The origins of the Flying Citadels do not begin and end with Lord Ariakas. Let’s travel to Taladas and look at the true inventors of the first Sky Citadels. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16960/Time-of-the-Dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797

https://youtu.be/JeNJCdxBp-U

Transcript

Cold Open

You may believe Ariakas invented Flying citadels, but that would mean ignoring thousands of years of history…

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Flying Citadels. I am referencing the Time of the Dragon boxed set in addition to the War of the Lance sourcebook primarily for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.

Discussion

Flying citadels are a huge visual icon to Dragonlance, from Kieth Parkinson’s first painting for Dragonlance to the Blue Lady’s War. They are in essence the absolute aircraft carrier of troops, most being able to house around three thousand troops at once! But how are they crafted and where do they come from? Most of our first introduction to the Flying Citadel is from the Siege of Kalaman in the Chronicles trilogy. They were first truly highlighted in the Blue Lady’s war, as mentioned already, but historically, a flying citadel was the cause of Hylo being founded. You will recall that in twenty-six hundred Prae Cataclius, a clan of Kender came across a flying citadel, became trapped and ended up taking it for a bit of a joy ride, ultimately crashing into the Sentinel Mountains in what would come to be the Empire of Ergoth. But where did that flying citadel come from? 

Between the Time of the Dragon and Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn boxed sets, we are introduced to the Smiths, who were originally transported to Taladas by Reorx himself in the Age of Light, and the Gnomoi and the Minoi, who were cursed by Reorx. The Minoi are the Gnomes we know from Ansalon. The Smiths were masters of elemental magic, this predated the three gods of magic. In this Age of Dreams, the Smiths would craft truly amazing structures and inventions under the tutelage of Reorx. They crafted amazing machines that traveled the land, sea and air! Now this is a bit of conjecture, but I believe this is where Sky Citadel’s were first crafted! Of course the Smiths were truly obsessed with building what they referred to as the Great Machine, a sort of war machine that was powered by the Greygem. And we all know what happened when they were tricked into locating it. The elemental magic of the Smiths waned with the foundation of the Orders of High Sorcery, and they ultimately lost their magic as they knew it, and were cursed by Reorx. This is the point where we are first introduced to the Gnomoi, or Gnomes of Hitehkel.

The gnomes of Hitehkel divide history into three periods: The Birthing Age, from that moment Reorx created them to the releasing of the Greygem; The Cursed Age, from the releasing of the Greygem to the Cataclysm; and Reorx's Gift, the current age. Though the timeline records the creation of the Sky Citadels in the early years after the cataclysm, is it a stretch to believe they were trying to recreate their ancestors' machines from ages past? Machines that not only flew in the skies, but could travel to space! The gnomes of Hitehkel, not unlike Spelljammers, used a combination of magic and technology. They learned to harness this art and a faction of them believed they must leave Krynn itself. After trial and error, as they no longer could manipulate elemental magic as their ancestors did, they crafted giant, floating rocks they called sky citadels.