with Riverwind affirming his intention to request a Courting quest, which would give him the right to marry Goldmoon. Paul B. Thompson and Tonya C. Cook give details of such quest in the novel Riverwind the Plainsman (1990), which takes place during the five-year period prior to the reunion of the Companions at Solace. According to Thompson, unlike some of the characters, "Riverwind wasn't fully developed in the earlier books. We essentially had a character and had to make up a lot of background for him". The character, needing to find proof that the ancient gods existed, travels to Xak Tsaroth and retrieves the Blue Crystal Staff, a holy relic blessed by Mishakal herself, guarded by Khisanth, a black dragon. Although the novel ends with the delivery of the staff, in Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984) the authors explain, through Goldmoon, that the tribe tried to stone him when he could not explain how the staff could prove the existence of the old gods. However, before they started stoning, Goldmoon embraced him, and both vanished from the tribe. Character art for Riverwind was first created by Larry Elmore. According to Elmore, Margaret Weis appreciated Keith Parkinson's attempt to incorporate Weis's vision of Goldmoon as "Native American with a Celtic touch". Development through the series Chronicles Trilogy As in the "Heart of Goldmoon" short story, Riverwind is given the role of Goldmoon's protector in Dragons of Autumn Twilight (1984). Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman kept his involvement at a minimum, only describing him as a character with a serious demeanor. The War of the Lance sourcebook (2004) indicates that he is a man of few words, proud and wary of strangers, who does not make friends easily and people have to go a long way to earn his regard. It is only after Sturm Brightblade—Squire of the Knights of Solamnia and one of the members of a group of friends who met them in Solace—feels his honor has been insulted that Riverwind's behavior is modified, becoming somewhat friendlier. He is particularly distrustful of those not of human race or magic users, and so Raistlin earned his constant mistrust while he was surprised the first time Tanis was introduced as the leader of the Companions. Understandably, it is in battle sequences where the authors give him more protagonism, effectively drawing on his past as a trained warrior. It is in one of