The Death Gate Cycle
Encyclopedia
Heptalogy
Heptalogy is a rarely used term for a series of seven creative works that are connected by a common storyline. One recent famous example is the Harry Potter series of books. The term is sometimes found in the nonce form septology, or in the form septet....
) of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
novels written by Margaret Weis
Margaret Weis
Margaret Edith Weis is a fantasy novelist who, along with Tracy Hickman, is one of the original creators of the Dragonlance game world and has written numerous novels and short stories set in fantastic worlds.-Early life:Margaret Weis was born in 1948 in Independence, Missouri, and later attended...
and Tracy Hickman
Tracy Hickman
Tracy Raye Hickman is a best-selling fantasy author, best known for his work on Dragonlance as a game designer and co-author with Margaret Weis, while he worked for TSR...
. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear/anti-matter holocaust
Nuclear holocaust
Nuclear holocaust refers to the possibility of the near complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars....
. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryn in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries later, a Patryn known as Xar escaped the Labyrinth, and started returning to the Labyrinth to rescue others. He learned how to access the other worlds and dreamed of freeing all his people from the Labyrinth and conquering the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the elemental worlds and throw them into chaos in preparation for his Lord's conquest of them. Weis and Hickman created five distinct fantasy worlds during the course of the series, along with developing the cultures of five major races, their unique Patryn and Sartan, and the common fantasy races of dwarves, elves, and humans.
Novels
- Dragon WingDragon WingDragon Wing is the first novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in their Death Gate Cycle series.Following the Rose of the Prophet trilogy, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman embarked on an ambitious seven-volume series that began with Dragon Wing. As described by the publisher, "Preeminent...
(February 1990) - Elven StarElven StarElven Star is the 2nd book in The Death Gate Cycle series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was released in 1990. The book covers the reconnaissance of Pryan, by Haplo at the behest of the Lord of the Nexus...
(November 1990) - Fire SeaFire SeaFire Sea is the 3rd book in The Death Gate Cycle series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was released in 1991.-Plot:Abarrach, the World of Stone is just that: lava, stone, poisonous fumes, and precious little food that can be grown...
(August 1991) - Serpent MageSerpent MageSerpent Mage is the 4th book in The Death Gate Cycle series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was released in 1992.-Plot:The novel picks up just where Fire Sea left off. Alfred jumps into Death's Gate as Haplo's ship passes through it, and finds himself in a stasis room like the one...
(April 1992) - The Hand of ChaosThe Hand of ChaosThe Hand of Chaos is the 5th book in The Death Gate Cycle series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was released in 1993.-Plot:Haplo takes a submersible back to Draknor to retrieve his ship. He finds Samah there— wet, haggard, and lost. The leader of the Council has opened Death's...
(April 1993) - Into the Labyrinth (December 1993)
- The Seventh GateThe Seventh GateThe Seventh Gate is the final novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in their seven-book Death Gate Cycle series.-Plot:In the Labyrinth, Marit and Hugh venture out to try and find Alfred. He turns out to be the prisoner of a Labyrinth dragon, which are almost the equal of the dragon-snakes in...
(September 1994)
Behind the series
- "Margaret and I have always tried to take fantasy literature in new directions. Krynn is a world wholly distinct from Earth, unlike Tolkien's Middle-earthMiddle-earthMiddle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....
. Time travel itself was a science-fiction notion we applied to fantasy. We have even written fantasies taking place in the far future (The Death Gate Cycle)!"- — Tracy Hickman, The Annotated Dragonlance Legends pg. 458
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman had finished their Dragonlance
Dragonlance
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 popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
and Darksword
Dark Sword
The Darksword series of books, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman , which tells the story of a young man, born without magic in a world where everyone is born with it, who has been prophesied to destroy the world in which he lives...
series prior to The Death Gate Cycle, which may be considered their most ambitious work yet, as they created multiple fully realized and distinct worlds. The series also displayed Weis and Hickman's continued command of the fantasy genre.
As in their previous works, the authors continued to explore the theme of balance
Balance (metaphysics)
In the metaphysical or conceptual sense, balance is used to mean a point between two opposite forces that is desirable over purely one state or the other, such as a balance between the metaphysical Law and Chaos — law by itself being overly controlling, chaos being overly unmanageable,...
, and how the universe naturally works to correct imbalances.
