The World of Shannara

by Terry Brooks

  Man grew to dominate the world, destroying entire habitats to create room for his growing civilization and causing the extinction of many of the creatures of Faerie who were tied to those habitats. His focus was on the comfort and advancement of his Race, with little or no care to the protection of the world he lived within. The Elves viewed the destruction of the land with growing alarm, but by the time they realized the extent of the danger, they were too few against mankind’s growing millions. They had few defenses. Their once-powerful mastery of magic had been allowed to fade, for they had thought the need for powerful magic at an end when the Demons were banished. Without constant use, the knowledge and skill were lost. The Elves were left with only small magics—grounded primarily in nature and healing—to counter Man’s invasive behavior. Outnumbered and overpowered, they adapted by fading into the wildlands, until the memory of their existence faded into myth.

  One of the Elves’ greatest skills has always been the ability to blend into any natural surrounding, becoming invisible to any who are not trained to see. This ability served them well in the years Man dominated the world, for as Man’s technological civilization grew, the wild places diminished, forcing the Elves to become more and more reclusive, even as their sacred task of caring for the earth became more and more difficult. They hid within parklands and wilderness preserves, often in plain sight of vast cities—but always undiscovered.

  Their isolation kept them from realizing the growing instability within Man’s world. Had they looked, they would have seen the increasing unrest as the factions of Man used the great might of their technology to seek domination over each other. As it was, the holocaust of the Great Wars caught the Faerie folk completely unprepared. Most of the Races that had survived Man’s rise were wiped out, along with the lands they protected.

  By the time the Wars erupted, most of the Elves had retreated to the farthest corners of the world. They lived in small groups. Many of the larger villages were nestled within the few wild areas still untouched by Man—the heart of the deepest forests, the most remote valleys, and the wildest jungles. This reclusion saved the Elven Race, but only barely. Their numbers were decimated. Most of their remaining magic was lost in those terrible years as they expended it trying to keep the tortured world alive. When the final shudders of the violated planet subsided, the Elves still lived, but, like the humans, they too had been changed by their ordeal. By the time the vestiges of the human Race began to emerge, the Elves had changed to resemble them.

  Originally, the Elves were a nearly immortal species, living for hundreds, even thousands of years or more. The changes wrought throughout their struggles shortened their lifespan even as it gradually compensated to make them more fertile. They were still connected to the earth magic but had lost most of the knowledge and skill required to wield it. Most of the great Elven scholars and wizards were lost. Most of the tools of magic, including most of the Elfstones, had also been lost. The few talismans that remained were jealously guarded.

  Man and the cataclysm of the Great Wars had nearly destroyed the planet. But the Elves realized they had a share of the blame for the destruction because of their isolationist policies. They were determined that it would not happen again. As a Race, they joined together and decided that this time they would not hide in the shadows. When the survivors of the changed Races emerged, the Elves met them as equals and were assumed to be one of them.

  It was the Elves, led by Galaphile, who convened the First Druid Council. They realized that, as the oldest of the surviving Races, they had a responsibility to guide the other Races toward an understanding of the balance needed for the world’s survival. To do this, they had to minimize the use of science as a developmental tool, lest Man simply re-create the path that had led him to disaster.

  The Elves of this period were a fragmented Race, living in separate and extended family groups spread out across the land. Galaphile was the first strong leader within the Elves. After he established the First Council at Paranor, the Elves began to unite as a people. They began to form a nation and eventually, inspired by Galaphile’s example at Paranor, to choose a leader who would guide them in this new age. They named that leader as their king and selected a council of elders to guide his rule. Arborlon became the capital of the new nation.

  The Elven Army

  After the Great Wars, the Elves were forced to rediscover warfare, a skill they had not used since the Demon Wars. Elves were always natural archers and Trackers as well as skilled horsemen, but other military disciplines had to be learned.

