Dalamar
Dalamar is kind of a man of mystery (or should that be elf of mystery) because even after all his appearances, we still don't really know what much about him. Even the artists seem to have given him a wide berth, there are three images that come to mind, all from Larry Elmore, - the picture of Dalamar and Kitiara in Raistlin's Laboratory in the Tower of High Sorcery (when it was still in Palanthas!), the picture of Palin and his father Caramon Majere just before Palin takes his Test in the same Laboratory and a black and white pencil drawing that Larry did and sold on EBay called "The First Ingredient". None of them bear any resemblance to my image of Dalamar. I hadn't even found anything or anyone that did until I came across illusionist Criss Angel. Now if you can use your imagination, THIS is Dalamar.
OK, so now we've worked out what he might look like (or rather I suppose what I think he should look like but my opinion is just as valid as anyone else's!) just what do we know about Dalamar. He's been in more books than most of the Dragonlance folk, probably since he can live so long he outlasts every human! We first met him in the Legends Trilogy and again in The Magic of Krynn, Second Generation, Kender, Gully Dwarves and Gnomes, and of course, his own book Dalamar the Dark. He then reappears in Dragons of Summer Flame and Tears of the Night Sky, and is mentioned in passing in The Puppet King, and although mostly absent in Dragons of Fallen Sun, plays a big role (even if a mostly dead one in the latter) in Dragons of a Lost Star and Dragons of a Vanished Moon. Since he's made it through all of them (and been revived at the end of VM), he's still around to plague Palin (please, Dalamar, kill off Palin, do the world of Krynn a BIG favor!).
His father was Derathos Argent and his mother Ronan Windwalker, and he's about 97 years old at the time he first meets his Shalafi, Raistlin Majere. Which makes him about 165 years old in the War of Souls if you've got your calculators out! What we don't know is what Dalamar was actually doing during the Chaos Wars that made him so sick and what lead up to the attack at Storm's Keep. We know he changed his name during the time of the Silvanesti exile on Ergoth to Dalamar Nightson before he was exiled on their return to their homeland. Except the authors seem to conveniently forget this at times and still call him Dalamar Argent. Oh well, what's a last name between friends!
He calls Tanis a friend several times (The Sacrifice), though whether Tanis regards him as such as not quite as certain! Palin admires him (I do hope the feeling isn't too mutual, there's nothing about Palin to admire in my opinion!), Alhana won't mention him by name but she owes him her life. Porthios would rather not even think about him... even though through their mutual exile from the Silvanesti, they are both dark elves.
He gets homesick for Silvanesti.... he has a reputation for seemingly wanting to sleep with human females (is there a storyline where Dalamar doesn't bed at least one woman other than the War of Souls trilogy - I guess I should just be glad he didn't want Mina as well!!, he loves and hates Raistlin - and no, I don't believe there was any 'relationship' between Raistlin and Dalamar, Raistlin wasn't that weak to allow anything to happen, whether Dalamar wanted it or not!
Nancy Varian Berberick is rumored to be working on a Dalamar book, somewhat similar in style to Margaret Weis's Soulforge and Brother in Arms books, childhood leading up to the times we all know and love - or hate! So we wait to see if we can learn more about him. I'm an Aries. I HATE waiting for anything!
