So, at the risk of being slapped around for bringing this up, I am wondering if anyone else has seen a bias in the recently published Dragonlance campaign. Although I cannot say for certain, I believe I have enjoyed seeing a pretty even spread of race and gender throughout the 5e WotC campaigns. And while I am really enjoying the playthrough of Shadow of the Dragon Queen, I've noticed that there is a strong bias toward female NPCs in the writing. Granted, I have not read all the way through the campaign, but I do believe there is a pattern. For instance, here are the NPCs through the chapter on Kalaman:
Becklin Uth Viharin = Female
Darrett Highwater = Male
Lord Bakaris Uth Estide = Male
Bakaris the Younger = Male
Yalme (owner of the Brass Crab) = Female
Froswin = Gender Unknown
Raven Uth Vogler = Female
Captain Ridomir “Cudgel” Ironsmile = Female
Jeyev Veldrews (mercenary assassin) = Male
Wharfinger Umpton Lanth = Male
Leedara = Female
Gragonis (Cudgel's disloyal lieutenant) - Female
Than (creator of the gnomeflinger) = Male
Kansaldi Fire Eyes = Female
Governor Calof Miat = Male
Marshal Nestra Vendri = Female
Kadmos and Tiria Hammerstrike = Gender Unknown
Meulara (Meulara's Oddities) = Female
Jesen Thold (of the Steady Beacon) = Gender Unknown
Wyhan (black-robe mage) = Female
Tatina Rookledust = Female
(bolded names are NPCs with relevance to the story)
I would argue that most all of the main NPCs who have a positive impact on the story are female, with the exception of Darrett Highwater. And, the only NPCs who seem to have a negative impact on the story thus far (Lord Bakaris and his son) are male. Yes, there certainly is Kansaldi Fire Eyes, who is female, but my players have yet to interact with her.
Is there a thematic element in the story that I've missed? I have no issue with female characters (putting that out there before I'm accused of it), but there is definitely a strong bias towards them in this campaign. Just wondering: 1. if anyone has recognized this, and 2. what your thoughts might be.
Keep in mind the classic Dragonlance story was already written years ago; there’s a lot of fixed characters in the narrative. Honestly, I would say you’re over analyzing this, rather than that it’s some deliberate agenda.
Could be... I'm certainly open to the possibility. And, truth be told, it's been years since I read the original Trilogy. I actually happened to read about Bakaris and his son on Google earlier, and apparentlly, in the original works, there was a character named Bakaris who was a real rat b@$^@!#.
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Keep in mind the classic Dragonlance story was already written years ago; there’s a lot of fixed characters in the narrative. Honestly, I would say you’re over analyzing this, rather than that it’s some deliberate agenda.
Well the module doesn't interact with the books in anyway (other than the war happening at the same time - but it is purposely off in a region the books never touched, so no need to interact with characters from the book). However, that said - in the classic Dragonlance books, I would dare to say Goldmoon (female human) really was the main character of the story (sure, some might say Tanis - but they'd be nowhere without Goldmoon). Then for the evil side, no one really struck out as much as Kitiara Uth Matar (blue dragon rider and Tanis' love and... well, we all know how things go down between her and Sturm if we've read the books - no spoilers here). Some might say Verminaard of Nidus, but I'd argue that. And then the big bad is none other than the most dreaded female of all Takhisis (Tiamat herself).
So Dragonlance has always had a strong female presence/importance. And I think part of that is Margaret Weis being one half of the writing team.
Bakaris appears to be intended to be the same character, he`s just a little bit younger in this. A character called Dalamar also turns up at one point, he becomes Raistlin`s apprentice some years after the War of the Lance. There do seem to be some references to the older material in this but I think they got the name of the governor wrong.
At this point, I think the governor should be Calof`s father Lerrin, particularly due to his fate within the story. Calof should still be alive later in order to hand the office over to Gilthanus in "Dragons of Spring Dawning".
Keep in mind the classic Dragonlance story was already written years ago; there’s a lot of fixed characters in the narrative. Honestly, I would say you’re over analyzing this, rather than that it’s some deliberate agenda.
