Dragonlance Introducing Dragonlance's Iconic - And Upgraded! - Death Knight, Lord Soth!

WotC has posted a video introducing the iconic Dragonlance villain Lord Soth (albeit with the words "Lord Soth is Tiamat's favourite death knight"....)

Upgraded from the original Dragonlance adventures and novels, Soth now rides on a death dragon! In fact he is able to resurrect dead dragons as death dragons under his command. The SSI gold box video game, Death Knights of Krynn, was an inspiration for parts of this adventure.

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One of the most iconic images of Lord Soth was painted by Keith Parkinson (and you can buy a print from his website). It features Soth aboard his nightmare steed, leading his legion of skeletal warriors into battle.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Good gods wanted him to always see all the ways he’s failed. Evil gods were like okay sure but he gets to be autonomous and is still the lord of his undead army.

Be sad, but be an nation-level power in the world. This is not how you negotiate!

I know the trope is there to explain how a bad person became a monster as a morality play, but I question the morality play value of these stories even in their time. Did old timey people not like super-strength and living forever?

In terms of D&D, it always struck me as making more sense to have these transformations be rewards for siding with Team Evil, but that rarely happens, which is unfortunate.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To return to Arthas Menethil, the power upgrades are meant as such, by the forces of evil, so that he can lead the undead to fight everyone else (well, nominally, other evils are the driving reasons behind it all, but he just has to coincidentally conquer the rest of the living first).

That's a lot better than making it a punishment, although apparently making him into the Lich King is a torment for him, based on others who experienced similar fates in-universe.

Definitely better than "ha ha, we'll punish you by, um, making you an immortal capable of single-handedly defeating the greatest heroes in the world en masse."

 

[Fifth Element]

He didn't need an undead army. Heck even the few Skeleton Warriors he rode around with weren't really needed.

But yeah its cool, Big Death Dragon and Undead army. We all watched Game of Thrones.

Between the iconic Parkinson painting and the computer game referenced above, there's plenty of existing lore for them. Take off the gloom-coloured glasses.

 

[Azzy]

Be sad, but be an nation-level power in the world. This is not how you negotiate!

I know the trope is there to explain how a bad person became a monster as a morality play, but I question the morality play value of these stories even in their time. Did old timey people not like super-strength and living forever?

In terms of D&D, it always struck me as making more sense to have these transformations be rewards for siding with Team Evil, but that rarely happens, which is unfortunate.

And why does Team Evil always get the cool outfits?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And why does Team Evil always get the cool outfits?

Evil Is Cool - TV Tropes

There is a reason actors fight for the chance to play the bad guy. The lines are great, the costumes are awesome, the songs are spectacular, their schemes are brilliant, the villains often look much sexier than the heroes, they have their fair …

tvtropes.org

 

[DarkCrisis]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's the natural consequence of work for hire, Margaret.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And, to be clear, I've done work for hire my entire adult life. Things have been done with my work that I've been proud of, that I've been neutral about and things that I've hated. But I knew that was the trade I had made: I created for companies that paid me for them and they were free to do whatever.

I appreciate the frustration Weis feels, but it's a pointless one. Better to invest emotional energy into things you control, once you can afford to do so, which Weis and Hickman can. A Deathgate 5E setting on Kickstarter, for instance, wouldn't include anything they disagreed with and all the money (after expenses) would go in their pockets.

 

[Blue Orange]

Evil Is Cool - TV Tropes

There is a reason actors fight for the chance to play the bad guy. The lines are great, the costumes are awesome, the songs are spectacular, their schemes are brilliant, the villains often look much sexier than the heroes, they have their fair …

tvtropes.org

Just ask Hugo Boss...

Seriously, I agree the Ravenloft Dark Powers thing seems a little messed up as a 'punishment'. Do enough awful things and we'll make you a god over a small pocket universe, with lots of people to torment. Yeah, that sounds awful.

 

[Vaalingrade]

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"Oh no, Cool Things!"