by Terry Brooks
Spider Gnomes are a different species than most other known Gnome types. More primitive than most, they resemble nonhuman primates more than people. Their bodies are hunched and wiry, their arms and legs are angled and crooked, and they are covered with coarse hair. The spiderlike appearance is enhanced by the fact that they usually avoid clothing and tend to creep along the ground and up trees on all fours. They also burrow in the ground and trap prey in a manner similar to some species of spider. Extremely superstitious, they are prey to the werebeasts living in the moor below the ridges.
To appease the werebeasts, which they perceive as either evil spirits or gods, or perhaps both, each fall the Spider Gnomes make a regular pilgrimage to the edge of the moor below Toffer Ridge, where they spend a month in ritual prayer to the spirits of the moor, calling on the dark spirits to send the winter and protect them from the mists. They often sacrifice their own people to the werebeasts in the mists, though not always by intention. Ironically, the ritual works in that the werebeasts are content to remain within the moor for the winter, but only because they have fed off the Spider Gnomes for the entire month of their ritual. The sated werebeasts have no need to hunt Gnomes on Toffer Ridge because the Gnomes deliver themselves for dinner.
The werebeasts that live within Olden Moor are creatures of old magic, a form of shape-shifter, though much more primitive than those living within the Wolfsktaag. Creatures of dreadful shapes and forms, they prey upon mortal beings weaker than they, snaring both body and mind to drain away their lives. Their natural shape is that of a wolfish creature covered with both fur and scales. Few of their victims ever see their true form, as they use the power of illusion to draw their prey close. They pull familiar images from the mind of their prey and use their power and the prey’s fear to give them form, waiting for the right opportunity. Once close, they immobilize their prey with poison that slowly weakens the victim and allows the werebeast to feed on its life. The poison is one that afflicts the mind and spirit as well as the body. Even a full-grown moor cat is not always a match for a werebeast.
Moor Cat
Moor cats resemble house cats in shape and color, but unlike house cats, they average between eight and fourteen feet in length and often weigh as much as five hundred pounds. A wild carnivore, moor cats live within moors and at the edges of low-lying forests. They are considered very rare, though part of that rarity may be due to the cat’s ability to become nearly invisible at will. Moor cats can change their coloration very quickly to match their surroundings, much like an octopus or a chameleon. This ability allows them to compete with the werebeasts and other predators that share their habitat.
Extremely long-lived, moor cats have been known to bond to people, especially those with an affinity for animals. Once they have bonded, it is a lifelong commitment for the cat. They will defend and protect their person and family, even at risk of death. Cogline was the first human known to have tamed moor cats. His adopted family, the Bohs, always had at least one moor cat within their family.
Mwellrets
East of the wilds of Darklin Reach, the Ravenshorn Mountains rise out of the forests. Within the towering mountains lie the source of the Silver River and the homeland of the Mwellrets.
The Mwellrets are a form of Troll originally native to the swamps and lowlands. Like all Trolls, they were descended from human survivors of the Great Wars who were exposed to the energies unleashed during the cataclysm. The offspring of these survivors mutated to adapt to the fearsome conditions of the postwar planet. The ancestors of the Mwellrets fled to the forests. Unfortunately, the cataclysm raised oceans and flooded much of the land, changing their forest refuge to poisoned swampland filled with diseased plants and mutated animals. The Northland Trolls had grown huge and strong within the harsh environment of the mountains; the Mwellrets also endured drastic changes, but they became reptilian, growing scales where skin had once been and adopting many of the characteristics of lizards. Their arms and legs grew short and developed claws, while their bodies developed a snakelike flexibility.
But Mwellrets also developed the ability to shape change. Though they lack the magic of creatures such as the shape-shifters and the werebeasts and cannot change the basic characteristics of their bodies, they do have the ability to alter the shape of their body at will, to adapt to the demands of any environment. They can mold their shape like putty, lengthening or shortening bones and muscle. This ability enabled them to progress back up the scale toward civilization much faster than other types of Trolls or Gnomes. The Gnomes claim that the Mwellrets also have command of dark magic, which they use to “twist” their victims, forcing them to do their will. The more pragmatic Dwarves insist that it is some form of hypnotism, but by either name it is still a powerful tool, especially when combined with the Mwellrets’ other talents.
