Select Concept: The Cycle of Souls

Select Concepts is a series of blog posts where I will describe concepts specific to my campaign, but which could be reused in other settings. Their point is to explain (lampshade) some RPG Tropes into believable occurrences, or offer alternative sources of conflict/help for our heroes to face/enjoy.

The River of Souls was described  by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis in their War of Souls trilogy.

It does leave the universe of Krynn open-ended (the souls go somewhere beyond Krynn and its gods, in the end), which might be want you want. But for me, as a DM, it failed to explain a few basics of a D&D fantasy settings. Also, I don't like it.

So I devised an alternative version called the Cycle of Souls.

Inspiration

Andy Weir wrote in 2009 a small story called The Egg, which is a fascinating story about how every human alive is actually a reincarnation of the same soul, across time.

You can read it here: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

... and while I won't reuse it as-is, I find it a marvelous inspiration for a setting's creation myth.

Anyways...

The needs

These are my needs:

• I need to make "naturally occurring" reincarnation possible
• I need to make resurrection possible, up to a certain point (i.e. if too much time passed, then it becomes impossible
  
• I need mortals to be able to join their gods after their death, if they want it
• I need to explain why ghosts and revenant might linger beyond their "death"
  
• I need to explain how someone with an actual brain would prefer to serve Takhisis and end in some hellish forever, instead of giving flowers to widows and orphans, and join eternal bliss
• I need the gods to need to nurture souls, for some reason. Of course, each god might have their own definition of nurturing
• I need to have Raistlin wait for his twin, after death.
  
• I need to explain why souls are important for gods, all the while gods having a relative interest in any random mortal
• I need to explain why undeath might actually be a viable, if dreadful, alternative (instead of "how can you be so stupid to do the obvious wrong choice?")
• Fistandantilus
  

Also, bonus: 

• No diabolic pact, no demon eating souls. Because, f*ck demons and devils up to Uranus.

 So, with that, let's start...

Souls vs. Spirits

Souls

Souls are supposed to more or less come from the sparks of Reorx striking Chaos to slow it down and enable creation.

But, being free and unconcerned, souls do not "experience". So they evolve very, very slowly, if at all.

Also, souls may, or may not, experience time. It might even be possible they experience time in a distinct way than mortals.

The gods were tasked to nurture them, so they could grow (possibly into some kind of divinity?).

So the gods gave them gifts:

• Gods of Good gave them physical form, so they could affect and experience the physical universe around them
• Gods of Evil gave them suffering and mortality, so they could feel the consequences of their action, and/or need to react to external events, and then die.
• Gods of Balance gave them freedom to choose (and immunity to any kind of soul damage or coercicion)

By giving them these gifts, gods gave the souls a way to experience reality, through a spirit.

Spirit

When a mortal is born, lives and dies, their consciousness, memories, and experiences is the spirit, created mostly blank from a specific soul.

Upon death, as consciousness fades away, these memories and experiences, or variations, will be replayed, again and again in the fading spirit's mind, as if in a dream, to be slowly absorbed into the soul of that mortal.

The spirit thus fades away in a dream-like state, so the soul can grow.

This is the cycle of souls.

Souls vs. Spirits

The same soul can produce very different spirits. For example, the same soul could produce a Lawful Good paragon spirit, then a Chaotic Evil renegade spirit.

In the end, the whole point is for the eternal soul to learn and evolve by experiencing reality from different viewpoints and situations through transient spirits, each one with a distinct identity and personality.

Fun fact: There is an eerie, but coincidental, parallel between the relation soul/spirit in Krynn and the relation player/character in RPGs.

Can a Spirit endure?

Actually, yes, as during some time after its death, while the spirit is slowly fading away, it is still there.

Fading away...

For example, during this time, the spirit can still be brought back to life, in a way or another (e.g. Raise Dead). It can also be contacted, for example, through spells like Speak With the Dead. The "afterlife" so dear to mortals may be nothing more than the spirit blissfully (or not) fading away, perhaps in the home plane of their god, or some kind of demiplane of their own creation...

Undeath...

Also, the spirit can remain willful and/or powerful enough to remain part of the physical reality.

For example, ghosts, or revenants, whose emotional state either enables them to remain there voluntarily, or forces them to remain there despite a desire to move on. On the other hand, magic rituals might tie the spirit down. For example, mummification, or lichdom. Some accidents or contamination might also happen (e.g. ghouls, vampires). Last but not least, curses (mostly divine) can tie a mortal into the material plane as an undead monstrosity, forcing them into a seemingly neverending hellish existence.

In all cases, the spirit remains, albeit altered by the condition it is forced to remain as.

Ascending...

Last but not least, some spirits can endure longer, because their souls have grown enough (*). These might join their gods as agents, or remain outside observers, and free agents (think "ghost", but without the drama).

(*) This could be considered as a transitional state, where the soul has grown enough its spirits will start to share personality, moral and belief similarities... or even strange memories.

Some Caveats

Apart from what is described above, nothing can keep a dead spirit from fading away into its soul, not even divine intervention.

Also, there is no way, even for a god, to identify the soul of a specific spirit. For example, should the soul of Raistlin reincarnate, it could reincarnate as a tinker gnome spirit, with no memories whatsoever of their past lives, and Takhisis would not suspect a thing.

Last, but not least, souls are totally immune to gods, or any other creatures (like, demons, etc.). The only way to affect a soul would be through the experiences and memories of one of its spirits.

Bonus: Tenacious Souls

I don't really like that concept, and won't be using it personally in my campaign, but it remains compatible with what is written in this post.

Gods and Souls

Unless exception, beyond curiosity, gods care little for spirits, for the same reason someone usually care little for most characters of a fiction (even a RPG or LARP one): Most of them are, in the grand scheme of things, interchangeable, forgettable people.

Gods only really care about nurturing souls, i.e. educating them into becoming, potentially, divine servants, or even gods, of similar moral outlooks.