Well the module doesn't interact with the books in anyway (other than the war happening at the same time - but it is purposely off in a region the books never touched, so no need to interact with characters from the book). However, that said - in the classic Dragonlance books, I would dare to say Goldmoon (female human) really was the main character of the story (sure, some might say Tanis - but they'd be nowhere without Goldmoon). Then for the evil side, no one really struck out as much as Kitiara Uth Matar (blue dragon rider and Tanis' love and... well, we all know how things go down between her and Sturm if we've read the books - no spoilers here). Some might say Verminaard of Nidus, but I'd argue that. And then the big bad is none other than the most dreaded female of all Takhisis (Tiamat herself).
So Dragonlance has always had a strong female presence/importance. And I think part of that is Margaret Weis being one half of the writing team.
Goldmoon is important for world building or at least world restoration; but I'd also add Laurana is there initially posed as a distraction for Tanis, but ultimately proves to be the hero who picks up the slack and leads the good guys in the war while Tanis is off ... figuring himself out in a tavern with Kit.
As for the census. I dunno. Skimming the module, the war is on, and it's fairly common in times of war for population centers' demographics to skew female while military aged men (and in Krynn that's a pretty broad age range) are out either enlisted in one of the wars sides or seeking opportunity as a soldier of fortune, this includes taking on duties like constabulary work and militia and civil defense duties. There's a whole world of scholarship on the actual role of women in communities during wartime and how the accounting of said work is often shoved aside in the popular historical fictions, but that'd be a big digression. In any case, post Cataclysm the world of Krynn in a number of novels had a number of situations where characters were abandoning social stations and doing things their own new way.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Bakaris appears to be intended to be the same character, he`s just a little bit younger in this. A character called Dalamar also turns up at one point, he becomes Raistlin`s apprentice some years after the War of the Lance.
Oh snap! Dalamar is in the module? Easily my favorite character.
I stopped reading it (I DM for a number of games, but all homebrew, but buy all the books for ideas, monsters, etc) because one of the DMs I play in a game for (we just finished Storm King's Thunder) - is now going to DM the Dragonlance one (where I am playing a Human White Robed Wizard, going Evocation). Damn. If Dalamar is in the game, may need to shift to Black Robes. :D
I haven't done a detailed accounting of this module, but it seems to be within a few standard deviations of population norm. Or to be put more clearly, the imbalance is small enough to not be reason for concern.
Some of the official 5e modules heavily favor male NPCs so having a few weighted towards female would help balance the totality of the modules for this edition.
It's absolutely intentional. I'm preparing Chapter 3 and literally everyone in a position of power or an NPC of real consequence is a woman. I'm fine with Women NPCs but a little variety would be nice. I swapped Becklin into a man because I have a really hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia decades before the War of the lance.
It's absolutely intentional. I'm preparing Chapter 3 and literally everyone in a position of power or an NPC of real consequence is a woman. I'm fine with Women NPCs but a little variety would be nice. I swapped Becklin into a man because I have a really hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia decades before the War of the lance.
I agree with your assessment, with the exception of Darrett... not that he has much consequence in the beginning, but he does sorta grow. In my campaign, he's the only one that can christen one of my PCs into the knighthood, giving him some more relevance.
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Maybe read the original Dragonlance. One of the authors is female and Gold Moon, one of the most important characters is also female. Many of the NPCs are already established characters and this all takes place at the same time as the original trilogy. Personally, I'm more concerned with the fact that they state that Kansaldi is attacking Kalaman on orders from Vermingaard and that she is supposed to die as the bbeg when we know in fact that Vermingaard had been dead for a year and Kansaldi had to return to the Dragon High Lord and give up the attack on Kalaman during the Dragon Lords summit. It was after that when High Dragon Lord took control over the Red Dragon Army and commanded Kansaldi to take Kalaman that she died. Wizards out here acting like a movie producer and can't even get the story straight when all they had to do was read a book.
The trouble is though there are a LOT of books, and modules, and supplements covering three versions of the game. Consequently, there are inconsistencies going back way before WOTC took over. Timelines are confusing, some NPCs have ended up with more than one backstory, and the overall background allows for time travel and multiple timelines.
Could they have done better, possibly but no matter how they tried it's a given that something would get missed and get taken to task for.