Sometime after the First Council at Paranor, the Mwellrets migrated out of the swamps and broken forest of the moors into the Ravenshorn Mountains. The Gnome tribes they encountered were terrified of these creatures that could change shape at will and seemed to command dark magic. The Mwellrets initially ignored the Gnomes but eventually used their superstition against them. They asserted their authority over the frightened Gnomes and insinuated themselves into their culture as their chiefs and eventually their masters. The Mountain Gnomes became slaves to the Mwellrets, their culture lost to the needs of their Troll masters. The Gnomes who resisted were brutally reminded of the superiority of the Mwellrets.
The Mwellrets were content to rule their mountain home, far from the swamps that had birthed them. They never officially joined in the Second War of the Races. Nor did they participate in the War of the Warlock Lord; instead they struck a deal with the Dark Lord and agreed to supply him with Gnome slaves for his army, so long as he supported their rule of the Ravenshorn. They were to get all of the Ravenshorn Mountains, while the Warlock Lord would rule the rest of the Four Lands. Throughout two wars, the Mwellrets sent thousands of Mountain Gnomes to die in the front lines of the Northland army, acting as living shields for the Rock Trolls and Skull Bearers, while the Mwellrets remained safe in their kingdom, reigning as lords over all the mountains.
GRAYMARK
To help cement their rule over the region, the Mwellrets built a fortress high above the surrounding lands, near the pinnacle that was the source of the Silver River. Graymark, as it was called, was built atop the rim of a wall of peaks surrounding a deep valley near the edge of the Ravenshorn range. Gnome slaves labored and died for several years to complete the structure. When done, Graymark was a nearly impregnable fortress that overlooked the whole of the lands around it, including the Ravenshorn and the Silver River. Only a few years after Graymark was finished, the Mwellrets controlled all of the Ravenshorn Mountains as far as the dams of Capaal. The Dwarves stopped going into the mountains, and the Mwellrets never came out.
Graymark, citadel of the Mord Wraiths.
There are only a few entrances into Graymark, and all pass within clear view of the battlements. The citadel was designed to house large numbers of Mwellrets within the upper chamber, as well as an entire army of Gnomes within the barracks and battlements. Beyond Graymark, a pinnacle of rock lifted high above the top of Graymark’s battlements. Within a cavern atop the peak was Heaven’s Well, the source of the Silver River. The waters bubbled up from the depths of the earth to spill into a broad basin before cascading out of the cavern through a crevice to fall to the riverbed below. When Graymark was built, a long winding spiral of stone called the Croagh was constructed, reaching from the top of Heaven’s Well along the edge of Graymark’s battlements and down into the depths of the valley below. The original purpose of the winding ribbon of stone has been lost in history. Some Gnomes claim it was a sluice, designed to transport diverted water from the well to various levels of the keep as well as to the valley below. The Gnomes often used the Croagh to gain access to Heaven’s Well, which was believed to be a sacred place. The Mwellrets allowed the Gnomes to wo
rship as they wished, so long as they also worshiped their masters.
The Croagh was not the only sophisticated structure within Graymark. The keep also contained an elaborate system of sewers that made use of natural crevices and tunnels to dispose of waste from the keep. The Mwellrets were born in the swamps, but they preferred a dry and clean environment. The sewers allowed wastewater to flow along these tunnels to empty into a deep crevasse within the cliffs. Walkways were carved along the edges of the flow channels to allow slaves to clear debris and maintain the tunnels. Iron grilles closed off the sewers to prevent unauthorized entrances.
