The World of Shannara

by Terry Brooks

  Creatures of the Dark World

  In the Forbidding, magic is simply another weapon, like teeth and claws. Most of the beings within the land are creatures spawned of magic. Power is all that matters, for the law of the land dictates that the strong or cunning survive, while the weak become prey. Almost everything that lives within the land is prey for something else. As in the world of Man, there are levels of intelligence, from humanoid creatures that can think and form societies, such as the warlocks, to the most basic and instinctual killing machines, like the Asphinx. In between are all the creatures humans once believed lived only in myths and legends. Dragons of all types and sizes, Harpies, ogres, Furies, Giants, Goblins, Ulk Bogs, Gormies, kobolds, and demonwolves roam the land while nightmares such as Graumths and Asphinx slither under it in tunnels and burrows.

  Of these, the Furies are arguably the most dangerous, despite the fact that they are not large or strong and have no magical powers of their own. Armed with razor-sharp teeth and claws, these woman–cat hybrids always attack in numbers and will continue the fight until their prey is worn down by their sheer ferocity and numbers.

  Graumths, also called cave wyrms, while less numerous than Furies, are equally deadly to any who dare to travel underground. Making its home in caves and tunnels deep underground, the Graumth has been known to travel through shallow tunnels when hungry. A huge, powerful, insect-like worm, the Graumth has a narrow, reticulated body protected with a covering of bony plates and armed with vicious mandibles. It can move with surprising speed on short, spiky legs, using its clawed feet to grab and tear its prey. While Graumths can measure up to fifteen feet tall and twenty feet long, they have the ability to dramatically reduce their size, squeezing themselves through openings a quarter of their normal height and width.

  The cave wyrm senses its prey through scent and through vibrations in the earth. Once prey has been located, the creature uses its speed to run it down. A single Graumth has been known to obliterate and consume an entire company of Goblins, leaving only their indigestible armor behind. When on the hunt, they sound like a cross between a huge, huffing steam kettle and an angry bull.

  The Graumth’s eyes are very sensitive, allowing it to see clearly in the dark. But it can be temporarily blinded if subjected to bright light. Unfortunately, such tactics usually only make the creature very angry. A blinded Graumth is still very deadly to any within range, and the creature recovers quickly.

  Grianne fights to regain her own form after she has turned into a Fury.

  Though most are less deadly than the Graumth, dragons are much more numerous and therefore inflict a much higher overall death toll. There are at least fifty different varieties of dragon within the Forbidding, from the smallest Drachas, measuring six to ten feet in length when full grown, to the huge stone dragons, which often resemble small mountains when at rest. The larger ones, such as the stone dragon, have only rudimentary intelligence but can be extremely vicious. The smaller Drachas tend to be more intelligent. The largest of these reach only about twenty feet in length, but it is a mistake to consider a Dracha less dangerous than a dragon because of its diminutive size. While dragons are relentless, and will not break off an attack until they are either successful or disabled, Drachas often back off when they realize they are overmatched. Known to hunt in packs, they also employ stealth and appear to plan their attacks. Dragons are almost always solitary hunters except when mating. Very few creatures can stand against a pack of Drachas.

  The largest population of dragons and Drachas live within the Dragon Line mountain range. Rarer species such as the snow dragon and the fire dragon live in more remote areas with more extreme climates.

  While dragons are not magical creatures, they are extremely dangerous. Larger dragons’ defenses include not only a formidable arsenal of claws and teeth but also scaly armor over most of their bodies and the ability to breathe fire. Drachas do not breathe fire, but they can spit venom. Most varieties of dragon have wings and the ability to fly, making it easy for them to locate and attack prey on the ground. Some have razor-edged plates along their spines.

  Wincies

  Although no plants were exiled to the Forbidding, the dark magic leaching off the demons has altered the normal development of all flora. Those that have not sickened have changed and mutated. There are large numbers of carnivorous plants, and many that bear poisoned fruit, as well as those that have protective spines and thorns. The few grasses that survived have become tough and sharp-edged. Algae thrive.

  One species—the wincie, a tall, spidery hardwood—developed a thick screen of tightly interlocking branches and emits a strong scent, which repels snakes and other crawling reptiles. This tree’s long, thin branches interlock, knotting together so tightly that flying creatures cannot penetrate them. This has made the wincie a preferred refuge for many of the smaller creatures of the land: The tree’s adaptation for its own protection now protects others as well.

  All dragons are carnivores, preferring to feed on fresh-killed meat, and all have tough, leathery hides covered by plates of armor-like scales. No being is immune from dragon attack. Even Strakens fall prey to these large killing machines. Dragons make no distinction among prey, though they seem to be especially fond of Harpies.

  Dragons are one of the few creatures that can easily kill a Harpy. Looking like a cross between a severe-faced woman and a very large vulture, the Harpy has the face of a woman and the body of a bird. Its face is usually more sharply featured than that of a real woman, with hard bird-like eyes and a jutting, pinched mouth that suggests a beak. Despite the human-like face, Harpies lack the ability to speak, communicating instead in shrieks, calls, and coos. Unlike a human woman, they have venom sacs in their mouths. Their bodies are man-size and covered with dark feathers. Huge hooked talons allow them to grab and slash their prey. A full-grown Harpy may have a wingspan of twenty feet or more.

