He is first introduced in the book Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, in Chapter 1: "Old Friends Meet.
As with the other protagonists of this trilogy, Tanis's first appearance was during a role-playing game session in which Tracy and Laura Hickman, Margaret Weis and Terry Phillips between others, set up the basic storyline of Dragonlance.
[4] The novel Tanis, the Shadow Years by Barbara and Scott Siegel takes place during the five-year period prior to the Companions reuniting at Solace.
[5] Tanis journeys into the memory of an old mage as his dying request, to search for the lost love of the old man and give her a chance to live on.
Here the story is elaborated on: his mother, Elansa Sungold, was originally kidnapped by Brand's brigands, however, she later fell in love with him, resulting in Tanis.
Tanis traveled to the nearby town of Solace where he began to work for the dwarven metalsmith Flint Fireforge.
Tanis had met Flint years earlier when the dwarf had come to Qualinost to craft items for Solostaran and the two had developed a friendship.
In the first chapter of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Tanis meets up with the companions five years after they had split to find proof of the true gods.
They travel to Darken Wood, from there to Que-Shu, and then to Xak Tsaroth where they encounter Khisanth (Onyx), who guards the Disks of Mishakal.
In the Sla-Mori, the companions encounter a great slug monster that melts Tanis's sword, when he was momentarily distracted by Laurana, who had followed them.
Afterward, the companions recover the Hammer of Kharas and give it to the refugees, who trade it to the dwarves in exchange for safe haven in Thorbardin.
He briefly had a relationship with her, then fled Flotsam on the Perechon with the others and sank in the Maelstrom with Berem, the Green Gemstone Man that is the target of Kitiara's secret mission.
She accepts, and brings him to the meeting of the Dragon Highlord's to be presented to the Dark Queen though in fact Kitiara plans to betray Tanis as she has already promised Laurana's soul to the death knight, Lord Soth.
Laurana is then carried in by Lord Soth and roughly handled by Kitiara who presents the captured elf woman to the Dark Queen.
Tanis realizes though that he must hide these feelings if he is to have any change of rescuing Laurana, so he treats her coldly, letting her think he is willingly serving Kitiara.
Prior to the meeting, Kit told Tanis he would be presented before the Queen and could ask her for a favor in the form of escorting Laurana to the prison, after which he could sneak her out to the gates and free her.
However, when Tanis kneels before the Dark Queen, he is so overwhelmed he cannot speak, and she commands him to present his sword before Ariakas, a part of the plan he did not know of.
He finally catches up to her but then so does Kitiara who again offers to let Tanis rule alongside her and warns him that Lord Soth is coming to collect Laurana.
Tanis is summoned to Palanthas some three years after his marriage and is told of Raistlin Majere's plan to destroy Takhisis and take her place as head god of evil.
Tasslehoff Burrfoot travels to an alternate time line and reads about Lord Soth killing Tanis in battle.
Tanis instead enters the Tower of High Sorcery along with Caramon and is able to save Dalamar from Kitiara, who is, at the time, mortally wounded.
In his childhood (the first forty or fifty years of his life) he is raised in the court of the Speaker of the Sun, along with Gilthanas, Porthios, and Laurana.
Solostaran Kanan, Speaker of the Sun in the War of the Lance, is legally his uncle and, once marrying Laurana, a father-in-law.
His red beard is a cause, initially, of enmity between him and Gilthanas Kanan, who claims Tanis is "flaunting his human heritage".
[9] Tanis was included in Ral Partha's Dragonlance Heroes boxed figures set of lead miniatures.
Club, notes that the group of adventurers are "led by a half-elf fighter named Tanis, a man torn between his human and elven heritages, because of course he would have to be—who become enmeshed in a battle against the forces of evil striving to take over the dual-mooned, pseudo-medieval world of Krynn and rule it as only the forces of evil could.
"[12] Lauren Davis of io9 notes that while the heroes of the series "are searching for truth, each of these individuals is deeply flawed", and that Tanis "is consumed by his inability to fit completely into either the human or elven worlds".
[13] In the Io9 series revisiting older Dungeons & Dragons novels, Rob Bricken commented that "A bastard (in the technical sense) half-elf who doesn't truly belong in the world of either race; he's a capable leader of the group although he's often plagued by self-doubt.
"[14] Bricken later commented that "Tanis' self-loathing [in Spring Dawning] is a lot more palatable when he has concrete reasons for it, namely the fact he begins the novel literally sleeping with the enemy, and I think his twisted relationship with Kitiara feels authentically self-destructive.
It makes his character arc more satisfying, and it pays off well in the story's final act, when he uses his toxic relationship to rejoin the forces of evil in hopes of freeing Laurana.