I was wondering if there are any sourcebooks which have info on Kender on the Planes? They are damned curious and I'm sure there would be some. If there aren't any offically in the Planes where would they most likely be found? Seems like anywhere something interesting is going on really.
Kender on the Planes?
Fri, 2006-08-11 09:00
#1
Kender on the Planes?
Sat, 2006-08-12 12:08
#3
Kender on the Planes?
No. There is a lot more differance. How they act and what they belive is one. The whole "borrowing" thing and the curiosity. ALso the immune to fear. The taunt ability? There is a LOT more to Kender than Hoopaks.
Sat, 2006-08-12 19:20
#4
Kender on the Planes?
Heh. Now I have the image of a kender chatting amiably with a Baernoloth.
I'd think that kender would tend towards the more chaotic side of the Great Ring. I wouldn't be surprised to find out there was a sizable population of them on Ysgard. That said, I think most planars would mistake them for halflings on first glance- a big mistake on their parts.
Mon, 2006-08-14 10:46
#5
Kender on the Planes?
I can't think of a kender reference in PS literature, but hopefully Rip will be able to point you to some if it exists.
As stated above they will probably be found more on the Chaotic side of the Great Ring. In places such as Arcadia, Mechanus and Acheron their sharing of items will most likely not be tolerated. In fact I can't see kender surviving much in the Lower Planes, but that's probably true of many races.
Ysgard and Arborea are probably places that you'd find the most kender. But kender being the way that they are - chances are that you can come across them anywhere. Uncle Trapspringer (sp?) if he were to be a Power would in my opinion be a wondering Power.
Those who live along the route of the Great Modron March fear only one thing more than an army of modrons passing through - that being an army of kender 
Mon, 2006-08-14 12:27
#6
Kender on the Planes?
The description of Ecstasy in A Player's Primer to the Outlands strongly implies it's full of kender without saying so outright. It mentions halflings and "other little people" and says that theft is outlawed in the town but "borrowing" is considered okay.
The 1st edition Manual of the Planes actually mentions kender among the legions of souls fighting endlessly on Acheron.
Sat, 2006-09-02 09:16
#7
Kender on the Planes?
I can see the Planes as being awfully unfriendly to Kender, especially since they have no particular powers to stop them being killed/eaten/enslaved by the forces of evil. Many more lawful berks might also want to drive out or even exterminate the annoying creatures (me among them – whatever Kender Heaven is like, it would be Hell for me!)
Weird as kender on Acheron sounds, I have this image in my mind of troops of shuffling Kender slaves being used as menial servants, experimental test subjects, and less pleasant things. With almost nothing but their rags, kender slaves would see ‘borrowing’ from their overlords and among themselves as a vital to their survival.
Suddenly I'm seeing them less as poorly-used comic relief and more as the victims of a cruel and unfeeling multiverse. And I hate them slightly less because of it.
Sat, 2006-09-02 12:36
#8
Kender on the Planes?
There are Kender on the planes already as described by the poster before you. And actually they would indeed have powers on the Planes to protect them still. The powers from Dragonlance are present somewhere out there I belive. Not all the planes are unfriendly and on top of which why would it be somehow less friendly for Kender than anyone else? Why would Kender be totally singled out for slaves? I think you have too many issues with the fictional Kender. It's not the Kender you should hate, it's whatever annoying idiot was playing one who couldn't play one correctly you should hate. I have no problem with Kender whatsoever. I still find them humorous and interesting.
Sat, 2006-09-02 22:00
#9
Kender on the Planes?
I can see the Planes as being awfully unfriendly to Kender, especially since they have no particular powers to stop them being killed/eaten/enslaved by the forces of evil.
Neither do humans. Or gnomes. Especially gnomes. And they somehow took over Bytopia.
Sun, 2006-09-03 03:14
#10
Kender on the Planes?
But neither do they have a kender's total fearlessness and kleptomania.
To clarify a bit, I wasn’t suggesting singling out kinder as a good idea, only that encountering them as oppressed slaves would be a strong counterpoint to how they’re normally seen.
