The World of Shannara

by Terry Brooks

  The spiritual health of the tribe falls to the Archeron, or shaman. This person may be man or woman, but is usually someone who has a little touch of the magic. Often the Archeron is a seer, capable of visions of foresight and telling dreams. An Archeron’s dreams are always taken very seriously by the rest of the tribe. They are believed in many cases to be communications direct from the gods. Even when the person possesses no magic at all, their word is deeply respected. The Maturen is expected to always consult the Archeron before making any major decisions that will affect the tribe as a whole.

  Though their religion is primarily nature-based, they do believe, very strongly, in an afterlife, and that the actions taken within their life will directly affect their reception in world of the afterlife, or Summerland, as some refer to it. An honorable life will always be followed by a good reception in the Summerland. A dishonorable life, or the breaking of a trust, will culminate in punishment directly related to the deed, for every act has its price, and death is no barrier to the payment of that price.

  The burial ritual, so important in many other cultures, is not as important to the Trolls. Among the tribes, the manner of dealing with the dead varies widely. Some are buried, some are cremated, and some are left in the wild in a place of honor. Since it is the manner of the death and the quality of the life preceding it that matter, the handling of the body is secondary.

  The greatest rewards in the Summerland go to those warriors who die valiantly in battle. The Trolls believe these are granted a special place in the Great Hall of Valor or Te Ault Naull. Admittance to the Te Ault Naull in the afterlife is more important to the Trolls than life itself. The leaders within the Te Ault Naull are believed to be those accorded the special rank of Res Cru for not only dying in battle, but dying in a noble cause—though the actual definition of a noble cause is somewhat different for Trolls than for the other Races.

  Great honor is accorded to those living warriors who have managed to achieve the status of Res Cru and still survive. It is believed that these rare people are already destined for the Te Ault Naull. If they are also the embodiment of all that is noble within the Troll Race, they are even more revered as the chosen of the gods themselves, destined to sit at the right hand of the Maturen of the Te Ault Naull. The Black Irix Award, greatest of the many awards among the Trolls, was created to designate these godlike individuals, so that all who meet them might honor them and gain wisdom from their example.

  Trolls also have legends of Res Cru who return from the dead. One of these legends tells of a great hero who will leave the Te Ault Naull to lead the Trolls in glorious battle. Because he will return from the dead, mortals cannot kill him. It is undoubtedly this legend that Brona used to his advantage to convince the Trolls to submit to him. By claiming to have returned from the dead, he was also claiming to have been sent by the gods, as in the legend. The Trolls’ natural superstition, though much less extreme than that of the Gnomes, made them targets for the Spirit Lord’s manipulation. Of course, not all Trolls were so easily led, especially by the age of the War of the Warlock Lord, but those that did not succumb to his will by virtue of his connection with their gods were forced through more mundane methods. The rest were killed or imprisoned. The Troll nation has never completely recovered from the damage done to their population by the man who claimed to be sent from their gods.

  The Black Irix

  The Black Irix is the highest honor a Troll can achieve. It is awarded only to those Trolls who epitomize the highest ideals of honor, valor, courage, and integrity. A recipient is considered the chosen of the gods, the living image of everything the Troll Nation cherishes. A large black metal pendant with a cross centered in a circle, the Black Irix is only awarded rarely, as its requirements are so stringent.

  The most famous recipient of the Black Irix was the Res Cru Keltset of the Malicos family. Though no one outside the Troll nation knows what he did to earn the award, his actions after receiving it are legendary.

  Keltset was one of the few who dared to speak out against the Warlock Lord when he sought to control the Troll city of Norbane. Because of his resistance, the Skull Bearers were obliged to seize the city by force. They killed Keltset’s family and blamed their deaths on Dwarf raiders to inflame the populace against the Eastland. Keltset was taken prisoner and had his tongue burned out. He escaped and was rescued and befriended by Panamon Creel. Keltset and Creel aided Shea Ohmsford in his quest for the Sword of Shannara.

  Even without his voice, Keltset managed to convince Trolls in the Skull Kingdom to aid the heir to Shannara to gain entrance to Skull Mountain despite the danger. They willingly followed him, enabling Shea to gain access to the sword and to achieve his objective.

  The Black Irix, the Troll Nation’s highest award.

  The brave Troll gave his life while ensuring Shea’s escape from the collapsing mountain. The Trolls believe that Keltset sits at the right hand of the Maturen within the Hall of Valor in the afterlife.

  While populations in the rest of the Four Lands have increased, forcing the growth of cities and unification of governments, the Troll population has remained relatively small. Some of the larger tribes have a population of thousands, but the majority have only a few hundred. This is partially due to the warlike nature of the people themselves, but in greater part to the extreme damage done to the male breeding population by the ravages of the Second War of the Races and the War of the Warlock Lord. It is estimated that well over half the men of breeding age were wiped out in the Second War of the Races. The population recovered slowly, reaching almost to prewar levels just in time for the Warlock’s next attempt at world domination. The estimates for that war are lower—a little less than half the male breeding population died. These numbers are significant because of the lower fertility rate among Troll women and the fact that Trolls are monogamous and mate for life. Any damage to the breeding population is reflected almost immediately in the reduction of the birth rate. But such hardships are not unknown to the people of the Northland. They pride themselves on their ability to face any obstacle with courage and fortitude.

