Shady Side of Shannara

Title: First King of Shannara

Copyright: 1996, Terry Brooks

Published by: Ballantine Books

Cover Artist: Steve Stone - Keith Parkinson

Extras: Sample Chapter

Dedication:
For Melody, Kate, Lloyd, Abby, and Russell
Booksellers Extraordinaire

Buy it: Paperback pg.431 (2000)

Horrified by the misuse of Magic they had witnessed during the First War of the Races, the Druids at Paranor devoted themselves to the study of the old sciences, from the period before the collapse of civilization a thouand years earlier. Only the Druid Bremen and a few trusted associates still studied the arcane arts. And for his persistance, Bremen found himself an outcast, avoided by all but the few freethinkers among the Druids.

But his removal from Paranor was not altogether a terrible thing, for Bremen learned that dark forces were on the move from the Northlands. That seemingly invincible armies of Trolls were fast conquering all that lay to their south. That the scouts for the army - and its principal assassins - were Skull Bearers, disfigured and transformed Druids who had fallen prey to the seduction of the Magic arts. And that at the heart of the evil tide was an archmage and former Druid named Brona!

Using the special skills he had acquired through his own study of Magic, Bremen was able to penetrate the huge camp of the Troll army and learn many of its secrets. And he immediately understood that if the people of the Four Lands were to escape eternal subjugation they would need to unite. But, even united, they would need a weapon, somtthing so powerful that the evil Magic of Brona, the Warlock Lord, would fail before its might....

Fist King of Shannara Notes and Characters:
NOTES:
Fist war of the races happened 350 years before First king of Shannara

First war of the races - brona (warlock lord tried to take over using man as his tool by subverting them with magic)

Druid with drew from the lands in favor of private study - 70 years before
Empath's "..can reverse it (magic) to make what is well appear sick."

In Chew Magna Tay says… "The metal plates that gave off light revealed a sophistication he had not expected. Faerie magic was not well known, for most of the lore had been lost with time's passage, but Tay had always assumed that the magic to be grounded more in nature and less in technology. Yet the plates suggested he was mistaken, and that made him uneasy."

What lives in the garden is what once lived in this castle, it is a compendium of lives, a joining of faerie creatures, Elves mostly, that centruries ago were just as you and I , But they coveted the power of the black elfstone, they coveted it, and their need was so desperate they could not resist. They used the Stone, all of them, together perhaps, or separately, and they were destroyed.

Bremen "I lack even the possibility of children. I have been alive a long time, kept so by the Druid Sleep. But the Sleep has demanded much of me. It has given me time that price is an inablity to sire children."

"It burned no flame, but shone out of a glass and metal casing, as if powered by a miniature star." Speaking of the light the King of the Silver river held.

Before leaving Paranor bremen summoned the magic that wared Paranor's walss and cloded the ancient fortress away. "Paranor had begun to shimmer with the damp translucence of a mirage, melting slowly into the sunlight, disappearing into the air. It would appear and fade again at regular intervals thereafter, sometimes at brightest noon, sometimes at darkest night, but it would never stay." Bremen then left the four lands forever. Leaving the Black Elfstone and the fait of the four lands in the hands of a 15 year old boy. The last of the Druids.

Jerle and Preia had three daughters of there own. They adopted the two remaining Ballindarroch children, both boys. The eldest succeded Jerle to the thrown. Jerle carried the sword of shannara till his death. His son, then king, had the sword set in a block of Tre-Stone, taken to paranor and placed in the druids keep.

Mareth and Kinson Married and settled the city of Kern. They had several children and in the future, a child of there lineage would figure prominently in another battle with the Warlock Lord.

Bremen took the Black Elfstone and he and Allanon made there retreat to paranor to live, train, and record. Three years after the battle at the Rhenn

Brona (worlocklord) stole the Ildatch from paranor 400 years before First king of shannara
Galaphile (elf) started the first counsel of druids 500 years before first king. A thousand years after the Great Wars.

