The Death Gate Cycle is a seven-part series (heptalogy) of fantasy novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The main conflict is between two powerful races, the Sartan and the Patryns, which branched off from humans following a nuclear/anti-matter holocaust. Centuries prior to the events of the series, the Sartan attempted to end the conflict by sundering the Earth into four elemental realms, and imprisoning the Patryns in a fifth prison world, the Labyrinth. The Sartan took up stewardship of the elemental realms, but soon mysteriously lost contact with each other and disappeared. Centuries later, a Patryn known as Xar escaped the Labyrinth, and started returning to the Labyrinth to rescue others. He learned how to access the other worlds, using the eponymous portal called the Death Gate, and dreamed of freeing all his people from the Labyrinth and conquering the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the elemental worlds and throw them into chaos in preparation for his Lord's conquest of them. Weis and Hickman created five distinct fantasy worlds during the course of the series, along with developing the cultures of five major races: the unique Patryn and Sartan, and the common fantasy races of dwarves, elves, and humans.
Novels
Dragon Wing (February 1990) Elven Star (November 1990) Fire Sea (August 1991) Serpent Mage (April 1992) The Hand of Chaos (April 1993) Into the Labyrinth (December 1993) The Seventh Gate (September 1994)
Behind the series "Margaret and I have always tried to take fantasy literature in new directions. Krynn is a world wholly distinct from Earth, unlike Tolkien's Middle-earth. Time travel itself was a science-fiction notion we applied to fantasy. We have even written fantasies taking place in the far future (The Death Gate Cycle)!" — Tracy Hickman, The Annotated Dragonlance Legends pg. 458
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman had finished their Dragonlance and Darksword series prior to The Death Gate Cycle, which may be considered their most ambitious work yet,Hickman, Tracy. "Tracy Hickman's Biography", 2002. Accessed April 26, 2007.Cassada, Jackie. (December 1989). Library Journal 114 (20): 177. as they created multiple fully realized and distinct worlds. The series also displayed Weis and Hickman's continued command of the fantasy genre.Green, Roland. (August 1994). Booklist vol 90 (22): 2030.
As in their previous works, the authors continued to explore the theme of balance, and how the universe naturally works to correct imbalances.Hickman, Tracy, Denise Little and Margaret Weis (1999). Realms of Dragons: The Universes of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. HarperPrism, 14. .
Unlike in Dragonlance, where the universe's balance was a greater force than even the gods, the existence of a god or gods in The Death Gate Cycle is unknown; a universal balance is the closest thing to divinity. Along a similar line, the authors continued to explore the theme of men becoming gods—in this case with the entire Patryn and Sartan races clamoring for that throne. Finally, as in both Dragonlance and the Darksword series, they explored the effects of sweeping changes to the fundamental nature of a world (in this case worlds) on both the day-to-day life and the fate of nations.
Similar to the central concept of The Lord of the Rings, which J. R. R. Tolkien claimed was a translation of a real tome in his keeping (the Red Book of Westmarch), The Death Gate Cycle claims to be documentation of the events revolving around Death's Gate, authored after the fact by its primary characters. Even more than that, it is a scholarly document, with footnotes containing definitions of terms, references to past adventures and authorial asides. Each novel contains appendices giving further detail on various aspects of the story and its world, often summarizing (or occasionally laying the groundwork for) information related in the narrative proper. Finally, most of the novels also contain a musical score at the end, documenting a song (or sometimes a Sartan music-based rune-construct) featured in that particular volume.
Worlds in the series The Earth was destroyed. Four worlds were created out of the ruin. Worlds for ourselves and the mensch: Air, Fire, Stone, Water. Four Gates connect each world to the other: Arianus to Pryan to Abarrach to Chelestra. A house of correction was built for our enemies: the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is connected to the other worlds through the Fifth Gate: the Nexus. The Sixth Gate is the center, permitting entry: the Vortex. And all was accomplished through the Seventh Gate. The end was the beginning. — Weis & Hickman, Into The Labyrinth pg. 9
Earth Before the main timeline of the series, life on Earth was nearly wiped out. Humans unleashed a nuclear war that killed millions, leaving the survivors struggling in the Age of Dust. Elves and dwarves, who had gone into hiding during the Renaissance, also suffered from what the humans had wrought with their science. In this chaos, a mutant strain of humans emerged who were once again able to feel the Wave—that which maintains balance and order in the universe. Recognizing its potential for magic, they developed runes to harness it. Originally, there was only one group, the Sartan. The Sartan used magic by drawing runes on the ground and in the air, augmented by singing and spoken word; they believed that their power gave them responsibility and stewardship over the lesser races, whom they called mensch. The Sartan believed in community, unity, and family, the basis of Order. However, in their conceit, they forgot about the Wave's tendency to balance everything. As the Sartan became too powerful, the Wave shifted and the Patryns came to be. Unlike the Sartan, the Patryns were loners, volatile and destructive; they believed that their powers gave them the right to do as they would. Patryns tattooed the runes on themselves and chose their name to mock the Sartan (see Languages below). These two races came into conflict over control and influence of the mensch. Both came to think of themselves as gods, though the Sartan believed themselves to be the "good guys".