AkumaDaimyo, you caught me out. Possibly my original post was a little biased against them. It’s mainly the portrayal of kinder as comic relief in the Dragonlance fiction that I object to. Apologies to Tass, uncle Trapspringer and the rest…
Sun, 2006-09-03 03:37
#11
Kender on the Planes?
Well they aren't just comic relief and nothing else. Tass can still be serious and is a hero and a main character. The characters who are most definitly without a doubt as comic relief are GULLY DWARVES. The Mt Nevermind gnomes are pretty high up there too.
Are there Gully Dwarves on the planes? Kender may be curious and prone to borrowing things but when it comes to just plaing stupid, Gully Dwarves take the cake and eat it too.
Mon, 2006-09-04 06:54
#12
Kender on the Planes?
DON'T get me started on tinker gnomes and gully dwarves! What are you trying to do Akuma, give me a seizure or something?
I agree that at least in the original works, Tass was a real adventurer and no jester. In his honour, let’actually try and answer your question. My knowledge of DL is player-orientated and first edition, so I may be out of date:
According to the original setting book, Reorx is the creator of the kender, but somehow I don’t see them hanging out happily in Mechanus. On the other hand, perhaps the ‘borrowing’ of kender, or to put it another way “principles of equality and communal ownership” actually works in an ordered and friendly realm, rather than the more morally ambiguous Prime. Of course, they might not actually worship Reorx, or anybody else particularly (DL doesn't really go in for racial deities - berks pick a Power individually, based on their alignment and class).
Does Tass or another Kender ever mention his beliefs in a DL novels and setting books?
If they don’t have a “patron deity” as such, that leaves each kender’s alignment determining their final destination – and in my mind I see most kender as Chaotic Good. They might find Ecstasy a fun place, but I find it hard to imagine Kender in Elysium on masse. I also like the idea that ‘Uncle Trapspringer’ is actually a Power (or demi-Power) however, but the kender refer to him like he is a favourite uncle...
Mon, 2006-09-04 10:06
#13
Kender on the Planes?
Uncle Trapspringer is an actual character in some of the DL works. It's been a while and I'd have to dig out the reference, but apparently he eventually ended up dying a horrible death on the moon.
Kender beliefs are hard to nail down. There have been kender clerics, but they're very rare and just not really suited for the job. There are kender communities, though, and they are hilariously communistic, in a 'your-stuff-is-my-stuff' sort of way. Kender will literally just steal things out of each other's houses, and they're perfectly okay with this. It's kind of like goblin society, only without all the spite and anger.
Olidammara would get a kick out of these guys, and would probably look after them. I can imagine a few kender clerics, as well as a few clerics hanging out in Olidammara's place. Hell, he might have a few of them trained into special elite agents of chaos-inducing terror (imagine kenders with fully trained Use Magic Item ranks. Imagine it and RUN) and just hurl them into other planes for kicks.
Mon, 2006-09-04 12:29
#14
Kender on the Planes?
Kender worship Paladine in his aspect as Fizban the Fabulous, I believe. Branchala is also pretty big among them, and of course Reorx is their creator (indirectly - he didn't intend for his creations to be turned into kender).
Taotad wrote a lot of the entries for the Krynnish pantheon from a kender's perspective.
Mon, 2006-09-04 13:21
#15
Kender on the Planes?
Hats off to Rip AGAIN for his encyclopedic knowledge of all things D&D...
- Couldn't Uncle Trapspringer be an avatar, like old Fizban himself? "Died some horrible death on the moon" certainly sounds mythic enough for the legend of a deity... or are his life and death set out too specifically for that?
- If they worship Paladine, then LG kender might well be perfect "communist" communities...
- Speaking of communists - Idealised "anarchists" (earth-political definition speaking) might find a good home a strongly CG planes, or in the actual Revalutionary League.
- Nastier kender who stole for their own gain and selfishness might end up in Pandemoium, prowling in raiding packs like nathri.
PS: Do you think halflings might have a problem with their light-fingered cousins? After all, kender "borrowing" might give all similar small folk a bad reputation?
Mon, 2006-09-04 14:00
#16
Kender on the Planes?
I thought Kender worhsip Kiri Jolith? It's right there in the DL books that Kiri-Jolith is a popular Kender god.
Mon, 2006-09-04 20:29
#17
Kender on the Planes?
