by Terry Brooks
Unfortunately, there were many who resented the Rovers’ willingness to treat equally with Federation and Free Born, and still others who wished their commissions handled with the utmost secrecy. For those special clients, and for their own peace of mind, the Rovers established a secret shipyard, away from the crowds and prying eyes of March Brume. The yard never remains in one location for more than two years running, but it is always located within a sheltered cove unknown to any but the Rovers and the discreet Wing Riders. The traveling shipyard has dozens of coves from which to choose, and the Rovers who work within it value the old Rover traditions. They prefer to be isolated and constantly moving, even when there is no known threat.
The Rovers who live and work within the hidden yard usually bring their families. Children old enough to assist are trained in shipbuilding or related crafts. Everyone contributes to the community, and the settlement provides food and housing for all its members. It is set up in the manner of the old Rover tribes in that all within the community are as family to one another. No Rover would dare reveal the location or purpose of the settlement to an outsider, though all within the larger Rover community know of its existence.
It was within this secret shipyard that the Jerle Shannara was built and the famed shipwright Spanner Frew created his finest designs.
The Wilderun
Though the Rovers share most of the Westland with the Elves, there is one section of the Westland that the Elves have completely abandoned to the Rovers as well as any others desperate enough to travel or live there. It is the tangled mass of wilderness to the west of March Brume known as the Wilderun, a place of desperate souls and old magic.
The valley of the Wilderun lies within the curve of the Irrybis Mountains and is ringed by the Rock Spur and the shroudslip. The Wilderun is a jumble of depressions, bogs, and ridges, broken only by a few solitary peaks that lift above the forest canopy. The most distinctive of these is Spires Reach, lifting out of the Hollows in the center of the Wilderun like a beacon.
A Glow Globe, used to light the tunnels beneath Spires Reach
It is beneath the pillar of Spires Reach that Amberle Elessedil found the Bloodfire, the magic that allowed her to be re-created as the Ellcrys. An ancient magic dating from the birth of the world, the fountain of Bloodfire lies hidden within the deepest reaches of the tunnels below Spires Reach, in a cavern behind a waterfall. It was within this cavern that Wil Ohmsford faced and killed the Demon known as the Reaper, saving Amberle and changing himself and the Ohmsford legacy to follow.
There is only one village within the Wilderun, the village of Grimpen Ward. It was originally established centuries past as an outpost for hunters and trappers and the few families who settled within its forests. There was game within the Wilderun, but hunting was never easy and the catch never plentiful. It did not help that there were dark creatures born of the old magic within the valley who seemed to enjoy hunting the hunters.
There was little money in such difficult prey, but the hunters who were weary of the forest were often willing to spend all they had gained on entertainment that would help them forget the things they had seen. Grimpen Ward’s entrepreneurs discovered there was more profit to be had from providing such entertainment than from trading, especially in such a remote location. There was no authority within the Wilderun, and therefore no limit to the diversions an ambitious merchant could supply. Eventually the town gained a reputation as a center for gambling and drugs, a place beyond the laws of the land. The Elves shunned it, but Rovers discovered that there was always money to be made if one was careful. Grimpen Ward became a gathering place for the lost souls of the lands, as well as the cutthroats and thieves who fed upon them. Those seeking to escape their past, or those who had nothing left to lose, came to the town and remade it in their image.
Grimpen Ward has existed for centuries, but it still has the look of a temporary shantytown. It has become a place where only the strongest and fastest survive, where the dregs of the Southland come to escape and forget. Those who are not victims are predators, and some of the predators often pretend to be victims.
Seers
There are people born within all the Races who have a special gift of the magic that allows them to “see” glimpses of the future. These seers become shamans and religious leaders in the more primitive Races, and advisors in the rest. Most seers have no control over their gift. All are haunted by the dreams and visions that tell them of what must be. Though most believe they cannot change the future they see, they are usually willing to share their vision, despite the fact that the future cannot be changed. Some, like the Addershag, use their visions to help bring about the future they see. All seers usually spend their lives searching for a peace that only death will grant.
The seer known as the Addershag was one such predator. She was secretive and mysterious but was known to allow her victims to believe her a prisoner, giving visions at will for scraps of food. When she tired of them, her “captors” discovered that her powers went beyond the gift of sight and that her magic rivaled that of the Druids. No one knows why she chose to feed off the desperate souls of Grimpen Ward, save that she, like all seers, was haunted by her gift and may have needed escape and oblivion as much as they. She finally found her peace after having lived over 150 years.
The citizens of Grimpen Ward are careful to avoid venturing far from their town. Everyone knows that witches and warlocks haunt the forests of the Wilderun, with magic that has its basis deep within the Hollows that lie in the center of the valley.
The Hollows were once home to the witch sisters Morag and Mallenroh, creatures from the age of Faerie. Though the sisters destroyed each other in the time of the quest for the Bloodfire, a warlock rumored to be their brother still lives within the caves of the Hollows. Called the Morgawr, he is reported to have scales and reptilian features similar to the Mwellrets, but with a powerful man’s body. In recent years he has brought a witch to live there as well, a witch who can kill with her voice. The people of Grimpen Ward are loath even to speak her name, but others know her as the Ilse Witch. Unknown to most, the formidable witch is an Ohmsford. Even the Rovers dare not cross the witch and warlock.
