# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next >  Explain the Dragonlance campaign world from a player perspective

## Spo

DM is starting a new campaign set in Krynn and has handed out background materials about Dragonlance. Havent read the books so trying to get my head around the setting. 

Seems all magic is from the gods. This makes wizard feel more like clerics with different spells. Race selection is limited (no halfling, Dragonborne or tiefling). 

Are these interpretations correct and what other differences are there from the regulardnd world (the one with Waterdeep, Baldergate, Swordcoast) ?

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## JadedDM

That's all correct, yes.

There are other differences, too, but I'm not sure how much of these differences are still true and how many they may have done away with for the 5E version.  But overall:

*The gods are much more hands-on.  They meddle and get involved a lot more often.
*Dragonlance is, overall, a much lower magic setting.  Raising the dead is a huge deal.  The general populace does not understand magic in general, and overall fear it.
*Ansalon (the continent most DL games take place on) is on the southern hemisphere, so the further south you go, the colder it gets and the further north, the hotter it gets.
*The cosmic battle between Good and Evil plays a much larger role than most settings.  Alignment in general is far more important.
*There's a international guild for all arcane magic users called the Wizards of High Sorcery (I think they changed it for 5E to Mages of High Sorcery, though).  Anyone who uses arcane magic is expected to take the Test (a dangerous and possibly lethal exam of both skill and ethics) and join their order upon passing once they gain access to third level spells.  Those who do not are declared Renegades and often are hunted down.

That's just off the top of my head.

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## Tanarii

The core conceits of the dragonlance setting are:
- The Balance.  Good vs Evil in particular.
- The Cataclysm wrecked the land and societies.
- The Gods left the world, and are only just starting to return. 
- Forces of Evil have gathered and are unleashing a war.
- Dragons fight for Good and Evil alongside humans, demi-humans, and humanoids.  But Evil has done something to keep the Good ones out of this war.

Also Solamnic Knights, Wizards of High Sorcery, (mostly) Xenophobic Elves, and of the best thing that ever happened to halflings ... Kender!  And the worst thing that ever happened to Gnomes, Tinker Gnomes.  :Small Yuk:

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## Libertad

The prior posters covered the big parts, but a thing to keep in mind if you're doing the 5th Edition Shadow of the Dragon Queen: quite a bit of material has been retconned in regards to the types of accessible magic, so you can play bards, sorcerers, and warlocks whereas the only real arcane casters for much of Krynn's history have been wizards.

Another thing to go over is that kender have an infamous reputation to the point that many DMs ban them outright. In short, they are childlike curious short people with no concept of personal property and have a habit for subconsciously "borrowing" items that interest them. They don't do this intentionally and don't care at all about an item's value, only how cool or neat it appears. They don't realize they are doing this and they are mentally incapable of understanding why others don't like this.

However, much of their infamy is less due to how the race is written by default and more the fact that jerk players use them as an excuse to steal from party members and others and then selectively apply their inability to conceive of personal property. It should be noted that many problem players who role-play kender steal items based mostly on their monetary value, for example. Role-played appropriately, a kender won't even remember borrowing an object at all, which pretty much means that a kender PC won't really know the contents of their inventory at any given time. This has spawned the popular concept of 1d100 Kender Pouch Object tables that can generate random items that are used as an alternative to "roll Sleight of Hand to borrow the coffee mug."

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## Tanarii

Kender are a fix for ...
1) Jerk players of Thieves that steal stuff of value from the party. Kender Handlers don't care about valuable stuff and don't steal it from the party, they are a way to have thief skills in the party without the jerkiness.
2) Hobbits.  Fat impossibly short stay-at-homes.  That's true to the source material, but not suitable for adventuring.  Slim taller & agile wanderlust Kender are.

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## Tyrant

Unless it was retconned somewhere, there aren't any Orcs, right? I thought that was part of the foundational ideas of the setting that lead to the Draconians.

