He saw the fall and subsequent rise of the Knights of Solamnia in the public's eye and eventually rose to become its Grand Master and even revise the Measure. Let’s take a closer look at Gunthar Uth Wistan. Buy War of the Lance: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3164/War-of-the-Lance-35?affiliate_id=50797

https://youtu.be/th1_AFTo0YY

Transcript

Cold Open

He would redefine what it meant to be a Knight, but it would take years of darkness…

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Gunthar Uth Wistan. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I am referencing War of the Lance, Age of Mortals, Knightly Orders of Ansalon sourcebooks and much more for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.

Discussion

Gunthar Uth Wistan hails from his ancestral home Castle Uth Wistan on the Isle of Sancrist. Initially constructed a thousand years before the cataclysm, the castle stood as a beacon of light for the publicly despised Knights of Solamnia. The knighthood fell in the eyes of the public after the Cataclysm. They were publicly blamed for not saving the populace and even said to have been the cause of the tragedy. The truth mattered little to those wanting vengeance for the state of plague and decay the Age of Despair found itself in, and this would be the era Gunthar cut his teeth as a knight in. His ancestors were said to have fought alongside Vinas Solamnus himself in the Rose Rebellion against Ergoth. So the Wistan line is one of pride, honor and distinguished men and women of valor. 

Gunthar was born in the spring of 293 AC, and his earliest campaigns were set on the Solamnic Plains around Vingaard Keep. He would fight alongside Lord Brightblade against hobgoblin incursions and peasant uprisings. He would grow to be close friends with the Brightblade family, and in 335 AC during the Rebellion, he was under the command of Sir Angriff Brightblade when, with the Brightblade castle surrounded, Angriff saved the knights and civilians within by giving himself up. It was an act of heroic sacrifice that Gunthar would never forget. Throughout his knighthood, Gunthar would develop a rivalry with the Crownguard family, beginning with Boniface. This came to a decisive head when Boniface rejected a young Sturm Brightblade from entering the order, and Gunthar overruling his decision. Gunthar would be a father figure for young Sturm, but the rivalry between Gunthar and Boniface would ultimately mar the knighthood for years, and even spill over to Derek Crownguard and Sturm Brightblade.

There had not been a Grand Master of the Knighthood since the beginning days of the Cataclysm, as there were never enough knights together, since the vast majority of the Order of Clerists disappeared just before the cataclysm, they were unable to elect a new one in a Grand Circle according to the Measure. Castle Uth Wistan would become the de facto meeting place for the knighthood  in the years leading up to the War of the Lance. It was there that Gunthar oversaw the Whitestone Council as a nominal leader of the Knights of Solamnia, against the wishes of his only real rival for the position of Grand Master, Derek Crownguard. Derek preferred to face evil head on, rather than all this reaching out to the other nations and races of Krynn.