As to when this takes place, my own take on this going by some of the information from the older modules the time frame is roughly consistent with the events of the first novel and the first four published modules with the PC`s arriving in Vogler shortly before the events at Pax Tharkas happen (though after Xak Tsaroth). Kansaldi is commanding the third wing of the Red Dragonarmy, the first and second wings being with Verminaard down in Abanasinia at this time.
She is actually, at this point working directly under the command of Emperor Ariakus acting as security for the Emperor`s flying citadel project rather than her direct superior Lord Verminaard. The one in The City of Lost Names is something of a prototype with a couple of others slightly behind in construction down near Sanction.
Possibly she may not actually die in this adventure even if she appears to, the "obscure death" rule being in effect at this point in the narrative or you use the board game to end the story so the problem doesn`t even arise. That way she can still be around in the sole (rather later written and not by the Hickmans) novel in which she appears or in the DL15 adventure scenario "Mother Love" set in the early post War of the Lance period. That`s assuming we are in a timeline where key events still happen in your campaign.
You are correct, there are more prominent women NPCs in Dragonlance 5e than men NOCs. I think this is intentional for a few reasons. Historically Wizards of the Coast (pre-Hasbro) and TSR mostly focused on male leading NPCs. However, the market is changing as D&D is now a lifestyle brand and Wizbro currently pays women to play D&D online via their streaming games to represent the brand, in an effort to encourage more women to play D&D. And, the marketing money being spent on paid actors, YouTubers, influencers, and Twitch partners is working. As more and more women join the game, they like to see themselves represented too, preferably without chainmail bikini armor.
Lastly, I also noticed how Wizbro did not include a VTT map for the Tatina Rookledust encounter, which is curious seeing how they are aggressive marketing their new complete VTT D&D 6.0 platform 🤷🏻♂️. I would hope the publishers learn how to include **all** of the materials we require to run their game on any VT system, but alack alas, it’s not meant to be for Dragonlance 5e, or “Lost Mine of Phandelver”, or “Out of the Abyss”, or any of the other VTT modules without adequate encounter maps.
Anyhoo, let me step off this soapbox. If anyone needs a Tatina Rookledust encounter map, I recently made a few for all the DMs who are running this module; it’s a freebie.
It's absolutely intentional. I'm preparing Chapter 3 and literally everyone in a position of power or an NPC of real consequence is a woman. I'm fine with Women NPCs but a little variety would be nice. I swapped Becklin into a man because I have a really hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia decades before the War of the lance.
My own approach here, if I ever end up running this after my existing game based on the old Dragonlance modules ends would be to reduce her rank in the order to senior squire and suggest that the only reason she failed her knights trial was for some bogus reason like not being able to grow a mustache of sufficient size to suit what "The Measure" deemed as appropriate.
I think I might also set up the Knights of Kalaman as a small splinter group of knights and squires who had grown disenchanted by the Solomnic order`s insistence on placing "The Measure" above "The Oath" and have founded their own order in response.
The thing was, women could always become Solomnic Knights provided they came from one of the noble families that you had to be a member of to qualify. If there were no male heirs in the family that would help but, by the time of The War of the Lance there was a sort of "glass ceiling" in effect that made rising through the ranks for anybody, male or female whose face didn`t fit just about impossible. Sturm`s backstory is good evidence of that as is Lord Gwyn (Gwyneth) Lightfoot (from the Mother Love adventure) who found it easier to just do the "Mulan" thing.
It's absolutely intentional. I'm preparing Chapter 3 and literally everyone in a position of power or an NPC of real consequence is a woman. I'm fine with Women NPCs but a little variety would be nice. I swapped Becklin into a man because I have a really hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia decades before the War of the lance.
I'm perhaps not as familiar as you with the setting then - could you explain for me why you have a hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia in that era?
True, one of the creators of the Dragonlance settings is a woman, so a certain female inclination is to be expected. This if great, especially with more and more female DMs out there these days that may struggle or feel under-represented, roleplaying so many male NPC's. Keep in mind, that as a DM you have the option to gender swap any of these characters. I'm about to start running it this weekend and personally, I don't have a real deep bench of female voices/personalities that I can use to give each NPC a unique character. So I will likely gender swap some of the less important NPCs.