  Elven military strategy centers on the Elves’ natural strengths. They lack the brute strength or hand-to-hand fighting ability of the Rock Trolls, so the Elves rely instead on their speed and skill and, most of all, their tactical expertise. All of the great captains have learned to make use of the terrain—and to improve it wherever possible with traps and snares. “If the enemy cannot reach you, he cannot kill you” is a common adage among the Elves.

  Most Elven commanders prefer to fight a defensive battle, forcing the enemy to attack a fortified location. When this tactic is not possible, quick strikes and feints are usually employed, capitalizing on the Elves’ speed and ability to disappear into the surrounding terrain. Elves will never stand toe to toe with an enemy on level ground unless there is no other option. Most Elves wear only light armor with chain-mail vests and leather guards to ensure that their mobility and speed will not be impaired. Communications always play a major role. The Elves’ ability to communicate quickly and efficiently with the units in the field has often made the difference between victory and defeat. To those unfamiliar with the Elves who watch them perform on the field of battle, it often appears as if the Elves can read minds, because they respond so quickly to a change in the order of battle.

  The army is under the direct command of the king, though he can appoint someone to command for him, as Ander Elessedil appointed Stee Jans during the War of the Forbidding. The Elven army usually consists of pikemen, archers, lancers, foot soldiers, and cavalry as well as Hunters and Trackers. Elven Hunters and Elven Trackers are both elite units within the main army with specialized skills.

  During the First War of the Races, the Elves joined with the Dwarves and Trolls under the leadership of the Druids to defeat the Race of Man. When the Four Lands were partitioned, the Westland became the Elven homeland. The war marked the first time the warriors of the Elves had ever been gathered together under one banner. From that time forward, the Elves have always maintained a standing army.

  The Elven Army had proven so effective during the First War of the Races that Brona focused his attention on neutralizing them before his own army marched again. He knew that they depended on their king for leadership and guidance, so he sent a special force of Gnomes and Skull Bearers to assassinate King Cortann Ballindarroch and his family in their beds. The resulting upheaval delayed the entry of the Elves into the Second War of the Races, allowing the Warlock Lord time to conquer most of the Eastland and overrun the Borderlands. By the time the Elves had crowned Jerle Shannara as their new king and rallied behind him, the Northland army was at their doorstep.

  The Elves would have fallen but for the aid of the few surviving Druids, the courage of their king and queen, and the sword infused with Druid magic. The Northland army was far larger and contained Rock Trolls, but the Elven army had superior tactics, greater speed, and the advantage of terrain. With the sword and Druid magic to aid them, as well as the skill of the Elven generals, the Elven army managed to turn the Northlanders before they reached Arborlon. Timely intervention by the remains of the Dwarf army further enabled them to trap the Warlock Lord and defeat him on the Streleheim Plains.

  Victory allowed the Elven nation to prosper and grow, populating the Sarandanon and the surrounding area. The Shannara heirs mysteriously died out and were replaced by the Elessedils. By the time the Four Lands faced the Warlock Lord again, a young king named Eventine Elessedil led the Elves. Unfortunately, the
council was so dependent on their king that it very nearly cost them the war.

  To keep the Elves and Dwarves from joining against him, as they had done to great effect twice before, the Warlock Lord struck straight into the Borderlands in order to capture the Southland and separate the two great armies. In a battle near Paranor, a Gnome regiment captured Eventine Elessedil. So long as the king was missing, the Elven Council would not ride to the aid of the Borderlands.

  Eventine escaped, aided by Flick Ohmsford. His return galvanized the Elves to action. By the time the Elves arrived to assist the besieged city of Tyrsis, the Northlanders had breached the outer walls. If Shea Ohmsford had not succeeded in destroying the Warlock Lord with Jerle Shannara’s sword, the Elves’ arrival might have availed little. As it was, the Elves arrived in time to drive the Trolls and Gnomes from Tyrsis after the Northlanders were demoralized by the sudden destruction of their Skull Bearer commanders and the storm and earth tremors that followed.