Eventually the Sartan, led by Samah and his Council of Seven, and driven by their own fear, undertook drastic measures. They broke the planet Earth into four separate worlds, each one focusing on a separate element (air, earth, fire, and water). This cataclysmic moment of destruction and re-creation is known as the Sundering. Millions of mensch died, with only chosen populations magically isolated for resettlement. The Patryns were captured and imprisoned in the Labyrinth which the Sartan created for their "rehabilitation". The Vortex (or the Sixth Gate) was the entry point to the Labyrinth, where the mensch were temporarily housed during the Sundering itself and where the captured Patryns were eventually placed. The books later reveal that certain members of the Sartan population had objected to The Sundering; these too were consigned to the Vortex and the Labyrinth. In the center of the Labyrinth was the Nexus, a paradise city for the Patryns to live in once they had become "civilized." The Nexus, the Labyrinth, and the Vortex are arranged in concentric circles. All of these worlds are connected by Death's Gate, and smaller, one-way gates called Conduits which allow each elemental world to transmit materials to one another.
The Sartan were left in stewardship of not just one world, but many, all designed to work in perfect harmony. The Plan of the Council of Seven was the grand construction of interconnected worlds, each with a specific function that fed into the whole. Almost immediately, however, things began to go wrong.
Chelestra, the world of water Chelestra was to be the primary world where the mensch and Sartan would live. A great orb of liquid, the world was populated by great drifting beasts used as habitats for the mensch, with its own "Seasun" at the center. An appendix for Serpent Mage describes this liquid as not actually water, but a fluid which can be breathed through lungs and gills. Chelestra was also intended as a tremendous waste management and recycling plant, with the great floating habitat-beasts called "durnai" serving as biological recycling stations for the detritus from the other worlds. However, strange serpents, creatures of great power and corruption - that the Sartan had not created - began to appear. The Sartan could not account for their existence, but their danger was undeniable. Even worse, the emulsion fluid of Chelestra had a neutralizing effect on Sartan rune magic, rendering it and them utterly powerless. Surrounded by water that took away their power, no longer in control of the mensch, and faced with the serpents, the Sartan of Chelestra retreated into their capital. Samah, fearing what would happen if the serpents spread to the other worlds, shut Death's Gate, cutting communication between the worlds. The Sartan then placed themselves into a stasis sleep, expecting it to only last long enough for the other worlds to finish their parts of the grand plan and come help. This contributed to the disappearance of the Sartan from the mensch worlds, setting up the main series' events.
Arianus, the world of air On Arianus, intended as an industrial and manufacturing world of floating continents, the Sartan had other problems. Cut off from communication with the other worlds (Chelestra specifically and the Council), the Sartan were slowly dying of some unknown cause, quickly becoming vastly outnumbered by the mensch. These Sartan also settled into hibernation, hoping for help from the other worlds. The Kicksey-winsey, a grand machine intended to align the floating continents and provide them with water (water being a direct byproduct of its production cycle), as well as manufacture all the processed goods desired by the other worlds, never became properly active. The dwarves, known on this world as Gegs, not truly understanding its purpose, effectively became slaves to the machine, worshiping it after a fashion as an artifact of their gods, the Mangers, (known to others as the Sartans) who had placed them there as its caretakers. The elves became tyrannical lords of much of the mid-realm through manipulation of the dwarves to obtain a monopoly on water, whilst constantly waging war with the humans.
Pryan, the world of fire Pryan was created as a great inverted globe with four small suns at its center. It was to be the power plant and center for all four worlds, but it too fell into chaos. Great Citadels collected the energy from Pryan's four suns and beamed it through conduits to the other three worlds (the Colossi on Abarrach, the Kicksey-winsey on Arianus and the seasun on Chelestra). Covered entirely by miles-thick jungle (only the dwarves had ever seen the legendary 'ground') the Citadels were to be the bastions of civilization, where the Mensch would live a life of plenty and comfort. However, as with the other worlds, the Sartan mysteriously began to die. In fear, some citadels banished the mensch to the jungle. The Tytans, great blind giants of immense power created by the Sartan to manage the power systems of the citadels, were also banished because of fear they could no longer be controlled by the remaining Sartan. The Tytans went on to be an unstoppable terror as they searched for the citadels, trying to get home.
Abarrach, the world of stone