But, as noted above, the only way to affect a soul is through their spirits, which means creating societies and civilizations to educate them en masse. This explains why the gods of Krynn are warring over mortals: Mortal spirits living in the middle of a civilization that follow that god's teaching is a good way for converting souls into their ways: If Takhisis succeeds in conquering Ansalon, then every mortal on Ansalon will only thrive by becoming more like Takhisis herself (the others will be dealt with later, and serve as fodder in the mean time).

Some spirits, though, might be noteworthy (usually because of their capacity to have faith), and gods sometimes enjoy observing their existence, possibly even discreetly affect it. Sometimes, a god might suspect and interesting spirit might be from the same soul that spawned an interesting spirit in the past, and might see it as a recurring investment (or danger).

Gods of Good

The gods of Good are mostly concerned with nurturing souls into communities of equals, where everyone is caring for everyone else. In this, "together we are stronger" might be their motto.

Of course, for all their care and loving, like overbearing parents, Gods of Good are convinced they know much better than the souls and mortals they are nurturing about what is good for them, which sometimes lead them to be overly possessive of their flocks, sometimes even against their flocks' wishes.

Gods of Evil

The Gods of Evil believe that not all souls are equals, and that some will ascend much faster than others, if correctly nurtured. They favor ambition over everything else, and see caring as something that should not be overly sanctified, as it inevitably leads to the weakening of the souls, as well as squandering resources over many unworthy souls, while they could have been focused on worthier ones.

In other worlds, war and challenges are there to help the best of the souls to ascend, usually by exploiting others, less talented ones, or at the very least, by not being weighed down by them.

Gods of Balance

The gods of Balance have always worked to let souls grow at their natural speed, trying to not affect them too much, to avoid biasing them in any way of another, and working to make sure the influence of the other gods does not smother down the souls into a mold.

This, until the Age of Despair, have led them to some kind of balancing-through-alliance, joining one or another side to keep everyone from becoming too powerful. As this has not prevented the causes for the Cataclysm, some of the gods of Balance are now arguing against that doctrine.

Cheating The Cycle of Souls

The Cycle of Souls is a tedious, but necessary step for the souls to evolve into a higher divine form.

Chemosh

One god, though, believes the process is flawed and inefficient: Too much time is spent by the soul "absorbing" the spirit, and even this "absorption" loses too much information.

The god of death believes he can nurture more souls for his own side, by offering a few select ones a way out of this cycle: By giving them a specific kind of immortality, he is now sure some souls will thrive, and evolve faster through one's spirit's experience.

This is why Chemosh had been researching, and sponsoring research on necromancy and undeath. In theory, every lich, every mummy, every vampire, has the potential to grow ten times faster than regular souls in the same time frame. In practice, this doesn't happens enough, which means more research is needed.

The other gods have misinterpreted Chemosh's obsession for undeath into some kind of morbid fetish, which is, as far as he is concerned, how he likes it. Some barely care, as long as the undead don't overwhelm the living, but others oppose any tampering with the Cycle of Souls, on principle.

The Bloodstone Pendant

The bloodstone pendant enables its wielder to absorb al the experiences of the victim into the wielder. In addition to the life span increase of the wielder, its practical effect is that the victim's experience is absorbed and digested by the wielder's.

Thus, the victim's soul lost an opportunity to grow, while the wielder's spirit instantly accumulates experience by absorbing the victim's soul, which, in the end, will be absorbed back by the wielder's soul.

As Raistlin was the last one to use the pendant, absorbing Fistandantilus in the process, one might say Fistandantilus soul lost the potential of thousands of years of experience. Raistlin's soul, on the other hand...

What about Raistlin and Fistandantilus challenging the gods?

By trying to become gods, Raistlin and Fistandantilus weren't just challenging gods. They were challenging some very fundamental laws of creation.

As spiritss, they had tried to circumvent the Cycle of Souls, and ascend by themselves. In some way, it's like a character taking over their actor, and suddenly controlling their destiny. This was, at best, madness, an aberration.

Why weren't they stopped? For many reasons, but the main ones being gods being divided, even within the same pantheon. The points of discussions go from the necessity or even legitimacy of such an intervention, to what to do exactly to solve the problem, all the while taking each god's personal interest in these specific spirits' growing power.

And, as in the end, Fistandantilus simply screwed up, and Raistlin sacrificed himself, the non-intervention angle seems to have been the right one...

In game terms, how does all of this changes everything so far?

That's the beauty of it: It doesn't change anything in any measurable way.

In the original setting, each soul passes the Gate of Souls and is out of reach for all concerned in Krynn.

In this variant, the spirit is dissolved into the soul, and is out of reach for all concerned in Krynn.

The important difference is one I wanted from the start: Every god has a vested interest in nurturing eternal souls, and yet, remains aloof of transient spirits.

What about Crysania's Death and Resurrection?

The only problem might be Crysania, who died in the present, to be raised back to life in the past by the Kingpriest. The relation of the gods and characters of Krynn with time is strange indeed, and the same goes for souls. In the books, it was as if the soul of Crysania remained attached to her body, and thus, was sent back in time with it. Weird, but why not?

The devil is in the details: I wrote above:

"Also, souls may, or may not, experience time. It might even be possible they experience time in a distinct way than mortals."

And by distinct, I really mean distinct.

Having gods and souls experience time in a distinct way than mortals/spirits enables such time-traveling events. This might be the subject for another post...

Conclusion

By defining souls and spirits, as done here, we can explain a lot of what seems illogical: How resurrection really works, how undeath relate to souls, and why gods can seem detached from mortals, all the while caring about their souls.

P.S.: Test of the Twins

What if Caramon and Raistlin were actually two spirits of the same soul?..

🤯

Food for thoughts...