  Approximately fifty years later, it was the Elven nation that was forced to call on the Borderlands for aid, as well as all the other Races, when the primordial evil banished by their ancestors threatened the homeland.

  Jerle Shannara

  The most famous of the Elven kings, Jerle Shannara had never intended to become any more than the commander of the Home Guard. A distant cousin of the reigning king, Courtann Ballindarroch, Jerle was chosen to succeed Courtann when the Ballindarroch family was assassinated on the eve of the Second War of the Races. A skilled warrior, Jerle led his people to victory against the Northland army, defeating the Warlock Lord in single combat with the magic of the sword of truth the Druid Bremen had given him, the sword known forever after as the Sword of Shannara.

  Jerle married Preia Starle, a skilled Tracker. Together they adopted the survivors of the Ballindarroch family, a son and a grandson, and had three daughters of their own. They ruled well for many years, as did their heirs, until the dark years when the Warlock Lord’s minions assassinated all the Elven descendants of Shannara.

  The Shannara name has been eradicated from the Elves, but the Shannara blood lives on within the Ohmsfords and the Elessedils, as Jerle’s name lives on in the songs and stories of the land.

  Eventine Elessedil, King of the Elves

  Eventine Elessedil is considered to be the greatest of the Elven kings. His reign spanned almost sixty years and saw the Elven nation through the War of the Warlock Lord and the War of the Forbidding.

  While still a boy, Eventine was Chosen by the Ellcrys. He ascended the throne as a young man at the untimely death of his father. The Elves expected a brash youth but discovered their king to be a shrewd administrator and a brave warrior who believed that a leader must ride in the vanguard to inspire his people. He was known for his uncanny ability to see all sides of even a complex issue and chart a course that would best serve his people.

  He died at the age of eighty-two but did not go easily. After sustaining numerous battle injuries during the War of the Forbidding, he was attacked by the Demon known as the Changeling. He defeated the Changeling despite his injuries but was mortally wounded. With his typical determination, he refused to die until he received word that his lands were safe and the Forbidding had been restored.

  Eventine Elessedil, greatest of the Elven kings.

  It had been three thousand years since the Great Wars, and thousands more since the Demon War in the time of Faerie. In all that time, the Elves had carefully protected and maintained the Ellcrys, but the true purpose of the tree had faded into legend. When the Ellcrys began to fail, Demons began to appear. The Elves were suddenly faced with the fact that they knew almost nothing about the Ellcrys or the Forbidding she imposed. To make matters worse, they no longer had use of the magic that had enabled their ancestors to defeat the Demons all those eons ago, and only imprecise instructions from the Elven Histories to tell them how to restore the Ellcrys. Their only hope for survival lay in young Amberle Elessedil, her protector, Wil Ohmsford, and their quest to find the Bloodfire and restore the Ellcrys. For the Demons could not be defeated by strength of arms, merely delayed. Only the restoration of the Ellcrys would banish the Demons.

  Eventine and his army found themselves defending the Westland from the Demon Horde with little more than courage and iron. The only magic they had was from the Druid Allanon and a staff made from the living wood of the Ellcrys. The might of the Elven army was insignificant compared to the multitudes from the void of the Forbidding. If not for the brilliant tactical leadership of Stee Jans and the Bordermen of the Free Corps, the Elves would have lost Arborlon to the Demons. Dwarf Sappers, Wing Riders, and even a regiment of Rock Trolls aided them in their desperate struggle. It was the first time since the First War of the Races that Trolls, Elves, and Dwarves all fought on the same side.

  Wil and Amberle did succeed in locating the Bloodfire, deep within the caves of Spires Reach, in the wilderness of the Wilderun. They left with the Captain of the Home Guard and an escort of trained Elven Hunters. They returned with only a Rover girl and a young Wing Rider, just in time for Amberle to sacrifice herself to restore the Forbidding before the Gardens of Life were overrun.