Gnomes who had outlived their usefulness were disposed of through the Caves of Night, a series of caves running through the mountain to Graymark’s lower levels. Formed during the cataclysm of the Great Wars, the caves would not support torches or flame of any kind. Within the caves, the floors were covered with Procks, mouths hidden in the rock of the floors. Gnomes were driven into the darkness of the caves, and those who stepped on a Prock fell into its open maw and were crushed. The caves could only be navigated safely with the aid of the Fire Wake, a colony of tiny glowing creatures who could be summoned to form a concentrated light within the caves. Mwellrets knew the secrets to controlling the Fire Wake, but even they did not know its origins or that of the Procks.
Procks
Procks are believed to be a by-product of Old World technology gone mad. Though they are not actually alive, they appear to be living creatures embedded in the rock floor of the cavern known as the Cave of Night. The jagged, gaping fissures of the Procks’ “mouths” open and close randomly. As they close, the stone walls of the Procks’ interior grind together. Sensitive to pressure, the fissures open immediately beneath anything that lands upon the “mouth.” The victim usually falls into the resulting opening and is crushed when the Prock closes again. The Cave of Night is thick with the stench of the Procks’ victims and reverberates with the continuous grinding sound made by the many fissures as they open and close.
The Ildatch
In the age of Faerie, near the time when all life was created, the Demons are said to have compiled a book of spells that contained all the knowledge of their dark magic. The book was called the Ildatch, and the power of its dark lore inspired fear in even the most powerful of the Elven magicians. The Elves seized the book, but even they were not immune to its lure. Even though they knew the danger and the extent of its power, some of the Elven magicians tried to use the book’s magic. They did not survive. The rest attempted to destroy the book, but the Ildatch disappeared.
The Ildatch, ancient living book of dark magic.
Rumors and legends were all that existed until the First Druid Council was convened. As the Druids gathered in the remnants of old knowledge, an ancient book appeared within the collection. The Druid Brona was the first to discover it. The dark secrets within its pages enabled him to build an empire as the Warlock Lord and to overcome death. Only the Sword of Shannara stopped his rampage.
The Ildatch survived, buried in the rubble of the Skull Kingdom. Allanon attempted to find it, but the book managed to remain hidden until a sect of Brona’s mortal followers discovered it. They may have been called by the power of the book, for it was a living creation of the Demon world.
The humans carried the book into the Eastland, to the valley protected by Graymark. The Mwellrets that ruled there allowed them to place the book within the valley, where they used the book’s dark magic to build a living swamp-forest to protect it. They paid homage to the book, learning its magic as it transformed them into its willing disciples. When they emerged from the valley years later, they had been transformed into the Black Walkers, or Mord Wraiths. Their souls and their mortal lives had been traded for the power of the dark magic. The Gnome Tracker Slanter wrote of the Mord Wraiths: “They’re like something stolen from the dark—as if each were a bit of night broken off. When they pass, you never see them. You never hear them. You just sense them—you feel their coming.”
Brin Ohmsford and the wishsong finally destroyed the Ildatch, which had survived for untold millennia. With its destruction, the Mord Wraiths died and the Maelmord collapsed.
After the Warlock Lord was destroyed, several of his mortal followers came to Graymark bearing a talisman from his reign. The Mwellrets allowed them access to the valley behind Graymark, where they and the book disappeared. Almost immediately, the sparse woodlands below began to change, growing into a rotting jungle that consumed the valley. Called the Maelmord, or “living wood” in the language of Faerie, the swamp-forest moved and breathed. It was alive.
For almost a half century after the Maelmord began to form, the Mwellrets ignored the jungles beneath them—until black creatures crawled from its depths to the fortress above. Claiming to be the rightful heirs of the dark power of the Warlock Lord, these Black Walkers, or Mord Wraiths, demanded the fealty of the Mwellrets and demanded that the keep and all the lands of the Ravenshorn be ceded to them. When the Mwellrets refused, they were driven from Graymark by force, their small magics no match for the dark magic wielded by the Mord Wraiths. They still fought back, but their Race began to sicken and die. No young were born to them. They realized that the Mord Wraiths were punishing their disobedience with the quiet extermination of their Race.
