#tasslehoff

Tas and the time travel device. Excitement, enthusiasm, and a hint of troublemaking spirit accompany every journey. As the stones of the floor howl, an invisible wind rises and the fabric of time tears.

I think that one of the most interesting things about re-reading Dragonlance Legends recently is how the books appear to solve their time travel paradox problem in a very elegant way. Like, nothing is explicitly confirmed (and I imagine that inconsistencies pop up throughout later books as the writers changer their minds about things), but it plants seeds to suggest that time travel is an illusion.

Perhaps the characters think that they travel through time, but really they've travelled directly to the Abyss which has temporarily re-ordered itself to accurately replay events from a specific point in the past timeline. They are like actors that have cast themselves in the roles of historical figures in a very realistic play. And wait a minute this is starting to sound like the King in Yellow again - the story that drives people mad for experiencing it, and makes them unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction.

Anyways, the evidence:

Tasslehoff's exploration of the Abyss Tasslehoff watches the Cataclysm happen from within the Temple at Istar, and then suddenly he's in the Abyss. He concludes that this is because Takhisis took the temple (and would later use it as the base for her temple at Neraka). On the one hand, it is true that Takhisis just sometimes grabs large buildings that won't be missed and transports them into the Abyss. The place where Istar once stood is called the Blood Sea, and the place where the temple stood is a giant hole in the seabed. But when Tasslehoff later described the Abyss he mentions that it's "like every place he's ever been" which would include a lot of things that can't have been physically removed. Seems implied that the Abyss simply is a deconstructed collection of everyone and everything that ever was lost to time. An eldritch vault of every instance of time that ever existed before the present. The temple was no longer needed for the performance of the Cataclysm, so it was removed from context like a prop put into storage.

The use of the Time Travel Device The gnome Gnimsh builds a dimensional travel device that lands him in the Abyss. Fair enough - the Abyss is another dimension. So, aside from plot convenience, why then is he able to immediately fix and even improve the Time Travel device that Tasslehoff broke? It's well established that the Abyss is a separate dimension that the wizards built portals to access a long time ago, so that part checks out. But if time travel and dimensional travel are indistinguishable, that's a little bit suspicious. Tasslehoff also observed that he had the terrible feeling that Takhisis is the Abyss, and he and Gnimsh were only able to leave using the device because she allowed it.

Time seems to be passing in the present and the "past" at approximately the same rate Raistlin uses a Dragonorb to contact Dalamar, who is back in the present time. He claims that the orb can see into the future, but really? Can it? It's not like he's shown to have tested it in the present time, and this is the last time one of these will ever be used because he breaks it during the attempt. The dragon orb contains a captive green dragon and chromatic dragons are the domain of Takhisis so it's consistent for their powers to include a direct line to the nightmare/dream realm that is the Abyss. Which can accurately display the past and might show potential futures.

The Abyss reacts to what a person expects of it Raistlin has foreknowledge that the reason that Fistandantilus failed was that a dimensional travel device activated while the spell was in progress and caused interference. Events conspire for this to happen to Raistlin as well, so why should he succeed to cross the portal where Fistandantilus failed? Because he was already in the Abyss, and the Abyss responds to how strongly a person believes something to be true. Raistlin wanted to succeed, so he did, and notably he and Crysania enter the Abyss at their present day rather than the time of the Dwarfgate War that they started from. Unfortunately this also backfires because Raistlin strongly believes that he will be powerless in the Abyss, and that Crysania will burn herself out fighting for him with her Cleric powers. So that is exactly what happens. He is his own worst enemy.

The contrivance of the bad end "future" The place that Caramon and Tasslehoff see when they accidentally travel to the future is contrived in the way that their path leads them to the information that they need to understand what needs to be done. Caramon paradoxically finds his own skeleton. They eavesdrop on god Raistlin doing a big evil speech to the last two living beings in the world. Altogether suggesting that in-universe this too is a "play" put on for their benefit. They've tapped into the property of the Abyss that shows potential futures, and once again they've yet to truely leave the Abyss because when and where they can leave is at Takhisis convenience.

Raistlin is the one most actively taking sanity damage from staring into the Abyss because he took the role of Fistandantilus and thus directly assumed the identity of another person with whom he already had an unpleasant set of experiences. The other two were selected by Raistlin to replace other fully realized people from the City of Istar: Crysania in the role of cleric Denubis, and Caramon in the role of the gladiator and former seaman Pheragas. Crysania has optimism that her presence makes the difference, Caramon is somewhat oblivious to having fit into the life of another person, and only Raistlin is really aware of the horror of the situation, but equally unable to escape.

Mods are used for unique faces and hair styles. Tasslehoff is the only one I'm dissatisfied with. Then again, Elmore always made him look like an old man so...

Bonus are a few of my characters I've played. First is my wild magic sorcerer OC Yurielle from my Dragonlance fanfic The Star and The Hourglass because I love her and thinks she's neat. Next is Venilia, my tiefling monk of the four elements I ran on honor mode. Then Ariallah, my drow draconic sorcerer/spore druid redeemed dark urge. Then is Morouk, my fallen Aasimar barbarian evil dark urge (sadly, I had to delete the mods for him because certain patches completely broke these saves, but he was fun!) Lastly is my newest character Usha, half-orc spore druid evil dark urge. This save is replacing my fallen aasimar. She will build her castle with bones...