Just finished the Destinies Triology. Sadly I didn't like it that much, and the ending confuses me a bit .. does it's conclusion now negate Dragons of Summer Flame and the stories after that?
Anyone know the official stance on that?
SPOILERS... Read at your own risk.
This all comes down to interpretation. You can view it as a retcon—or as events that were always destined to happen.
There are two key concepts unique to Dragonlance that must always be kept in mind. First: time is not a fixed, linear path as it is in most fantasy or sci-fi settings. In Dragonlance, time is a river. It flows, it bends, it can diverge and rejoin. Small changes, like pebbles dropped into its current, do not alter its overall direction. Occasionally, it even becones influent. In the Destinies trilogy, the meta-narrative seems to suggest that this River is overflowing, as if it had been dammed, and is now about to break free and chart a new course entirely.
Second: the Greygem is not Chaos itself, but rather the vessel that contains (or imprisons) Chaos—a vessel that carries Him through the River of Time. Chaos, as stated in Dragons of Summer Flame, despises this containment. He exists outside the River, but the Greygem flows within it. Yet the being inside, Chaos, can still influence the River’s path.
The Gods of Magic created a repository for the Greygem described as “a vortex that is vaster and deeper than time.” That phrase is critical. It implies both eternal existence and nonexistence, a concept that ties into the theme of eternity, especially given that the book is titled Dragons of Eternity. Again, interpretation is key.
Chronologically, the next time we encounter the Greygem is when the Majere boys (Tanin, Sturm, and Palin) discover it on the Isle of Gargath, where it ends up again alongside Gargath’s descendant. But how can we speak of chronology in the context of a vortex beyond time itself? That’s where interpretation comes in. The real question becomes: how does the Greygem travel from this vortex to reappear on the Isle?
My take: because the Greygem now resides outside the River of Time, it can reenter at any point along its flow. There’s likely an unseen, offscreen narrative beat that resets the Greygem’s presence on the Isle of Gargath. From there, the events unfold as we know them: the Majere boys recover it, hand it to Redhammer, who loses it in a bet, and it eventually washes ashore on the Isle of the Irda—setting Dragons of Summer Flame into motion...
A few paragraphs after the Gods of Magic vanish with the Greygem, we get this line (paraphrased): “In the silence, Dalamar could hear the ticking of Ranniker’s Clock...” Those ellipses matter. Why include them? Why reference the ticking clock at all, instead of ending the scene with the gods’ departure? It’s a signal from the authors that the events of Dragons of Summer Flame are still destined to happen.
If the goal was to retcon Dragons of Summer Flame, then much of the established lore would be undermined. For example, Skie was promised the world by the Dark Queen. If those events don’t occur, the Fifth Age never begins, and Skie remains the sole Overlord. Then there’s Mina, a slumbering god who would never be awakened by Takhisis if the Fifth Age doesn’t take place. How would the authors reconcile that? Ignoring these major elements would require some serious narrative gymnastics.
That’s why I don’t believe anything has been retconned. Remember what Astinus said to Tas at the end about paradoxes. He wasn’t just speaking to Tas. He was speaking directly to us.