The Mord Wraiths took over Graymark, turning it into a place of death where the only things that lived were the Gnomes who served their new masters. Mutens and new creatures of dark magic guarded its halls and battlements even as the Maelmord guarded its chief treasure, the ancient book of dark magic called the Ildatch.
Ten brave people and a moor cat braved the dangers of Graymark to put an end to the Mord Wraiths and their poison. In two separate groups, each with an Ohmsford, they attempted to destroy the Ildatch and cleanse the Silver River. Though their missions were separate, it took the combined skills of Brin and Jair Ohmsford, and all who aided them, to put an end to the Ildatch and the poison of the Mord Wraith.
During the battle, the Croagh was destroyed, Graymark was damaged, and the valley of the Maelmord collapsed into the ground, leaving a deep chasm where the valley once existed.
The Mwellrets have never recovered from the damage done to their Race by the Mord Wraith’s curse, though they are attempting to regain the affluence they enjoyed before the Ildatch came to the Eastland.
The Westland:
Land of the Elves
Elves are the Healers of the land and her creatures, the caretakers needed to keep the magic safe and secure. —Walker Boh
he Westland is a land of lush forests, wide grasslands, and ancient mountains. It is a land with Rovers, Drifters, and Old World magic. But above all else, it is the homeland of the Elves.
History of the Elves
Unlike the other known Races, the Elves are not a descendant of Man but rather his predecessor. Each of the other mutated Races, Gnomes, Trolls, and Dwarves, is a survivor of the Race of Man, named for mythical creatures from the legends of Man. For many centuries Man believed that the Elves were also mutations, and they named the Elves for the legend they resembled. In fact, the Elves are the survivors of that legend. In the early years after the Great Wars, it served their purpose to let the other Races believe them to be as Man said they were—especially since one of the prices they had paid for the survival of their Race was their immortality.
The Elven Race was born in the age of Faerie, at a time when the world itself was young and new to life. Magic was strong and primal, and the creatures of that age lived and breathed the magic as their lifeblood. The Elves of that age shared the world with Dwarves, Gnomes, and Trolls as well as Unicorns, Sprites, and all manner of others now lost to legend.
They also shared the world with Demons, Ogres, and other creatures of darkness and nightmare. The Demons wanted only to feed off the land and take from it without care for the world or its survival. The Races, such as the Elves, that wanted to preserve and nurture the world were in constant conflict with those who sought
only their own gratification. After centuries of this, those who wanted to preserve the world joined together, as did those who wanted to destroy it. The entire world was polarized into two opposing forces. War erupted, furious and unrelenting, each side seeking a final resolution to the conflict. The Faerie folk were determined to banish the Demons, who in turn were determined to annihilate the folk of Faerie. As the conflagration raged, the fate of the earth hung in the balance.
In the end, the Elves and other Faerie folk triumphed, banishing the Demons into an otherworldly isolation behind a magic wall of Forbidding. That wall of Forbidding was anchored within this world and maintained by the Ellcrys. The Elves, who had sacrificed much to create the Forbidding, were given the charge of nurturing and protecting the Ellcrys for all of time as it, in turn, protected the world.
Once the Demons were banished, the world, and those within, thrived—including the then-infant Race of Man. The creatures of Faerie paid little more attention to Man than to the other animals and wild creatures that lived within the land. He was simply part of the world and her life.
But Man became a very resourceful and competitive species, soon dominating large sections of the planet. Most of the creatures of Faerie, including the Elves, simply avoided him, retreating deeper into the wild lands and forests as his numbers increased. The creatures of Faerie did not reproduce quickly, if at all, and soon found themselves outnumbered.
As Man expanded his domain and began to emerge as a force in the world, the Elves decided to remain hidden. Had they chosen otherwise, it is possible that the history of the world, and the fate of the lost creatures of Faerie, would have been far different. But the Elves thought it best to keep to themselves, avoiding this barbaric young Race—though they did not avoid him completely. Man knew of the creatures of Faerie, but they were regarded with fear or distrust because they hid in shadows and played mischievous games at Man’s expense. It was a dangerous world, and anything that preferred to hide was considered a threat by the fledgling Race.