  Most Troll cities and villages are designed to be completely self-sufficient. Trolls are primarily hunter-gatherers, but they do raise some small amount of food within each village. Most tribes maintain at least a small herd of herbivores for providing meat, milk, and hides. This herd is usually sheep or goats, though some of the more nomadic tribes manage herds of Northern Deer.

  For the most part, the Trolls are a fixed tribal society, with villages and cities established in permanent locations. Many tribes have winter and summer camps, to follow the migration patterns of their prey, but each of these is itself a fixed settlement. Their settlements consist of homes built of sod and skins, as well as a few stone buildings and tents. The materials used depend on the severity of the weather in that location as well as the availability of raw materials. Most villages are built within an area with natural fortifications of some type, usually within the foothills or mountains.

  All communities contain at least one forge, for smelting and casting metal. All metal weapons for the tribe are made by the tribal smiths, including sword blades, spears, axes, and pikes, as well as metal armor pieces. The forge also smelts fine metals for making jewelry. Troll craftsmen are capable of exquisite decorative metalwork, although they do not usually wear much jewelry. The pendants or jewelry they do wear tend to be highly significant of either rank or award, though unmarried women of marriageable age wear adornment to announce their availability, and married women wear theirs to announce their status as wed. Fine metalwork is exported to the Borderlands. Most are traded for manufactured materials, which are considered nonessential luxuries, or for ores from the mines in the South. Fine furs and animal products are also traded, though only when the catch surpasses the needs of the tribe. These items are traded locally first.

  A community gathering place, or Moot Hall, is also an essential part of any Troll settlement or camp, though the hall
is not always enclosed in a shelter in the more mobile communities. The hall is used as a meeting place for the tribe. It is also the place for ceremonial occasions such as marriages or celebrations as well as official functions such as choosing a new leader or a call for judgment.

  Trolls have a fairly refined sense of justice. Within their Race, a demand to face trial or grant justice can never be refused. There are usually at least three judges for any trial, chosen from among the peers of the community. Judgment is usually fair but swift. There are no appeals, and the punishment for any serious transgression is usually death.

  Since death is usually considered a constant companion to such a warlike Race, it is small wonder that music, especially the heroic ballad, is a major part of their culture. Each and every warrior is expected to know and be able to perform several of the major heroic ballads. Almost all of them laud a brave warrior and his valiant battles, usually ending in his glorious death. Some of these ballads are of mythical archetypes; others are taken from actual historic events. The best become classics and are shared with other tribes until they eventually become part of the racial culture. Such tales, whether told or sung, are used to teach history, racial and tribal pride, and an understanding of courage and honor within the Troll culture. Chanting and the use of percussion instruments, especially hide drums with wood or ceramic bases, is a common part of all rituals, ceremonies, and bardic performance. Almost all heroic ballads are designed to be accompanied by a drum, and almost all have a chorus intended to be chanted or sung by the audience.

  The Death Watch

  To Trolls, music—or at least the song of horns and drums—is considered important on the battlefield. Troll war horns are used to signal orders and to indicate particular changes in the order of battle. Drums are also used—though not to as great an extent as among the Gnomes—with their percussive beat helping to inflame the warriors’ courage before battle and, it is intended, intimidate the enemy.

  The most chilling sound to any Troll enemy, however, is the complete silence of the Death Watch. Rarely used, the Death Watch is an announcement to an enemy that no quarter will be given during the battle. There will be no prisoners taken, and every person surviving the initial battle will be put to death.

  King Balinor Buckhannah wrote of the Death Watch placed on his city during the battle for Tyrsis: “Suddenly all sound and movement within the enemy lines ceased. The entire Northland army stood at silent attention, their silence more deafening than the sounds of battle. After a long moment, a single armored warrior stepped purposely from the line, bearing a long staff with a single red pennant. He strode to the foot of the wall, then jammed the staff into the ground at the foot of the wall before turning his back on it to walk calmly back to his lines. The unnerving silence continued for a moment more before it was broken by the long, low wail of a Troll war horn. The mournful note sounded twice more, echoing eerily off the battlements before fading again into silence. The moment was broken by the sudden percussion of hundreds of drums signaling the attack.”

  Urdas

  It was long believed that Gnomes never crossed into the Northland, remaining instead in the more hospitable Eastland. We now know that some species of Gnomes have been within the Northland since the first emergence of the Race. Most of the Gnomes live within the forests at the foothills of the Charnals, though there are probably other undiscovered tribes in more remote locations. There are even a few Gnomes who crossed the passes from the Eastland as traders or trappers and never managed to return home. Some of these Gnomes actually interbred with the Trolls to create a third Race that is neither Gnome nor Troll. They are known as Urdas.