😋

About axes and triangles

How about a simple dissatisfaction with the use of the two axes-alignment system for D&D cosmology leads to an explosion of triangles, and a description of a more fundamental conflict that could remain hidden behind the Good vs. Evil conflict we know and love for our Dragonlance campaigns...

Alignment in D&D

Any D&D setting comes up with an alignment system, even if the 4th Edition's version was very broken, and the 5th Edition actually greatly reduces its importance.

(I will ignore the original AD&D1's alignment drawing inspired by the templar cross, because its artsy details are nonsensical)

You usually have two axes, the "good vs. evil" axis, and the "law vs. chaos" axis, which combine into a 2-dimensional space of alignment that usually represented as the following array of squares:

This diagram is interestingly simple, but the truth is that it does nothing to represent "distance", as in: "Let's say I'm in the middle between lawful good and neutral, does it means I'm also in the middle between lawful neutral and neutral good?".

This is why I prefer the circular diagram:

This is a more accurate description (IMHO) of a typical D&D alignment system. It also gives back "pure goodness" (or even "pure evil", "pure chaos" or "pure law") its rightful place, without diminishing combination extremes like "lawful good"): Someone who is "pure good" is not some kind of "lawful good light" philosopher.

I am not the only one who thought about that: Already, the alignment in the 1st Edition of AD&D Deities & Demigods, used a round (but still templar-crossed and non-sensical) diagram:

Nearest to the 21th Century, the video game Pathfinder: Kingmaker actually measures one's character alignment with a similar (but more finely graduated) graph...

... where the progression of your character's alignment can be tracked as a path of successive points, moving in directions depending on specific choices you made.

Alignment in Dragonlance

Dragonlance is clearly colored by a "good vs. evil" theme. And it even shows in its custom alignment system, in the AD&D1 Dragonlance Adventures rulebook:

... which was one of the many innovations the Dragonlance setting proposed on top of the D&D system (the best among them being, IMHO, clerical spheres/domains).

There are (at least) two remarkable things, here:

• The alignment chart is graduated, as is the Pathfinder Kingmaker video game alignment did, much later.
• There is no mention of law/chaos. I mean, not even a single suggestion of using a similar chart for lawful/neutral/chaotic alignment axis. Nothing. Nada.
  

My guess is that the "good vs. evil" conflict overshadowed the "order vs. chaos" conflict, and thus, that such "moral conflicts" were not deemed worthy of a dedicated chart, even if all NPCs were described with a full, two-axes, alignment rating.

Triangles Incoming!

There's one thing that's missing, there.

It's a bit of information that I've read years (decades?) ago, and that is hard to find now, but remains hinted everywhere Dragonlance.

The fact that any "conflict" in Dragonlance is not described with a axis, but a triangle.

For example, take the mythos of creation of Krynn. In the same AD&D1 Dragonlance Adventures rulebook, p8, we find the following:

Three were the pillars upon which this universe was forged: Good, Evil, and Neutrality. This was the great triangle upon which all the universe was brought to be.

Isn't that interesting?

But it continues further, later, in the same page:

The Alignments of the Gods

All of the universe stands upon the Great Triangle. This foundation has always existed and will exist down through the ages of time and until the end of the world.

At the apexes of the triangles stand the three anchors upon which the universe is built. These are known among men as Good, Evil, and Neutrality. It is into these positions that the gods align themselves in their effort to maintain progress in the universe they have brought into being.

The whole thing is how everything is described as a triangle whose points are forces, and a pendulum oscillate (more or less) freely between those extremes. The axis "good vs. evil" would become "good vs. evil vs. balance", as in the following diagram:

I use "Balance" instead of "Neutrality" for obvious reasons: The main takeway is not that "neutrality" is some kind of passive state (think "Switzerland"), but a more active force trying to balance the two others.

It is telling that the main contribution of the Gods of Balance to the mortal souls of Krynn was free will:

The Gods of Neutrality gave the spirits the gift of free will, to choose freely between Good and Evil. Thus did they preserve the Balance.

... but this is the subject of another, later discussion...

So what?

I'm writing a Dragonlance campaign, so I went deeper in the rabbit hole. In summary, the current creation of Krynn is something like:

• At the beginning, everything was chaos
• The High God called the gods of Good, Evil and Balance, to build his idea of Krynn.
• Reorx, one of these gods, using is mighty hammer to stike the chaos, and thus slow it down, so Krynn could be built
• From the sparks of Reorx' strike, stars and souls were born
  

... and later in the chronology, we had:

• Chaos was not really happy about what had happened
• Reorx was tricked to create a wondrous gem, and he used a tiny bit of chaos to empower it
• Bad move: He actually locked up Chaos itself in that "gray gem", but no one will realize that until too late
• The gray gem brought chaos into Krynn, causing mutations and wild magic to appear (if you wonder at how a pegasus might be born, think about the centaurs and the minotaurs!)
  

In the end, what we have is another conflict, beyond "good and evil".

In the next main book, Dragons of a Summer Flame, this conflict is explored, with the gods of Good, Evil and Balance coming together to fight against Chaos, who had been freed from the gray gem. The conflict was so destructive that, in the end, the gods and Chaos were banished, leaving the mortals to fend for themselves in a new age called: Age of Mortals (this is also a discussion for later...).

Do you see something wrong here?

I'm not talking about the fact Dragons of a Summer Flame is not a trilogy, but a single book (which might explain why things seemed a bit rushed), nor the fact the end of that book was essentially killing Dragonlance as a fantasy RPG setting (IMHO), as everything "magic" was now gone.

It took me a while to put words on it, so I won't blame you for not finding immediately: I'm talking about the fact that, unlike the triangles powering everything when designing Dragonlance until now, here, all we had were two sides.

The Return of the Triangle

I am writing (and DM-ing) a Dragonlance campaign right now, and in my canon, only the two trilogies are "true". Everything else is either bards' tales (e.g. the Lost Chronicles, for different reasons), or will never come to pass (e.g., Dragons of a Summer Flame and The War of Souls Trilogy).

