Sciences of the Wizards of High Sorcery

“Long ago, during the Age of Dreams, when magic-users were respected and magic flourished upon Krynn, the five Towers of High Sorcery stood as beacons of light in the dark sea of ignorance that was this world. Here, great magics were worked, benefiting all. There were plans for greater still. Who knows but that now we might have been riding on the winds, soaring the skies like dragons. Maybe even leaving this wretched world and inhabiting other worlds, far away … far away.…”

His voice grew soft and quiet. Caramon and Crysania held very still, spellbound by his tone, caught up in the vision of his magic.

He sighed. “But that was not to be. In their desire to hasten their great works, the wizards decided they needed to communicate directly with each other, from one Tower to another, without the need for cumbersome teleportation spells. And so, the Portals were constructed.”

Legends - War of the Twins
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Twins

 

In the extract above, Raistlin Majere describes how, prior to the Third Dragon War, the Orders of High Sorcery were searching for application of magic, to the benefit of all.

In the case of portals, they botched the experiment, but this extract hints at something much more important, in a storytelling context: Knowledge of magic evolved with time...

Magic

In retrospect, this is logical. The first wizards didn't come with a spellbook with all D&D spells in it, to be given to an organization that would then remain stagnant for millennia.

Instead, there was, at some time, an era of marvels and discoveries. An era when previously unknown schools of magic were discovered, and researched, and spells discovered and categorized, magic artifacts created.

On Earth, we have Pythagoras, Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Feynman. Who are the Pythagoras, Newton, Einstein, Bohr, and Feynman of Krynn? On Earth, we have mathematics, biology, relativity physics, quantum physics, some of these having been discovered a mere century ago. What are the equivalent, on Krynn?

Magic, as an evolving research domain?

Giving a sense of progression on magic is a wonderful opportunity of enriching the lore of Krynn, as well as making Krynn a living world. It also leverages on existing D&D material to empower non-player characters.

This would mean that every field of magic, potentially every school of magic, has something like a date of discovery, then an evolution (e.g. perhaps at one time, Conjuration and Invocation were the same school, until mages discovered they were actually distinct). And that this timeline might have affected Krynn's history as a whole. It might hint at future discoveries, future spells...

It would also mean wizards that would be famous for their contributions!

Instead of Mordenkainen's Manor, one could learn Fistandantilus' Manor!

(Not Scanlan's Hand, though... No matter your fantasy universe, Scanlan's Hand remains Scanlan's Hand)

 

Examples of Fields

In my reformed Dragonlance Setting, I see at least 3 magic domains that would have evolved from almost nothing in the historical past, to the state we now have in "modern" Dragonlance campaigns.

Space

This magic domain is about spells of instantaneous teleportation, moving through space. Spells like Teleport, Teleportation Circle, but also Demiplane and Dimension Door are the spells related to Space.

In my reformed Dragonlance Setting, Fistandantilus is the wizard who researched and created such spells, as well as contributed to the creation of the portals mentioned in the quote above. You can expect to have "scientific articles" written by this wizard on the subject of space travel in the libraries of the Towers of High Sorcery.

Chaos Magic

In the Dragonlance Setting, the universe of Krynn was created from the Chaos, when Reorx stuck it with his hammer, slowing it down. Non-divine Magic itself was introduced back into Krynn by the Graygem, with its chaotic manifestations and mutations. Also, there was an order of renegade Brown Robes, active during the Third Dragon War, around 1000 years before the Cataclysm, that embraced chaos magic, following their leader, Galan Dracos.

In my reformed Dragonlance Setting, Galan Dracos is the wizard who researched chaos magic, and accumulated a dangerous amount of knowledge and spells of that domain, among them Confusion, Crown of Madness, or Chaos Bolt. Of course, practicing it gives a wizard a great amount of power, and spells unknown by the Orders of High Sorcery but at the cost of random (and sometimes cataclysmic) events, and mutations.

Necromancy

Necromancy is the magic of death, of the dead, and of the undead.

In my reformed Dragonlance Setting, Necromancy was initially a sterile, failed school of magic: At best, through Animate Dead, it animated a corpse, or even a skeleton, relying on automation, and not much else. It was gross, dangerous, and mostly useless.

And this went well with the idea that only divine magic could heal, or have any life effect, in any meaningful way. The undead were either anomalies (ghosts, or revenants unable to let go of their mortal regrets), or curses from the gods.

It was (wait for it...) Sylvyana who, after turning her back to the Silvanesti, revolutionized necromancy, by determining its major fields, and researching the undead.

Her articles and discoveries reinvigorated the research on Necromancy among the Orders, much to the chagrin of the White Robes who rightly thought that, if revealed, it would damage the standing of the Orders among non-wizards. But it was too late when they realized her experiments went well beyond the articles and spells she shared with the Orders, and her creation had already escaped all over Ansalon.

Indeed, while spiritual undead like ghosts and banshees were known on Krynn, as well as physical undead like revenants, skeletons and zombies, Sylvyana, in her quest for immortality and power, researched and brought into Krynn the first ravenous undead: The ghouls... And later, the vampires.

Some of the spells she contributed are False Life, Vampiric Touch, Create Undead, and Clone.

Conclusion

Of course, this needs not be limited to Necromancy, Chaos Magic, or even Space Magic (!!!).

By selecting a subset of "common" spells accessible to all, and then gathering the remaining spells by theme, it is easy to attribute them to one wizard, or one "school" of wizardry led by a wizard and their apprentices.

This way, finding such rare spells is not only "loot" in game terms, but also part of the history of Krynn.

And when someone finds a lost spellbook authored by Sylvyana, they know it won't probably be about lightning bolts...