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Sands of Time


Zach Caldwell

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" Kandric's mysterious additional field"

 

U lost me, Kandric's subfields are outdoorman and runeseeker?

 

 

Massive spoilers.  Don't say you weren't warned.

 

Just for fun, I'm going to try my best to link each of the fields to its D&D 5e counterpart:

  1. Animal Adept > Beastmaster Ranger
  2. Druid > cast elemental spells: Circle of the Land Druid; through animal companions: Pact of the Chain Warlock
  3. Enchanted Archer > no direct 5e counterpart, but is the quintessential 4e Seeker (it might become a Ranger archetype in the future)
  4. Legionnaire > sounds like a War Cleric to me
  5. Mage > the Wizard, naturally
  6. Mystic > the Artificer Wizard (playtest material)
  7. Shaman > no direct 5e counterpart, but the Nature Domain Cleric might come close
  8. Sorcerer > there is a 5e Sorcerer.
  9. Spirit Warrior > no direct D&D counterpart, but I can picture the Oath of the Ancients Paladin in this role
  10. Swordsman > definitely the Champion Fighter
  11. Warrior-Adept > he's the Eldritch Knight Fighter
  12. Wild Cat > this is the Path of the Totem Warrior Barbarian
I'm a little saddened, however, that unlike the Squires of Telisan Keep, the Kandric Universe doesn't draw any magic from words or music, aka Bard. :(
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I'm a little saddened, however, that unlike the Squires of Telisan Keep, the Kandric Universe doesn't draw any magic from words or music, aka Bard. :(

 

Umm, I do believe that there was the mention of the older of the Begger's sons as being interested in music.  Could that be leading into something, perhaps?  Just a thought.

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Yes, but it appears to be a sub-field and not actually a main field where you can cast magic as a bard :)

 

But that said, I don't actually see much of a distinction between a field and a subfield.  Here are the twelve fields:

  1. Animal Adept
  2. Druid
  3. Enchanted Archer
  4. Legionnaire
  5. Mage
  6. Mystic
  7. Shaman
  8. Sorcerer
  9. Spirit Warrior
  10. Swordsman
  11. Warrior Adept
  12. Wild Cat

Here are ten subfields (out of eleven) mentioned in the Kandric Saga:

  1. Channeler
  2. Healthman
  3. Lockmaster
  4. Metalworker
  5. Mindmaster
  6. Miner
  7. Outdoorsman
  8. Ruinseeker
  9. Sailor
  10. Sect Warrior
Some of the subfields are outright professions (lockmaster, metalworker, miner, sailor) while some of them are entire classes in D&D (channeler/healthman = cleric, mindmaster = psion, sect warrior = monk).  At the same time, some fields (Enchanted Archer, for example) seem to be nothing more than a reflavored Warrior Adept - can use weapons and cast spells at the same time.  I also see only a minor distinction between the Animal Adept's ability to draw power from an animal companion, and the Wild Cat's ability to invoke an animal's primal power.  Finally, the Mystic feels more like a subfield than a field, as he doesn't have magic of his own and just mixes potions that do have magical effects.  If anything, I'd consider the Sect Warrior as a Field more than Mystic.
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  • 7 months later...

I was re-reading the Kandric Saga, and am currently at Chapter 25, written back in 2010. A segment focusing on Master's dream perked my interest.

===

Aster let out a long breath and watched as it went pretty high in the cold air, “Well, to be honest it was just one, but it was too crazy to make any sense. On the other hand it was so vivid, so real; I could smell it, taste it and feel it. Making matters even worse, I was speaking in Dragon Tongue to some kids about my own age equivalence. It was a totally insane group too; one was a weird colored Dragonling. Its scales were speckled with brown, tan, white and black. Another was a Drow Elf. Then there was a Dwarf, a Human, a Halfling, an Elf, and another kid who I think was a Halfelf, but had eyes almost the same color as the Dragonling.
“Their equipment was beyond astonishing, for all of them carried at least one Eldwar Steel weapon, their armor was crafted in a way to where it was nearly flawless and was made out of dragon scales of various types, mostly Green Dragon and Red Dragon, but the one with the strange eyes was wearing Brown Dragon and the Human was wearing Brass Dragon hide. In addition, their clothing was made to where you could not see any seems. Yet when I commented about it they all seemed disappointed and even a little ashamed to look so poor. The Elvin kid said something about their gear was scavenged off the dead and what they were given was more or less what was left over.
“We were on a set of rocky hills, some very sharp and rippled with cracks and appeared to be of an old volcanic flow. Down from us in all directions, was a marsh or swamp and it was very warm and humid. Yet up the hill from us was the body of a massive Brown Dragon that was being picked over by a large flight of Griffons. Just beyond the dead dragon I could see hundreds if not thousands of bodies of all sorts of races. Most were nude or nearly so, clearly picked clean of all useful items. As I looked down in the crags and cracks in the rocks, I could see the extent of the battle as the blood from the bodies was still slowly flowing attracting flies and other nasty bugs. The smell was brutal, but it was draining down deeper into the earth, almost like something was feeding on it.
“Still there was more to see, hear and smell. For there was the smell of burning flesh from pyres set to dispose of many of the bodies further up the hill, and above that, barely visible was a massive city with huge walls, but they appeared to be horribly damaged and a few areas looked to be burning or smoldering but I could not tell if part of the city was still on fire after such a massive battle or if they were simply burning their dead. If I close my eyes, I can still see it and my guess is it was a combination of both.
“Even though we were talking in some kind of Dragon language we were having a hard time understanding each other. It was as if we knew the same basic language, but it was still not quite matching up right. I tired asking them questions but they were more interested in what I knew. They made all sorts of inquiries and were praising me for having the powers of great dragons in my blood. At least the one with the weird eyes was. At the same time, they were trying to figure out where they were, or maybe when they were.”
Sardan used a talon to scratch some feathers on the back of his neck as he cocked his head to the side and looked down with a skeptical eye, “When they were?”
“Yeah, they didn’t think they were where they belonged or when. They said magic was much weaker and different. The one with weird eyes said it was actually stale, like it was not being fully used any more.
“Anyway, we were interrupted by a pretty large brown dragon. It broke out from between a few of the rocky crags covered in the nasty blood still flowing deep within them. It charged us and breathed, turning one of the kids to stone with its petrifaction breath, but it was countered by some really bizarre spell from the kid with the weird eyes. At the same time, I saw Dart’s wing turn to stone and started going crazy. Just as the kid with the weird eyes started to fix Dart and the others went on the attack I was shaken awake, but to be honest, I’m really glad Molic did, cause I was kind of freaking out and was covered with sweat when I woke.”