The Lands
Beyond
There’s a lot of luck in being a sailor. Flying airships is tricky business, even with an experienced captain. —Rue Meridian
or centuries, the Four Lands have existed without exploration or contact with distant lands. In over two thousand years, the immigration of the Elves to and from the doomed island of Morrowindl was the only serious attempt to explore and colonize distant lands. The one major expedition sent out by the Elves to explore the lands beyond the Great Divide never returned. The sole survivor from that expedition lived long enough to bring a map, which, coupled with notes from the Druids, has created a new understanding of the lands beyond.
Flay Creech
Flay Creech is a small island located west of the coast. Ten days’ journey by air, the island is small enough that it can be easily missed by any not seriously looking for it. The island measures approximately a half mile across its widest part and is distinguished by a rocky outcropping shaped like a lizard’s head just off the southern coast. The island is gray and barren, its only vegetation a few clusters of scrub trees and weeds. The most unusual features of the island are the distinctive gullies that crisscross its barren surface. The gullies and channels are broken only by shallow ponds of seawater. Initial observers were at a loss to understand what caused the channels. Those who made landfall on the island quickly discovered the cause. They are tracks worn in the earth over the years by the bodies of the island’s hidden protectors, the deadly giant eels. The eels defend the island from anything that seeks to set foot on its surface.
The Giant Eels of Flay Creech
The eels of Flay Creech may use the island as a spawning and feeding ground. Larger than any other known eel, their bodies resemble the sleek, speckled bodies of an ocean eel. Unlike the ocean ee
l, they average between eight and thirty feet in length and will attack anything that enters their domain. Though they are not poisonous, their sharp teeth can easily tear and shred larger prey. They remain hidden beneath the waters of the Blue Divide until an intruder lands on the island; they then boil out of the water to converge on the hapless victim. When in an attack frenzy, they will often attack each other, and will feed on their own dead or wounded. Susceptible to magic, they are not afraid of it. A deadly predator, the eels are capable of launching themselves from the ground and striking like a snake. The eels have somehow been conditioned to protect the island.
Shatterstone
Northwest of Flay Creech, the next large island is Shatterstone. Named for its forbidding mountains and rugged cliffs, Shatterstone is approximately thirty miles across at its widest point. Three small islands arrayed in a row lead to the southeastern edge of the island. Made from the rugged tips of a huge mountain range thrusting up from the depths of the ocean floor, the island consists of jungle-covered peaks and deep canyons. As lush and green as Flay Creech is barren, Shatter-stone’s surface is covered with impenetrable jungle, broken only by small lakes and the bare edges of the windswept peaks and cliff edges. Silver waterfalls leap from the high mountain streams to fall thousands of feet into the green valleys below.
Even the waters around the island abound with life. Pods of whales and dolphins skim the surface of the Blue Divide, while seabirds feed on the smaller fish. On the island, birds, mammals, and insects thrive throughout most of the island.
All the creatures of the island seem to avoid one valley. Even insects avoid it. It is the valley of the living jungle. A power believed to have been created in the time of Faerie guards the valley. Rooted in the soil of the valley and manifested in the jungle itself, the power it wields is greater than that of the Druids. Like the eels, the jungle has been conditioned to protect the treasure hidden in its valley. It can sense anything that moves upon the soil that nurtures it. Its only known weakness is its inability to penetrate rock. Unfortunately, there are very few bare rocks in the valley. It kills with vines that rip its victims to shreds, or with poison brambles that carry a deadly toxin.
Shrike Island
Though it has long been known that the Shrikes had a nesting place apart from the Westland cliffs, the location of such a nesting ground was only recently discovered. Shrike Island is a rugged island of cliffs and rocky peaks surrounding a lush tropical jungle and inland lakes. Hundreds of Shrikes and War Shrikes make their homes on its cliffs and ridges. Extremely territorial, Shrikes will attack anything that approaches their island.
Mephitic
Far north of Shatterstone, where the wind grows cold, lies an island that is much larger still. Low and broad, Mephitic lacks the high cliffs of Shatterstone or the rocky shoals of Flay Creech. Its rolling hills, wide grasslands, and thick forests resemble parts of the Westland more than an island in the middle of the Blue Divide.
Though the island is now deserted, there is evidence that it was inhabited long ago. All that is left of those inhabitants is a massive keep, ancient and crumbling. Built atop a low bluff, the castle’s blind windows look out across the plains to the west. As large as Paranor, the keep’s walls and outbuildings extend out across the grasslands for a mile in all directions.
The people who conceived of and built the fortress are gone, but the castle itself lives. A spirit, from an unknown age, infuses the very walls of the keep, protecting all the treasures within with the magic of deception. Anyone entering the keep finds himself disoriented and lost in a puzzling warren of courtyards, halls, and battlements. Though the foundations of the keep are real, as are some of the stone ruins, the castle itself is not as it appears, but rather a vast labyrinth of mirages and illusions integrated into the stone and designed to deceive. Though the protection is largely passive, the spirit can be brought to life by the theft of one of its treasures. The keep then becomes a deadly trap intent on snaring its victim. Pits open up out of solid ground; traps and portcullises appear from out of walls; the very walls move to trap a thief.