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## Joe the Rat

If I am remembering the timelines right:

Lands are better thought of as regions - there's not so much proper kingdoms as culture groups.

You are a few centuries post-Cataclysm, and it was a proper cataclysm.  The geography has changed.  Folks are more-or-less comfortable again, but there are definite holdovers (building your village in trees, exceptional xenophobia, limited communication between regions, maps out of date, etc.).  This also means there are lots of ruins that can be explored and tombs to raid.

HIGH fantasy - a war between Good and Evil, Very Meddlesome Gods, magics working on ridiculous scales. A character can gain the ability to forge magic weapons because Destiny Says So. 

LOW magic - all arcanists are either Tower Weirdos, or Renegade.  You can tell a lot about a caster by the clothes they wear.  Healing magic is miraculous, which it really ought to be. But anyone claiming to be a priest of a god is looked at askance by most people as the gods have fled. 

Elves are *******s.  This is a given, but there is some exceptional snootiness here. There are a lot of different kinds: Sun elves, moon elves, sea elves, wild elves. They all hate each other.  This is probably one of the few worlds where elves like humans less than they like dwarves. One of the main characters from the books was half-elven, and that was considered A Big Deal by all parties involved.

Not Your Usual Band of Weirdos.  No Orcs, no kobolds (IIRC), not a lot of dragon-adjacent creatures (at least at the start), which seems odd given the Dragon-forward feel of the place, but makes sense in story.  They are mythic monstrosities.  Goblinoids are the main "Other" group.   Minotaurs are seafaring. ...and (_sigh_) Wacky Comedy Species. Childlike ADHD Kender, Mad Scientist Tinker Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves, which may or may not be disavowed in the current edition.

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## Telok

If my recollection of a 'lets read' is right...

PC kender are basically shaped like halfling plus; advantage on saves vs fear, 1/long rest auto-save vs fear, prof/long rest taunt a target [save(choose int wis cha at character create) or have disadvantage to attack anyone but the taunter], hoopak (finesse 2h spear & sling) is a martial weapon you're _not_ automatically proficient in.

NPC kender are immune to fear, automatically proficient in hoopak, unlimited taunt (not sure may be misremembering) & taunt gives the target disadvantage on all attacks.
Book canon as I recall from long long ago was they were immune to fear to the point it could be a detriment/hazard, had weird ideas about doors that might compel them to open & explore, unknowingly/unconsiously 'borrowed' _small_ items (an apple was about the maximum possible, not potions or spellbooks), were all proficient in hoopaks (small quarterstaff & sling combo), could taunt people in a fight.

Jerkwad ******* kender were players who wanted any excuse to screw over the other players and would do it with a human character just as well as with a kender character, they were the ones who excused pc vs pc crap with "but alignment" or "but thief class", kender just changed the excuse to add "plus kender" on the end.

Personally, I feel just straight halfling is better mechanically & power-wise than kender if you can get the DM to allow it.

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## Witty Username

> Unless it was retconned somewhere, there aren't any Orcs, right? I thought that was part of the foundational ideas of the setting that lead to the Draconians.


Orcs are considered mythical, they are referenced a couple times in the books but have never appeared (only one half-orc as I recall) the reckoning is that either:
-orcs exist but died out in one of the apocalypses
-orcs exist but are extremely rare
-orcs don't exist but are a superstition (like faeries or angels in the real world)

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## Envyus

> DM is starting a new campaign set in Krynn and has handed out background materials about Dragonlance. Havent read the books so trying to get my head around the setting. 
> 
> Seems all magic is from the gods. This makes wizard feel more like clerics with different spells. Race selection is limited (no halfling, Dragonborne or tiefling). 
> 
> Are these interpretations correct and what other differences are there from the regulardnd world (the one with Waterdeep, Baldergate, Swordcoast) ?


Arcane Magic does not come directly from the gods.

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## Witty Username

> Arcane Magic does not come directly from the gods.


