Raistlin and Iolanthe 💔

Disabled characters in fantasy and why the entire bullshit surrounding the ableistic arguments about disabilities in fantasy. Where people think that mobility devices in gaming could 'easily' be 'fixed' with magic and why it is incredibly frustrating.

OR What Raistlin Majere means to me as a disabled person. a Rant.

Why Raistlin Majere (And other disabled characters are important in fantasy). There's been a lot of discussion of accessibility devices being used in games. Talking about how it's 'lazy because magic can fix everything'. We would not have any of Dragonlance if it wasn't for Raistlin Majere. He is a canonically disabled mage, who was kinda (was) a jerk. He was very nuanced and important. Basic mage needs and 'spellslots' are an important part of fantasy. Much like our human bodies that require rest and nourishment, fantasy doesn't eliminate that. Raistlin Majere went to become a real mage and had to go through excruitating trials to prove he was capable of wearing his mage robes. During all of that he did some BAD things, and he offered his body to a even worse mage to help him. The Mage drained him regulary. Raistlin already was born disabled. His own self loathing against his able bodied brother was interesting, and while I could write tons about that too, that isn't what this is about entirely because there's more than that. He often felt left out, tired and rather useless and magic was what gave him 'strength'. Due to multiple things that happened to him he wanted to challenge the gods themselves and become the most powerful mage. (There's a lot more to this but for simplifying we are going with this). This is also not me condoning using disability as a 'punishment', but Raistlin already was disabled and was further pained when doing his mage trial. I've seen arguments about how gods/temples would help anyone disabled and therefore disabilities wouldn't work. Someone took a tiny bit of pity (ugh) on him and offered him something to help ease his pain, let's just call it medication for simplicity sake again. That was the most charity, even the most powerful clerics couldn't heal him or help him, whether in childhood or adulthood. Eventually he almost completely healed himself but was still very much dealing with various forms of pain, whether emotional etc. He is known as the most powerful wizard on krynn.

If we take all of that away we take away an incredibly interesting character whose disabilities helped elevate the games in which he was played in. When you work together you can accomplish so much more. When his friends were actual friends they accomplished so much together they seriously did. Yet due to his abbrasive personality he was rarely praised for the war of the lance until much later. Even his title of "hero of the lance" always seemed to come with talks about him being rather shitty until later. Throughout Dragonlance as a series (beyond the core novels) we have a lot of disabled characters and throughout the years as humans become more aware of how to write disabled characters differently we have gotten a lot more out of them and a lot more of them each providing such interesting parts to these beloved books. At an even simpler level we have gollum/smeagol, another canonical disabled charater who was kinda dick too. However without him, Frodo may not have been able to actually destroy the ring at all, and if we go even deeper into Tolkien's lore we can discover more disabled characters whether titled as such or not that seemed to be a reflection of what he experience during the war and coming back. Disabilities exist in fantasy and in the real world, and some of us chose to create characters with disabilites, and I'd really much like to believe that we can get along because the world is already inaccessible enough. Let your players use various modes of accessability if needed/wanted. Erasing these beautiful and nuanced characters would erase so much of what makes fantasy so incredible and accepting. It's always been such a mostly accepting genre, it's a way to fantasize and sometimes it's nice even in a regular day to fantasize what a beautifully crafted accessability device might look like. So rather than argue online for hours for "why disability makes no sense in fantasy" could we change it to " I am capable of creativity and inclusion". It's your fantasy game, so you get to be beautifully creative.

However, if you REALLY would take away disabilities in game because it's your fantasy game then say bye to

Raistlin Majere

Frodo -Gollum

Toph

John Silver

Captain Hook

Your random peg legged pirate

Your eye patch

Geordi La Forge

Vader

Luke

Furiosa

Matt Murdock

Professor X

Deadpool

Kanan Jarrus

Steven Strange

Bucky Barnes

War Machine

Elijah Price (And so so many more this is the lazy amount because I am SO FUCKING FED UP OF PEOPLE NOT BEING INCLUSIVE IN DND SPACES AND ONLINE) Brought to you by an angry disabled person. (I love you take good care of yourselves, also this is nuanced and not entirely encompassing all my thoughts nor does it have to be your view as a disabled person. I love you be good to yourself today please.)

Magius and Raistlin were so cute together

A short review of Dragons of Fate (2023)

Raistlin: I want to kiss you.

Crysania: What was that?

Raistlin: I said if you die, I won't miss you.

Dalamar: In case you haven’t noticed, I'm weird. I’m a weirdo. I don't fit in. And I don't want to fit in. Have you ever seen me without these stupid black robes on? That's weird.

"The dark crimes that stain my soul, brother, you cannot begin to imagine. If you knew, you would turn from me in horror and in loathing. And, you are right. Sometimes, in the night, even I turn from myself.

But, know this, Caramon. I committed those crimes intentionally, willingly. Know this, too. There are darker crimes before me, and I will commit them, intentionally, willingly....”

(i may add some details later)

Raistlin using a powerchair. You agree. Reblog.

(I’ve been thinking a lot but I’m artblocked so this)

Merry Christmas！

RaistlinxCrysania

Commission to me

“What. In the Abyss. Was that?”

Fanart for An Equal Exchange, a Dragonlance AU fic by @ceremonial-motions!

Behold!

Astarion the Sensuous

I can hear their disapproval. Dalamar and Astarion do what they want though.