Type of site | Fan website |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Owner | Trampas Whiteman (formerly owned by Matt Haag) |
Created by | Numerous fan contributors, with some parts written by published Dragonlance authors. |
URL | dragonlancenexus |
Commercial | No |
Registration | No |
Launched | January 2001 |
Current status | Online |
The Dragonlance Nexus is a Dragonlance fansite that was created in 1996 as "Dragon Realm". The site was overhauled and a new name was given to it as the "Dragonlance Nexus". Beginning on November 28, 2005, the site began publishing articles written by established authors starting with an article on Jaymes Markham by the author Douglas Niles. [1] [2] Other authors have contributed to the Lexicon, such as Nancy Varian Berberick, [3] [4] [5] Mary H. Herbert, [6] [7] Kevin T. Stein, [8] [9] and more recently Jean Rabe. [10] Some of the articles found in the site have been published in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting by Sovereign Press.
The Dragonlance Nexus traces its origins past 1996, but its current form was launched in January 2001.
The origin of the Nexus begins with a small site called "the Dragon's Realm." The site was started in the summer of 1996 as an experiment by long-time staff member Matt Haag aka Paladin to learn HTML and to talk about some of the AD&D Gold Box videogames he was playing at the time.
In late 1996, the Dragon's Realm joined the Forgotten Realms Webring. Paladin started one of the first Dragonlance Webrings to highlight his favorite campaign world. Unfortunately, the Dragon's Realm didn't really fit the Dragonlance mold, so a new site called "The Lost Citadel" was created. Both sites existed in the same 1 MB directory on Geocities. (To put that in perspective, the current version of the Nexus is over 90 times larger.) The Lost Citadel was invited to join an exclusive Dragonlance Webring called the 'Top 5% of Kender Sites,' run by the Sean MacDonald (aka Kipper Snifferdoo), keeper of the Kencyclopedia website.
The Lost Citadel continued to expand to cover other areas of Dragonlance material, beyond its traditional magic focus. Eventually, the site was spun off into a new site called "The World of Krynn," which went online in November 1997. The following month, the products and Fifth Age sections were added by Paladin, and the site moved off of GeoCities to a dedicated web host. Late the following year, the site's back end was upgraded to support the then-popular Netscape Communicator 4.0 to simplify some of the site's maintenance.
The World of Krynn was continually expanded and updated, and outgrew several web hosts between December 1997 and August 1999. In addition, the first of several incarnations of the message boards were put online; around this time, other volunteer staff were added to help out with the message boards and some of the site's content.
However, the major change happened in 1999, when Paladin acquired the Dragonlance.com domain name from the previous owner in August 1999. At this point, The World of Krynn disappeared and became simply "Dragonlance.com." With the move to Dragonlance.com, the site's mission changed as well: instead of publishing a repository of background information, the main focus of the site became more fan-centric, posting artwork, fiction, poetry and music created by the fans, while keeping all of the reference material and product information.
In January 2000, the sheer amount of content prompted Paladin to move much of it into a database, which allowed volunteer staff the ability to directly update and add new content. In June of that year, the site was redesigned once again to make the information easier to understand, and new staff members were brought in to help with the growing amount of content.
With that, the pre-history of the Nexus ends and its story begins.
The origins of the Nexus date back to January 2001, when a flurry of events were happening at once. Jim Butler, who was an employee of Wizards of the Coast at the time, announced that Wizards of the Coast would no longer publish Dragonlance gaming materials in December 2000. With the backing of famed Dragonlance author Tracy Hickman, a group of fans on the Dragonlance-L mailing list volunteered to create a new Dragonlance site that would take over where Wizards left off, updating Dragonlance to the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules. This group came to be known as the Whitestone Council.
Under the guidance of Tracy Hickman, and with feedback from fans from across the world, the Whitestone Council created the Dragonlance Nexus, which was launched in mid January 2001. As previously noted, the key focus of the Dragonlance Nexus was to create a set of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition rules for Dragonlance, which would be the foundation upon which the future of Dragonlance gaming. This online product was called Dragonlance Adventures 3rd Edition, or DLA3e for short.