Yet, Chaos and the High God are part of the original lore of Dragonlance, so, where do they stand?

My guess is: We need another Triangle:

These are three forces powering the physical creation of Krynn (note: "physical" in the sense of "physics", not in the sense of "you can touch it"... Yeah, I'm a physics nerd...).

These three fundamental forces are:

• Order:
• Order is organization. A minimum of organization is needed from something to exist. Indeed, it is needed for causality, which naturally leads to predictability, intelligence, but also the passing of time (as before is the cause of now, which is the cause of after)
• But too much order means everything becomes more rigid, everything crystalizes into something that will smother down anything that doesn't perfectly fit. At its most powerful, time loses its meaning, as everything is fossilized, becomes cyclic, or becomes perfectly predictable with no way out.., as would be a perfect clock.
• Chaos:
• Chaos is energy. Experiment, tries, changes and evolution need energy to happen, as do randomness and surprises. Chaos challenges a status quo, chaos gives power out of nothing.
• But too much energy, and no structure has a meaning anymore, nothing is stable, so creation is fleeting, at best. In the end, this is a universe where time loses its meaning, too, as there's no causality, meaning, each instant is totally independent from the previous one, as each moment can lead to any of the infinite possibilities with no logic remaining to predict anything. This is a universe where one can't remember the past, nor predict the future.
  
• Entropy:
• Entropy is decay (in the physical sense), and coldness. Entropy will make sure no structure, nor organization, will remain crystalized, unless there's an outside constant effort to repair decay damage. Entropy will also calm down the most explosive expressions of chaos. In this way, Entropy is a moderating factor of the two other creation forces.
• And yet, unchecked, Entropy will erode structure and organization to nothingness. Entropy will smother down energy and creativity. In the end, Entropy unchecked naturally leads to a single singularity of nothing, a single state where time itself stops passing for those experiencing such an entropic universe.

As you can see, all these forces are necessary for creation, and yet, each force could, if unchecked, lead to destruction.

(If we were to make link between these RPG-based fantasy creation forces and real universe physics, you might think of chaos as the age of big bang/inflation, order as the current age of the universe, with stars, planets, and all, and entropy as the age of heat death of the universe. In this, "rpg chaos" is not the pure "physics/mathematics chaos"... Enjoy your wikipedia research...)

(Bonus: If you add a subtle notion of uncertainty you could then postulate than no force would be completely smothered, and that with enough "time" and "chance", entropy might be suddenly overwhelmed by order and chaos once more, leading to another cycle of creation. But (and this will blow out your mind) each creation is unable to communicate/affect another creation across cycles causally, as each creation would always come from, and lead to, a single state of entropy.)

Conclusion: Triangles! Triangles Everywhere!

 I like this existence of at least two fundamental triangles:

The first (Good vs. Evil vs. Balance) being about moral choice for souls, and the second (Order vs. Chaos vs. Entropy) being about fundamental forces of creation. In alignment terms, one character's alignment might be measure as a point in the first triangle plus another point in the second triangle.

But as I don't plan to use alignment much, this idea won't be tested. (if only because D&D5e doesn't really care for alignment anymore)

Dragonlance is a fantasy world about Good vs. Evil, but also gods... lots of meddling gods who rarely shy away from orbital-bombing when not happy with how their plans unravel...

So, what will be tested, instead, is the signification of the first, and of the second triangle, by mortal characters, potentially putting them at odds with their own gods.

But who said the coming of the Age of Mortals would be a cakewalk?

Custom Vocations for the Priest Archetype

Note: The application to Krynn of these custom rules is described in the following post: Priest Vocations for the Holy Orders of the Stars.

Following the previous post, where the Priest Archetype was defined as an alternative Cleric Domain, and Vocations were introduced, we can now introduce custom priest vocations.

These were usually inspired by either the domains defined in various Dragonlance D&D3.5 rulebooks (mostly the excellent Holy Orders of the Stars), as well as some homebrew or unearthed arcana D&D5 domains.

Custom Priest Vocations

 

Commerce

Cleric Level	Spells
1	comprehend languages
3	zone of truth
5	tongues
7	secret chest
9	telepathic bond

Divine Energy Channel: Glibness

For one hour, when you roll Charisma Ability, you can replace the dice result with 15.

 

Cure

Cleric Level	Spells
1	healing word
3	prayer of healing
5	mass healing word
7	halo of benevolence (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	mass cure wounds

Divine Energy Channel: Purification

You can end either one disease or one condition (among blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned) affecting you and up to 5 allies you can see within 9 meters (30 feet).

 

Devotion

Cleric Level	Spells
1	shield of faith
3	aid
5	beacon of hope
7	divination
9	commune

Divine Energy Channel: Armor of Faith

As mage armor, but with a "self" range/area.

 

Forge

Cleric Level	Spells
1	identify
3	magic weapon
5	elemental weapon
7	fabricate
9	creation

Divine Energy Channel: Blessing of the Craftman

At the 2nd level, you can use your Divine Channel to create simple items.

You conduct a one-hour ritual that makes a non-magical item that must include metal: a simple or martial weapon, armor, ten pieces of ammo, a set of tools, or another metallic object (see Chapter 5, "Equipment" in the Player's Handbook for examples of these items).

Creation is complete at the end of the hour, merging into an unoccupied space of your choice on an area within 1.5 meters of you.

The thing you create can be anything whose price is no higher than 100gp. As part of this ritual, you must dispose of the metal, which can include coins, of equal value at creation. The metal fuses irreparably and transforms into the creation at the end of the ritual, magically forming even the non-metallic parts of the creation.

The ritual can create a copy of a non-magical item that contains metal, such as a key, if you own the original during the ritual.

