The Dragonlance Nexus is proud to announce that we have adopted the Dragonlance Wiki! The Dragonlance Wiki is one of many Dungeons & Dragons setting wikis hosted on Fandom (formerly Wikia).
But wait! Didn’t we already have a Lexicon? Yes we did, but when this opportunity presented itself, we had to take it. Fandom’s wikis consistently rate higher in search results. Plus, the software is always up-to-date and we don’t have to maintain it. It’s also got a more user-friendly interface.
The Dragonlance Wiki will be headed by Charles “Chuck” Martinell, who is building a team of aesthetics to continue the work of cataloging the people, places, and things of Dragonlance. Chuck has already done a bang-up job reorganizing the existing wiki, which hadn’t seen much attention in years.
Since taking it over, Chuck has worked tirelessly finding a way to export the articles from the Lexicon and moving them over to the new Dragonlance Wiki. He’s worked on updating the layout and already, several fans have shown interest.
A Brief History of Dragonlance Wikis
I thought it would be fun to take a look back at what has come before, so you could see the evolution of the Dragonlance wiki on the web.
The Chambers of Astinus
The first Dragonlance wiki wasn’t even a wiki at all. They didn’t exist yet!
As I came on the online Dragonlance scene in the fall of 2000, I was introduced to a site known as the Chambers of Astinus, run by none other than Ashe Potter, known throughout Dragonlance fandom as Uziel.
Ashe had a knowledge of Dragonlance like I had never seen. He knew the setting inside and out, perhaps better than the authors and game designers. Ashe used to run trivia nights on IRC (remember that?) and would ask questions I had no clue on. I realized I was a rank amateur in comparison.
The Chambers of Astinus served as a great repository for Dragonlance knowledge, serving as the foundation for the wikis to come.
The Dragonlance Lexicon
The Dragonlance Nexus decided it was time to build a wiki using the Mediawiki software, which is the foundation for Wikipedia. The Dragonlance Lexicon was born.
Enter Benjamin Jacobson, a Dragonlance super-fan who held a passion for Dragonlance knowledge that rivaled that of Ashe. Ben, known as Kranar Drogin in Dragonlance fandom, led a team of aesthetics, which included Ashe, to build the Lexicon. He also enlisted Dragonlance fan artists to give images to articles.
To date, the Lexicon had well over 8,000 articles. That’s pretty impressive!
The River of time moved on, and both Ashe and Ben have moved on to other endeavors in life. Dragonlance fans everywhere owe them a debt of gratitude.
Thanks, guys, for all your hard work. I hope we do you proud.
The Dragonlance Wiki
Finally, we head into The Dragonlance Wiki. It was originally known as the Chronicles of Astinus. I don’t know much about its origins, but I can say that it had not been touched for years. Luckily, it was the right tool at the right time.
The Nexus adopted The Dragonlance Wiki, per Fandom guidelines. And folks, I’m seeing that same passion with Chuck that Ashe and Ben have.
We invite you to come along on this journey with us, as we catalog all things Dragonlance. There is much to learn, and fun to be had along the way.
Will there be a process to migrate articles from The Lexicon to the DL Wiki?
As it turns out, we already have them migrated. 🙂