Template talk:Pantheon of Dragonlance

Is this accurate? It's been a long time since I read Dragonlance, but going through wikipedia here, there seem to be some glaring inconsistencies in the roles of the High God vs. Chaos, and I'm unclear on whose on top of the other.

From the article Dragonlance timeline, in the Age of Starbirth Section, it quotes this: Before the Beginning, there was Chaos. Then, out of the Chaos came thought and being - the High God. Paladine, the God of Good, and Takhisis, the Goddess of Evil, answered the High God's call, and Gilean served the Balance between Good and Evil. Among their companions was Reorx, who forged a mighty hammer and smote the Chaos. The sparks that flew up from the hammer lit the heavens as stars. This seems to imply that Chaos came before the High God, which contradicts the idea that the High God is greater in power than Chaos.

Yet, in the article List of Dragonlance deities, it states: Chaos and the High God are the highest beings in the cosmology of Krynn. They are mysterious but widely credited with a role in the creation of the world. Chaos was once the most powerful of the pantheon, Ionthas, second only to the High God, although the High God claimed to be further above the gods than the gods were above the mortals. This implies that the two are equal, almost opposing forces (which this particular tree seems to support), and doesn't give clear indication on whether one created the other.

And to further confuse things, the article Chaos (Dragonlance) states this: Like all the gods, Chaos was created by the High God in order to carry out his plan to oversee mortals in their evolution. Which means that Chaos is created by the High God, and is therefore lesser. This shares a relationship more like Illuvatar and Melkor from the LotR mythology.

Which depiction of the relationship of the High God and Chaos is correct? Is the Dragonlance source material so ambiguous that all three are canon and correct? I know it's been over a decade since I last read Dragonlance (leaving off at the end of the War of Chaos), but man, DL seems to have its history all over the place. I could have sworn Raistlin became a god at the end of Dragons of Summer Flame, walking away with Paladine to travel to wherever the Gods went in the Age of Mortals. I'll have to go pull that book out of storage and skim through it again...

But anyways, is there any clear guidance on this? I think the High God should go at the top, with possibly Chaos branching off as a independent sub-creation of the High God, and then below that, the remaining Gods in their respective pantheonic divisions, but I'm just guessing here...

Kumba42 (talk) 08:16, 10 August 2008 (UTC)