 

Meditation

Cleric Level	Spells
1	comprehend languages
3	enhance ability
5	tongues
7	freedom of movement
9	telepathic bond

Divine Energy Channel: Empower Spell

You can use Metamagic options on a spell you are casting as if you were a Sorcerer with 3 Sorcery points, with the same limitations. Unused Sorcery Points are lost.

 

Rune

Cleric Level	Spells
1	erase (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
3	secret page (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	glyph of warding
7	???
9	planar binding

Divine Energy Channel: ???

???

 

Tyranny

Cleric Level	Spells
1	command
3	enthrall
5	fear
7	compulsion
9	dominate person

Divine Energy Channel: Divine Majesty

Select up to one target of your choice per Proficiency bonus points, located within 30 feet of you and in your line of sight.

Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, otherwise it is restrained for 1 minute. At the end of each of your turns, each target gets a new Wisdom saving throw. If she succeeds, the effects of the Divine Energy Channel end on her.

 

Undeath

Cleric Level	Spells
1	false life
3	ray of enfeeblement
5	vampiric touch
8	grasping zombies (as black tentacles, but with zombie arms)
11	circle of death

Divine Energy Channel: Control the Undead

You automatically gain the Command Undead feat (see below) and the Undead Master feat (see below).

 

Feats

Command Undead

Inspirations:

• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/command-undead/ (Pathfinder 1e SRD)
• https://www.5esrd.com/database/feats/command-undead/ (D&D5e SRD)
  

Using foul powers of necromancy, you can command undead creatures, making them into your servants.

Prerequisites: Channel Divinity class feature.

Benefit: As an action, you can use one of your uses of Channel Divinity to mentally enslave undead within 9 metres (30 feet). You make a Turn Undead check as normal. Those undead that would be destroyed fall under your control, obeying your commands to the best of their ability.

Intelligent undead receive a new saving throw each day to resist your command.

Controlled undead can have their will usurped by other clerics with this ability. When attempting to maintain control, each cleric makes a spellcasting check and the highest roll takes control.

You can control a number of undead whose combined CR is equal or less than your cleric level divided by 4.

The duration is permanent, or until said undead is released, destroyed or makes the save.

 

Undead Master

Inspirations:

• https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/undead-master (Pathfinder 1e SRD)

You can marshal vast armies of the undead to serve you.

Prerequisites: the ability to cast animate dead or command undead.

Benefit: When you cast animate dead, create undead, or use the command undead feat, you are considered to be four levels higher when determining the number of undead, or the amount of CR you animate/control.

 

Conclusion

Now that we have missing vocations, we can summarize which the Krynn's deities offer which vocations...

Priest, an alternative "domain" for D&D5 clerics

Clyde Caldwell, Legends, 1986

Note: The application to Krynn of these custom rules is described in the following post: Priest Vocations for the Holy Orders of the Stars.

Important

 The following is borrowed from the following freely accessible page, in French: https://5e-drs.fr/classes/clerc/

It was translated through the Google Translate app: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https://5e-drs.fr/classes/clerc/

But it is not easily accessible in English (or any other language) since the original page contains scripts interfering with the translation process

This is why I compiled it here.

Anyway, this is a creation by Black Book Edition (https://www.black-book-editions.fr/) on top of the D&D5e SRD.

Preamble

To avoid confusion, in this document and unlike in the French SRD, I use the word "vocation" instead of "priest domain".

In SRD v5 terms, when you choose a cleric, you need to choose a "domain", with a default to be "Life". All other domains are not open. With the following rules, your domain is "Priest", which has its own "vocations".

The interesting thing about these "vocations" is that in rule terms, two priest "vocations" put together make mostly a cleric "domain".

This is a very elegant way to increase the level of possible customization of gods and goddesses' powers given to their priests, as well as giving more nuance to sub-orders of followers of a specific divinity.

The Priest Archetype for the D&D5 Cleric

Religious education

At level 1, the cleric can choose the type of education he has received in his order in accordance with the GM:

• Theoretical teaching. You develop a skill in accordance with the religious principles of your divinity. You gain proficiency over this skill. If you are already proficient in this skill, the bonus is doubled (i.e. you are expert). The GM determines this skill based on the religious realm of your deity (for example, Nature for a forest deity). If no skill seems obvious, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill.
• Martial education. This variant is suitable for a god of war, metal, strength, justice or nobility, for example. You gain your choice of proficiency of martial weapons or heavy armor. If your deity only grants you access to one vocation, you gain proficiency in both martial weapons and heavy armor. However, you do not benefit from additional divine energy channeling at levels 4 and 8 (see below).

 There is a third (homebrew) education available:

• Religious teaching. The same as theoretical teaching but with the following differences: The priest isn't proficient with intermediate armors, nor shields. In exchange, the priest wins access to a dedicated (homebrew) vocation: Devotion (see the following post), that isn't counted in the total number of vocations known by the priest.
  

Vocation spells

You get deity-specific spells that you pray to at the levels shown in the tables below, depending on the area. It is very common for a religion to encompass two divine vocations, such as war and thunder, death and time, or even knowledge and light. In this case, at each level indicated, you learn new spells from each of the two areas to which you have access, usually two spells of the same level.

If your divinity grants you only one vocation, you get in exchange an additional divine energy channel at 4th level (for a total of two) and then another at 8th level (for a total of four). So you can use your divine energy channel five times when you reach level 18.

Channeling Divine Energy: Vocation Power

From level 2, you get a channel of divine energy that depends on your vocation. If your divinity gives you access to two vocations, you must choose one or the other of the abilities and this choice is final. Regardless of the vocation, you must use an action to trigger this ability

Divine Energy Channel: Vocation Spell

At 6th level, you can cast a vocations spell using your Divine Energy Channel ability without spending a spell slot. When you cast the spell this way, if it normally requires an action to cast, you can cast it at the cost of a bonus action.