  More intelligent than dragons, they also use their wings to gain advantage, often working together as a coordinated group to trap and kill their prey. They also squabble among themselves, clawing and spitting venom at one another.

  Nesting near regularly traveled pathways, they turn them into feeding grounds, descending upon unwary creatures, blinding them with their venom, and killing them with their sharp talons. When focused on prey, however, they are single-minded to the point that they often become prey themselves. While they can out-think and outfly most dragons, they are easy prey if one catches them on the ground. Too large to escape quickly, they are no match for a dragon’s strength.

  Much quieter killers, Asphinx prefer to live in almost invisible colonies within rocky soil. The snake-like creatures only react when disturbed, but their reaction is lightning-quick. Anything that blunders into an Asphinx colony is assured a quick if painful death—the bites turn them to stone in minutes.

  Asphinx do not seem to feed on anything, though it’s been theorized that they may gain sustenance from something in the stone around them. Unlike most other creatures within this dark land, Asphinx don’t actually search for prey. Once something has stumbled into their colony and been turned to stone, they usually relocate the colony to another site. Travelers must be alert for burrows within any large rocky areas. These tiny burrows are the only sign of the deadly snake.

  Penderrin Ohmsford uses the darkwand to mesmerize a rock dragon in the Forbidding.

  Though this list of creatures comprises some of the deadliest and most interesting, the Forbidding contains too many others to list. There are as many creatures within the land of the Jarka Ruus as ever filled a nightmare, all of them born of dark magic, all of them fighting for survival or dominance. That is their nature.

  Rediscovering the Old World

  One day it will end and the Word will be destroyed, because the magic of the Void has always been the stronger of the two. The frailties and weaknesses of Mankind are insurmountable. Those same weaknesses are the strengths the Void will exploit to ensure that destruction. —Fi
ndo Gask

  ntil recently, we knew very little about the actual events that occurred during the last centuries of the Old World. But our attempts to gather and catalog knowledge from obscure sources have resulted in the discovery of a number of previously unknown manuscripts, both Elven and human. These documents contain new information about the darkest and least known period of human history: the collapse and destruction of the Old World. These fragile pages are all the more surprising because some of them actually date from the time of the Great Wars and the collapse of the Old World civilization. They make up the only surviving written record of a time when the world was in complete chaos, when almost every living creature was more intent on survival than on preserving information for an uncertain future. Yet these unknown authors somehow found a way to preserve their knowledge in the hope that a future generation might discover it. Though incomplete, the manuscripts provide new insights into the mystery of human survival during those dark times and may give scholars a clearer understanding of the forces that led to the collapse. What follows is an attempt to create a tapestry of the final era of a world that is long since lost to us, a world where the Void fought and won ascendance over the Word, and where human- and Elvenkind alike struggled to survive as the world they knew turned to ruin.

  —Khyber Elessedil

  The Seeds of Destruction

  The struggle between the Word and the Void, good and evil, order and destruction began at the dawn of time and will almost certainly go on until the final end of all things. The Word is the force for life, order, and balance, while the Void is death, chaos, and imbalance. Both seek to control the magic that is the lifeblood of the world. The Word seeks to maintain balance and harmony, the Void to usurp the magic and use it for dominance and destruction.

  Throughout most of known history the war has raged, with neither Word nor Void able to gain a clear victory. In the time of Faerie, the Word rose to ascendancy upon the banishment of the demons into the Forbidding. In that time, Elves and creatures of magic joined in the struggle to keep the magic in balance and hold the Void at bay. But humans changed all that. As humans grew in number and began to take over the earth from the creatures of Faerie, the Void saw an opportunity to turn the tide. Unlike the Elves and Faerie creatures, humans were largely blind to the magic around them and unaware of the precarious balance of their world. The Word relied on the strengths of the human heart and will to protect the world, while the Void relied on human frailties, greed, and ignorance to destroy it.

  Khyber Elessedil, Elven Princess and Druid.

  During the last centuries before the collapse of civilization, only a special few among humankind even knew that magic existed and understood the need to protect the balance. Most believed the world was simply theirs to exploit, an attitude that made them willing pawns for the Void. Those who could have provided guidance, such as the Elves, withdrew into their own hidden enclaves, becoming little more than myth.

  Demons of the Void

  The Void used this fertile ground to sow the seeds of destruction, seducing souls already twisted with greed and hatred with promises of unlimited power. The Void nurtured their inner darkness until they rotted within, eventually shedding their humanity entirely to become servants of the Void. These disciples of darkness became demons, front-line generals for the Void.

  Though not the same as the dark creatures of Faerie locked within the Forbidding, these demons were all the more dangerous because they came from human stock. They still carried the withered husks of their humanity within them, the better to recognize and corrupt others. They were particularly dangerous because they could use their lost humanity to masquerade as Men and walk undetected among the population. These demons used their understanding of human weaknesses to spread their poison among willing hosts, gradually growing in number over the years as humanity lost faith with itself and compassion for its world.

