383 years ago, the gods decided to punish the kingdom of Istar for attempting to break the divine balance between good and evil by eradicating evil, and for helping their ruler in his attempts to ascend to godhead.
They took away all the priests to their divine realm, and destroyed the kingdom completely.
To one man, knight of the rose Loren Soth, they gave the opportunity to stop their punishment. But instead he was seduced by agents of the evil goddess Thakisis and turned to evil. At that exact moment their divine wrath hit the world, and Loren Soth became the mighty deathknight Lord Soth, knight of the Black Rose.

The world was in chaos for a long time, and knowledge of the gods was lost.
Eventually stability returned to the world, but distrust among the races remained.

33 years ago a group of heroes were set upon a path that led them to the rediscovery of the truth about the gods. They also learned of the return to the world of evil dragons and the blackmail that kept the good dragons out of the coming war.
Along the way they learned of the ancient mighty weapons called dragonlances, and learned the secret of how to forge them. They fought mighty battles and gathered armies to repell the invading dragon armies, and in the end they travelled to the heart of evil, the temple where evil priests and wizards performed rituals to try and bring the evil goddess Thakisis into the world and plunge it into darkness.

30 years have passed since the end of what became known as the War of the Lance.
Peace has come to Ansalon, and with the evidence of the return of the gods belief in them spread as well.
Understanding between the races grew and borders were opened again.
But Thakisis didn’t sleep. She made new plans.
And now rumours are spreading of strange things happening on the borders of Ansalon and fear and distrust are growing again.

On the morning of the Harvest Festival, in the heart of summer and usually the hottest day of the year, people all around Ansalon awaken feeling cold and to their horror they find the world around them is covered in ice and snow. And it is clear to all: this has to be evil magic. And a cry goes out for heroes to stand up once more and face this evil.