Unlike in Dragonlance, where the universe's balance was a greater force than even the gods
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
, the existence of a god or gods in The Death Gate Cycle is unknown; a universal balance is the closest thing to divinity. Along a similar line, the authors continued to explore the theme of men becoming gods—in this case with the entire Patryn and Sartan races clamoring for that throne. Finally, as in both Dragonlance and the Darksword series, they explored the effects of sweeping changes to the fundamental nature of a world (in this case worlds) on both the day-to-day life and the fate of nations.
Similar to the central concept of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, which J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
claimed was a translation of a real tome in his keeping (the Red Book of Westmarch
Red Book of Westmarch
The Red Book of Westmarch is a fictional manuscript written by hobbits, a conceit of author J. R. R...
), The Death Gate Cycle claims to be documentation of the events revolving around Death's Gate, authored after the fact by its primary characters. Even more than that, it is a scholarly document, with footnotes containing definitions of terms, references to past adventures and authorial asides. Each novel contains appendices giving further detail on various aspects of the story and its world, often summarizing (or occasionally laying the groundwork for) information related in the narrative proper. Finally, most of the novels also contain a musical score at the end, documenting a song (or sometimes a Sartan music-based rune-construct) featured in that particular volume.
Worlds in the series
- The Earth was destroyed.
- Four worlds were created out of the ruin. Worlds for ourselves and the mensch: Air, Fire, Stone, Water.
- Four Gates connect each world to the other: Arianus to Pryan to Abarrach to Chelestra.
- A house of correction was built for our enemies: the Labyrinth.
- The Labyrinth is connected to the other worlds through the Fifth Gate: the Nexus.
- The Sixth Gate is the center, permitting entry: the Vortex.
- And all was accomplished through the Seventh Gate.
- The end was the beginning.
- — Weis & Hickman, Into The Labyrinth pg. 9
Earth
Prior to the main timeline of the series, life on EarthEarth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
was nearly wiped out. Human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s unleashed a nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
that killed millions, leaving the survivors struggling in the Age of Dust. Elves and dwarves, who had gone into hiding during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, also suffered from what the humans had wrought with their science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
. In this chaos, a mutant strain of humans emerged who were once again able to feel the Wave—that which maintains balance and order in the universe. Recognizing its potential for magic, they developed runes to harness it. Originally, there was only one group, the Sartan. The Sartan used magic by drawing runes on the ground and in the air, augmented by singing and spoken word; they believed that their power gave them responsibility and stewardship over the lesser races, whom they called mensch
Mensch
Mensch means "a person of integrity and honor". The opposite of a "mensch" is an "unmensch" . According to Leo Rosten, the Yiddish maven and author of The Joys of Yiddish, "mensch" is "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character...
. The Sartan believed in community, unity, and family, the basis of Order. However, in their self-conceitedness, they forgot about the Wave's tendency to balance everything. As the Sartan became too powerful, the Wave shifted and the Patryns came to be. Unlike the Sartan, the Patryns were loners, volatile and destructive; they believed that their powers gave them the right to do as they would. Patryns tattooed the runes on themselves and chose their name to mock the Sartan (see Languages below). These two races came into conflict over control and influence of the mensch. Both came to think of themselves as gods, though the Sartan believed themselves to be the "good guys".
Eventually the Sartan, led by Samah and his Council of Seven, and driven by their own fear, undertook drastic measures. They broke the planet Earth into four separate worlds, each one focusing on a separate element (air, earth, fire, and water). This cataclysmic moment of destruction and re-creation is known as the Sundering. Millions of mensch died, with only chosen populations magically isolated for resettlement. The Patryns were captured and imprisoned in the Labyrinth which the Sartan created for their "rehabilitation". The Vortex (or the Sixth Gate) was the entry point to the Labyrinth, where the mensch were temporarily housed during the Sundering itself and where the captured Patryn were eventually placed. The books later reveal that certain members of the Sartan population had objected to The Sundering; these too were consigned to the Vortex and the Labyrinth. In the center of the Labyrinth was the Nexus, a paradise
Paradise
Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...
city for the Patryns to live in once they had become "civilized." The Nexus, the Labyrinth, and the Vortex are arranged in concentric circles. All of these worlds are connected by Death's Gate, and smaller, one-way gates called Rifts which allow each elemental world to transmit materials to one another.