Its complicated, Arcane magic comes from four sources:
-Solinari
-Lunitari
-Nuitari
-Krynn

I know the least about Krynn, I know it is the world itself and the source of Sorcerers (I think it is called primal sorcery, I would need to check my books again).

But the other three are gods that have domain over the three moons of Krynn (names the same), they have no clergy and via their domain of the moons form the basis of high sorcery (wizards and stuff). In this way Arcane magic is as much from the gods as divine magic is on Krynn, it is just the gods that use it have different rules and goals defining its use.

Much like arcane magic in the Forgotten Realms is from the Weave and the Shadow Weave (defunct) but they are the domain of specific gods, Mystra and Shar respectively.

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## Psyren

> Unless it was retconned somewhere, there aren't any Orcs, right? I thought that was part of the foundational ideas of the setting that lead to the Draconians.


_If_ they exist, they are all but unheard-of on Ansalon, for the reasons Witty Username mentioned. Check with your DM, especially if you're interested in playing one.

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## Tanarii

> But the other three are gods that have domain over the three moons of Krynn (names the same), they have no clergy and via their domain of the moons form the basis of high sorcery (wizards and stuff). In this way Arcane magic is as much from the gods as divine magic is on Krynn, it is just the gods that use it have different rules and goals defining its use.


Technically they gave arcane magic back to Krynn via the Greystone.  So while it was power from the gods, it was imbued in the stone and the the stone spread it around Krynn.

OTOH since the phases of the moons influence arcane magic, or at least for those who wear the Robes, obviously they still have a link.

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## Pex

The gods did leave but come back. It is not wrongness for a Dragonlance campaign have the gods in it. To fit Story they would be recently returned. The most faithful are glad of their return, but the majority of the people are wary and mistrusting.

During 3E the world was stolen from the gods, so it appeared to the people they left again. The gods found the world and came back again. They have a difficult time convincing the people they didnt abandon the world again. This was not well received by fans. 5E goes back to the Dragonlance era before this 2nd Cataclysm, so they dont have to deal with this. Whether this is canon or not is up to the individual. Not that I read any of the books, but as a matter of D&D I prefer to think of this as not canon and ignore it.

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## Witty Username

> Technically they gave arcane magic back to Krynn via the Greystone.  So while it was power from the gods, it was imbued in the stone and the the stone spread it around Krynn.
> 
> OTOH since the phases of the moons influence arcane magic, or at least for those who wear the Robes, obviously they still have a link.


I can't say for sure because this is at the edge of my familiarity, but I believe that would be the primal sorcery I mentioned. So that would be how Sorcerers do, as well as mysticism (which will probably not survive the port to 5e).

Wizards still use moon magic, and therefore they are still effected by the changes in lunar phase and orbit.

Or at least that is how 3e delineated it, in 5e if they were going to cook out the setting information to be more general, I would expect this to be more vague, with sorcerers and wizards no longer being divided by magical source and continuing the general theme of sorcerer as "The Stupid Wizard."

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## Particle_Man

IIRC wizards need to go through a test that usually gives them some permanent change and/or disability.

Oh and time travel is possible in the setting.

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## Akal Saris

Depending on the time period, there are no (good/neutral) clerics in the world during the hundreds of years when the gods were absent. They left the world because the high priest of the most powerful religion had the temerity to demand power from the gods (if I recall), and rained a fiery cataclysm on the world in punishment.

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## Particle_Man

I think maybe there were ogres, that themselves were corrupted version of some good large race of proto-ogres, but could be wrong.  Maybe that was Minotaurs?

And I think the good evil axis is so much more a big deal than the law chaos axis that you wont see slaadi or Modrons.

Oh and canonically characters can die of mundane heart attacks, brought on by old age. RIP Flint.

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## JadedDM

> I think maybe there were ogres, that themselves were corrupted version of some good large race of proto-ogres, but could be wrong.  Maybe that was Minotaurs?


