For more than 700 years, Vinas Solamnus was considered the epitome of what a knight could be, and the Knighthood followed his example while helping Solamnia grow into a major power in the world. By the time of the Third Dragon War, Solamnia and its knights were the premier military power on Ansalon.
Near the end of the Third Dragon War, a Knight of the Crown named Huma of Eldor rose to prominence; his legend would become the best-known story of the Knighthood. The young knight spawned many stories, most of which cannot be verified. Regardless of which parts of his life are fiction and which are fact, Huma is the icon of knightly virtue to which most Solamnics look.
The most importand deed credited to Huma marked the end of the Third Dragon War. Along with the human woman Gwyneth, who was in reality the silver dragon El'liolle or "Heart", Huma undertook a quest to find a way to defeat the evil dragons of Takhisis. While on the quest, Gwyneth and Huma fell in love, a love that remained solid even after Huma found out Gwyneth was truly a dragon. It was, however, a love doomed to tragedy. At the end of their quest, Paladine gave the pair a choice: they could live together as mortals, apart from the rest of the world, or the could help save the world from the Queen of Darkness. Making the only choice truly available to the honorable knight, the pair was given the secret of forging dragonlances, something they accomplished with the aid of the dwarven smith Duncan Ironweaver, who wielded the Hammer of Honor and bore what would become known as the Silver Arm of Ergoth.
Armed with the dragonlances and led by Huma, the Knights and their metallic dragon allies were able to drive Takhisis' evil dragons and their armies back over the lands they had previously conquered. In the final battle of the war, Huma, riding El'liolle, confronted Takhisis as she entered the world as her major aspect of the Many-Headed Dragon. Huma wounded the Dark Queen and forced her to retreat back to the Abyss, but not before extracting from her the promise to leave Krynn, take her dragons, and never return. Unfortunately, both Human and El'liolle were mortally wounded in the confrontation. Some accounts say that the pair died where they fell. Others say their deaths were slow and agonizing, causing the pained gods of Good to inflict thunderstorms across Ansalon. To this day, many Solamnic maintain that thunderstorms still mark the gods' mourning for Huma.
Huma, now called Dragonbane, was laid to rest in the tomb in the Monument of the Silver Dragon. The tomb became a major site of pilgrimage for the Knights and people of Solamnia. The Knights of Solamnia look to him as the pinnacle of the Knighthood and the perfect example of the virtuous and honorable knight.