The Sartan were left in stewardship of not just one world, but many, all designed to work in perfect harmony. The Plan of the Council of Seven was the grand construction of interconnected worlds, each with a specific function that fed into the whole. Almost immediately, however, things began to go wrong.
Chelestra, the world of water
Chelestra was to be the primary world where the mensch and Sartan would live. A great orb of liquid, the world was populated by great drifting beasts used as habitats for the mensch, with its own "Seasun" at the center. An appendix for Serpent MageSerpent Mage
Serpent Mage is the 4th book in The Death Gate Cycle series written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was released in 1992.-Plot:The novel picks up just where Fire Sea left off. Alfred jumps into Death's Gate as Haplo's ship passes through it, and finds himself in a stasis room like the one...
describes this liquid as not actually water, but a fluid which can be breathed through lungs and gills. Chelestra was also intended as a tremendous waste management and recycling plant, with the great floating habitat-beasts called "durnai" serving as biological recycling stations for the detritus
Detritus
Detritus is a biological term used to describe dead or waste organic material.Detritus may also refer to:* Detritus , a geological term used to describe the particles of rock produced by weathering...
from the other worlds. However, strange serpents, creatures of great power and corruption - that the Sartan had not created - began to appear. The Sartan could not account for their existence, but their danger was undeniable. Even worse, the emulsion fluid of Chelestra had a neutralizing effect on Sartan rune magic, rendering it and them utterly powerless. Surrounded by water that took away their power, no longer in control of the mensch, and faced with the serpents, the Sartan of Chelestra retreated into their capital. Samah, fearing what would happen if the serpents spread to the other worlds, shut Death's Gate, cutting communication between the worlds. The Sartan then placed themselves into a stasis sleep, expecting it to only last long enough for the other worlds to finish their parts of the grand plan and come help. This contributed to the disappearance of the Sartan from the mensch worlds, setting up the main series' events.
Arianus, the world of air
On Arianus, intended as an industrial and manufacturing world of floating continents, the Sartan had other problems. Cut off from communication with the other worlds (Chelestra specifically and the Council), the Sartan were slowly dying of some unknown cause, quickly becoming vastly outnumbered by the mensch. These Sartan also settled into hibernation, hoping for help from the other worlds. The Kicksey-winsey, a grand machine intended to align the floating continents and provide them with water (water being a direct byproduct of its production cycle), as well as manufacture all the processed goods desired by the other worlds, never became properly active. The dwarves, also known as Gegs, not truly understanding its purpose, effectively became slaves to the machine, worshipping it after a fashion as an artifact of their gods (the Sartan) who had placed them there as its caretakers. The elves became tyrannical lords of much of the world through manipulation of the dwarves to obtain a monopoly on water, and waged war with the humans constantly.Pryan, the world of fire
Pryan was created as a great inverted globeDyson sphere
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
with four small suns at its center. It was to be the power plant and center for all four worlds, but it too fell into chaos. Great Citadels collected the energy from Pryan's four suns and beamed it through conduits to the other three worlds (the Colossi on Abarrach, the Kicksey-winsey on Arianus and the seasun on Chelestra). Covered entirely by miles-thick jungle (only the dwarves had ever seen the legendary 'ground') the Citadels were to be the bastions of civilization, where the Mensch would live a life of plenty and comfort. However, as with the other worlds, the Sartan mysteriously began to die. In fear, some citadels banished the mensch to the jungle. The Tytans, great blind giants of immense power created by the Sartan to manage the power systems of the citadels, were also banished because of fear they could no longer be controlled by the remaining Sartan. The Tytans went on to be an unstoppable terror as they searched for the citadels, trying to get home.
Abarrach, the world of stone
Finally, and most desperately, Abarrach was a huge volcanic asteroid-like world. The Sartan and mensch lived inside its honeycombed tunnels—designed to provide minerals and metals to the Kicksey-winsey—but they turned out to be loaded with poisonous volcanic fumes. The mensch were wiped out swiftly—the dwarves hung on the longest—and the poisons taxed the magic of the remaining Sartan to create breathable air. Huge columns called Colossi had been created by the Sartan to purify the air and keep the world warm in the long run, but they began to fail almost immediately (because they did not receive the necessary energy from Pryan).With all the mensch dead and Sartan magic stretched to the limit, the Sartan of Abarrach turned to the forbidden arts of necromancy
Necromancy
Necromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...
