humble minion
Legend
Hoping there's some Dragonlance loremasters on here who can help me out a bit, as i brainstorm a possible expansion/reinvention/mutilation of SotDQ.
(Note that these are questions about canon, especially pre-5e canon. I know that asking questions about canon on here is just asking for answers along the lines of 'canon is what the DM says it is' or 'if you don't like it, change it' or 'just make it up'. I'll do any or all of those if i have to, but specifically I'd like to know what canon actually is first, because to at least one of my prospective players, this sort of thing matters.)
So, the story of Lord Soth. Knight and jerk of Solamnia. Big renowned hero, married, rescues hot elf cleric Isode from monsters, has affair with her and gets her pregnant, gets expelled from knighthood for this, wife dies very mysteriously and conveniently, marries hot elf a very short time later. Gets message from gods to go to Istar to redeem himself by talking sense into the kingpriest to avert the Cataclysm, rides off intending to do so, hot elf's friends show up and tell him a bunch of fibs about how the hot elf is cheating on him, throws his toys out of the pram, rides back home and kills hot elf and their just-born son just as the Cataclysm kills everyone. Cursed by hot elf as she dies, he becomes undead and feels sorry for himself for 300 years before Kitiara shows up and his entitled stalker jerk side finds a new woman to obsess over.
Some questions about this.
Why did the other elf women lie to Soth about his second wife cheating on him? What was their motivation? It just seems incredibly random. SotDQ said they blame Soth for their friend falling from grace, so they ... tell him a lie which will make HIM angry with HER? That's some really poorly-targeted and poorly-thought-out vengeance right there. Especially when, as elf clerics (Isode was a cleric of Paladine), they quite possibly KNOW that the cataclysm is imminent and that Soth has been sent to try to stop it. This seems a really obvious
Why did Isode stay with this guy? Surely she must have realised he was married at some stage, and didn't she have some questions when his wife suddenly vanished? Wasn't she a cleric of Paladine at this time? All this doesn't sound like very Paladine-approved behaviour. I know that at some point, all the real clerics of the Gods disappeared from Istar as a warning to the Kingpriest (which was ignored) so could Isolde have been an in-name-only cleric with no actual connection/blessing from Paladine. But I thought the elf clerics at least were still around at this point?
I'm probably overthinking this, but the timing of Soth's last ride and the abandonment of his duty. Soth was basically exiled at his home in Dargaard Keep after his expulsion from the knighthood, then the gods send him on a mission to avert the Cataclysm. Looking at the map, to do this he'd have to ride the entire width of modern-day Ansalon (and a bit more, to the now-submerged site where Istar was located). Ansalon is a pretty small continent, but ... really? We're probably talking around 1000 miles here, across country, while Soth is a hunted fugitive from the Knights of Solamnia. But somehow once he turns around and heads back home after being distracted, he arrives just in time for the Cataclysm to occur when he's busy killing his wife for imaginary infidelity? I know that Dragonlance runs on dramatic narrative convenience more than ruthless logic, but that's some seriously precise timing. Did Soth's abandonment of his duty not just prevent the Cataclysm from being averted, but was it in fact the trigger for the Cataclysm? The gods had all their hopes on his shoulders, they see him turn around, and just collectively facepalm and say 'welp, there goes our last chance' and hit the Cataclysm button right then and there?
What does Soth DO all day, after his undeath? He does a lot of brooding, and at nighttime he gets serenaded by the banshees telling him how terrible he is, but what are his goals? Motivations? He's never been a worshipper of Takhisis, so I'm not sure why SotDQ has him involved in the war at this time at all. There's occasional stories in the lore about how some knight or another quests to Dargaard to defeat the legendary betrayer and meets a horrible end thereby, but he's not particularly proactive. What, if anything, does he actually want? How do you involve him in a story?
(Note that these are questions about canon, especially pre-5e canon. I know that asking questions about canon on here is just asking for answers along the lines of 'canon is what the DM says it is' or 'if you don't like it, change it' or 'just make it up'. I'll do any or all of those if i have to, but specifically I'd like to know what canon actually is first, because to at least one of my prospective players, this sort of thing matters.)
So, the story of Lord Soth. Knight and jerk of Solamnia. Big renowned hero, married, rescues hot elf cleric Isode from monsters, has affair with her and gets her pregnant, gets expelled from knighthood for this, wife dies very mysteriously and conveniently, marries hot elf a very short time later. Gets message from gods to go to Istar to redeem himself by talking sense into the kingpriest to avert the Cataclysm, rides off intending to do so, hot elf's friends show up and tell him a bunch of fibs about how the hot elf is cheating on him, throws his toys out of the pram, rides back home and kills hot elf and their just-born son just as the Cataclysm kills everyone. Cursed by hot elf as she dies, he becomes undead and feels sorry for himself for 300 years before Kitiara shows up and his entitled stalker jerk side finds a new woman to obsess over.
Some questions about this.
Why did the other elf women lie to Soth about his second wife cheating on him? What was their motivation? It just seems incredibly random. SotDQ said they blame Soth for their friend falling from grace, so they ... tell him a lie which will make HIM angry with HER? That's some really poorly-targeted and poorly-thought-out vengeance right there. Especially when, as elf clerics (Isode was a cleric of Paladine), they quite possibly KNOW that the cataclysm is imminent and that Soth has been sent to try to stop it. This seems a really obvious
question for SotDQ PCs to ask Leedara, once her identity becomes clear. What the hell was she thinking?
Why did Isode stay with this guy? Surely she must have realised he was married at some stage, and didn't she have some questions when his wife suddenly vanished? Wasn't she a cleric of Paladine at this time? All this doesn't sound like very Paladine-approved behaviour. I know that at some point, all the real clerics of the Gods disappeared from Istar as a warning to the Kingpriest (which was ignored) so could Isolde have been an in-name-only cleric with no actual connection/blessing from Paladine. But I thought the elf clerics at least were still around at this point?
I'm probably overthinking this, but the timing of Soth's last ride and the abandonment of his duty. Soth was basically exiled at his home in Dargaard Keep after his expulsion from the knighthood, then the gods send him on a mission to avert the Cataclysm. Looking at the map, to do this he'd have to ride the entire width of modern-day Ansalon (and a bit more, to the now-submerged site where Istar was located). Ansalon is a pretty small continent, but ... really? We're probably talking around 1000 miles here, across country, while Soth is a hunted fugitive from the Knights of Solamnia. But somehow once he turns around and heads back home after being distracted, he arrives just in time for the Cataclysm to occur when he's busy killing his wife for imaginary infidelity? I know that Dragonlance runs on dramatic narrative convenience more than ruthless logic, but that's some seriously precise timing. Did Soth's abandonment of his duty not just prevent the Cataclysm from being averted, but was it in fact the trigger for the Cataclysm? The gods had all their hopes on his shoulders, they see him turn around, and just collectively facepalm and say 'welp, there goes our last chance' and hit the Cataclysm button right then and there?
What does Soth DO all day, after his undeath? He does a lot of brooding, and at nighttime he gets serenaded by the banshees telling him how terrible he is, but what are his goals? Motivations? He's never been a worshipper of Takhisis, so I'm not sure why SotDQ has him involved in the war at this time at all. There's occasional stories in the lore about how some knight or another quests to Dargaard to defeat the legendary betrayer and meets a horrible end thereby, but he's not particularly proactive. What, if anything, does he actually want? How do you involve him in a story?