The council wanted to give Raistlin an apprentice, but Raistlin agreed. Had Raistlin thought that Dalamar would have just been dead weight, Raistlin would make certain he never made it into the Tower of Palanthas. As well, it's not certain that the council would find someone else, as until Dalamar came along, they hadn't found anyone. Remember, LaDonna was noted as being deathly afraid of Raistlin, pretty much everyone recognized that he was a renagade, and it seemed only Dalamar had the right mixture of talent and ambition to desire to be Raistlin's apprentice, and enough to actually interest Raistlin into taking him on despite knowing that he was a spy.
For Raist it was a means to an end, he accepted Dalamar knowing he was a spy and made it serve his purpose and he wasn't a renegade, he was still a Black robed mage that gained power from the black moon, the problem was the council had no idea what Raistlin was up to or what he was trying to do, being a black, white or red robed mage didn't mean you had to fight for or against the dark queen it was how you went about using your magic. In his case he was actually more of a threat to Krynn then the War of the lance.
Those examples you gave aren't apart of the original "timeline" of those events. Once a change is made then it becomes a completely new timeline with it's own future completely separate from the original.
I know that that is what this thread was created for ,the "What if" question.
But my point is still the same. Dalamar not being Raistlin's apprentice wouldn't change the original scheme of things in the original timeline but would have created another.
You say that about Dalamar, but there are other alternate timelines that show one small change doing a heck of a lot. Sturm doesn't sacrifice himself against Kitiara on the top of the High Clerist's Tower? Bam, suddenly you have the Dragonlands, as detailed in Legends of the Twins (the sourcebook). Kingpriest challenges the gods again, but captures Paladine? Now you have Kingpriest Ascendant. Takhisis fights alongside everyone else at the end of the Chaos War? Welcome to the Age of Dragons. Raistlin beats Takhisis? you have Hourglass in the Sky. Irda don't break the Greygem? Have fun in the War of the Darklance. Point is, these are all based on a single choice by someone who is just as bound by the River of Time as Dalamar, and look at the differences. So yes, Dalamar could make a fair difference in it.
You are assuming that Dalamar is some kind of key player, he's not, he plays a very minor role in the scheme of things. Obviously any major event where the reverese happened is going to have an effect of some sort in the time line but Dalamar is not part of that equation.
The thing is, you two are talking about someone else stepping in to become Raistlin's apprentice, but if it was as easy as someone else stepping in, then why didn't another knight step in to sacrifice himself in Sturm's place? I know he's not what many people would consider a key player, but he's still important.
Because those are two different circumstances Raistlin needed someone to open the portal in the current time in order to regain his strength and attack the Dark Queen if Dalamar was not there Raistlin simply would have had someone or something take his place, his machinations were much grander then one person. Sturm on the other hand is a different matter for some reason, I never read the source book so I cannot give a detailed reason as to why or why not, but I can say there are a myriad of possibilites in any part of the story if some thing changes, like what if Kit killed Laurnana or Tanis wasn't given Wyvernslayer or if the Disks were never found by the companions. Things are going to change but Raistlin was not going to let anything stop him even to the point of killing his brother.
I personally think that Raistlin doesn't help or allow anyone to tag along, much less apprentice with him unless he can gain something out of it. And Raistlin would have to know that the person is capable of doing the tasks that he will request to be done. Which, I am sure he felt Dalamar could do it.
Dalamar was the one that was placed under him therefor, Dalamar had a key role in helping Raistlin with his goals.
If it wasn't Dalamar then it would have been someone else OR Raist may have found a way to do it by himself later on down the road.
I think having someone help him allowed him to reach his desires sooner rather then later.
With that being said, I am sure that he could have had more time to prepare for the fight, and so would Kitiara and the rest of them.
Who knows, it would have probably been one heck of a battle but, guess we will never know right?
That is just my opinion though.
the the Dark Queen had many powerful and smart black robed mages to help out during the war.
Just my 2 cents by the way. As I read this, I remember the confusion of it in the beginning of Dragonlance. All Wizards in service of Takhisis are Renegades. To be a Black Robe, one must serve Nuitari. As Nuitari is often opposed to Takhisis, we could say that he loved the way Raistlin opposed the Dark Queen. As a matter of fact, when he got his tower in Palanthas, we could also say that Raistlin became a Renegade to the Order.
It's only my opinion of it, maybe it will be clearer when I get the Dwarven Depth novel 3...
- Wiegraf Folles
It's my perception that, in the worlds of DragonLance, everyone has a major role to play in the RIver of Time. There is no such thing as an insignificant "pebble". From Theros Ironfeld, who'd help people escape Solace when the red dragonarmy attacked and ended up forging the DragonLances, to Bupu, who helped bring out what little compassion Raistlin had in him, or Conundrum, without whose submarine Goldmoon may not have managed to escaped Schallsea. As shown even more strongly in Legends of the Twin, the lack of a single event can have enormous repercussions on the story of Krynn. (Though I'm not talking about attempts by non-Greygem races to change the History once it's been written.)
While Raistlin did not need Dalamar as his apprentice, the dark elf was certainly of some use in his studies, or he would never have let him stay in the Tower of Palanthas. So without this, it might have taken Raistlin slightly longer to enact his plan, while the dragonarmies (and Kitiara) would have been ever so slightly stronger with Dalamar's support. One could argue that this would have left time for Kit to better prepare her attack on Palanthas and allowed her to effectively greet Raistling upon his coming in the world as a deity. Or this might have meant Dalamar could never tell Kitiara about Raistlin's plans, and the Blue Lady's War would never take place. No matter what, I'm sure such a change in events would have had some repercussion on the history of Ansalon.
Would someone else take up the mantle of apprentice to the Master of Past and Present? What kind of person would this be? Another power-hungry black robe? A pragmatic red robe seeking the best interests of the Conclave? A white robe stand-in for Crysania, seeking to redeem the corrupt Raistlin? What if no one was willing to spy on Raistlin for the Conclave? Would the Wizards of High Sorcery have allowed Raistlin to continue unopposed? Would they launch an open or covert attack against the Master of Past and Present?
Just my 2 cents by the way. As I read this, I remember the confusion of it in the beginning of Dragonlance. All Wizards in service of Takhisis are Renegades. To be a Black Robe, one must serve Nuitari. As Nuitari is often opposed to Takhisis, we could say that he loved the way Raistlin opposed the Dark Queen. As a matter of fact, when he got his tower in Palanthas, we could also say that Raistlin became a Renegade to the Order.
It's only my opinion of it, maybe it will be clearer when I get the Dwarven Depth novel 3...
All wizards in the service of Takhisis and not Nuitari are considered renegades and Nuitrari much like Zeboim or Sargonas have their own means to an end but they are not mutually exclusive to one another and correct me if I am wrong Nuitari hatred for his mother was only due to the grey robed Knights Of Tahkisis who appeared after the War of the Lance. When Raistlin who was also Fistandantilus took over the tower he was in no way a Renegade to Nuitari until he actually attacked Nuitari in an alternate time line where he defeated all the gods.
Raislin: Followed the Red robes after the test then went to black robes. But he pursued his own agenda and bowed to no Deities yet he wasn't considered a renegade by any of the other orders only really powerful and dangerous.
Fistandantilus: See above for Raistlin
Dragons of Spring Dawning: At the End of this novel Raislin betrayed Takhisis and she sent quite a number of Black Robes who were in her service to battle him.