Hey there, at the risk of necroing a thread, long time Dragonlance nerd from the 80s here!
As much as a part of me cringes, I have to agree with Asbel's post from 2023 that at the time of the attacks against Kalaman in the new campaign guide (which takes place before Laurana, the Golden General rode in to back them up in the book "Dragons of Spring Dawning"), the Solamnic Order was shown in the books to have fallen into the trap of light-to-heavy misogyny, to the point that when Laurana was trying to drum up support in the major city of Palanthus, it took Astinus of Palanthus (heavily-suspected to be the mortal form of the god Gilean) coming in and saying: "yes, Lord of Palanthus, there HAVE been women in the Knighthood before, here's an example who joined after her brothers were killed (also knights), she died nobly after rising to Knight of the Sword and was lauded by her fellow Knights."
It was suspected (not confirmed that I'm aware of though) that it was in the years leading up to the Cataclysm that the Knighthood began it's fall from grace, becoming more obsessed with appearance and bloodline pedigrees than anything else. Having Mecklin be male, or a 'failed' female squire being put conveniently out of the way to avoid embarrassment, is far more like Solamnic Order behavior in this time period. After Dragons of Spring Dawning and towards the start of the Legends trilogy is when you would see an influx of female aspirants.
So, at the risk of being slapped around for bringing this up, I am wondering if anyone else has seen a bias in the recently published Dragonlance campaign. Although I cannot say for certain, I believe I have enjoyed seeing a pretty even spread of race and gender throughout the 5e WotC campaigns. And while I am really enjoying the playthrough of Shadow of the Dragon Queen, I've noticed that there is a strong bias toward female NPCs in the writing. Granted, I have not read all the way through the campaign, but I do believe there is a pattern. For instance, here are the NPCs through the chapter on Kalaman:
(bolded names are NPCs with relevance to the story)
I would argue that most all of the main NPCs who have a positive impact on the story are female, with the exception of Darrett Highwater. And, the only NPCs who seem to have a negative impact on the story thus far (Lord Bakaris and his son) are male. Yes, there certainly is Kansaldi Fire Eyes, who is female, but my players have yet to interact with her.
Is there a thematic element in the story that I've missed? I have no issue with female characters (putting that out there before I'm accused of it), but there is definitely a strong bias towards them in this campaign. Just wondering: 1. if anyone has recognized this, and 2. what your thoughts might be.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Keep in mind the classic Dragonlance story was already written years ago; there’s a lot of fixed characters in the narrative. Honestly, I would say you’re over analyzing this, rather than that it’s some deliberate agenda.
Could be... I'm certainly open to the possibility. And, truth be told, it's been years since I read the original Trilogy. I actually happened to read about Bakaris and his son on Google earlier, and apparentlly, in the original works, there was a character named Bakaris who was a real rat b@$^@!#.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Well the module doesn't interact with the books in anyway (other than the war happening at the same time - but it is purposely off in a region the books never touched, so no need to interact with characters from the book). However, that said - in the classic Dragonlance books, I would dare to say Goldmoon (female human) really was the main character of the story (sure, some might say Tanis - but they'd be nowhere without Goldmoon). Then for the evil side, no one really struck out as much as Kitiara Uth Matar (blue dragon rider and Tanis' love and... well, we all know how things go down between her and Sturm if we've read the books - no spoilers here). Some might say Verminaard of Nidus, but I'd argue that. And then the big bad is none other than the most dreaded female of all Takhisis (Tiamat herself).
So Dragonlance has always had a strong female presence/importance. And I think part of that is Margaret Weis being one half of the writing team.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
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Bakaris appears to be intended to be the same character, he`s just a little bit younger in this. A character called Dalamar also turns up at one point, he becomes Raistlin`s apprentice some years after the War of the Lance. There do seem to be some references to the older material in this but I think they got the name of the governor wrong.
At this point, I think the governor should be Calof`s father Lerrin, particularly due to his fate within the story. Calof should still be alive later in order to hand the office over to Gilthanus in "Dragons of Spring Dawning".
