As with the other protagonists of the 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. In the beginning, Margaret Weis had problems picturing the correct representation of Tanis. Tracy Hickman finally told her He's James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. After that explanation, Margaret had no more troubles while writing about Tanis.