"What're you doing?" one of my friends asked me.

    "Well," I responded, "I'm designing a site called 'Raistland.'  It's a big site devoted to a Dragonlance character named Raistlin."

    There was a pause, and then my friend asked, in rather disgusted tones, "Why Raistlin?"

    This is a very good question.  Why Raistlin?  What is it about Mr. Majere that makes us want to curl up with Legends for the fifth time, to read and re-read the Soulforge, to make us shiver and grin whenever we look too long at the original cover of Time of the Twins?  I mean, why do we like Raistlin?

    It's certainly not his charming personality; to be honest, he's selfish, whiny, selfish, mean, selfish, overly-ambitious, selfish... did I mention selfish?  And we all know it isn't because he's a nice guy - I'd rank him as one of the top ten most evil wizards of modern fantasy.

    Is it physical attraction?  Well, despite the rugged, enigmatic, and rather dashing pictures Larry Elmore paints of Raistlin, we all know he is, in "reality," a sickly, frail, wrinkly little thing.  Not to mention the coughing fits all the time...  Not what I normally look for in a guy, that's for sure!  I think Zifnab (Fizban's twin from the Death Gate Cycle) summed it up best when he said, "Raistlin...? Annoying chap, always hacking and coughing up blood all the time.  Disgusting!"

    Could it be the magic?  Is his whole aura just so overwhelming that as we read about Raistlin as he's casting a spell we, too, are entranced right along with Bupu?  Probably not.

    So what is it, exactly, that makes hundreds of fans flock to join the 'Raistlinites' every month?  What is it about our sickly dark-souled mage that makes so many admire and some swoon when his name is mentioned?  Of all the characters, why Raistlin?

    My answer: Raistlin acts as a mirror.  More than the images of his co-stars are reflected in those hourglass eyes.  When we read about Raistlin, it's as if we're following the adventures of our own dark sides.  In Raistlin, we see a little bit of ourselves.  Maybe we didn't have tortured childhoods; certainly all of us don't share his personality traits.    But still, in his struggles to be, ultimately, accepted, perhaps we find our own longings for love; in his bittersweet triumph, we find ourselves confronted with our own wishes for the power we may never find.  Justarius summed this up best when he said, "We've all been laughed at one time in our lives. We've all been jealous of someone. We have felt pain and suffered, just as he has suffered. And we've all longed - just once - for the power to crush our enemies. We pity him. We hate him. We fear him - all because there is a little of him in each of us, though we admit it to ourselves only in the darkest part of the night."  

    ...Or, maybe we just like him because he's so damn cool!

    Whatever the reason, it's enough to sell the books and keep readers speculating and wanting more.  Perhaps, somewhere deep inside, we're all a little dark-souled.