You're thinking of the High Ogres.  They were beautiful, intelligent and Evil and created by Takhisis (Paladine created Elves, Gilean created humans).  But a handful of them broke away and became Good and aligned with Paladine, and they became the elusive Irda.  The rest of the Evil ones degenerated and became Fallen Ogres (which are the typical D&D Ogres most people are familiar with).  Minotaurs were mutated from Ogres by the Graygem.  As were Trolls, Hags, Ettins and Giants.

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## Tanarii

> They left the world because the high priest of the most powerful religion had the temerity to demand power from the gods (if I recall), and rained a fiery cataclysm on the world in punishment.


Because the high priest tried to cast a spell using the faith of their entire kingdom as a backing to become the highest god, in order to destroy all Evil (including the gods of evil).  Which would have destroyed the balance, and with it the cosmos.

Basically it was the same thing that Karsus did in the forgotten realms when he caused the goddess of magic to destroy herself and caused a cataclysm to save everything.  The gods / goddess had to take drastic action that caused a lot of harm in order to save everything.

Edit: Note that Raistlin bypassed this by trying to replace the leader of the Evil gods in the second trilogy.  He too would have ultimately destroyed everything, but he would have done it by working within the system so to speak, not breaking the system and causing everything to *poof*

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## tomandtish

> *There's a international guild for all arcane magic users called the Wizards of High Sorcery (I think they changed it for 5E to Mages of High Sorcery, though).  Anyone who uses arcane magic is expected to take the Test (a dangerous and possibly lethal exam of both skill and ethics) and join their order upon passing once they gain access to third level spells.  Those who do not are declared Renegades and often are hunted down.


Some clarification on this point. All mages are expected to take the test. It's pass or die, and even those who pass are sometimes permanently affected. 

Renegade mages are those who refuse to test, OR turn from their order some point after the test. Magnus is a prime example of the latter. He started as black robe, went to red robe, went renegade, and later repented and died a white robe. 




> Elves are *******s.  This is a given, but there is some exceptional snootiness here. There are a lot of different kinds: Sun elves, moon elves, sea elves, wild elves. They all hate each other.  This is probably one of the few worlds where elves like humans less than they like dwarves. One of the main characters from the books was half-elven, and that was considered A Big Deal by all parties involved.


While a lot of their attitude is undeserved, it's important to note that most elves blame humans for the cataclysm. For the most part they've kept to themselves since then. 

As for Kender others have hit on the main point. Generally a kender is NOT deliberately taking an item. It's much more haphazard. 

"Wow, this statue looks neat".... Kender examines the statue.

"Hey, what is this?"  Kender moves on to examine something else, and w/o thinking about it puts the statue in their pouch.

And sometimes they literally have items that they apparently have no clue how they got. 

"How did Tanis's ring end up in my pouch? I'll have to give it back to him".  And then promptly forgets about it again. 

It should be noted that whenever Tas INTENTIONALLY set out to take something from a party member he felt bad about it but truly believed it was necessary.

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## Mark Hall

> Elves are *******s.  This is a given, but there is some exceptional snootiness here. There are a lot of different kinds: Sun elves, moon elves, sea elves, wild elves. They all hate each other.  This is probably one of the few worlds where elves like humans less than they like dwarves. One of the main characters from the books was half-elven, and that was considered A Big Deal by all parties involved.


Soemthing that has been diluted with time is that half-elves were originally the "tragic backstory" race. 1e Half-elves lived long lives, and full elves lived longer lives, and with proportionally longer childhoods and adolescences. A half-elf reached young adulthood at 24, but didn't become a mature adult until 40. The human kids they grew up with? They were grandparents by the time the half-elf was done being a "kid". When a half-elf hit middle age (101 years old), their human friends were doddering elders. And any elves they grew up with? They'd just hit adulthood.

