Bertrem's Note

Diaries, as the reader of this account may well have gathered by now, are the meat and drink of the historian. In no document does the ordinary citizen so tellingly reveal his or her hopes and sorrows, joys and fears.

My researchers have made ample use of these materials in their reports on Krynn in this age of war. Whether from the journal of an elven poet in Qualinost or of a frightened little girl in Solace or of a brave old soldier in Sanction, these entries are a window into the soul of Ansalon.

To conclude, then, it seems only fitting to reproduce a journal of another young soul, this time of an elf of the Silvanesti. Sister Nancy Berberick of our order obtained and edited this journal before handing it over to me, and, I think the reader will admit, she has done an admirable job. Here again we see the ordinary emotions of a young girl on the brink of womanhood (a transition, I hasten to add, about which I personally know little or nothing but have received reliable reports from those in a position to understand) played out against the terrible story of the disasters that have overcome the Silvanesti people.

The sickness of which Evelyne Stargrace speaks is the wasting sickness brought about by the shield that the dragon Cyan Bloodbane (falsely disguised as an elf) dropped over Silvanesti.