He is twin brother to Caramon Majere, half-brother to his protective sister Kitiara uth Matar, and a significant member of the Heroes of the Lance.

He undertook and passed the arduous Test of High Sorcery, but in the process, he acquired white hair and golden skin and was cursed with hourglass eyes which saw the effects of time on all things.

[1] Raistlin Majere was created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman as one of several characters to be involved in an epic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign which they had written and designed.

As Margaret Weis describes in the foreword of her prequel book, The Soulforge, Terry Phillips is the man responsible for much of Raistlin's sarcastic and caustic character, taking it to depths that neither she nor Hickman had ever imagined.

During the five years in which the future Heroes of the Lance go their separate ways, Raistlin takes the Test of High Sorcery at the Tower of Wayreth, where he acquires golden skin and is cursed with hourglass eyes that cause him to see time as it affects all things.

He dons the black robes worn by evil wizards (those who worship Nuitari) and eventually rises to become the most powerful mortal on Krynn (through a deal he made with the ancient archmage Fistandantilus during his test in the Tower of High Sorcery).

Possibly as a result of this early illness, Raistlin was always a sickly child, but possessed a fierce intellect, in stark contrast to his slow-thinking, but not unintelligent, physically stronger twin.

In fact, according to the common lore of the world of Krynn (supported by statements made by the god, Paladine, in the closing chapters of Dragons of Spring Dawning), identical twins were considered to be one person split in two.

After a desperate prayer to the three gods of magic, who visited him and made him swear to worship them, the words lit up with such ferocity that the skin was utterly consumed.

At her funeral, driven nearly senseless and hallucinating with his grief, Raistlin showed great disregard for the inclement weather that oversaw it and fell into a deep fever.

It was there that Raistlin encountered the cult of the false god Belzor, and where he again met the Renegade Wizard, Judith, who was using magic to bamboozle the townspeople into believing in her.

By revealing she was using magic and not the powers of a god (by casting a spell of his own), Raistlin proved that she was a charlatan, destroying her cult and at the same time invoking the wrath of the townspeople against himself, coming dangerously close to being burned at the stake.

It burst harmlessly, its effects dissipated, showering him with sparks and globs of flame that struck his hands and astonished face and then vanished in a sizzle, as if they were falling into standing water.

Feeling a breath of air hitting his neck, Raistlin manages to turn his body, changing what would have been an instantly killing knife thrust into one that does severe damage but leaves him alive.

As Raistlin prepares to cast a final spell that he knows will kill him in his weakened state, Caramon suddenly conjures lightning that strikes the floating head.

It was also at this time that they heard of an army of mercenaries (led by the Mad Baron of Langtree) - information given to them by the white-robed wizard Antimodes, a close friend of Par-Salian.

It was Immolatus' mission to locate for Takhisis the eggs of the gold and silver dragons that lay in the mountains where the nearby city of Hope's End was besieged.

It wasn't until later when Raistlin has manipulated events to put himself in a position of power over the Conclave, that he demanded they make no effort to hunt him or to interfere with him in any way.

Fistandantilus was able to petition the Dark Queen for a mysterious item known as the Key of Knowledge, which Raistlin was able to use to unlock a number of ancient tomes and gain vast power in the process.

The white wizard Par-Salian sent Caramon, the cleric of Paladine Crysania, and, by accident, the kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot to the same time period in a desperate attempt to stop him.

The presence of Tasslehoff horrified Par-Salian, as unlike humans, elves, ogres, and dragons, kender (who came into being by accident, not a creation of the gods) are capable of changing time.

Crysania's presence was an effort to wake her from a coma brought on by a confrontation with the death knight Lord Soth, something only the Kingpriest of Istar could accomplish.

It was the intent of the wizards for Crysania to either follow the true priests who were gathered unto the gods prior to the Cataclysm, or die when the fiery mountain struck Istar, thereby thwarting Raistlin's plans.

The magical explosion pushes Caramon and Tasslehoff into the future, where it is revealed that Raistlin was successful in defeating Takhisis and has gone on to destroy the other gods and all life on Krynn.

Pressed for whatever information he can give them before dying, Par-Salian tells Caramon and Tas that to prevent this future from happening, Raistlin must not be allowed to leave the Abyss.

Terry Phillips, who played Raistlin as a player character in the games Tracy Hickman ran as part of developing Dragonlance, authored the Super Endless Quest gamebook The Soulforge.

[30] In 2010 a Russian musical titled "Последнее испытание (The Last Trial)" emerged, telling the whole story of Legends in 39 songs, written over more than 10 years by Anton Kruglov and Helena Khanpira.

[citation needed] Kiefer Sutherland headlined[31] the animated movie Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, voicing Raistlin, who was one of the main characters in the film.

"[39] Bricken later commented that in Dragons of Spring Dawning, "Raistlin finally goes full black robes, first by teleporting himself off the maelstrom-bound ship, abandoning everyone else, including his devastated twin brother Caramon" but noted that "Weis and Hickman manage to give the new black mage shades of gray by having him join the forces of Takhisis, only to help Tanis kill the goddess' most powerful acolyte, Emperor Ariakis.

Bricken adds that Raistlin "makes clear he's done all of this because it's made him the most powerful force of evil on Krynn, but then he still saves Tasslehoff and Tika from death.