the only use orcs can have in any setting is 'minion of the dark lord'

I ask you to read my post again because your response seems to indicate you missed the point, I didn't say they were the minion of the dark lord. I said the standard 5E half-orc isn't some unique thing you couldn't cover with something that's already present in the DL world.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It actually did because I remember reading it and wondering where did this character come from since literally every other character in a DL novel had come from somewhere that had been explained or at least hinted at. Having read a bunch of DL novels and knowing what we now know about TSR at the time, you quickly realize they were churning them out so fast to keep the lights on and authors weren't always given the time to research the setting they were writing about.

again, I am sure there is some % of fans that said "Hey X years ago I read there were no orcs" but I bet most that read the books just said "okay" and ran with it... the very fact that it wasn't the first go to thing people talk about shows it is not that big a deal.

 

[Velderan]

teh towers as I hear WotC say are NOT color coded for your conviance... you can be a good black robe and or an evil white robe.

The towers never were color coded to begin with? I'm not understanding the point you're making.

 

[Morrus]

This thread is becoming very adversarial. Calm down, please folks. Orcs in Dragonlance is not worth getting upset about.