Editing Dragonlance (section)

=== Characters ===
{{Main|List of Dragonlance characters}}
[[File:Dragonlance Characters around a campfire by Larry Elmore.jpg|thumb|The Heroes of the Lance: from left [[Raistlin Majere|Raistlin]], [[Caramon Majere|Caramon]], [[Tanis Half-Elven|Tanis]], [[Tasslehoff Burrfoot|Tasslehoff]], [[Flint Fireforge|Flint]], [[Goldmoon]], [[Riverwind]], [[Sturm Brightblade|Sturm]], [[Tika Waylan|Tika]], and [[Laurana Kanan|Laurana]]. Tracy Hickman keeps this [[Larry Elmore]] painting on the wall in his office.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dragonlance.com/features/articles/10031.aspx|title=Articles: Tracy Hickman Interview: Lost Chronicles Book Tour and Journeys Beyond!|last=Whiteman|first=Trampas|publisher=Dragonlance.com|access-date=February 22, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919114815/http://www.dragonlance.com/features/articles/10031.aspx|archive-date=September 19, 2008}}</ref>]]

The Heroes of the Lance are the protagonists of the ''Chronicles'' trilogy, the first series of ''Dragonlance'' books. They were created by Weis and Hickman, then fleshed out as [[player character]]s in gaming sessions of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' at Hickman's apartment. One player at this initial gaming session was game designer Terry Phillips, who was playing as [[Raistlin]]. According to Hickman in the foreword to ''The Soulforge'', "[we] were just settling in to the game when I turned to my good friend Terry Phillips and asked what his character was doing. Terry spoke...and the world of Krynn was forever changed. His rasping voice, his sarcasm and bitterness all masking an arrogance and power that never needed to be stated suddenly were real. Everyone in the room was both transfixed and terrified. To this day Margaret [Weis] swears that Terry wore the black robes to the party that night".<ref>{{cite book |last=Weis |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Weis |title=The Soulforge |series=The Raistlin Chronicles |orig-date=1998 |year=2003 |publisher=[[Wizards of the Coast]] |location=[[Renton, Washington|Renton, WA, USA]] |isbn=0-7869-1314-2 |page=Forward |no-pp=yes}}</ref>

In a "Traveling Road Show" put on to publicize the novels, the Heroes of the Lance were played by various people. Authors Gary and Janet Pack played the half-elf [[Tanis Half-Elven]] and the [[Kender (fantasy)|kender]] [[Tasslehoff Burrfoot]], respectively. Author [[Douglas Niles]] played the dwarf [[Flint Fireforge]]. TSR employee Harold Johnson played the [[Knights of Solamnia|Solamnic knight]] [[Sturm Brightblade]]. The rest of the Heroes are the barbarians [[Goldmoon]] and [[Riverwind]], elf [[Laurana Kanan]], and humans [[Caramon Majere]] (Raistlin's brother) and [[Tika Waylan]]. Weis played Fizban the Fabulous.<ref name="Archer"/>

In the beginning, Margaret Weis had problems depicting [[Tanis Half-Elven]] in the novels. Tracy Hickman finally told her that "he's [[James T. Kirk]] of the [[Starship Enterprise|Starship ''Enterprise'']]". After that explanation, Margaret had no more difficulty writing about Tanis.<ref name="kirk">{{cite book | first1=Margaret | last1=Weis | author-link=Margaret Weis | first2=Tracy | last2=Hickman | author-link2=Tracy Hickman | title = The Annotated Chronicles | url = http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dlant/887780000 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030625071025/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=products/dlant/887780000 | url-status = dead | archive-date = June 25, 2003 | access-date = July 1, 2006 | edition = 1st | publisher = Wizards of the Coast | isbn = 0-7869-1870-5 | page = 74 | date=November 1999}}</ref> Other noteworthy antagonists, and sometimes protagonists, are the Death Knight [[Lord Soth]] and [[Kitiara Uth Matar]], the half-sister of Raistlin and Caramon, and leader of one of the [[Dragonarmies of Ansalon]]. According to Hickman, Lord Soth is the most unpredictable character to write about: "Every time that character made an appearance in one of our books he would try to run off with the story".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sffworld.com/interview/187p1.html|title=Interview with Tracy Hickman|last=Patrick|date=May 21, 2006|publisher=SFFWorld.com|access-date=February 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070910004539/http://www.sffworld.com/interview/187p1.html|archive-date=September 10, 2007}}</ref>