Channeling Divine Energy: Vocation Power

At 8th level, you gain the divine energy channel that depends on your second vocation, the one you didn't choose at 2nd level. Regardless of the vocation, you must use an action to trigger this ability. Although the effects of Channels of Divine Energy do not count as focus, you cannot benefit from the effects of both order abilities at the same time.

Aspect of the avatar

When you reach level 17, you literally embody the power of your divinity. You can use a channel of divine energy to assume the appearance of an avatar of your god for 1 minute. Your height increases by one category (from medium to large, for example) and you exude an aura of almost palpable power. Your voice easily carries 100 yards around you and all the creatures that hear you understand your words, even those that do not usually have spoken language. You get an advantage on all Strength and Charisma checks, and your weapon attacks increase damage by 1d4. Finally, for the duration of the transformation, you can cast each of your sphere spells once (at their normal level) without using a spell slot. To cast an estate spell this way, you must use your action this turn. If you only have one sphere, you can cast each spell twice.

Welcoming even a tiny part of a god's energy into the body of a mere mortal is exhausting. At the end of this transformation, you will suffer a fatigue level and you cannot reuse Aspect of the Avatar until you have completed a long rest.

 

List of Divine Vocations for the Priest Archetype

 

Air

Cleric Level	Spells
1	feather fall
3	squall (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	fly
7	gazeous form
9	conjure elemental (air)

Divine Energy Channel: Asphyxiation

This ability has exactly the same effects as casting the Desiccation spell , but the victim suffocates instead of losing the water in their body. You cast this spell as if you were using a spell slot of a level equal to your proficiency bonus (so you assign one target at 2nd level, two targets at 5th level, etc.).

 

Arts

Cleric Level	Spells
1	minor illusion
3	ghostly instrument (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	hypnotic pattern
7	stone shape
9	seeming

Divine Energy Channel: Divine Inspiration

You sing for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. During this time, you can use a reaction on each of your turns to allow an ally located within 18 yards and able to hear you to re- roll a die of their choice ( characteristic test , attack roll , saving or damage). Your Charisma modifier is added to the result of the new roll.

 

Charm/Love

Cleric Level	Spells
1	charm person
3	suggestion
5	sending
7	confusion
9	modify memory

Divine Energy Channel: Heavenly Splendor

For a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus, you put disadvantage on all enchantment spell saves you cast and gain advantage on Charisma checks.

 

Cold

Cleric Level	Spells
1	frost ray
3	mantle of frost (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	sleet storm
7	ice storm
9	cone of cold

Channel of Divine Energy: Coffin of Ice

Pick up to one target of your choice per Mastery bonus point, located within 30 feet of you and in your line of sight. Each target must succeed on a Strength saving throw , otherwise it is restrained for 1 minute. At the end of each of your turns, each target gets a new Strength saving throw . If she succeeds, the effects of the Divine Energy Channel end on her.

 

Death

Cleric Level	Spells
1	icy contact
3	imaginary shadows (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	feign death
7	death ward
9	cloudkill

Divine Energy Channel: Mortal Connection

You channel the energy of death through you for a duration equal to 1 round per point of mastery bonus. During this time, you can cast the icy touch magic trick as a bonus action and you have advantage on attack rolls for that spell.

 

Deception/Illusion

Cleric Level	Spells
1	disguise self
3	invisibility
5	major image
7	confusion
9	mislead

Divine Energy Channel: Doubling

You create an illlusionary double of yourself for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. This double disorients your opponents, and you gain an advantage in your melee attacks. Also, when a creature succeeds in an attack against you (out of area attack), roll 1d6. On a roll of 1 to 3, the attack affects the illusion; on a 4 to 6, you normally take damage. An attacker is immune to this trait if they are not using the sense of sight, as with Blind Sight, or if they can see through illusions as with the Supreme Sight spell.

 

Earth

Cleric Level	Spells
1	entangle
3	sudden stalagmites (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	meld into stone
7	stoneskin
9	conjure elemental (Earth)

Divine Energy Channel: Burrow

You can move through rock or dirt from a floor or wall, if they are natural, at half your normal speed for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. When the ability ends, if you remain trapped in matter, you are thrown to the nearest open space, you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage per yard of matter traversed, and you are stunned for 1 round.

 

Fire

Cleric Level	Spells
1	burning hands
3	flaming sphere
5	fireball
7	wall of fire
9	conjure elemental (Fire)

Divine Energy Channel: Flaming Weapons

You hit a weapon and it inflicts an additional 1d6 fire damage for one minute (10 rounds). You can assign two weapons at level 9 and up to three weapons at level 17.

 

Illness/Weakness

Cleric Level	Spells
1	putrefaction (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
3	ray of enfeeblement
5	bestow curse
7	wilt (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	contagion

Divine Energy Channel: Infected Weapon

For 1 minute, each time you successfully strike a weapon, the target takes an additional 1d4 points of poison damage per point of your proficiency bonus and the poisoned state for 1 round. If it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw , it halves the poison damage and ignores the poison state.

 

Justice/Nobility

Cleric Level	Spells
1	unseen servant
3	strike of the righteous (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	zone of truth
7	spear of the righteous (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	expiation of the righteous (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)

Divine Energy Channel: Judgment of God

For 1 minute, once per round, when you land a successful attack with a weapon, you add 1d4 damage of the same type as that of the weapon. This damage die goes to d6 at 5th level, to d8 at 9th level, to d10 at 13th level and finally to d12 at 17th level.

 

Knowledge

Cleric Level	Spells
1	comprehend languages
3	detect thoughts
5	clairvoyance
7	divination
9	contact other plane

Divine Energy Channel: Secret Name

Pick a target that is in your field of vision and within 60 feet of you. You learn her secret name, and for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus, she suffers disadvantage on her saving throws against all of your spells. At the end of this effect, you forget about this magic name.

