The Great Twin Brethren: FIRSTBORN (TSR, 1991)

"These be the great Twin Brethren." (Macaulay, 

The Battle of Lake Regillus)

My fifth book, and fourth collaboration with Toni was FIRSTBORN (TSR, 1991).

The original 1991 cover of FIRSTBORN.

Art by Brom.

The 1991 back cover.

The cover of the 2004 Wizards of the Coast reprint. 

They wisely kept the Brom artwork.

The Preludes done, Toni and I were asked to begin an epic trilogy about the twin princes of the Silvanesti elf kingdom, Sithas and Kith-Kanan. Sithas is the elder by mere minutes, so he's the heir apparent to the throne of his father, Sithel.

The twin dilemma is popular trope in myth and legend. Sometimes twins represent opposites, like Apollo and Artemis, the twin Greek deities of the sun and moon respectively. Apollo stands for light, music, and art; Artemis for the moonlit nights, magic, and the mysteries of nature. Other roles filled by twins include the Rightful Heir vs. the Best Man. Think Romulus and Remus; Esau and Jacob; or in Dragonlance ("DL"), Raistlin and Caramon. 

Romulus and Remus enjoy a milk break.

The whole fictional twin thing veers from cute to creepy, with identical twins predominating at the creepy end. Their only rivals are those incestuous fraternal twins who pop up now and then, mostly to lever their creators onto the bestseller list.

In the Dragonlance elves pre-story, Sithas is destined to rule Silvanesti (the name of the race and the kingdom, by the way), and Kith-Kanan lives a footloose life until destiny challenges him to found his own kingdom, Qualinesti. (These names are from the original DL Chronicles and gaming sourcebooks.)

In 1990, with the goofy DARKNESS & LIGHT and the rock'em, sock'em RIVERWIND THE PLAINSMAN on the shelves, the folks at TSR asked Toni and me to outline the first book in a proposed trilogy about the elven twins. Naturally we were excited to do so, thinking that if the company liked the proposal, we'd get a contract to do the whole trilogy. Three books, three advances equals lots of work, equals happy writers.

I recall Toni doing most of the research needed for the outline. Sithas and Kith-Kanan were historical characters in the "current" series of DL novels, the Preludes, Chronicles, and Legends. This suited us well, as it allowed us distance from the complex Weis & Hickman continuum--room to create, as it were. We added a romantic triangle to the repressed rivalry between the twin brothers in the form of Hermathya, Kith-Kanan's sweetheart. Kith's dad, Speaker of the Stars (i.e., king) Sithel, chooses Hermathya to marry his heir, elder twin Sithas. Kith-Kanan therefore leaves the country heartbroken. He ends up in the woodland, where he meets a foundling elf-boy, Mackeli, and a fey female elf, Anaya. Anaya is the story's Strong Female Character. She doubles as a Very Dangerous Female as well, being an uncanny hunter, tracker, and all-round survivor. She's at one with the spirits of the forest, too, practically an incarnation of Artemis herself (not that any Greek gods appear in Dragonlance!)

Artemis (by Ingri & Edgar d'Aulaire):

the original VDF

After idylls and adventures in the greenwood, Kith-Kanan's destiny asserts itself. Anaya sacrifices herself to save him from villains, but the gods of the forest change her into a tree. Kith returns to Silvanost (the elves' capital city) in time to take part in failing negotiations with the elves' human rivals from the Ergoth Empire. When his father Sithel dies in a suspicious hunting accident, Sithas succeeds him, and war breaks out between Ergoth and Silvanesti. 

Kith learns from his experience. He realizes Hermathya is not the woman for him after all. She shows up poorly compared to Anaya, now a tree, but with a strange surprise sleeping within.

FIRSTBORN is fashioned like a grand opera, right down to scenes constructed like arias and choruses. It's more Puccini than Wagner, but Toni and I cast the epic, symbolism-laden story in an archly romantic style, and it seems to work. Of all the Dragonlance books we wrote, before or afterward, FIRSTBORN is probably the best loved by fans. I don't consider it the best one we wrote, but it is well liked. 

We were able to introduce characters that would recur like dark threads through the rest of our Dragonlance tales. One is a shady sorcerer Vedvedsica (I love that name). Vedvedsica is a distinctly subversive character in the perfect elven kingdom, an aphid on the rose that is Silvanesti. He's not so underhanded in FIRSTBORN as he later turns out to be. Suffice it to say, he's not what he appears to be, and he lives a long, long time, practicing his special brand of mischief.

We introduced other noble elf families, such as the Ambrodel clan. Ambrodel ancestors and descendants would finger prominently in our other DL projects. It gives a nice sense of continuity to have family names recur, adding history to the mix of sword & sorcery.

A note about names and pronunciations: when you write fanciful names, you always have your own idea how they should be pronounced. Often there were differences even between Toni and I, as well as between us and the editors or readers. Later, when many of our DL books were turned into audio books, the variation in name pronunciation could be quite startling.

Vedvedsica should be pronounced "ved-ved-SEEK-uh." 

Ambrodel is "Am-bro-DELL."

Hermathya is "Her-math-EE-yuh."

Anaya is "Uh-NYE-yuh"

Mackeli is "Meh-KELL-ee"

And so on. Toni and I have never been touchy about readers saying our characters' names the "right" way, but it's interesting to hear how other people choose to render our fanciful nomenclature.

The cover art for the first 1991 edition of FIRSTBORN was done by a new artist for us, Gerald Brom. He's usually just credited as "Brom." His style for the book was icy cold and precise, just as the Silvanesti elves are reputed to be. The cover shows Sithel standing over the crystal sarcophagus of the first Speaker of the Stars, his father Sithas, who otherwise does not appear in the story. When Wizards of the Coast reprinted FIRSTBORN in 2004 they wisely retained Brom's art, dispensing with the dark border of the first 
edition.

The French edition.

The color separation is a

bit different.

The Turkish edition. 

Toni got first billing there.

FIRSTBORN is dedicated to Toni's brother, Marty, and his wife Reneé.

Obviously, Toni and I got the contract to write volume 1 of the Elven Nations trilogy. Oddly, the second book went to a different author, Douglas Niles. Niles is an excellent writer, but splitting the series between separate writers was strange, and made for some frantic work. To meet deadlines, we had to feed Niles manuscript chapters of FIRSTBORN so he could account for events of the first book in the second, his THE KINSLAYER WARS. When it came time for the third novel (THE QUALINESTI) in the trilogy to be written, Toni and I would do it, and Niles had to pass manuscript pages of his book to us! This awkward system was never repeated. Later, when Toni and I did DL trilogies (the Barbarians, the Ergoth Trilogy, the Elven Exiles), we would do all three books.

Next: Chapter 20, FIRSTBORN