Gilthanis with Silvara
(Picture by from The Art of Dragonlance)
An odd, but interesting elf...
Name: Gilthanis
Race: Qualinesti Elf
Books: Chronicles, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Kindred Spirits
Quotes: Gilthanis's quote page
Family: Father, the Speaker of the Sun; sister, Laurana; brother, Porthios
Love(s): Silvara, a silver dragon
Friends: The companions
Description: Typical elf, with brown eyes
History: Gilthanis lives a peaceful life in Qualinesti, as the speaker's younger son for many years. As a child he, his younger sister Laurana, and Tanis all played together, but when Laurana fell in love with Tanis, Gilthanis began to dislike him, not wanting his sister to marry someone of impure heritage. He is a scholar, warrior, and dabbler in magic. Until the War of the Lance, Gilthanis was open, honest, fun-loving, and light hearted, but afterwards he became silent and moody. The Companions meet up with Gilthanis for the first time in the Inn of the Last Home, where they and Gilthanis are captured and taken prisoner, driven in a caravan to the slave mines. Gilthanis had traveled to Solace to warn Theros Ironfeld, who had been helping elves escape the troops, that he had been betrayed, but Theros is captured with them. During the War of the Lance the elves of Qualinesti are forced to relocate because of the encroaching force of the dragon armies. When they move they find a land filled with Kagonesti elves, who the Silvanesti force into servitude. Gilthanis falls in love with a Kagonesti who cares for him. She reveals her true nature as a silver dragon when she falls in love with him. The two of them go to find out the story of what has become of the eggs stolen from the good dragons. They discover that the eggs have been stolen and made into draconians, so the good dragons have nothing to stop them from entering the War of the Lance.
After the War of the Lance, Gilthanis decides that elves and dragons simply don't mix, and he tells Silvara he does want to see her ever again. At this point I must interject that men are pigs, and that he was willing as hell to sleep with her, but he won't accept her for who she truly is. Anyway, Gilthanis becomes Lord of Kalaman, and he thinks he's helping people and stuff, but then he realizes they don't really need them. He travels to Silvanesti to see Porthios, but got caught by the evil commander of the Silvanesti army, an elf named Konnal. He is imprisoned in Silvanost for twelve years, and he only notices the Chaos War because the small magical spells he used for comfort cease to work several years after he is imprisoned. He does not know exactly what has happened, because the information he gets from the guards is minimal. Konnal plans to have him killed before the magical barrier is put into place around Silvanesti, but he is saved by griffins.
After he escapes he wanders around across a desert until he falls unconscious near the semi-real city of Gal Tra'kalan. There he is healed, given supplies, and has the post-Chaos War world of Krynn explained to him. He sets off on his journey and encounters ruins of city inhabited by gully dwarves. Convinced that he is the great sneezer (because he sneezes) he is given some very nice supplies, including an ancient sword, which the gully dwarves somehow have. Then he goes to this garden of stone roses and decides to keep looking.
He travels to Icewall, believing that if he calls to Silvara from this arch that she will come. She doesn't, and he's almost killed by a bunch of Thanoi, who destroy the cool stuff given to him by the gully dwarves, except for the sword. He kills them though, and gets their boat, which will take him anywhere he wants to go, but five years will pass during the trip.
He takes the boat the the island of Elian Wilds, where he meets a guy whose mission becomes assassinating him (even though they're friends), although the guy never succeeds. Then he takes the boat to the dragon graveyard, and goes back to Kalaman. In Kalaman he becomes mayor again for a while while he's told men will look for Silvara, but they don't. Then he goes to the Peak of Clouds, where he learns the new magic before heading on.