 

Life/Healing

Cleric Level	Spells
1	cure wounds
3	lesser restoration
5	vitality (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
7	panacea (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	greater restoration

Divine Energy Channel: Healing Salute

You and up to five allies in your line of sight, within 30 feet of you, heal 1d6 hit points per point of Proficiency bonus.

 

Light

Cleric Level	Spells
1	dancing lights
3	branding smite
5	daylight
8	halo of benevolence (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
11	sunbeam

Divine Energy Channel: Burst of Light

A ray of light starts from your outstretched finger and spreads to a point of your choice within 30 meters and within your field of vision, where it explodes in a blinding light. Each creature in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on this point must make a Dexterity saving throw . Those that fail take 1d10 radiant damage per point of proficiency bonus and are blinded on their next turn. Those that succeed only take half the damage and are not blinded.

 

Magic

Cleric Level	Spells
1	mage hand, or prestidigitation
3	identify
5	dispel magic
7	counterspell
9	fabricate

Divine Energy Channel: Arcane Magic

You pray for 10 minutes to prepare a spell from the wizard list of your choice, the level of which must be strictly lower than your proficiency bonus (this does not cause you to spend any channel of divine energy). Now you can cast it using a channel of divine energy. You must complete a long rest to be able to choose another spell. You then forget the previous one.

 

Nature

Cleric Level	Spells
1	speak with animals
3	animal companion (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	speak with plants
7	hallucinatory terrain
9	commune with nature

Divine Energy Channel: Legion of Beasts

You cast the spell summon animals , however the sum of the danger indices of the beasts you summon must be strictly less than your proficiency bonus (index 1 at level 2, index 2 at level 5, index 3 at level 9, etc.).

 

Night/Darkness

Cleric Level	Spells
1	fog cloud
3	darkness
5	darkvision
7	greater invisibility
9	dream

Divine Energy Channel: Vision of Darkness

You get the ability blind vision and you are immune to the special status blinded for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus.

 

Protection

Cleric Level	Spells
1	alarm
3	blur
5	magic circle
7	faithful hound
9	antilife shell

Divine Energy Channel: Resistance

You gain resistance to all damage types for 1 round per point of mastery bonus. You can choose to use this ability on an ally in your line of sight within 30 feet at the same time as yourself.

 

Strength/Feats/Courage

Cleric Level	Spells
1	heroism
3	enlarge (spell enlarge/reduce)
5	heroic blessing (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
7	halo of benevolence (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	aura of strength (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)

Divine Energy Channel: Divine Power

You increase your strength for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus. During this time, you gain advantage on all of your Strength checks, saves, and melee attacks with weapons with the heavy property. In addition, you add 1d4 to the damage of your melee attacks or 1d6 with heavy weapons. During the duration of this ability, you are proficient in all heavy weapons.

 

Thunder/Storms

Cleric Level	Spells
1	thunderwave
3	squall (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	call lightning
7	ice storm
9	chain lightning

Divine Energy Channel: Electric Surge

For one minute, each time a creature makes a successful melee attack against you, it takes 1d4 lightning damage. Damage increases to 2d4 at 9th level and 3d4 at 17th level.

 

Time

Cleric Level	Spells
1	expeditious retreat
3	misty step
5	haste
7	dimension door
9	hold monster

Divine Energy Channel: Time Fold

This ability is an exception to the general rule of channeling divine energy, you only need a reaction to activate it. By spending your reaction, you act 1 full turn in addition to your normal turn. However, this additional turn does not grant you a new reaction. You cannot use, in the same round, an ability or a spell granting you an action, a bonus action and / or an additional reaction. If you are under the effect of a haste spell while using this ability, it ceases immediately. Additionally, you must complete a short or long rest before you can use this ability again.

 

Travels

Cleric Level	Spells
1	longstrider
3	pass without trace
5	phantom steed
7	dimension door
9	tree stride

Channel of Divine Energy: March of the Mists

You can cast the Misty Step spell by spending either a bonus action or a reaction (and without using a spell slot) once per turn for a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus.

War

Cleric Level	Spells
1	divine favor
3	magic weapon
5	enhance ability
7	heroic blessing (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
9	stoneskin

Channeling Divine Energy: Warrior Trance

You are inhabited by the warrior expertise of your divinity for 1 minute. During this time, you can divide your proficiency bonus between the attack roll or the damage roll of a melee attack each round as you like. You can announce which part of the bonus you add after rolling the dice, but before knowing the result of the action.

 

Water

Cleric Level	Spells
1	grease
3	desiccation (see Custom Spells for the Priest Archetype)
5	water breathing
7	control water
9	conjure elemental (Water)

Divine Energy Channel: Liquid Form

For a number of rounds equal to your proficiency bonus, you gain resistance to nonmagical slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning damage. Additionally, you can bend your body to fit through a narrow space (through a keyhole, under a door, etc.) at the cost of one action.

 

Conclusion

I find this Priest Archetype much better than the default Cleric from D&D5.

First, assuming a divinity will offer, on average, two vocations to their followers, it actually enables a priest to embrace all the vocations of their god/goddess, instead of having to chose one.

Second, it makes each god/goddess more nuanced and more unique: With the limited amount of domains available in D&D5, it was easy for two unrelated gods to share the same domains. Here, if having each god/goddess offer a combination of two vocations, every god/goddess can be unique.

Third: It is actually easy to retrieve a Priest Vocation from an existing D&D5 Cleric Domain: Just take one of the two spell for each level, and you're done.

This means adding the Vocations that are specific to Dragonlance to be very, very easy.

All in all, this is, IMHO, infinitely better than the original domain-based cleric of D&D5e.

You can find custom vocations in the following post, and how they are offered by Krynn's deities here.

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...

Philosophies of the Wizards of High Sorcery

As part of my work to "modernize" the Dragonlance Setting to my tastes, the first, most obvious, target, is, of course, the Wizards of High Sorcery.

Good, Neutrality, Evil?

At first glance, having 3 orders of white, red and black robes is awesome. But having "good", "neutral" and "evil" mages seems a bit too much on the nose.