While a lot of people miss it now, Tanis was supposed to represent someone caught between two worlds. This context was lost when 3.x and later editions gave everyone about the same rate of maturation... why are Tanis and Laurana so far apart? In AD&D, it was because she was still a child. If he had been an elf, Laurana was "just" 22 years younger than him. When she asked him to marry her in 308 AC, he was 59, and she was merely 37... if they were elves, it would be like an 8 year old asking the 12 year old to marry her. Since he was a half-elf, it was more like an 8 year old asking a 23 year old to marry her. And he said yes. When he came back in 351, she was still 80... a teenager, 15 or 16 in human terms... and he was 102, not dissimilar to a man in his early 40s.

When he went into human lands, he found Kitiara. She was 26 in 344, and he was and he was 82. They were of similar development, but he had 60 year of experience on her... a lifetime. So, he didn't fit in with elves, and he didn't fit in with humans, thus his closest friend was the dwarf who also didn't fit in with the humans that surrounded them. (Flint was 40 years older than him, but they would stay mostly the same "age category", and it matters a fair bit less when they're not romantically involved).

But, then, D&D went on. With 2e, the "tragic backstory" characters were mostly drow, thanks to Driz'zt (drow were available in 1e from UA on, but they didn't have the popular imagination as the tragic backstory race). Drow continued into 3e, but in 4e and 5e, tieflings mostly get that (IME).

A good chunk of context for Tanis's background gets paved over when you give everyone roughly the same maturation rate.

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## Tawmis

> DM is starting a new campaign set in Krynn and has handed out background materials about Dragonlance. Havent read the books so trying to get my head around the setting. 
> Seems all magic is from the gods. This makes wizard feel more like clerics with different spells. Race selection is limited (no halfling, Dragonborne or tiefling). 
> Are these interpretations correct and what other differences are there from the regulardnd world (the one with Waterdeep, Baldergate, Swordcoast) ?


In standard Dragonlance, Mages - as other said - get their power primarily from the moons.
In regards to races, you can always approach your DM about asking for a specific race to be available.
For example, Tieflings did not exist in Dragonlance.
But if you speak with your DM - they may allow it if you can explain how they got there.
(Perhaps chasing someone who stepped through a portal and now on Krynn)
I'd say such races, would get odd reactions from the standard people of Krynn (if they're not "the normal").
For example, a Tiefling might be seen as "evil" based off their appearance - and believe to be a part of the Dark Queen's army.
Could be fun, if the roleplaying is there - or it could be overly complex.
Others talked about big differences - the gods, in the new campaign have barely started to make a return - doing little things here and there (Clerics having powers).
There are several monsters that simply have not been known to exist in Dragonlance, that are "standard D&D fare."
But on the flip side, Dragonlance has some unique monsters as well - which you will encounter in the adventure.
Depending on how close to Dragonlance your DM wants to run it, you don't have to worry too much besides whatever ground rules they might lay out (like about was races exists in Dragonlance).
While Dragonlance spans... hundreds ... of novels now, the adventure itself was smart enough to focus on a specific area(s) that you won't need to know too much about the existing novels.
If the DM is sticking close to the "original" Dragonlance content - I'd hope they're handing you a sheet with some cliff notes of interest to know about (Kender, Towers of High Sorcery, History, etc).

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## Pex

> In standard Dragonlance, Mages - as other said - get their power primarily from the moons.
> In regards to races, you can always approach your DM about asking for a specific race to be available.
> For example, Tieflings did not exist in Dragonlance.
> But if you speak with your DM - they may allow it if you can explain how they got there.
> (Perhaps chasing someone who stepped through a portal and now on Krynn)
> I'd say such races, would get odd reactions from the standard people of Krynn (if they're not "the normal").
> For example, a Tiefling might be seen as "evil" based off their appearance - and believe to be a part of the Dark Queen's army.
> Could be fun, if the roleplaying is there - or it could be overly complex.
> Others talked about big differences - the gods, in the new campaign have barely started to make a return - doing little things here and there (Clerics having powers).
> ...