  Eventine Elessedil and his eldest son, Arion, were killed during the course of the battle. Arion fell at Halys Cut, early in the fighting. Eventine died of his wounds shortly after the last battle. Ander Elessedil became the new king of the Elves.

  Ander lost his own son, Edain, twenty years later, when the Prince died repaying his people’s debt to both the Dwarves and the Ohmsfords. He fell at Graymark while defending Jair Ohmsford from the Mord Wraiths. But his death did not affect the Elven people as greatly as the death of the Druid Allanon weeks earlier.

  With Allanon’s passing, the last of the Druids was gone from the land. The Druids had been founded by the Elves. Their magic had protected the Elves even as it safeguarded the lands. Many of the Elves felt that magic was essential for the security of their people. It had been magic that had turned the tide in the First and Second Wars of the Races. Without Allanon’s magic, the War of the Forbidding would have been lost before Amberle’s return. They began to explore ways to recover the ancient Elven magic wielded by their ancestors.

  The Ellcrys Staff, a gift of living wood.

  The Elves were no longer the people of Faerie their ancestors had been. The magic was no longer an integral part of their being, but something vast and wild that would not be easily tamed. In trying to restore the old magic, some of them changed. They succeeded in becoming creatures of magic, but they were twisted by it and began to hunger for magic for its own sake. They became creatures known as the Shadowen and began to feed off the magic of the land, forsaking the Elven oath to nurture and protect it in favor of their hunger.

  When the rest of the Elves realized what was happening, they tried to help, but the Shadowen rejected all aid and refused to give up the magic. The Shadowen were banished from the Westland. The banished Elves moved to the Southland, where they used their abilities to gain power, creating the Seekers and gaining control of the Coalition Council. They used the Southlanders’ distrust of magic and outsiders against them, manipulating them until they had control of the Federation itself. The Seekers hunted down those with the use of magic so that the Shadowen could turn them into other Shadowen, or feed off their magic and discard them into the Pit at Tyrsis. The lands of the South began to sicken and die. The Federation blamed the Elves and made plans to move against them.

  Ander Elessedil, Elven King.

  Appalled at what their countrymen had become, and terrified of the ultimate outcome of their rampage and the Federation’s mobilization, the Elves decided to leave the Four Lands. Almost exactly two hundred years after the Elves had restored the Forbidding, they gathered their people into Arborlon and disappeared from the Westland.

  They used an Elfstone called the Loden, which had been kept hidden away since before the Great Wars, to move their entire city to a new location. Assisted by the Sky Elves and
their Rocs, they chose a location away from the Four Lands, where they would be safe. It was an idyllic island far out in the Blue Divide called Morrowindl.

  For many years, Morrowindl was a paradise. But the Elves could not forget the danger they had left behind. Some of the Elves used the old magic to create living creatures that were improvements on existing creatures, but born to serve and be self-sufficient. These experiments were so successful that they decided to create creatures that were more sophisticated. Using spirit and blood and bits of themselves, they built an army of men. These men were Elves but less than Elves. They formed an army designed to defend the Elves while living outside the walls of Arborlon. They were hunters, soldiers, and guardians of the realm, totally dedicated and self-sufficient, with no desire but to serve.

  The Elves sent them out to their posts and forgot about them. But they had overreached their abilities. The creatures slowly began to change. They left their posts and began to roam the forests, hunting and killing. They became Demons and began to feed off anything that lived. By the time the Elves realized what was happening, it was too late. The damage could not be undone.

  Shadowen

  The Shadowen were so named because of their uncanny ability to separate their essence from their body and absorb another being. The first Shadowen were Elves who dared to believe they could harness the immense power of earth magic. The sought to use the magic in ways that were never intended, coming to rely on it so heavily that it subverted them. They became addicted to it, becoming parasites that fed on living things to consume the earth magic within. The magic changed them until they needed to feed to survive. They used up the humans around them as well as the earth that sustained them. While the magic was strong, the lure to steal it and feed off it was stronger still. They began to siphon the magic of the earth itself, trapping it for their use while the land sickened.