Orb of Dragonkind | DragonLance Saga

Also known as Dragon Orbs, Orbs of Dragonkind were forged specifically to defeat Dragons in the Third Dragon War, which were inspired by the Dragon Stones from the First Dragon War. Let’s dive into their history and powers. Buy Wings of Fury: www.drivethrur...
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Transcript
On more than one video I have conflated the Dragon Stones with the Dragon Orbs, and they are not the same. Let’s explore their evolution and connection for clarity.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about the Orbs of Dragonkind. I would like to take a moment and thank my collaborator patrons, the Heroes of the Lance, and invite you to consider becoming a patron or member of this channel by visiting the links in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I have referenced modules and sourcebooks from every edition for this information.
Discussion
For background on the creation of the Orbs of Dragonkind, we have to travel back into prehistory, sometime in the Age of Dreams. The Gold Dragon Aurican was fascinated by the elves. When the elves chose to live in the forests that would come to be known as Silvanesti, they discovered it was already inhabited by the Dark Queen’s chromatic dragons. They didn’t take kindly to the elves' actions, and the First Dragon War began in secret. Crematia, an ancient and evil red dragon, formed an army of chromatic dragons and ogres. While the metallic dragons were mourning the loss of the Scion, Bard Pattersmith. Crematia had the ogres attack the elves from the north. After days of bloodshed, the elves successfully beat the ogres into a brief retreat. Then the chromatic dragons came. Dragonfear paralized the elves, who were no match for the dragons they didn’t even realize were back in the world.
The female metallic dragons demanded that the males leave the grotto after the scions death, and Aurican decided to visit Silvanesti to check up on the progress of the burgeoning elven nation under the influence of Silvanos their leader. As soon as they saw the devastation laid to the elven nation, realizing that the chromatic dragons returned to krynn, they traveled to the Khalkist mountains, the evil dragons birthplace and were ambushed and decimated by Crematia’s dragon kin. Only Darlantan, the Silver dragon and Aurican the gold dragon made it out alive. You see, the good dragons did not have spell casting ability in these ancient times, a deficiency that led to their downfall. As Darlantan returned to the battle using guerilla tactics to successfully strike blow after blow to Crematia’s forces, Aurican left to the realm of the gods in search of Magic.
Elven history relates that Aurican took with him three elven sages, brothers Fayal Padran, Parys Dayl, and Kayn Wytsnall. The three gods Nuitari, Solinari and Lunitari, perhaps with the approval of Paladine, forged five powerful gems, the Dragon Stones which Aurican brought back to Krynn. The Dragon Stones are large and bright, colored with one of the five chromatic dragon’s colors. The purpose of the Dragon Stones was to trap the chromatic dragons souls. They left the stones in the care of Silvanos himself while they turned the tide on the war. Aurican would take one stone at a time to a chromatic wing, using Darlantan as bait, then ambush them with the Dragon Stone. They successfully used this tactic on three of the dragon wings, leaving the Blue and Red dragons remaining. After each dragon stone was used, an elf on griffon back would deposit them into the fiery reaches of the Khalkist Mountains.
It was about this time the Blue Dragon Stone was stolen from the elves by the Ogre Lord Barc Darrontale. It was recovered by the Elderwild of Kagonos. The blue dragons overwhelmed Darlantan, killing him, and Silvanos himself picked up the Blue Dragon Stone and trapped their souls within. Thus ending the First Dragon War, with Crematia going into hiding, leaving the red Dragons Stone unused. Now the dwarves' history claims that they discovered the stones when delving Thorin, and sought to take them to the Lords of Doom for destruction, but Crematia claims to have threatened to bring destruction onto the dwarves if she didn't receive the stones. After hundreds of years, she finally received them all, and took them to the Lords of Doom. It was here Takhisis destroyed the stones, releasing the dragon's spirits...

[@DLSaga]

Thank you for watching today's Dragonlance Setting video. What do you think about the Dragonstones and Dragon Orbs? Have you ever used them in your games? Leave a comment below.

[@remyw.4959]

I love this channel. I feel like it's all Dragonlance fans, too. Hell yeah

[@DLSaga]

That's what it's all about!

[@ASMRChess]

yea we are all fans here

[@SkullCowboy333]

Very well done. The orbs can do a lot that is so rarely talked about.

