Lord of the Rose
Authors: Doug Niles
The power of the Dark Knights in
northern Ansalon is broken.
The Solamnic order is in disarray.
And in a shrouded mountain valley,
an army of evil gathers.
Against them stand a mysterious
outlawed warrior, a dwarf, and a
beautiful enchantress. With the aid
of two fugitive gnomes, they will
hold the banner of Good against
the forces of darkness. And from the
ashes of war, a new Solamnia will rise.
THE RISE OF SOLAMNIA
Lord of the Rose
The Crown and the Sword
The Last Measure
LORD OF THE ROSE
©2005 Wizards of the Coast LLC
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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represented by Hasbro Europe, Stockley Park, UB11 1AZ. UK
.
D
RAGONLANCE
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Cover art by: J.P. Targete
eISBN: 978-0-7869-6271-6
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v3.1
TO
M
ARGARET
W
EIS
For your leadership, inspiration
,
and friendship through all the
ages of Krynn
.
PROLOGUE
39 SCT
he War of Souls is over.…
The “One God,” revealed as treacherous Takhisis, was slain by the misdirected fury of the elf heir, Silvanoshei—thanks to the great sacrifice of Paladine, patriarch of the gods. Giving up his own immortality so the Dark Queen could be destroyed, Paladine now wanders the world in mortal flesh, destined to live and die as any mundane creature
.
The prophet of Takhisis was Mina. After vengefully killing Silvanoshei, she vanished, and it is said that she has removed herself to self-imposed exile. Even the whisper of her name can still bring a shiver of fear to the spine of a brave man
.
With their god slain and their commander departed, the order of Dark Knights has struggled against disarray. Bereft of both leadership and faith, individual officers and companies have formed bands of brigands, or become mercenaries following the highest bidder
.
In Solamnia, former Dark Knight comrades vied for control of the Palanthian docks, the rich Solanthian treasury, the grain exchange in Caergoth, and the wool markets in Garnet
.
Even without Mina to guide them, the Dark Knights were able to preserve pockets of power. Only in Solanthus were they quickly expelled, overthrown by a popular rebellion of
the city’s merchants. In Thelgaard, Garnet, and Caergoth, the knightly brigades served brutal warlords. The cities became private fiefdoms, the strong lording over the weak. The ancient Solmanic Code and Measure, the notion of Est Sularus oth Mithas—“My honor is my life”—seemed to most a quaint saying from ancient history
.
But the Knights of Solamnia, moving swiftly to follow up their victory in the War of Souls, began to establish new bases of power. The city of Sanction, site of a legendary siege and the setting for the eventual defeat of the Dark Queen, became a bastion of the knighthood. Lord Tasgall, Chairman of the Whitestone Council, maintained his headquarters there, and the three orders—Crown, Rose, and Sword—began to accept squires and apprentices, schooling them in the traditions of the Solamnic Code
.
The knights worshiped Kiri-Jolith the Just as their patron god. Mishakal the Merciful was also honored, and—in a signal of the evolving nature of Solamnic power—the merchant god Shinare was feted in many new temples and market rituals. In Sanction, business boomed
.