Kender can worship just about anyone. There was a kender or two worshipping Mishakal, Goddess of Healing. Seriously.
Kender are little kids. For the most part, kind-hearted kids (there was this one time when Tasslehoof was turned evil, and let me tell you, it was frigging hilarious--think the most bratty, spoiled, mean-spirited kid you've ever met), but basically just children. They're actually not poorly suited to become clerics (the whole 'shepherd leading the way' thing really makes them well-suited for it), it's just that their attention span is so pathetically short that they rarely have enough focus to do it unless its more than just impulsive curiousity.
Trapspringer is... Well, from what I remember, he was never very clearly defined. Obviously, lots of kender claimed to have an Uncle Trapspringer, but eventually he did make appearances, and he seemed to be just your basic old kender (basically a kid, only with more experience). He has a relationship, some adventures, and evetually we hear about him getting killed on the moon with his bride-to-be (it's possible that this was merely gossip, though).
Making him into an avatar seems to kind of defeat the purpose, though. Honestly, I wish they never did show Trapspringer--I really liked the idea of all the kender just claiming to have this Uncle Trapspringer who we never ever see and was responsible for doing all this sort of crazy, impossible stuff. Really had/has an interesting feel to it.
Mon, 2006-09-04 20:38
#18
Kender on the Planes?
Well, leaving the afflicted kender aside, who witnessed the destruction of Kenderhome by a Great Red Worm, and became obessively paranoid. Their natural kender curiosity became perverted to ferret out anything that might possibly hurt them, and so on and so forth.
Mon, 2007-01-15 13:34
#19
Kender on the Planes?
Also in the planscape blood wars card game there was a kender. I believe it was called Inquisitive kender or something like that.
And I believe enslaved kender would definitely be just like the afflicted kender!
And don't forget even Ravenloft had Vampiric Kender!!!
Mon, 2007-01-15 22:36
#20
Kender on the Planes?
Also in the planscape blood wars card game there was a kender. I believe it was called Inquisitive kender or something like that.
Kender play an integral role in the Blood War -- as an instrument of psychological warfare against other fiends. What could be more demoralizing to a tanar'ri or baatezu general than some happy-go-lucky kender somehow making it through miles and miles of war-ravaged wastes in the Lower Planes and accidentally 'borrowing' the Staff/Blade/Ring of Uber at a pivotal moment?
Of all mortal races, Kender are notorious for getting into and surviving dangers that would annihilate anyone else -- making them handy for foolhardy tasks.
However, only the most utterly ruthless of fiends would even consider using Kender this way. "The... the childlike optimism... the insufferable cuteness... I would rather have my entrails ripped out and strewn across the Field of Nettles a thousand times than suffer that sickening, syrupy... cute again," a balor was heard to remark.
Sun, 2007-02-25 22:00
#21
Kender on the Planes?
There was a pair of FR novels... I've completely lost their names now, where the protagonists (including a faerunian power and a kender) travel through the outlands, including the caverns of thought and the celestial beaurocracy, and into sigil. If I recall correctly, the kender was rather enthralled with the sensate philosophy.
Sun, 2007-02-25 22:51
#22
Kender on the Planes?
I believe the FR power may have been Finder, and he literally 'checked' his power at the door, entering as so close to mortal to be nearly indistinguishable he was in that weak an avatar form. I unfortunately don't recall the name of the book.
Mon, 2007-02-26 10:37
#23
Kender on the Planes?
That's the one. The second novel was called "Tymora's Luck" IIRC, though I'm *still* at a loss for the first novel's title.
Mon, 2007-02-26 13:23
#24
Kender on the Planes?
That's the one. The second novel was called "Tymora's Luck" IIRC, though I'm *still* at a loss for the first novel's title.
Finder's Bane.
Tue, 2007-02-27 13:19
#25
Kender on the Planes?
Oh my god, Rip's stuck for a D&D fact - somebody check the integrity of the universe!
First of all, to my knowledge, kender are extremely close relatives to halflings. that being said, thats what they are. they just have special sticks that they beat people up with, thats really the only differance. Trust me, I may not have very much dragonlance knowledge, but kenders were the only thing I picked up.