  The promise of unlimited power and the potential of eternal life proved a powerful inducement. But it was a dangerous promise. To gain such power, demons had to sacrifice everything that made them human to embrace the Void. Once pledged, they began to shed their human trappings, rotting from within even as their bodies changed around them. Their baser instincts and darkest desires took over, causing their souls to wither and shrink as all that was good within them died. Eventually, their humanity became nothing but a memory, their withered souls reduced to blackened, dried husks. Any passion for life usually turned to a hatred of those still human.

  Findo Gask

  Findo Gask may have been the longest-lived demon in human history. Even Gask himself once admitted that he could not remember the century of his turning, much less of his birth. What cannot be disputed is the fact that Findo Gask sowed death, pain, and destruction throughout his life. It was Gask who planned and created slave camps and demon breeding programs during the final days of the Old World. It is speculated that he may have also played a part in inspiring the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi experimental labs and death camps in previous centuries.

  Best known for his “preacher” guise, Gask liked to look frail. As an old man, wearing a wide-brimmed hat dressed all in black and carrying a large black leather book, looking much like a preacher from earlier times, he easily gained access to his victims. In the time before the Great Wars, he was never seen without that special book. Most who saw him believed he clutched a revered religious book. But Gask’s only religion was that of the Void. And the large black leather-bound tome was the Book of Names, a talisman of death that magically recorded the names of his victims as they died, allowing him to savor the memory of their deaths.

  Unlike most who embraced the Void, Gask did not become a demon for reasons of passion, but because of a driving curiosity. Wickedly brilliant, he liked to experiment—preferably on live subjects. He wanted the unlimited time and power that service to the Void would give him so that he could indulge his curiosity. His cool, calculating mind and his immunity to the passions that drove others were probably responsible for both his success and his lengthy survival. He wanted to know how things worked, what drove humans to the edge, and how they died. Eventually, he wanted to know how to make demons out of children. After years of experimentation and untold thousands of victims, his breeding program proved horrifically successful.

  Gask was more than a scientist. As a tactician, he led the armies of once-men and demons that eventually overran the American continent.

  Findo Gask was also a ruthless opponent of the Word, earning a reputation for hunting down and killing Knights of the Word.

  Once its servants were transformed, the Void required only that they survive while following their dark nature. For most, that nature included working toward the complete destruction and eradication of the human race—satisfying their own base desires along the way. Thus would the Void triumph over the Word and demonkind inherit the earth.

  Demons are able to take on any form they desire, but they often remain surprisingly connected to their human origins, choosing to appear human. In most cases, demons choose a human form that will allow them to blend in with their intended prey. But some choose that form simply because they cannot totally forsake the very humanity they despise. Some have claimed that they find themselves inexplicably longing for human companionship while being driven at the same time to destroy those humans. This dichotomy, when paired with the demonic inclination to indulge in excess, may be responsible for the tendency of many demons to self-destruct early in their “careers.”

  For most demons, time is required to build the new body, or shell, that will contain their blackened essence. The process usually begins as the original body starts to rot away. Unlike that original body, the shell is simply a container and disguise; it can be damaged or destroyed without killing the demon inside. So long as the central essence remains intact, the demon simply discards the ruined shell, goes into hiding for a time—sometimes months—and creates a new one. Such destruction probably causes pain for the demon�
�though many demons enjoy pain—and certainly creates a hardship by forcing the creature to go to ground while it grows the new body. But the process does not kill. The only way to kill a demon is to destroy the vile blackened husk encased within the body. Too many so-called demon hunters failed to kill their foe because they succeeded in destroying the demon’s body but did not notice the winged essence escaping.

  For some demons, however, the loss of a shell is simply a minor irritation. These rare shape-shifting demons have the ability to grow a body within moments instead of days or months. They can change form almost at will, becoming anyone or anything. Many of these shape-shifters use this ability to infiltrate sensitive areas without causing suspicion. They simply kill someone who has access and take his or her place. Some of them have been known to remain undiscovered for years. Some may never have been discovered. Shape-shifters often use a separate, more bestial, form when they hunt. The speed of their transformation allows them to explore their desires, often turning themselves into fearsome killing machines dredged from the darkest part of their warped imaginations.

  The Ur’droch

  The ur’droch was a type of rare demon that lacked a solid form. While most demons adopted human bodies or the forms of fearsome predators, the ur’droch chose to avoid any particular form at all. Existing as an indefinable shadow that could climb or hang on any surface, it could become part of the darkness, waiting to attack unsuspecting prey. A shadow creature shunned even by other demons, the ur’droch preferred a solitary existence, lurking in dark corners or hidden crevices. It never spoke, avoiding contact with others, even other demons. Yet with the ability to sprout teeth or claws at need, the ur’droch was particularly deadly. Its amorphous nature helped to make it virtually indestructible. Since most demons chose their forms based on their human desires or lives, it is difficult to imagine what forces could have driven the human beneath the ur’droch to sink so far from its origins.