[@DLSaga]

Oh yea. I didn't even touch on all their powers.

[@librapaladin81]

Just when I thought I had a good grasp on the arcane history of the 'DragonLance' mythology... (after 30+ years of playing D&D within the DL campaign world and reading many, many DL books)... you go and show me how little I actually know. For that, you owe me a beer or two...

[@DLSaga]

Lol I make my own, so you are welcome to share it.

[@librapaladin81]

@@DLSaga You make your own beer?... Or your own mythology? ...(Don't say 'Yes')

[@DLSaga]

@@librapaladin81 lol my own beer.

[@remyw.4959]

We never played directly in Dragonlance but our DMs were usually cool and let us play with these properties in whatever campaign. We usually played a generic Faerun but you could be a kender or whatever

[@DLSaga]

That's cool of your DM.

[@michaeldaniel73]

Thanks for all the great detail

[@DLSaga]

It's my pleasure!

[@Mike-hj6mv]

Thanks for this. I think I'm going to include some dragons n orbs in my game.

[@DLSaga]

Nice! Each edition has stats for them.

[@JamesAdams-nd1td]

People like to say that the "Dragonlance Chronicles" was DND's "Lord of the Rings." The Orbs are pretty close to not only the Palantari Seeing Stones, but also the Rings of Power themselves: they offer great power, but can screw you over if your will is too weak. Still, at least someone can master the Orbs without being mastered by them and reduced to a Wraith. The Orbs are a pretty cool idea. I was confused at first but then I realized the beauty of them. Being able to summon your enemy to a battlefield/death trap of your choice is a pretty handy tool. And the fact that they can also through other dragonkin for a loop is pretty handy, especially during the War of the Lance when Draconians became a thing.

[@DLSaga]

Yea I really dig em

[@Caeric77]

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) this was one item that my group never came across in our travels in Krynn.

[@DLSaga]

Probably fortunately, lol. It seems like it could have great ability to derail a DM

[@ASMRChess]

Pretty sure Raistlin could have not won without the orb - but he didn't get that orb by chance. He is a very calculated person and has been searching for specific items such as Fistandantilus' spellbooks, the orb, the bloodstone etc. Raistlin's true power lies not in his phenomonal understanding of magic but in his intelligence and willpower.

[@DLSaga]

Indeed he is!

[@MillerTheDragon1995]

the orb of dragonkind could be made into a super weapon a device built into a building that powers it up when ready to fire it causes all draconic life forms in the area to go into a blind rage attacking everything in sight even draconians and good and evil dragons also go into a blind rage

[@DLSaga]

Yea you can make it fit your campaign in any way you like.

[@justanotherbrokenerd2285]

Raistlin had his dragon orb on him when he went back in time to battle Fistandantalis? I didn't remember that. So two of the same orbs were in close proximity during the cataclysm? One on Raistlin the other being saved by Lorac. . . interesting.

[@DLSaga]

Yea, it wasn't destroyed until the Drawrfgate Wars when Raistlin tried to use it in Zhaman.

[@justanotherbrokenerd2285]

@@DLSaga Huh, It has been a long time. It might be worth going back & reading again.

[@ben2972]

love your content!!! question: traps their souls?? like, what…you take it near any number of dragons whose color corresponds to the stone, say a magic word or something…and it kills all those dragons, like, within a certain radius or something?

[@DLSaga]

Not exactly. It is portrayed as almost hypnotizing them so the orb wielder can kill or control them.

[@ClericOfPholtus]

Wait the one in the High Clerist Tower was blue not red; in the books at least Was it changed to red in the comics or something?

[@DLSaga]

I’ll have to relook. I referenced the sourcebooks mentioned.

[@ClericOfPholtus]

@@DLSaga alright my bad, had to check myself They're actually very vague about it, it's full color is never mentioned but its said to have a faint red mist among a myriad of other colors one single time so my bad. I guess I've just thought it was blue for almost 20 years, there was a lot of blue in the second book so I must've put it on the orb when they only vaguely describe it beyond its name 'Dragonorb'. It doesn't help that the revamped 2000s cover art has it be greenish white which also wasn't right; with the reader repeatedly being told Lorac's orb was green