, using the corpses of the dead to supplement a lost workforce. While at the start it seemed a logical (if desperate) move that would help, it proved to be the most critical and tragic mistake of the whole Sartan race, as the dead eventually escaped from Sartan control. But there was an even worse result the use of necromancy had, one far more disastrous for the Sartan: For every life brought back, every soul prevented from passing on, another life ends untimely. For each dead body resurrected, another member of the species, somewhere, dies. The continuous restoration of dead Sartan on Abarrach resulted in the mass deaths among the Sartan populations of other worlds. Only on Chelestra, apparently due to either the Barrier protecting the Sartan city, or the properties of the water itself, did the Sartan survive relatively unscathed.
The Labyrinth
In the Labyrinth, the Sartan who should have been monitoring the prison realm either died or left. And without its caretakers, the Labyrinth slowly evolved from a temporary correctional facility into a sadistic and sentient prison. Instead of forcing a hard existence upon the Patryns and teaching them to care for others through relying on one another, it created a lethal, murderous hell where survival was the cruel torture of having hope dangled in your face, only to have it ripped away. Setting out on journeys that lasted generations, they traveled and fought in nomadic bands or simply alone. The Patryns became even more warlike as they fought against incredible odds to push farther and farther towards escape. Though some Patryns did eventually escape, they did so only by climbing on the corpses of those who had come before.Plans of conquest
In the end the plan was a total collapse. All of the Sartan on Pryan and Arianus mysteriously died, save one. With no one left to go to their aid, the Sartan on Chelestra (unknowingly protected by their shield, and possibly the nullifying water) never awoke. Abarrach was a pale, dying shadow. In the meantime, the mensch lost all knowledge of their past; the lost Sartan of Arianus and Pryan became mythical god figures to the dwarves, elves and humans of those worlds. This left the imprisoned Patryns as the only ones who still remembered some of their heritage.After uncounted generations of struggle, Lord Xar became the first Patryn to escape from the Labyrinth. (He was not the first to escape, however. The books later reveal that Zifnab, a Sartan who had been cast into the Labyrinth for challenging the Sundering, apparently reached the Nexus well before him.) There, Lord Xar discovered a wealth of books (written by Zifnab in the Sartan language) that detailed events preceding and following the Sundering. From these, he devised a way to partially open Death's Gate and send through an emissary. Haplo, Lord Xar's favored servant, becomes this emissary; his two missions are to learn what has happened to the Sartan, and to subtly generate chaos among the mensch so that Lord Xar can come and "save" them. It is Xar's intention to rule all the four worlds, and Haplo is his willing servant.
Races in the series
- "Some years ago, I was working on a fantasy series called Death Gate with Margaret Weis. We needed two competing systems of magic that made sense. I remembered a saying of my old friend, Jeff GrubbJeff GrubbJeff Grubb is an author and game designer. He has worked on a number of computer and role-playing games and has written a number of successful novels, short stories and comics...
. He defined quantum physicsQuantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
as "figures, figures, figures, figures, figures ... and then God does something ... figures, figures, figures, figures, figures." So, in order to create a believable pair of magic systems, I researched what amounted to Newtonian versus Quantum mechanics and, later, competing visions of quantum theoryIntroduction to quantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics is the body of scientific principles that explains the behavior of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atoms and atomic particles....
. I read popular science books regarding Relativity, quantum mechanics, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, parallel universeMultiverseThe multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
s and chaos theoryChaos theoryChaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
. The results were a wonderful and sensible pair of magic systems that made sense because they were modeled on quantum and chaos theories."- — Tracy Hickman, Hickman Newsletter #115
Drawing on these inspirations, Weis and Hickman set up the Patryns and Sartan as opposing pairs in many respects including the magical, and they portrayed the "mensch" races as having lesser (or no) magical abilities. The highest level of magic takes the form of this Patryn and Sartan "rune magic," which alters reality based on possibility and whose operation is influenced by the aforementioned theories. The elves and humans use "physical" and "spiritual" magic of less potency, that operates directly on the world around it.