Fortunately, the range of the spirit’s abilities is limited. The spirit’s magic does not extend beyond the walls to the plains beyond.
No one knows what happened to the people who initially built the keep or how the spirit came to inhabit its lonely outpost, though it is likely the spirit has survived since the age of Faerie.
Ice Henge
Beyond Mephitic, the next large landfall is the continent of Parkasia. Its southeastern tip juts into the Blue Divide in a large peninsula. The outer edge of the peninsula is surrounded by small atolls, most of which are barren, and protected by an impenetrable wall of icy cliffs towering over a thousand feet above the waterline into the clouds above. The steep cliffs are broken by caverns carved out of the rock and narrow fissures covered in mist. The land is called Ice Henge. Shrikes inhabit the cliffs, feeding on the fish and other sea birds. A breach in the cliff wall of the peninsula opens into a large bay. The bay is rimmed by a towering range of snowcapped mountains and glaciers that reach down to the water’s edge through gaps in the rocky peaks. Floes broken off from the glaciers float within the waters of the bay like small snow-covered islands, some rising several hundred feet above the waterline.
The bay feeds into a channel that narrows before opening onto an inner bay. The inner bay, also littered with floes, opens into a narrow channel that leads inland to the towering deadly series of ice pillars called the Squirm.
The Squirm is named for the movement of the pillars, which twist and thrust together in a grinding motion like giant sets of teeth. They guard the only passage inland from the bay. Any unsuspecting sailor who attempts to pass through the Squirm is usually ground into pulp and splinters. The seabirds follow anyone who sails into the channel in anticipation of a meal. No one is certain whether the pillars of the Squirm are a product of magic or of science and technology, though both may affect them.
Beyond the Squirm, the channel broadens, twisting through a bleak landscape of barren cliff walls and dotted with small rocky islands. Trees cling to the ridgeline in small clusters. The waters are curiously warmer here, with no glaciers or floating ice. As the channel progresses inland, the sharp-edged cliffs retreat and soften into gentle slopes covered with greenery and lush forests. Farther inland, the gentle slopes give way to rolling hills as the river splits into numerous tributaries that form lakes, smaller rivers, and streams. The main channel narrows, and the trees on its banks thicken until the river is hemmed in by old-growth spruce and cedar. The river ends inland in a large bay surrounded by forest. Numerous waterfalls feed into the bay from dozens of rivers and streams.
Several miles beyond the bay lay the ruins of an Old World city. Occupying the entirety of a broad valley ten miles long and five miles wide, the ruins gleam in the sunlight. Unlike Eldwist, which also dated from the Old World, before the Great Wars, the buildings in this city are low and flat, with high windows and broad spaces. Believed to be a haven for storing machinery, and possibly for construction, the entire city is made of sheets and struts of metal. Even the streets and passageways are paved with metal, though the grass has managed to break through in places, buckling the rusted metal as nature attempts to reclaim the ground. Holes in the walls of some of the buildings reveal burned-out interiors, testament to the fact that this place did not survive the Great Wars unscathed. There are rumors that a safehold called Castledown may lie somewhere in the city.
Morrowindl
Over a century ago, there was another island in the waters of the Blue Divide—a paradise with high mountains and beautiful beaches topped by the lofty crown of an extinct volcano called Killeshan. The Land Elves settled it in an attempt to escape the Federation and the Shadowen. The Elves experimented with old magic while living there, eventually using it to make creatures that were never intended. The creatures were subverted by the magic and eventually transformed into Demons, who consumed the earth magic of the isla
nd. The Elves escaped, but the island itself did not. Turned into a place of horrors by the Demons, it exploded as the loss of earth magic caused Killeshan to erupt violently. It was said the Sky Elves could see the island burning from the shores of Wing Hove.
A Legacy of Magic,
Darkness, and Light
Within my own land, I am the way and the life. I am the bearer of the light of the Word now and always. —The King of the Silver River
any changes have affected the lands since the Great Wars. Technology and knowledge have been lost, and Men have mutated to survive. But the single greatest difference between the new age and the Old World is magic. Though very few understand magic, and fewer still have the use of it—whether through talismans or innate ability—the existence of magic has affected our view of the world at large. In the Old World, magic was a myth. In this one, there is no doubt—even for those who have never seen it—that it exists. But where did it come from?
In actuality, the magic has always been here. It is the miracle of life. It is the land and all things within it. Though access to magic’s more dramatic functions has varied through the ages, the magic and its power has not. What has changed is our ability to see and accept it, brought about largely by the integration of those who can wield it into a society dominated by those who cannot. The integration has created a general understanding that magic is real, for both good and ill. That knowledge has changed us, making us more aware of the extremes of light and dark—an awareness that may have been lacking in the last age, when technology was usually gray.