If a DM would allow a tiefling character fine, but knowing it is a Dragonlance campaign I would look askance at a player insisting on playing one. If the player Honest True didn't know they're not part of the world lore and when so informed chooses something else, that's all fine and dandy. However, if the player knew but chooses tiefling anyway, that tells me the player either doesn't care about the setting intended and/or wants to be a special snowflake to make the game about him.

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## Psyren

> If a DM would allow a tiefling character fine, but knowing it is a Dragonlance campaign I would look askance at a player insisting on playing one. If the player Honest True didn't know they're not part of the world lore and when so informed chooses something else, that's all fine and dandy. However, if the player knew but chooses tiefling anyway, that tells me the player either doesn't care about the setting intended and/or wants to be a special snowflake to make the game about him.


And you're fully in your rights to ban on those grounds. Personally I would allow it, using the guidance in the sidebar, and adjust accordingly. Neither of us is wrong.

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## Witty Username

I think the only race I strictly wouldn't allow is drow*, personally. The Tome of Foes has a sidebar as to why, but the full version:
The elven gods have a different setup in Krynn (as I recall they have no specific ones in 3e and prior) and so no Loth, but furthermore each elvish group has its own set of dark elves, which is a fancy way of saying exile, so the thematic space for Drow is taken, and the world building context is removed, as well as no reference to their existence can be found in any of the setting material as far as I know.

Past that, I am disinclined from using dragonborn, I feel like dragonborn even being a somewhat present, cheapens the narrative of the Draconians. But that is a personal preference; dragonborn don't exist in Dragonlance, but are also a 4e invention, so I don't see why a setting made in AD&D would mention them. Not to mention an argument like dragonborn being a recent addition to the world, like how 3e got in sorcerers and mysticism, would mostly solve this problem this problem for me.

Orcs and by extension half-orcs have been mentioned upthread, I am not bothered by them much on the thematic side.

The other worthy mentions are Forest Gnomes, which don't ever come up in the setting material since all the gnomes presented are on the rock gnome side of thinking right down to the origin curse**. I don't care that much, but that is alot having to do with the fact that my table group has very little interest in gnomes in general. There is fair argument to not use them, and hey rock gnomes are probably underused from my observations, but I don't feel that strongly about it

*from the PHB, weird setting material is weird setting material and should be treated as such.
**No restrictions just fun race stuff, Gnomes were the creation of the god Reorx, the forge god. As the story goes they were created so He could have some assistance when creating the world, but they betrayed Him, and so he took away their powers of creation, leaving only the ability to tinker. This is not the origin curse, but rather the setting of the stage to it. The gnomes were greatly diminished resulting in most of the creations of the gnomes to be novel and useless, but they were still able to occasionally able to produce works of true greatness, and they had not lost the pride in their abilities that had begun their rebellion. This culminated in the greatest of all gnomish inventions, a ladder of such great size a gnome could ascend all the way to the moons of Krynn. Having proven they could stand shoulder to shoulder with the gods (too literally), they attempted to take the moon Lunitari for their own, and in doing so found a gemstone of great magical power, the Greystone. But the Greystone proved to be to much for them, as its power came from being a pure and material creation of chaos, and the gnomes of legend were cursed with the same chaotic ferver and the race was split into three:
-the gnomes that had never wavered from the desire to tinker in of itself, remained gnomes, and their fervor became such that all they create is unfailingly useless
-the gnomes that had become defined less by tinkering and more the curiosity to learn and see more of the world, were transformed into the Kender, ever pursuing new experiences, sights, people, objects with equal parts childlike innocence and reckless abandon
-and finally the gnomes that had become driven to own and control and had been absorbed by greed, became the Dwarves, who even the most mild mannered cannot escape the lust for wealth, whether silver and gold in the days of old, or iron and steel in the days after the Cataclysm

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