Goldmoon is important for world building or at least world restoration; but I'd also add Laurana is there initially posed as a distraction for Tanis, but ultimately proves to be the hero who picks up the slack and leads the good guys in the war while Tanis is off ... figuring himself out in a tavern with Kit.
As for the census. I dunno. Skimming the module, the war is on, and it's fairly common in times of war for population centers' demographics to skew female while military aged men (and in Krynn that's a pretty broad age range) are out either enlisted in one of the wars sides or seeking opportunity as a soldier of fortune, this includes taking on duties like constabulary work and militia and civil defense duties. There's a whole world of scholarship on the actual role of women in communities during wartime and how the accounting of said work is often shoved aside in the popular historical fictions, but that'd be a big digression. In any case, post Cataclysm the world of Krynn in a number of novels had a number of situations where characters were abandoning social stations and doing things their own new way.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Oh snap! Dalamar is in the module? Easily my favorite character.
I stopped reading it (I DM for a number of games, but all homebrew, but buy all the books for ideas, monsters, etc) because one of the DMs I play in a game for (we just finished Storm King's Thunder) - is now going to DM the Dragonlance one (where I am playing a Human White Robed Wizard, going Evocation). Damn. If Dalamar is in the game, may need to shift to Black Robes. :D
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Its more of a cameo appearance really but he is there and we even get an illustration.
I don’t have a definite opinion on whether or not there’s an imbalance of female NPCs in this campaign, but this is a fascinating discussion. Thanks.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
I haven't done a detailed accounting of this module, but it seems to be within a few standard deviations of population norm. Or to be put more clearly, the imbalance is small enough to not be reason for concern.
Some of the official 5e modules heavily favor male NPCs so having a few weighted towards female would help balance the totality of the modules for this edition.
It's absolutely intentional. I'm preparing Chapter 3 and literally everyone in a position of power or an NPC of real consequence is a woman. I'm fine with Women NPCs but a little variety would be nice. I swapped Becklin into a man because I have a really hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia decades before the War of the lance.
I agree with your assessment, with the exception of Darrett... not that he has much consequence in the beginning, but he does sorta grow. In my campaign, he's the only one that can christen one of my PCs into the knighthood, giving him some more relevance.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Maybe read the original Dragonlance. One of the authors is female and Gold Moon, one of the most important characters is also female. Many of the NPCs are already established characters and this all takes place at the same time as the original trilogy. Personally, I'm more concerned with the fact that they state that Kansaldi is attacking Kalaman on orders from Vermingaard and that she is supposed to die as the bbeg when we know in fact that Vermingaard had been dead for a year and Kansaldi had to return to the Dragon High Lord and give up the attack on Kalaman during the Dragon Lords summit. It was after that when High Dragon Lord took control over the Red Dragon Army and commanded Kansaldi to take Kalaman that she died. Wizards out here acting like a movie producer and can't even get the story straight when all they had to do was read a book.
The trouble is though there are a LOT of books, and modules, and supplements covering three versions of the game. Consequently, there are inconsistencies going back way before WOTC took over. Timelines are confusing, some NPCs have ended up with more than one backstory, and the overall background allows for time travel and multiple timelines.
Could they have done better, possibly but no matter how they tried it's a given that something would get missed and get taken to task for.
As to when this takes place, my own take on this going by some of the information from the older modules the time frame is roughly consistent with the events of the first novel and the first four published modules with the PC`s arriving in Vogler shortly before the events at Pax Tharkas happen (though after Xak Tsaroth). Kansaldi is commanding the third wing of the Red Dragonarmy, the first and second wings being with Verminaard down in Abanasinia at this time.
She is actually, at this point working directly under the command of Emperor Ariakus acting as security for the Emperor`s flying citadel project rather than her direct superior Lord Verminaard. The one in The City of Lost Names is something of a prototype with a couple of others slightly behind in construction down near Sanction.
Possibly she may not actually die in this adventure even if she appears to, the "obscure death" rule being in effect at this point in the narrative or you use the board game to end the story so the problem doesn`t even arise. That way she can still be around in the sole (rather later written and not by the Hickmans) novel in which she appears or in the DL15 adventure scenario "Mother Love" set in the early post War of the Lance period. That`s assuming we are in a timeline where key events still happen in your campaign.