  The Urdas are tribal, as are both their founding Races, and are not found anywhere south of the Charnals. Most tribes survive within the forested valleys of the massive mountain range, leaving the heights to the Trolls. More primitive than Trolls, they are small, squat creatures with short, powerful legs and long, gnarled arms. Unlike Trolls, they have a coating of hair over much of their thickly muscled bodies, though they do have the Trolls’ blunt-featured faces as well as a Troll-like affinity for weapons. Their culture, however, is reminiscent of the more primitive types of Gnome culture.

  Urdas have their own language, though it appears to be a derivation of both Troll and Gnome. Each tribe seems to have its own distinct dialect. They are exclusively hunter-gatherers and do no herding or breeding of animals. Warlike in the extreme, they constantly raid their neighbors and are known to take captives, especially those believed to have special abilities. They are quite superstitious, like most Gnomes, and recognize magic, though they do not understand it. They have an intense belief in spirits and wraiths as well as in portents and omens.

  Fierce fighters, the Urdas use a combination of weapons, including darts, short spears, and their own unusually shaped razor-edged throwing blades, all of which are designed to bring down even the swiftest game. Most tribes are housed within a stockade, usually built of wood with sharpened tips. The average Urda stockade contains a cluster of small huts and open-sided shelters surrounding a central lodge, not unlike the Troll Moot Hall, at least in purpose. The lodge is constructed of notched logs and a shingled roof. Tribes living within the forest often utilize trees living inside the stockade as supports for treeways and lifts. Most stockades are built around wells or springs, and include smokehouses for curing meat from the hunt.

  All Urda compounds also have a method of escape for the tribe in case of siege by an enemy. In most cases, this is a series of tunnels leading from key huts down into a main escape tunnel that emerges some distance from the stockade.

  Tribal hierarchy is usually broken into several clearly defined groups, with control delegated to a council of men of mixed ages. Warrior males hold the highest level in society, with women, children, and the aged at the lowest levels.

  Though the rest of the Races consider both Urdas and Trolls to be warlike barbarians, they are both quite civilized compared to the wild Northland that is home to both of them.

  The Eastland: Land of

  Dwarves and Gnomes

  The Dwarves have always had to fight a constant battle against the Gnomes to protect their homeland, but that battle has given them the strength of will that has ensured their survival. —Prince Balinor Buckhannah

  he Eastland, more than any other of the Four Lands, is a region of divisions and complexity. Home to three Races as well as numerous creatures born of old magic, the land east of the Rabb is in constant conflict. Dwarves dominate the southern section, Trolls and Gnomes dominate the north, and the central section is constantly disputed. The actual populations and lines of territorial demarcation change with the winds of fortune and time, while the creatures of magic and Faerie, who have lived here longer than any, ignore the struggles of their mortal neighbors.

  The Eastland is defined by its great forest, the Anar. Divided into the Lower Anar, the Central Anar, and the Upper Anar, the sections of forest, and their connecting mountains and plains, are each distinct regions. The Lower Anar, a dense old-growth forest bordered by the Battlemound Lowlands on the west and the foothills of the Ravenshorn on the east, is the heartland of the Dwarves. The Central Anar, between the Wolfsktaag Mountains and the Ravenshorn Mountains, is home to both Gnomes and Dwarves. West of the Wolfsktaag, in the forest at the edge of the Rabb Plains, lies Storlock, home to the special breed of Gnome Healers called Stors. Gnomes, Mountain Gnomes, and the lizard-like Trolls known as Mwellrets populate the Upper Anar, as well as the northern part of the Ravenshorn.

  Dwarves

  The Dwarf Race, like the other Races, evolved from human ancestors that survived the Great Wars. Their progenitors escaped the holocaust by hiding underground in bunkers, shelters, tunnels, and caves. These people probably expected they would have to hide for only a few years, but their subterranean exile lasted generations. Over time, they adapted to conditions within the caverns and tunnels that made up the whole of their world. They developed an underground civiliz
ation and a unique language as their bodies changed. The tunnels favored those with short, stocky frames and powerful muscles adapted for small spaces and hard climbs. Their eyes adapted to darkness as they learned to survive in their dim, rocky prison. Centuries after the end of the Great Wars, it was a new Race that climbed out of the caves to face the blinding light of a changed world. The Men who first found them named them Dwarves, after the mythic creatures they now resembled.

  The Dwarves had survived underground, becoming skilled miners and stonemasons, but when they left their cold, dark prison, they vowed that neither they nor their descendants would ever return. To this day, all Dwarves have an abhorrence of closed-in spaces, especially those that are underground. They are happiest in the forest, where the darkness comes from the shade of the thick foliage overhead, and the closeness is only that of tightly interwoven plants.

  Emerging from that long darkness, the Dwarves embraced life within the forests, rejoicing in homes built within the open air and ornamented by gardens nurtured by soil and sunlight. All the things they had lost for centuries as the price of survival became extremely precious to them. Yet they retained the traits that had helped them endure their exile. For Dwarves, a willingness to work hard was second only to iron determination and fortitude. Among them, those capable of meticulous planning and a dedication to order were highly regarded. Even today, every Dwarf community is distinctive in its carefully planned design, neat and orderly homes, and well-constructed buildings. And each Dwarf community, no matter how remote, always has a garden, even if the soil and seed must be carried in a handful at a time.