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

 

[Stormonu]

I guess not wanting to be a Middle-Earth knockoff is as good a reason as any.

But I'll take the Rankin Bass cartoon any day over the atrocity that was released for Dragonlance!

 

[Fifth Element]

Hey look, something that makes a world somewhat unique with good reasoning behind it.

Not once is my decades of DL fandom have I ever thought "you know what makes Krynn unique and interesting? The fact that there aren't any orcs."

It doesn't make it somewhat unique at all, because there are many fantasy worlds which have no orcs. What makes it unique are the things that actually make it unique. Defining something based on what it isn't is a terrible idea.

 

[Redwizard007]

Makes perfect sense. If someone really had to play an orc, I'd just fluff it as a hobgoblin from a savage tribe anyway.

 

[Sacrosanct]

They'll be in trouble when a problem comes along, then.

Does it make me old that I immediately got that reference? (And now stuck in my head, thanks...)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Defining something based on what it isn't is a terrible idea.

Eh, it's a good starting point. Clear off a lot of the conceptual space and then you can fill it in with something different.

The barony where my campaign setting started has just humans, dwarves and gnomes, and everyone's player characters were required to be one of those. While it was otherwise a very classic D&D setting (purposefully so, since I had newbies playing), not being able to bring in yet_another_elf or my_standard_halfling_rogue meant it had a distinct flavor from other areas we encountered later on. (And no, no orcs, either.)

 

[Maxperson]

If only they'd applied that to Hobbit like things, we might have been spared Kender ;-)

And Humans, Half-elves, dwarves, elves... Gnomes! We would have had gnomes!

 

[Maxperson]

I guess not wanting to be a Middle-Earth knockoff is as good a reason as any.

But I'll take the Rankin Bass cartoon any day over the atrocity that was released for Dragonlance!

Was there a Dragonlance cartoon?

 

[Stormonu]

Was there a Dragonlance cartoon?

Oh, boy....

 

[Rhineglade]

And here I was just assuming there were no orcs because they were so delicious.

 

[darjr]

I have heard that if you only listen to it as a sort of audio drama that it’s much better.