Dragonlance What Happened To The New DRAGONLANCE Trilogy?

[Tales and Chronicles]

P sure he is the only significant kender in the original 6 "classic" books. But we are often told in the latter part of that series that he is much LESS of an idiot than most kender.

God...this is a nightmare!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think the heavy-handed Mormon allegories and symbolism of the Chronicles trilogy would cause issues for WotC now much more than that stuff did for TSR in the 80s.

Yeah I wonder about this but I kind of think not, because Battlestar Galactica got away with it pretty recently (well, 2009) and discussions around nuBSG often mention the Mormon stuff but it tends to be seen as "relatively harmless", and more of a curiosity than anything else.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah I wonder about this but I kind of think not, because Battlestar Galactica got away with it pretty recently (well, 2009) and discussions around nuBSG often mention the Mormon stuff but it tends to be seen as "relatively harmless", and more of a curiosity than anything else.

Yeah the Mormon allegory of DL isnt too offensive. Just dont make the First Nations' proxy 1) white 2) barbarians. The ''true god'' things is iffy, but since its fantasy and its ''gods <- plurals'' its a little better. Just dont have the Qé-shu forsake their believes for the new gods. Syncretism can be a thing in DL!

 

[Alzrius]

I once read all the DL books, but I cant seem to remember: was Tass the only Kender main character? Like, is every thing we know about Kenders from the book based on Tass?

If we're talking about all of the Dragonlance books, then no. There were also kender such as Blister Nimblefingers (an afflicted kender) and Nightshade Pricklypear (a kender nightstalker) as well.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Syncretism can be a thing in DL!

Quite. Taladas is basically built on syncretism. I mean Taladas as a whole is essentially "What if an anthropologist built a D&D setting?" in a lot of ways (I dunno if Zeb Cook is one, but he sure built the setting like one), and there's no reason Anaslon can't do the same. Still the only fantasy setting I can think of which has a remotely realistic language setup (though Glorantha/Runequest might, I forget)!

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Yeah I wonder about this but I kind of think not, because Battlestar Galactica got away with it pretty recently (well, 2009) and discussions around nuBSG often mention the Mormon stuff but it tends to be seen as "relatively harmless", and more of a curiosity than anything else.

I never liked the reboot, or Dragonlance, and did not get far enough it either to see any Mormon connections, so was it made fun of or treated seriously as "this is the way"? Because in our current inclusive society, people won't care if a cult followed by white Americans is being made fun of. But if it is pushed as being how the heroes believe, that will cause problems.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I never liked the reboot, or Dragonlance, and did not get far enough it either to see any Mormon connections, so was it made fun of or treated seriously as "this is the way"? Because in our current inclusive society, people won't care if a cult followed by white Americans is being made fun of. But if it is pushed as being how the heroes believe, that will cause problems.

It's neither being pushed nor being made fun of. There are certain allegories that you'll catch if you know enough Mormon doctrine, but if you don't, it's not hugely overt.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I never liked the reboot, or Dragonlance, and did not get far enough it either to see any Mormon connections, so was it made fun of or treated seriously as "this is the way"? Because in our current inclusive society, people won't care if a cult followed by white Americans is being made fun of. But if it is pushed as being how the heroes believe, that will cause problems.

I mean, I never felt like I was being preached at particularly in DL or nuBSG, it's more like the specific Mormon concepts (like the tribes travelling to the promised land, or the metal book with holy writ) being used to give it a bit of flavour. I mean I'm sure there are Mormons to whom they're more than flavour, but neither product feels like it's saying "BECOME A MORMON! HERE'S HOW!". Even the original DL trilogy isn't like, 1/50th as preachy or obviously religion-allegory as say, Narnia (especially the weird later books where one of the kids doesn't go to heaven because she wore lipstick and thought about boys or something similar).

 

[Burnside]

It's a bit more than "a bit of flavor" (and Tracy Hickman has been quite forthcoming on this stuff)

The disks of Mishakal are direct analogs to the golden plates.

The fall of the church of Istar represents the Mormon view of the Catholic Church (the turning of man from god, and god waiting to be found again).

Knowledge of the Real God being revived by a Native American (Goldmoon), just like in the Book of Mormon's revelations.

Elistan is a thinly-veiled Joseph Smith stand-in. Paladine is Mormon Jesus.

Goldmoon uses the Pearl of Great Price gem analogy.

The Cataclysm is the Great Apostasy.

The High Council is, well, the High Council.

Oh, here, this post explains it better than I can: Dragonlance based on Mormonism?!?

It's not accurate to say that there's a bit of Mormon flavor in Dragonlance. Mormon theology is the backbone of the original novels.

I'm not saying that's good or bad, but's it's inarguably there (and yes, it is portrayed as "The Way" and upheld by the heroes). And I'm not saying that Dragonlance is Mormon propoganda in that way that Narnia is Catholic propoganda (Dragonlance certainly never directly proselytizes in favor of actual real-world Mormonism the way the Narnia books do for Catholicism).

And to be very clear, I'm certainly not passing any positive or negative judgment on Mormonism beyond saying that it is a HUGE factor thematically in Dragonlance.

And I do think that in today's atmosphere there's potential for trouble there if it's not handled very carefully.

 

[Demetrios1453]

It's a bit more than "a bit of flavor" (and Tracy Hickman has been quite forthcoming on this stuff)

The disks of Mishakal are direct analogs to the golden plates.

The fall of the church of Istar represents the Mormon view of the Catholic Church (the turning of man from god, and god waiting to be found again).

Knowledge of the Real God being revived by a Native American (Goldmoon), just like in the Book of Mormon's revelations.

Elistan is a thinly-veiled Joseph Smith stand-in. Paladine is Mormon Jesus.

Goldmoon uses the Pearl of Great Price gem analogy.

The Cataclysm is the Great Apostasy.

The High Council is, well, the High Council.

Oh, here, this post explains it better than I can: Dragonlance based on Mormonism?!?

It's not accurate to say that there's a bit of Mormon flavor in Dragonlance. Mormon theology is the backbone of the original novels.

I'm not saying that's good or bad, but's it's inarguably there (and yes, it is portrayed as "The Way" and upheld by the heroes). And I'm not saying that Dragonlance is Mormon propoganda in that way that Narnia is Catholic propoganda (Dragonlance certainly never directly proselytizes in favor of actual real-world Mormonism the way the Narnia books do for Catholicism).

And to be very clear, I'm certainly not passing any positive or negative judgment on Mormonism beyond saying that it is a HUGE factor thematically in Dragonlance.

And I do think that in today's atmosphere there's potential for trouble there if it's not handled very carefully.

Narnia is Anglican, not Catholic. Tolkien was very disappointed that CS Lewis chose Anglicanism over Catholicism when he returned to Christianity...