Looking at the excellent Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/3239/Holy-Orders-of-the-Stars-35e), one can discover very interesting things about the gods of magic.

Indeed, all gods were given a "divine power". For example, Paladine has the "divine power" of "Majesty", while Takhisis has the "divine power" of "Control".

And if you take a look at the gods of magic, you see that even them, before becoming what they are now, had a "divine power":

• Solinari:  Vigilance
• Lunitary: Mystery
• Nuitari: Ambition
  

... and, reading that, I realized that I'd found the seed for my reformed Orders of High Sorcery!

Vigilance, Mystery, Ambition!

If we take these principles, and apply them to Magic, then we get something much more profound. Something that can translate, for the common people, to the famous "good, neutral and evil mages", but that is much, much more nuanced if one actually study their organization.

The Orders of High Sorcery were founded by three patrons to make sure magic would be both used, used correctly, and kept under control. Each mage of High Sorcery must then have specific qualities:

• Curiosity: A need to research, and unveil the mysteries of magic, for its own sake
  
• Vigilance: A need to make sure magic is not used lightly, nor irresponsibly.
• Ambition: A need to go beyond the common, to reach farther, and reap the rewards
  

... and, as each divine patron of the Orders has a natural affinity for one of these qualities: 

• Curiosity: Lunitari (as need to unveil Mystery)
  
• Vigilance: Solinari
• Ambition: Nuitari

... an tripartite organization naturally emerges, embracing their divine patron's philosophy (and color)

Consequences

This is why mages of one Order will always respect a mage from another Order: They both value the same things, even if not with the same priorities, and the mage of the other Order is indeed working for the betterment of magic itself, in their own way:

• Red Robes: Research, without limitation, and knowledge sharing
  
• White Robes: Prudence in research, and diplomacy with external organizations, and the people
  
• Black Robes: Increasing the power and prestige of the Orders
  

Is it surprising, then, for the common people, to see the White Robes as the "politically correct" wizards, while the Black Robes are the evil schemers?

The Test of High Sorcery

The test should comprise of at least tests of the candidate's loyalty to the Orders and to Magic, as well as a test of what is the candidate priorities among Vigilance, Curiosity or Ambition.

Testing Skills/Talent

Of course, the Test must test the skills and the talents of a candidate, when under stress, or not, to make sure the candidate is able to think and research. Combat, duels and research for a specific thing in libraries are usually the kind of tests a candidate has to pass.

It has already been discussed in Dragonlance books, so I won't elaborate here.

Testing Loyalty to the Orders

Also, the test is about loyalty: Is the candidate loyal to the Orders, including when this loyalty seems to violate their own moral limits?

In D&D terms, morality is simplified into an alignment of two axes: Law/Chaos and Good/Evil.

So, a good approximation of this test would be to confront the alignment of the candidate against their loyalty to the Orders.

For this, three tests can be devised:

• Loyalty vs. Good: Would the candidate be able to sacrifice innocents, if needed by the Orders or Magic?
  
• Loyalty vs. Law: Would the candidate be able to breach Law, if needed by the Orders or Magic?
  
• Loyalty vs. Evil: Would the candidate be able to sacrifice oneself, if needed by the Orders or Magic?

Failing all of them would mean failure in loyalty, and thus, of the test. Failing 2 would fail to impress. Failing one would be welcome, and failing none would really impress.

Er... Good, Law, Evil, ok... But what about Chaos?

There's no Loyalty vs. Chaos test described above, as the Orders are a very organized (i.e. lawful) organization. It is thus implied that Loyalty vs. Chaos is actually a test that a candidate is going through their whole career as apprentices and mages.

In other words, a chaotic-aligned character would have to be able to convince the Orders, during their whole apprenticeship, that, despite their tendency for chaos and freedom, the Orders and Magic are still their first loyalty.

Testing Priority/Affiliation

The Test can be used for the candidate to help them decide their own affiliation, by proposing to the candidate difficult choices:

• Curiosity vs. Vigilance: For example, is it better to make a copy of a dangerous scroll to make sure the knowledge is preserved for future research, or is it better to destroy it to avoid risking for this knowledge to spread with dire consequences?
  
• Ambition vs. Curiosity: For example, is it better to use a magical artifact immediately, to increase one's power, or is it better to dismantle it, hoping to gather is secrets and to be able, perhaps, to reproduce it later?
  
• Ambition vs. Vigilance: For example, is it better to risk one's current position in a military or diplomatic conflict to try to gain a better position? Or is it better to fortify oneself?

In most of the cases, the choices will reveal and highlight one principle that seems more natural and important for the candidate, thus naturally directing them into the right Order. In case of doubts, more tests can be done (including a tripartite test when the candidate must choose between three options: Ambition, Vigilance, or Curiosity).

And what about alignment?

The interesting part is that all imposes little on the candidate's own alignment:

You could be ambitious, while remaining good. And you can be prudent while remaining evil.

But one can't deny that most good-aligned characters will join the White Robes, and that ambition without a strong "Good" compass leads naturally to evil.

So, while this says nothing about the mage's alignment in rule terms, it is easy (and often correct), when coming from outside, to use the simplistic, approximated approach of considering a White Robe to be good, and a Black Robes to be evil.

Conclusion

Using this variation on the Orders of High Sorcery, you can both enrich the concept behind the Orders of High Sorcery, and make it more palatable for those bored by a naive "good vs. evil" concept, while still keeping the traditional Good/Neutral/Evil approach that had always be part of the Orders of High Sorcery in Dragonlance.

Welcome to my Dragonlance Blog

 

In this blog, I will describe my thoughts & musing on my storytelling of a Dragonlance campaign, using the D&D5 ruleset.

It is important to remember this is a personal viewpoint on the subject, to adapt the world of Krynn to my tastes, philosophy, and needs in the campaign.