https://youtu.be/E9-lFJv5DlI

Dragonlance has evolved throughout the game platforms that birthed it, and magic is no exception. Let’s find out who magic is granted and accessed on Krynn.

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Transcript

Does magic come from the gods, Krynn, within yourself or all of the above? 

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the magic of Krynn. 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 appendix from Dragons of a Vanished Moon for this information. If you have any thoughts on how magic works in Dragonlance leave them in the comments below!

Discussion

As presented in the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules, Magic was gifted by the Gods to mortals. Divine magic was unavailable, as man had turned their backs on the gods since the Cataclysm. With the end of DL1 Dragons of Despair, Divine magic returned with Goldmoon and the Discs of Mishakal being delivered to Elistan, who would become the first priest of Paladine Alt Cataclius. Henceforth, once again, the true priests of the Gods were granted magic through their Holy Symbols. Arcane magic was granted to those willing to devote their lives to the art, but it was structured and controlled by the Orders of High Sorcery. This was a straightforward presentation of how and why magic existed on Krynn. This changed slightly as the campaign world grew in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. As the history of Krynn was being further detailed, the boxed set Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn presented ideas of elemental magic that was inherent in the planet that the Smiths could tap into and use. This magic would ultimately disappear with God's continued influence and control and by the time the Graygem was lost, elemental magic was completely gone. Though the Scions as a result of the Graygem were able to still practice elemental magic. Whether this was a magical gift from Chaos or their ability to continue tapping into elemental magic lost to the Smiths is still yet unclear. Many of these Scions were slaughtered by their jealous kin, and of any still exist, it is only in hiding.

Then came the Summer of Chaos, and the true absence of the gods. In this Fifth Age and the SAGA System, Krynn was stripped of all Divine and arcane magic. Palin Majere would ask Fizban the Fabulous if any magic remained in the world just before his departure, and Fizban replied: "Not as you know it. There may be other magic. It is up to you to find it.". What Palin would come to discover is that when the gods crafted Krynn, they imbued it with magical energies. This divine power is what grants all magical creatures their abilities and as it was dormant in the planet itself, mortals could learn to tap into it in the forms of Mysticism and Sorcery. Now, whether this ‘new’ magic was in fact just the Elemental magic of old, or if it was something separate was never clarified in the time, but it is certain that there are two distinct areas from which the denizens of Krynn draw magic from. The Gods or the planet itself. 

Then came the War of Souls, and it all changed again. A new understanding of the Fifth Age in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition was made as T...