Work continued on the project, and the Nexus expanded to include recipes, artwork, news, and many other features over the course of the next year. However, in March 2002, the Dragonlance gaming line was licensed to Sovereign Press. Beginning in April, the Whitestone Council soon found itself working with Sovereign Press on a new sourcebook, the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (or DLCS for short). Materials from DLA3e were incorporated into the DLCS, and the Whitestone Council continues to serve as an advisory board for future projects Sovereign Press projects to this day.
Later that summer, the Nexus partnered with Dragonlance.com to expand the reach of its content. Many of the Nexus's fan gaming rules were hosted on Dragonlance.com; in return, the extensive reference material from Dragonlance.com was added to the Nexus in a sharing agreement set up between the two sites.
This arrangement continued until June 2003, when the two sites were formally merged into the current Nexus site, and the Dragonlance.com domain name was transferred to Sovereign Press to promote the d20 Dragonlance gaming line.
Today, the Dragonlance Nexus, along with the Whitestone Council, serve as an advisory board to Sovereign Press, and review each product that Sovereign Press releases to check for continuity errors. The site also has well over 15,000 articles of fan artwork, gaming rules, articles, music, recipes, and many other items related to the Dragonlance setting.
To further expand to meet the needs of the fans, the Dragonlance Lexicon was launched on September 16, 2005 with high anticipation. Not only was the Lexicon built for the fans, but also it was to assist authors in being able to find information on what they were going to write about. Following the launch of the Lexicon the very first author submission was by Douglas Niles on his character Jaymes Markham, with other authors such as Nancy Varian Berberick, Mary H. Herbert, and Kevin Stein all submitting articles.
Following the launch of the Lexicon came the launch of the new Palanthas Herald on October 20, 2005. This was created to allow fans to create adventure ideas in the settings of the city of Palanthas. This would also assist Game Masters in quickly getting ideas on how to run a campaign.
On April 24, 2006, Trampas and Matt made the decision to change the address of the site from www.dl3e.com (Dragonlance 3rd Edition) to www.dlnexus.com. This was a move because the new address would better reflect the broader mission of the Nexus than just dealing in 3rd edition D&D. With the inclusion of the Herald and the Lexicon, and the possible change to 4th edition D&D, the site needed to better reflect what it did. The old site address will still be retained though.
On March 7, 2007, launch of the Dragonlance Canticle podcast site and Episode 0, a first of its kind for Dragonlance fans. Six days later, Episode 1 was launched and even had the guest voices of Tracy and Laura Hickman. The plan use of the podcast is to allow for round table discussions, author interviews, book discussion, trivia, and just general information on the Dragonlance world, and was hosted by Trampas Whiteman. In 2010, Tristan Zimmerman became the host.
The site won the gold ENnie for best fan site on August 16, 2007 at Gen Con. [11]
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job interview. At TSR Tracy Hickman met Margaret Weis, his future writing partner, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.
Kender are a type of fantasy race first developed for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role playing game published by TSR, Inc. in 1984. The first kender character was created by Harold Johnson as a player character in a series of role-playing adventures co-authored by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance shared world novels introduced the kender to readers and players alike, largely through the character Tasslehoff Burrfoot, who became one of the main protagonists in the series.
Raistlin Majere is a fictional character from the Dragonlance series of books created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Raistlin played an extensive role in the two main series of books, particularly in Dragonlance Legends in which he was both primary protagonist and antagonist. He is twin brother to Caramon Majere, half-brother to his protective sister Kitiara uth Matar, and a significant member of the Heroes of the Lance. In the animated movie adaptation, Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Raistlin was voiced by Kiefer Sutherland.
Sturm Brightblade is a fictional character from the Dragonlance series of role playing games and novels, based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons franchise. The character was created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and is published by Wizards of the Coast.
Lord Soth, the Knight of the Black Rose, is a fictional character in the fantasy realms of Dragonlance and later Ravenloft. He is a death knight and fallen Knight of Solamnia from the world of Krynn.