You are correct, there are more prominent women NPCs in Dragonlance 5e than men NOCs. I think this is intentional for a few reasons. Historically Wizards of the Coast (pre-Hasbro) and TSR mostly focused on male leading NPCs. However, the market is changing as D&D is now a lifestyle brand and Wizbro currently pays women to play D&D online via their streaming games to represent the brand, in an effort to encourage more women to play D&D. And, the marketing money being spent on paid actors, YouTubers, influencers, and Twitch partners is working. As more and more women join the game, they like to see themselves represented too, preferably without chainmail bikini armor.
Lastly, I also noticed how Wizbro did not include a VTT map for the Tatina Rookledust encounter, which is curious seeing how they are aggressive marketing their new complete VTT D&D 6.0 platform 🤷🏻♂️. I would hope the publishers learn how to include **all** of the materials we require to run their game on any VT system, but alack alas, it’s not meant to be for Dragonlance 5e, or “Lost Mine of Phandelver”, or “Out of the Abyss”, or any of the other VTT modules without adequate encounter maps.
Anyhoo, let me step off this soapbox. If anyone needs a Tatina Rookledust encounter map, I recently made a few for all the DMs who are running this module; it’s a freebie.
My own approach here, if I ever end up running this after my existing game based on the old Dragonlance modules ends would be to reduce her rank in the order to senior squire and suggest that the only reason she failed her knights trial was for some bogus reason like not being able to grow a mustache of sufficient size to suit what "The Measure" deemed as appropriate.
I think I might also set up the Knights of Kalaman as a small splinter group of knights and squires who had grown disenchanted by the Solomnic order`s insistence on placing "The Measure" above "The Oath" and have founded their own order in response.
The thing was, women could always become Solomnic Knights provided they came from one of the noble families that you had to be a member of to qualify. If there were no male heirs in the family that would help but, by the time of The War of the Lance there was a sort of "glass ceiling" in effect that made rising through the ranks for anybody, male or female whose face didn`t fit just about impossible. Sturm`s backstory is good evidence of that as is Lord Gwyn (Gwyneth) Lightfoot (from the Mother Love adventure) who found it easier to just do the "Mulan" thing.
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D&D Beyond FoundersI'm perhaps not as familiar as you with the setting then - could you explain for me why you have a hard time buying that women were becoming Knights of Solamnia in that era?
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True, one of the creators of the Dragonlance settings is a woman, so a certain female inclination is to be expected. This if great, especially with more and more female DMs out there these days that may struggle or feel under-represented, roleplaying so many male NPC's. Keep in mind, that as a DM you have the option to gender swap any of these characters. I'm about to start running it this weekend and personally, I don't have a real deep bench of female voices/personalities that I can use to give each NPC a unique character. So I will likely gender swap some of the less important NPCs.
Hey there, at the risk of necroing a thread, long time Dragonlance nerd from the 80s here!
As much as a part of me cringes, I have to agree with Asbel's post from 2023 that at the time of the attacks against Kalaman in the new campaign guide (which takes place before Laurana, the Golden General rode in to back them up in the book "Dragons of Spring Dawning"), the Solamnic Order was shown in the books to have fallen into the trap of light-to-heavy misogyny, to the point that when Laurana was trying to drum up support in the major city of Palanthus, it took Astinus of Palanthus (heavily-suspected to be the mortal form of the god Gilean) coming in and saying: "yes, Lord of Palanthus, there HAVE been women in the Knighthood before, here's an example who joined after her brothers were killed (also knights), she died nobly after rising to Knight of the Sword and was lauded by her fellow Knights."
It was suspected (not confirmed that I'm aware of though) that it was in the years leading up to the Cataclysm that the Knighthood began it's fall from grace, becoming more obsessed with appearance and bloodline pedigrees than anything else. Having Mecklin be male, or a 'failed' female squire being put conveniently out of the way to avoid embarrassment, is far more like Solamnic Order behavior in this time period. After Dragons of Spring Dawning and towards the start of the Legends trilogy is when you would see an influx of female aspirants.
EtainGywnn, you are absolutely correct about the corruption of the Knights of Solamnia. They absolutely needed to update their policies.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."