Patryns
Patryns are represented as having the same height and build as humans, but the current generations of the series are all in excellent physical shape due to the hardships of the Labyrinth. They are born with brown hair that turns white from the tips up. They are all possessed of excellent magical ability to varying degrees, also a necessity for their survival. All Patryns are capable of using rune magic, which manipulates the Wave of possibilities, allowing Patryns to view a myriad of possible outcomes and select one to occur. The more unlikely the possibility, however, the more difficult to conjure. Patryn use of runes is portrayed as less elegant than Sartan, as it relies more on physical representations such as their tattoos, the use of voice, and drawing the runes in air or on a surface. Patryn runes complement Sartan runes, and can sometimes be used to accomplish the same tasks. Patryns also tend to be loners, but are intensely passionate due to the hardships of the Labyrinth. They will aid one another without question, but generally put their own survival above that of others. Patryns who form groups tend to follow a single ruler, such as the Headman of tribes in the Labyrinth and Xar of the liberated Patryns.Sartan
Sartan are also of the same height and build as humans, but unlike the Patryns, they have not been hardened by generations of violent life. Also unlike the Patryns they are born with white hair that turns brown from the tips up. All Sartan are capable of using rune magic. The Sartan use of runes is portrayed as more elegant than the Patryn, involving singing and dancing in prescribed tones and movements to affect the Wave. In some instances, Sartan inscribe runes, mainly to permanently enchant an object or location, such as when creating barred gateways or magical weapons that can then be used by mensch. Sartan runes complement Patryn runes, and can be used to accomplish the same tasks. Sartan tend to act as a community, making decisions as a group rather than as individuals, and they generally have a ruling Council. The Sartan on Abarrach, however, were more fractured due to their hardships. They are presented in contrast to other Sartan as having less magical talent, using much of their strength to survive.Humans
The humans of the series are standard Homo sapiens and are not presented as distinct parallels to existing modern-day nationalities. "Dark-skinned" humans populate Chelestra, while both dark-skinned and fair-skinned humans populate Arianus and Pryan. Humans are of standard height and physical prowess, and a small subset possess magical capability. Human magic is considered part of the Spiritual Masteries, tending towards "the emotional and mental manipulation of the world about the magician." A human of sufficient magical talent can perform a variety of feats, including the manipulation of the elements, creating illusions, healing, compelling other life-forms, transforming shape and size, translocation and overcoming physical limitations such as gravity. While some magicians can mentally construct their magic rather than speaking it, most need to use physical gestures and in some instances physical objects or incantations to perform their magic. The spiritual nature of human magic also ties in with the theme of balance present throughout the series. Humans, especially when compared to elves, are "lacking" in their connection to the natural world and spirituality and their magical skills serve to balance this deficit.Elves
Elves are generally taller and more slender than humans and have a greatly extended lifespan. Their longer lives tend to breed a lack of urgency in their outlook, sometimes problematic in dealings with the comparatively impatient humans. Elven magic is considered part of the Physical Masteries, which "tend to use and make use of physical objects in the world about the wizard." For instance, this allows for the creation of "smart" self-targeting arrows, flying dragonships, magical submarines, protective charms against human magics, fabric as hard as steel and other mechanical devices with enhanced capabilities. As with human magic, elven magic is used to balance the elven deficiencies in mechanical, physical, and technical fields. They can also weave magical messages into songs. Elves must both speak and gesture to cast their magic, and the magic contained in songs can be triggered by anyone capable of singing it since the magic is not dependent on a wizard, thus making it possible for humans to trigger elven magic in this form. In Dragon WingDragon Wing
Dragon Wing is the first novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman in their Death Gate Cycle series.Following the Rose of the Prophet trilogy, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman embarked on an ambitious seven-volume series that began with Dragon Wing. As described by the publisher, "Preeminent...
, this explains how humans have been able to use songs to trigger a nostalgia so intense that the elves of Arianus have formed an open rebellion against their ruler.
In contrast, the Kenkari, an isolated group of powerful elven magi on Arianus, also employ a very specialised form of magic based on the spirit which allows them to communicate with the souls of others, living or dead and on one occasion have been shown to change their forms into their order's symbol; the butterfly, which is a glaring exception to the mechanical focus. However, this can possibly be explained by their use of song in these communications, as well as their use of a special box to transport souls and a cathedral designed to contain the captured souls.
