Test of High Sorcery in Sithicus?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Hi and wishes for a better year for everyone.

I am going through some Dragonlance material for a scenario I am building and came up again with the towers of High Sorcery in Krynn and the Test of High Sorcery. Dragonlance information states that after Lord Soth's departure, Dalamar the Dark moved the Tower of High Sorcery at Palanthas to Nightlund, Soths domain in Krynn, to protect it from the One God. Since there is a connection between Soth and the Tower of Sorcery in Palanthas do you think there is something similar in Sithicus? Also have you ever thought or used the test of High Sorcery for wizards in Sithicus, since Nuitari still works there, even without the Death Knight's presence? And last isn't it possible to be a mistway between the hidden Tower of Sorcery now in Nightlund and Sithicus?

Also information for those who don't know about it, there are 3rd edition stats for Lord Soth in the 3rd edition War of the Lance and there is also an adventure for going into Dargaard Keep in the 2nd edition World of Krynn sourcebook, but the Castle is different form that detailed in When the Black Roses Bloom adventure and War of the Lance sourcebook. Dargaard Keep is almost similar in structure in War of the Lance and WTBRB adventure but with a quick view I saw that Soth's audience hall is in the ground floor compared to the castle in WTBRB. Also information and interior maps for Tower of High Sorcery of Wayreth can be found in the The Last Tower - Legacy of Raistling sourcebook, in case someone wants to use the mistway scenario.

3rd edition stats for the "The Blessed Knight" can be found in Arlan Soth's stats, he is the nephew of Lord Loren Soth, although he is a Knight of the Crown and not the Rose, in Legends of the Twins sourcebook while in the same sourcebook someone can find stats for recreating the siege of Palanthas for one of the memory mirrors scenario in When the Black Roses Bloom.

[Mistmaster]

My Sithicus was never part of Krynn to begin with so I have not that particular problem.

[ewancummins]

I'd say all the wizards in the domain are effectively 'renegades.'

But some remnant of the Black wizards of Ansalon, worshipping Nuitari, might be cool.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

My Sithicus was never part of Krynn to begin with so I have not that particular problem.

Well the only place directly from Krynn in Sithicus is Kendralind, all the rest are mist created.

It's funny how I begun reading the Dragonlance material as I was searching for info to create a backstory from Talandas for the Spawn of the Lizard in Fakovnia. But the setting of Talandas is even worse from that of Ansalon, which I never really liked as it is focused a lot in the Heroes of the Lance, imagine in Ravenloft perspective most of the story in the land of Mists going around Van Richten and the Foxgrove sisters. But I like the idea of the High Sorcery Test, maybe there could be a mockery of one as Sithicus is a mockery domain of Krynn. Also I just saw the Dragonlance animation, it is really bad, I couldn't help myself dislike each character featured in it.

Now I am thinking of making the backstory based on the false history of Falkovnia. Any input on that?

[ewancummins]

Hmmmm....
Taladas is easily my favorite part of Krynn. Still, I did sell my copy of Time of the Dragon. DL isn't my favorite TSR setting--that would be a tie between Ravenloft and Greyhawk.

I'd be interested to see whatever you developed for the Lizards in Falkovnia. Bakali tie-in? Sligs?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Hmmmm.... I'd be interested to see whatever you developed for the Lizards in Falkovnia. Bakali tie-in? Sligs?

Thanks

I am working on the background and you are correct it is Bakali based although I thought of making him a dragonwrought kobolt for a moment but the bakali was my first idea since March '20 and it suits more with what I ve thought of. The background I am writting is a mixture of early Byzatine Empire (don't forget that the word byzantine is synonymus with complicated after Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, written in the 18th century which caricatured the history of the Byzantine Empire as little more than a series of shady backroom deals, backstabbing, and power grabs).

Basiliscus (Byzantine Emperor) 475 AD - 476 AD

The Nika riots in Constantinople in 532 AD

and Spartacus who died in 71 BC, half a century before the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

All these combined with the ancient Bakali Empire, the Imperial League of Taladas and a slave revolt that happened in Falkovnia but was hushed by the tyrannt Dracov and so was never revealed before in the other domains of the core.

I want to make the Basilisk reflect both the tyrannical Vlad Drakov but also the Usurper King Gondegal who now is the leader of the resistance in Falkovnia.

[ewancummins]

Indeed while Gibbon's book is interesting he's quite unfair to the East Roman Empire. This is a fairly common Western prejudice.
The Byzantines never call themselves that. They were always Romans.

[ewancummins]

I like how you've taken the etymology of basilisk as inspiration for a king reptile that is also a political ruler. That drives nicely with titles used by East Roman / Byzantine rulers.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I like how you've taken the etymology of basilisk as inspiration for a king reptile that is also a political ruler. That drives nicely with titles used by East Roman / Byzantine rulers.

Thanks! But the beginning of my inspiration was Vlad Tepes Dracula, in that I wanted to create something connected with the fall of Constantinople (1453) and the end of the East Roman Empire, the historical period where Vlad Tepes lived in. The connection is abstractly made in that the struggle between Basiliscus and Zeno, almost a thousand years earlier, impeded the Eastern Roman Empire's ability to intervene in the fall of the Western Roman Empire. That happened in early September 476, when the chieftain of the Heruli, Odoacer, deposed Western Emperor Romulus Augustus.

[tomokaicho]

Check out Gilidarius from this post. Gilidarius is a former apprentice of Raistlin that is now in Ravenloft. He is building a Tower of High Sorcery in Sithicus.

Gilidarius

Gilidarius emerged through the mists in 736 BC in the domain of Daglan (then a domain in the core). He spent two years in Daglan on account of the borders being closed. When the opportunity presented itself he went to Valachan, and then on to Sithicus. Sithicus felt like a familiar place because Gilidarius was able to see Nuitari, the moon of dark magic. Cut off from Krynn, Gilidarius takes Nuitari in the sky as a sign that he should recreate the Order of High Sorcery in Sithicus - but the black robes only because Nuitari is the only moon. Gilidarius has set about building a Tower of High Sorcery in the Iron Hills, where Lord Soth and Azrael exercise little authority. He now has a handful of elven apprentices of evil disposition that have taken up the black robes and are assisting him in building the order. Gilidarius is friendly with the rebels of the Iron Hills, and the rebels even pay his apprentices for magical assistance, usually against the whichever unfortunate is the current the Warden of the Iron Hills. Gilidarius is happy with this arrangement because it brings in funds, and more importantly provides opportunities for his apprentices to gain practical magical experience.