The Dragonlance campaign setting is returning to Dungeons & Dragons in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, but how does the setting compare to the popular Forgotten Realms campaign setting? The world of Toril from the Forgotton Realms is the default D&D 5e setting, with most official campaigns taking place there, though they will usually include information that will help DMs adapt it to other settings. The Forgotten Realms is also the setting of many D&D video games, including the Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Neverwinter Nights franchise.

The reason the Forgotten Realms is so popular is that it's easy to use it to create campaigns with familiar fantasy elements. D&D campaign settings like Dark Sun and Spelljammer tend to require a bit more context and explanation, especially for new players. The Dragonlance campaign setting might seem similar to the Forgotten Realms on the surface, especially based on what has been revealed about the upcoming Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign, but the world of Krynn from Dragonlance has some key differences that set it apart from the Forgotten Realms. At its heart, Dragonlance is a war story on an epic scale, which already sets it apart from the Forgotten Realms, but there are other details that might surprise players who are unfamiliar with the setting.

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Dragonlance Is Missing Iconic D&D Races

A party of D&D adventurers surrounding a red dragon.

The line-up of the core playable races in the D&D Player's Handbook has changed over the editions, which has led to new races being introduced to existing settings, with the dragonborn being the most notable example in recent years. Over time, races like tieflings, half-orcs, drow elves, and dragonborn became core races, which was helped by their popularity with players. The status of some of the existing races has also changed, with D&D's drow race lore changing to reflect this, allowing more and more drow to appear on the surface of the Forgotten Realms. It's usually assumed that the core races appear in the main settings, like the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and Eberron, and most homebrew settings will include most, if not all of the Player's Handbook races.

Dragonlance differs from the other main D&D campaign settings, as some of the familiar races don't exist on the world of Krynn. One of the most notable absent races from Krynn is the orcs, which means half-orcs also don't exist in the setting. The halfling race also doesn't exist in Krynn, but Dragonlance has the kender race, which is similar in terms of appearance, but different in terms of personality. The dragonborn also don't exist, but a similar race that predates the dragonborn, called the draconians, reside on Krynn. The draconians were created using dark magic rituals on the eggs of metallic dragons, and were not created by the gods of Krynn.

This isn't to say that people who want to play the missing races are out of luck. Krynn was once considered one of the three core worlds of the D&D multiverse, alongside Oerth and Toril. There are plenty of ways to travel to Krynn using high-level spells to cross the planes and D&D's Spelljammer campaign ships can also travel to Krynn. The people who badly want to play a dragonborn or a halfling in Shadow of the Dragon Queen can easily whip up a backstory about how they (or their family) originally came to Krynn from another world.

The Dragonlance Gods Caused An Apocalypse & Vanished

Dragonlance Dungeons & Dragons Knight of Solamnia

Shadow of the Dragon Queen begins near the start of the War of the Lance. This is an interesting time in the history of Krynn, as it comes after an era where the true gods vanished, along will all divine magic, and have been gone for so long that people wonder if they ever existed. The Age of Might involved the rise of the Istar empire, whose Kingpriest attempted to ascend to godhood. The gods responded to this hubris by causing the Cataclysm, an apocalyptic event that involved dropping a mountain on Istar and reforming the land, kicking off an age of destruction and loss, made all the worse by the loss of divine magic, and D&D clerics losing access to spells.

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When the War of the Lance began, the gods of evil had already returned in secret, with the good and neutral gods returning later. This means that in Shadow of the Dragon Queen, divine magic is a relatively new thing again. The reason that players should be worried is that there are no high-level clerics around to raise them from the dead if they die, nor any handy resurrection scrolls sitting around in dungeons. The players in the Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign will represent a new generation of clerics. Toril is full of clerics of every level, while Krynn's clerics have only just begun their training.

Arcane Magic Is Ruled By A Single Mage Order In Dragonlance

A Dragonlance character looking into a glowing and floating green crystal ball, surrounded by dragons.

The gods may have vanished from Krynn, but arcane magic did not. The Dragonlance mages, according to DnD lore changes, maintained their power, but they bore the brunt of a civilization that turned on spellcasters, having felt abandoned by the gods and left to suffer. As such, the arcane spellcasters of Krynn withdrew from the world as much as possible, as an age of superstition, suspicion, and hatred was upon them. Luckily, the arcane spellcasters of Krynn are easily the most organized compared to those from the other D&D campaign worlds, as the Mages of High Sorcery oversee the use of magic.

All arcane spellcasters on Krynn (including the newer classes like sorcerer and the warlock, as well as Dragonlance's new Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass) are expected to belong to one of the three Orders of the Mages of High Sorcery, which reflect the alignment of the user. Good-aligned spellcasters join the White Robes, the neutral-aligned spellcasters join the Red Robes, and the evil-aligned spellcasters join the Black Robes. The Mages of High Sorcery have their own laws that members are expected to follow, and even good and evil characters will put aside their differences and behave on neutral ground, such as the Tower of Wayreth. Ultimatetly, the Mages of High Sorcery are wholly dedicated to magic itself, and they guard their secrets with the utmost care.

When comparing the Forgotten Realms to Dragonlance, there are many arcane orders and many lone spellcasters who only act in their own self-interest, seeing magic as nothing but a tool to be used to further their goals. There are some nations that control the use of magic on Toril, such as Thay, but they are just one corner of the world. The Mages of High Sorcery might be self-appointed custodians of the arcane arts, but their unity across the whole of Krynn is their strength, and the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting has no true equivalent to them.

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