Dwarves
Dwarves are short and stocky compared to the other races, such that humans and elves would have to go down on one knee to converse with a dwarf eye-to-eye. In fact, doing so is considered a mark of respect towards a dwarf. As is typical in portrayals of dwarves, they prefer to live in dark, underground areas, and they also possess an innate sense of direction superior to that of humans or elves. Dwarves have no magical abilities of their own, although certain dwarves of Pryan make very rudimentary use of Sartan magic through triggering its representations in songs and runes carved onto amulets.Zifnab and related characters
The character Zifnab is similar to the character Fizban from Weis and Hickman's DragonlanceDragonlance
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 popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
novels. Zifnab makes a few references to Fizban during the series (such as the importance of a Wizard's Hat) and he is described with a similar appearance. He makes references to the Pern
Pern
Pern is a fictional planet created by Anne McCaffrey for the Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy and science fiction books. It is said to be "Rukbat 3", the third planet in orbit around the star Rukbat, counting outward....
series of books, The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, Dragonlance
Dragonlance
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 popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
, Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
, Arthurian legend, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
, and soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
; within the context of the books, these are historic references to the former Earth. The character type appears again in a similar capacity in the Starshield
Starshield
- Background :Begun as a series of galactic fantasy novels written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, the Starshield project was envisioned to spin off a tabletop roleplaying game and an online strategy game...
novels, where the parallel character is known as Zanfib.
Are Zifnab and Fizban the same person?
The simplest (and legal) answer, in Hickman's own words, is always:
"The answer is that Fizban is a crazed wizard owned by TSR under copyright, while Zifnab is a completely different crazed wizard owned by Margaret and I. Incidentally, neither Fizban nor Zifnab have any relationship whatsoever to Zanfib—a crazed wizard from our Starshield series. I hope I have cleared this up once and for all."
As to the actual nature of Zifnab within the world of the Death Gate Cycle, Hickman wrote: "Zifnab was actually a Sartan wizard who opposed the council's decision to sunder the world. Zifnab is not a god ... indeed, he is actually a chosen and blessed subject of the dragon-avatars of the Death Gate series."
So why does Zifnab seem, at times, to act just like Fizban? How can he remember Tanis and Raistlin, and why does he nearly call himself Fizban? Hickman: "I like to think that Zifnab is very well read." And so, as far as we know, that is all there is to it: the crazy old wizard was a fan of Dragonlance, as well as, apparently, Tolkien and James Bond. The rest is purely speculation.
Hickman has said that the Zifnab/Fizban/Zanfib character is like him in that they are similarly misunderstood and possessed of great depth, and so the character type continues appearing in his works with Weis. On multiple occasions, Hickman has jokingly suggested that the three characters are distinctly different because they are separately owned and appear in separate series.
"Zifnab," "Fizban," and "Zanfib" are anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
s.
Language usage
The name "Haplo" is said to mean "single" in the Patryn language, and "haplo-" is a GreekGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
root word with the same meaning. Haplo and Marit's daughter is named "Rue", which in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is a verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
meaning "to regret".
The term "mensch" is used by both Sartan and Patryns to refer to humans, elves, and dwarves, both collectively (all three races) and individually (one particular mensch person). Mensch
Mensch
Mensch means "a person of integrity and honor". The opposite of a "mensch" is an "unmensch" . According to Leo Rosten, the Yiddish maven and author of The Joys of Yiddish, "mensch" is "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character...
is the German word for "human," but it is used in the books as a derogatory term.
The names "Sartan" and "Patryn" are defined in the books as "Those Who Bring Back Light," and "Those Who Return to Darkness" respectively.
A footnote suggests that the Lord of the Nexus took the name "Xar" from the Russian word tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
, which itself is a corruption of Caesar
Caesar (title)
Caesar is a title of imperial character. It derives from the cognomen of Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator...
.
The Patryn city of Abri takes its name from the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
word for "shelter".
Game adaptations
Legend Entertainment released a computerComputer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
called Death Gate
Death Gate
Death Gate is a computer adventure game loosely based on Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's fantasy book series The Death Gate Cycle. Legend Entertainment released it in 1994. It received several gaming awards , but it is no longer available for purchase....
based on the series. The game is based roughly on the first four books, although at the end it also contains an interpretation of the final confrontation from The Seventh Gate.
There is also an unlicensed text adventure based on The Death Gate Cycle called "The Deadly Labyrinth".http://www.ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXsourceXagt.html
Tracy Hickman has indicated that Margaret Weis Productions hopes to someday produce a Death Gate Cycle roleplaying game.