===

When I first read the Kandric Saga, I thought Aster had a dream about taking with the gods. Now, I'm not so sure. The collection of kids talked about here seem to be extremely similar to the protagonists of Sands of Time.

But that can't be right, because Roland didn't work on this until 2014.

And so my question: is there a connection or am I imagining things?

 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

finished sot book 1 a while ago. and am in the need for the next 4 books!

please you and kyle go on writing on kandric and xavier. there is so much to still experience, to know and learn to know.

but, kyle, please dont forget ur defenders. thats another very nice story plot i really enjoyed to read.

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  • 4 months later...

After re-reading The Kandric Saga and now re-reading the Sands of Time, there is something I do not understand.

1) In the Kandric Saga it is explained how dragons breed. Only a Great Female can lay eggs that produce other Greats. And most of the times it aren't even Great that come out of this. I'm assuming this would hold true for True Females and Warrior Dragon Females with that respect that the egg would never produce a dragon greater in stature than the female was. But this is besides the point I'm trying to make.

In Sands of Time, in the beginning the father of Xavier cleary states it is his wish that Xavier reclaims the kingdom and continue his line. Now comes my question. If Xavier (a Great Dragon) and Garnet (a Warrior Dragon) are the last two Sand Dragons and both of them are males. How can Xavier continue his line? Unless this is tied in with the lost ability of Dragons to shapeshift or they can breed with other Dragons, I see now way of this happening.

Did I now just spoil something for the future?

2) In the Kandric Saga, the Fairy Dragon Stealth states that dragons are magic and magic is dragons. But here in the Sands of Time, I believe it was Olpha, said that this is not true. I would think that if anyone would know the truth about this, would be a Dragons and their kin. So has knowledge and magic really declined so much, that even Dragon and their kin no longer know the truth about magic?

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I don't have special knowledge, so take my opinion as mere speculation.

Although a lesser dragon cannot produce a great, perhaps Xavier can find a great female of some other color to mate with. If Mendelian genetics applies to the Kandric universe, then there's a 25% chance of creating a pure blood. I'm sure dragons are genetically compatible and colors are similar to our skin color and such...

Now of course the issue of inbreeding is a different matter altogether. He probably shouldn't mate with any of his offspring ;)

On a practical basis, I think the father was probably hoping some eggs would survive? Xavier was of course in deadly peril and right in the line of fire, but perhaps there were sand dragons he hoped would survive the attack because they weren't there when the citadel fell...

 

Also, I am inclined to believe that knowledge of magic has atrophied over the ages. Why would a typical fairy dragon such as Stealth have any special knowledge, unless he is a scholar?

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  • 2 months later...

After finishing the "Kandric Saga," this story was logically the next on my to-read list. Roland has brought unique and very satisfying characters and their stories to this universe. Although (as with the Kandric Saga) this is listed "In Progress," it reaches a nice, firm conclusion while leaving open opportunities for future stories. I look forward to more from both Kyle Aarons and Roland.

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  • 3 months later...

Ok, it's Monday evening (night even, 11:43 pm here now) someone wrote an "comment" or post with the magic number "17553" Someone, maybe the same someone (if so, Zach Caldwell why?) or maybe someone else someone ehrm? (late evening, foreign language) made it disappear, should I sit around and wait for the Monday update? 

Edit:

Hmm,, and 17553 got back ;) 
Why didn't I see it last night...

Some young mage must have had a fun time with me..

But a new chapter - wee! :D 

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Great to start again. I guess Roland have been waiting for the last chapter of The Kandric  saga to continue his story. He does normally wait a year between chapters, he keep them chapter sizes and not book sized after all :)

One minor detail. At the end. I read the text as Xavier (Xavior in the meantime, used the sheer rage at seeing a dragon treated the way the young brown was, to shift himself....) is the one to shift out of dragon form, but all of the rest on the text tells me is Garnet (shifts to Dragonling, and Xavier is crushing some with his tail)

 When reading the text again, I think the mixup started in the paragraph before. 

Edited by GoM
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