Caramon Majere is a fictional character from the Dragonlance books. He is depicted as a fighter and is one of the main characters in Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's first Dragonlance trilogy, the Dragonlance Chronicles. Caramon and his brother Raistlin Majere's relationship was explored in the NY Times Best Seller Twins Trilogy.
Goldmoon is a fictional character from the Dragonlance fantasy series of novels and role playing games, originally published by TSR, Inc. and later by Wizards of the Coast.
Takhisis is a fictional character from the Dragonlance universe. She is depicted as the main goddess of evil in the setting and head of the Dark Pantheon.
Riverwind is a fictional character appearing in the Dragonlance series of Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game supplements and novels, created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and published by TSR.
Kitiara Uth Matar is a fictional character appearing in the Dragonlance campaign setting created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. She is the daughter of a disgraced Solamnic Knight named Gregor Uth Matar and his first wife, Rosamun. She is also the half-sister of both Raistlin and Caramon Majere.
The War of Souls is a trilogy of New York Times best selling novels published between 2000 and 2002. The trilogy focuses on the titular fictional war set in the popular Dragonlance fictional universe. Like many Dragonlance novels, the War of Souls trilogy can be read as stand alone novels or in series order. The three books in the series are Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star, and Dragons of a Vanished Moon, all of which were co-authored by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Dragons of Fallen Sun debuted on the New York Times best seller list at 14, Dragons of Lost Star at 12, and Dragons of Vanished Moon at 10.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a 1984 fantasy novel by American writers Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, based on a series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game modules. It was the first Dragonlance novel, and first in the Chronicles trilogy, which, along with the Dragonlance Legends trilogy, are generally regarded as the core novels of the Dragonlance world. The Chronicles trilogy came about because the designers wanted novels to tell the story of the game world they were creating, something to which TSR, Inc. (TSR) agreed only reluctantly. Dragons of Autumn Twilight details the meeting of the Companions and the early days of The War of the Lance. The novel corresponds with the first two Dragonlance game modules, Dragons of Despair and Dragons of Flame, but with a different ending. It introduces many of the characters that are the subject of later novels and short stories.
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight is a 2008 American animated film, the first to be based on the Dragonlance campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. It is based on the first novel written for the campaign setting, Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984), co-written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, both of whom gave assistance for the film's screenplay adaptation by George Strayton. The film was directed by Will Meugniot and distributed by Paramount Pictures, directly to video.
The DL series is a series of adventures and some supplementary material for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. These modules along with the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels, which follow one possible adventure series through the modules, were the first published items that established the Dragonlance fictional universe. The original DL series was released from 1984 to 1986, with the final two modules added to it in 1988. In the 1990s these roleplaying adventures from the original series were collected and revised for 2nd Edition AD&D as the three DLC Dragonlance Classics modules. There were also versions of the module series released in 1999, 2000 and 2006.
Dragons of Despair is the first in a series of 16 Dragonlance adventures published by TSR, Inc. (TSR) between 1984 and 1988. It is the start of the first major story arc in the Dragonlance series of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game modules, a series of ready-to-play adventures for use by Dungeon Masters in the game. This series provides a game version of the original Dragonlance storyline later told in the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels. This module corresponds to the events told in the first half of the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Its module code is DL1, which is used to designate it as the first part of the Dragonlance adventure series.
Trampas Whiteman was born July 8, 1972, and grew up in the rural town of Odessa, Missouri. After graduating high school, he attended Central Missouri State University where he gained a Bachelor of Science in broadcasting and film.
Kender, Gully Dwarves, and Gnomes is an anthology of fantasy stories published by TSR, Inc. in 1987. It was published under the Dragonlance brand name and is set in that brand's fictional world of Krynn. It is the eighth Dragonlance novel to be published, and the second book in the "Dragonlance Tales" series, all three books of which are anthologies of stories set in the Dragonlance milieu. The other two books in this series are The Magic of Krynn and Love and War. Unlike the Dragonlance novels published up until that point, the Tales books do not exclusively follow one group of characters, but instead range across the entire scope of the setting.
Dragons of Fallen Sun is a fantasy novel by American writers Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It is the first novel published in The War of Souls trilogy and part of the large Dragonlance series.