Dragonlance Takhisis Revealed In New Dragonlance Preview Art

WotC has shared some new art of Takhisis, Dragonlance’s 5-headed dragon queen.

 

[darjr]

They picked their primary gods before the Chromatic and Platinum Dragon where even named. Back when started the original campaign the Monster Manual for AD&D had not released. They based the two primary gods on the Dragon King the Platinum Dragon and Dragon Queen the Chromatic Dragon who did not have names in their original appearance, so Paladine and Takhisis were made up for them. When the Monster Manual came out, the creators did not fell like changing their original names for the two.

It was Jeff Grubbs campaign, interesting. It wasn't a "Dragonlance" campaign. Ironically his campaign was named Toril!

The big thing to keep in mind for the Original Toril Gods (Yeah, we took the name of the campaign and glued it onto Forgotten Realms’ planet) is that they were only a base from which the gods of Dragonlance evolved.

And it looks like they largely did it to not have to consult Gary on any bits because he was uber busy and anything Greyhawk had to be passed by him. Interesting. (note, now I can't find this quote so grain of salt and all that).

Paladine (by whatever name) – Draco Paladin in my campaign, and was the Platinum Dragon as described in the Greyhawk supplement (I think he gained the Bahamut name when he showed up in the first AD&D Monster Manual). When Trace was doing the original forging of Krynn, I tossed him my campaign’s godhead and he easily folded it into his mix. Draco Paladin became Paladine. He was the Paladin’s God in my campaign, and venerated by Fenetar the Paladin, run by Frank Dickos, the player who was the one who convinced me to set down my godhead in the first place.

and Takhisis

Takhisis – Draco Cerebus in my campaign, the Chromatic Dragon, Tiamat. Draco Cerebus also went by the name Draco Cerebrint in my campaign (I think the name change came about because of the sudden appearance of a short, grey aardvark in the comics). Don’t know where Trace got the name Takhisis (May be Indonesian – Neraka definitely is) but part of his decision to rename was to separate DL’s cosmology from Greyhawk’s. (Another possibility – when I built my mythology (a time when Trace was first playing as well) neither Bahamut nor Tiamat were so named in the game books- so the idea of creating new versions of them unique to DL would not be too far a reach)). Draco-Cerebus may have had the anti-paladin as followers, but that class came and left from my campaign several times.

Now that's only from Jeff Grubbs memory and not the whole story, only the bits from him.

Jeff Grubb on the Gods of Krynn - Dragonlance Nexus

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted to the Dragonlance-L mailing list, and is posted here with the author’s permission. Special thanks to Michael Falconer for sharing Mr. Grubb’s response to his e-mail with the Dragonlance-L mailing list. The big thing to keep in mind for the...

dragonlancenexus.com

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

With the visual redesign of most D&D creatures in 3rd Ed. the changes were necessary, and I suspect the "reimagined version" of Godzilla, that what was in New York, was a great influence for the new look of the Tarrasque.

And now WotC within Hasbro everything has to be designed as potential toy in the future. And creatures with a special design can be copyrighted. And marketing strategy demands to show something different, something what couldn't be imitated easely by rival companies.

And the handicap using names from public domain is others can use them also for their products.

 

[Helena Real]

This is a digital reconstruction of a text entitled “The Matter of Theology”, written by Jeff Grubb (and hosted for the longest of time over at Dragonlance Nexus, I think. I can't remember exactly how I found it).

In this text you get the gods from Jeff's home campaign (which he graciously “donated” to the Dragonlance project), which in essence form the basis of Krynn's gods. If you're a Dragonlance fan, it is a fascinating reading. Can't recommend it enough!

 

[Weiley31]

I thought she completely died after the War of the Souls Trilogy.
Which one of you brought her back? Confess.

Look: I needed a villain for the campaign, okay?