https://youtu.be/Qk8MdFM-dp0

The keys to the Knights of Takhisis are order, discipline, and vision. Formed by the demigod Ariakan Ariakas, the order meant to right the wrongs of the Dragonarmies from the War of the Lance. 

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Transcript

It was a vision that inspired the order, blessed by the Dark Queen. Her absence proved that the order itself was formidable enough to dominate Ansalon. Let’s talk about the Knights of Takhisis.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Knights of Takhisis. 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 the Knightly Orders of Ansalon Dragonlance Sourcebook primarily for this information. If you feel I have left anything out or would like to clarify any points, please leave a comment below!

Discussion

One can argue that were it not for the Code and the Measure, and the Knights of Solamnia’s insistence on following them, the Knights of Takhisis may never have formed. Until Ariakan’s imprisonment in the High Clerist’s Tower, and his education by the Knights of Solamnia about their orders, no denizen of the dark ever conceived of emulating the Knights’ rigid structure. But it is an order just as disciplined that is required to not only defeat the orders of good in the world, but to maintain order and control afterward. A lesson learned all too well in the War of the Lance with the Dragonarmies. It was a well known paradigm of evil in Krynn’s history that evil feeds upon itself, it is the law of balance that allows evil to never overthrow good, which is required in the campaign setting, but is exactly what happens, with the consent of all the Gods in the Summer of Chaos no less!

One may also argue that were it not for that godly consent to allow the Knights of Takhisis to dominate Krynn without objection, they would never have become the destructive order to all of Ansalon that they become in the Fifth Age and War of Souls; the other side of that coin being Chaos destroying all of Krynn, so perhaps we can just leave that train of thought alone for this episode.

After his imprisonment, and earning the respect of the Knights of Solamnia, Ariakan was released. The Knights genuinely expected Ariakan to petition to join their order, but instead, he sought to build his own knighthood that drew from the best aspects of the Knights of Solamnia, while cutting away their failings. Ariakan saw that the flaw in Takhisis’ minions was selfishness. They were more concerned with personal gain than Takhisis’ dominion, so Ariakan decided to use a vision to guide his orders. He was visited by an aspect of Takhisis in the form of a dark warrior who ultimately supported Ariakan’s vision. She commanded him to begin immediately in her name. Ariakan gathered the remaining forces of his father’s and called upon his mother, the goddess Zeboim to raise him a secret base in which to build his forces from. She raised an island in the North Sirrion Sea, and within a year, Storm’s Keep was built. It maintained its secrecy due to the crosswinds of warmer northern waters and the frigid southern polar waters colliding,