Talk:Princes of Shade

Princes of Shade - Their names and number

There is some lack of clarity about the real number of the sons of Telamont Tanthul. According to "Lords of Darkness", there are 12 princes of Shade. Ten are named, including Melegaunt, but Escanor and Malath from the "Return of the Archwizards"-Trilogy are missing. In the trilogy, however, 13 princes are mentioned (in the following, I refer to the page numbers of the omnibus-edition). In "The Sorcerer" (p. 592) Telamont is called "father of the Thirteen Princes" and at the end of "The Summoning", Melegaunt summons 12 princes. While he stays back in Wulgreth´s layer, three princes go to Evereska, three to Hidden Lake, and six to Shadowdale (p. 233-234). Therefore, Melegaunt is the 13th prince. That leaves the problem of the name of the prince who is obviously killed by Storm Silverhand in the battle of Shadowdale. Actually, his name is nowhere mentioned - he´s simply called "the square-chinned one" (p. 229, 238). When in the final battle at the mythallar of Shade "all ten surviving princes" (p. 651) are mentioned, the number has to include Telamont who joins the fight, because at that time, Melegaunt, Escanor, Rivalen and "the square-chinned one" are dead. If there were only 12 princes, there would be only eigth (excluding Telamont) or nine (including Telamont) surviving princes to fight the Chosen of Mystra.