https://youtu.be/T0oVKrepnc8

We examine the occult practices of the people of Krynn, from Numerology, Divination, Herbalism and Runes. These new age practices help flesh out an already vibrant world, adding color and magic for us to enjoy.

Transcript

Part of what makes a fictional world believable in addition to ancient history and vibrant cultures, are those occult or new age arts that they practice. 

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about some of the New Age Arts that can be found on Krynn. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to this channel, ring the bell, and you can support this channel by becoming a Patron on Patreon, a Member of this YouTube channel, and you can pick up Dragonlance Gaming materials, using my affiliate link. All links are in the description below. This is not intended to be a complete guide to all occult knowledge or New Age Arts practiced, but rather an exploration of some highlighted in the game sourcebooks.

Discussion

I grew up fascinated by the idea of the occult, or hidden knowledge. You could blame it on programming from a religious background, or my desire for there to be something more to our reality than what was in front of our noses. Whatever it was, I loved the idea of it. As I believe most kids do, I went through a new age phase, where I thought astrology and numerology, hell even palm reading was real. Though those days are behind me and my mind is firmly planted in science, I still like the fantasy of it all. One aspect that I love about fantasy in general and Dragonlance specifically was that there is magic, Arcane and primal sorcery to divine and mysticism, depending on the age of Krynn. 

One of the strengths that propelled Dragonlance was the deep history and sense of fleshed out racial culture the world was populated by and rooted in. Another part of this is the focus on different cultures practicing new age arts. When my friend in middle school gave me his Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, I found an Appendix in the back titled Appendix J: Herbs, Spices and Medicinal Vegetables. The balance of historical uses of the items listed was seen as magic or witchcraft by our real world ancestors. One idea I have always liked was that magic is yet to be proven natural science, and this list was the bridge between the two practices. When I later found references in Dragonlance to the use of Tarot Cards in the form of the TALIS card deck, including the use of runes, numerology and herbalism references in the various Dragonlance sourcebooks, I was hooked! Let’s explore some of these ideas and have some fun in the process. Again, in a fantasy world, this is as real as you want it to be, regardless of how you feel about the practices in our world.

Laura and Tracy Hickman created a Gypsy Card reading function in their I6: Ravenloft module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in October 1983, and it seemed like only a matter time until they would then craft a version of it for Dragonlance. In DL12: Dragons of Faith, they did just that. The TALIS card deck could be used to play some traditional in-world games, but they also had a more mystical side to them, in the same way as Tarot Cards evolved into Playing cards in our own history. The deck is used as a way to add mystery and the seeing of the unknown to the game. The TALIS cards are composed of six suits of 9 cards each. These suits represent the elemental forces of the universe. In addition each suit is represented by a different character race, with a seeker card representing all six suits.