CHARACTERS:
Skull Bearers - "druids who had tested the magic too frequently and deeply and been subverted."
Caerid Lock - (elf/ home guard) Captain of the Druid Guard at Paranor
The Warlock Lord - (human/mystery)Brona, one of the orginal druid coucel. ,began to experiment with magic. He stole the Ildatch from Paranor. The magic subdued him and he became the Warlock Lord.
Kinson Ravenlock - (boarderman/human)scout, tracker, explorer and adventurer. Borderman, Friend to Bremen. Student of history. Spoke many laguages.
Bremen - (human)skilled in history and ancient languages. Banished from the druid councel for his insistence of the use of magic. Lived with the Elves for a while researching the history of there magic and the magic of the other lands. (practiced Magic)
Athabasca - (human)head druid
Risca - (dwarf), warrior druid, trained under Bremen. (practiced Magic)
Kahle Rese - (human)druid, keeper of the Druid Hisotry, Sealed away the Druid Histories with an elven magic powder given to him by Bremen.
Tay Trefenwyd - (elf)Druid, had been at paranor 15 years. Student of elements. (practiced Magic). Was in love with Preia
Mareth - (human)druid apprentice, healer, daughter of a unknown demon who sedused her mother (died giving birth). Been at paranor 10 months. She is an Empathic. (innate magic)
Courtann Ballindarroch -(elf)Elven King.
Jerle Shannara - (elf)First cousin to Courtann Ballindarrcoch. Was captain of the home guard and then made chief advisor in military matters. Next in line for the throne.
Preia Starle - (elf)tracker. Went with Jerle, and Tay to find the Black Elfstone. Was in love with Jerle.
Retten Kipp - (elf)Home guard ,Tracker. Went with Jerle, Tay, and Preia to find the Black Elfstone.
Vree Erreden - (elf)mystic , specialized in finding lost items and ppl.(locat). Went with Jerle, Tay, and Preia to find the Black Elfstone.
Raybur - (dwarf) King of the dwarfs.pushed back gnomes and extended the boundsries of his home land to twice their previous size. 15 years older than Risca.
Cogline - (man) Raised by his grandfather in the hill country below Leah. Was a druid in the time of the first war of the races. He knew Brona. He left the driud order before brona. His intrest lay in the lost sciences. He has use of thr druid sleep. It is the one indulgence of magic's use that he permits himself. He mistrusts of the rest. Gave the formula by science of metallurgy to forge the sword of shannara.
Obann - (elf) Elven Hunter , went with Jerle, Tay and Preia to find the Black Elfstone
Shifter - (Male Moor Cat) - Moor cats mostly kept to themselves, living out there lives in the eastland swamps. Can change color to there surounding.usually 6 to 8 feet long and up to three feet tall at the shoulder. Is a dozen feet from head to tail and at least four feet at the shoulder
Smoke - (Female Moor Cat) - slightly smaller than Shifter. Both found by Colgine in the swamps of Olden Moor as kittens.
Geften - (dwarf) Soldier
Wyrik - (dwarf) Soldier. Son of Geften
Fleer - (dwarf) Soldier. Son of Geften
Rusk - (elf) Elven Hunter. When on search for the Black Elfstone.
Alyten Ballindarroch- (elf) Son of Courtann Ballindarroch. Assumed the throne after his fathers death.
Urprox Screl - (man) Forged the Sword of Shannara. Bremen says to Urprox " You can not work with magic and come away unchanged". Urprox and his entire family eventualy moved north and changed there name from Screl to Creel.
Mina - (man) Wife to Urprox
Arken -(man) grandson of Urprox, son of his eldest daughter.
King of the Silver River - (Faerie) The last of his kind. first beings created by the Word. Appears to strangers as a boy or an old man.
Allanon - (man) 12 years old. orphand boy who followed Bremen out of the Varfleet after it was lay to ruin by the Northland army of the Warlock Lord
Kier Joplin - (elf) Commanded the horses of the elven army. War council advisor.
Rustin Apt - (elf) Foot soldier. War council advisor.
Cormorant Etrurian - (elf) Foot soldier. War council advisor.
Prekkian - (elf) Black Watch Captain. War council advisor.
Trewithen - (elf) Home Guard Captain. War council advisor.
Arn Banda - (elf) Archer Commander. War council advisor.
Risk - (horse) Jerle Shannara's war horse
Ashes - (horse) Preia Starle's war horse

MAGIC ITEMS:
Bremen - "Every use of magic exacts a price. There are always consequences, and the more powerful the magic, the greater the consequence will be."
Kinson - The dark thing so this world sometimes know the secrets we keep hidden.They discover our fears and doubts and use them against us."

Ildatch - "a monstrous, deadly tome that had survived every cataclysm since the dawn of civilizatin, protected by dark spells, driven by secret needs."
Black Elfstone - mentioned in the Ildatch. Why it was created is a mystery. Lost since the time of faerie. Found again in faerie castle of Chew Magna in the Kensrowe Mountains.
"it has the power to subvert other magic, whatever its form, and convert it to the holder's use."
Blue Elfstones - three, one for each, heart, mind, and body.
Eilt Druin - (medallian) The medal of office of High Druids. Molded in the shape of a hand holding forth a Burning torch. Eilt Druin in Elven means "Through Knowledge, Power"
Druid History - "Books that chronicled the results of the Council's efforts to recover the lost knowledge of science and magic from the centuries before the Great Wars, of its' attempts at uncovering the secrets of power that had given the old world the greatest fo it's advancements, and of its detailing of all possibilities however remote concerning devices and formulas, talismans, and conjuring, reasoning and deductions that might one day find understanding.
The Druid Well - " It was a place in to which the discards of time and fate had been cast - of magic and science, of the living and the dead, of mortal and immortal. It had been there since the tiem of faerie. Like the Hadeshorn in the Valley of Shale, it was one of the few doorways that connected the worlds of lief and after life."
" Something scraped on the stone walls below him-a rasp of claws perhaps or scales.", "Leave this place!, a harsh voice whispered from somewhere beyond the door, from far down in the pit. Leave it now!
Hadeshorn - A lake located in the Valley of Shale. Forbiden to mortals. The waters are Poisonous. A place where "the dead, if they appear, offer visions, and the visions speak for them. The dead have no voices."
Sword of Shannara - forged from a metal as strong as iron,but far lighter, more flexible, and less brittle. An alloy really,a mix of metals, that was in use in the old world, conceived of the old science. Iron mostly, tempered by carbon at high temperature.
"So it went, as one by one the spirits paraded before the old man and touched the sword he held,their fingers brushing the image of the Eilt Druin gefore they passed on." "the sword has been given its power""Only our truth remains, all that belonged to us in our lives, in our teachings, in our magic, stark andhard-edged and killing strong" "passing on the truths they had discovered in life. Imbuing it with the power such truths could provide". Jerle carried the sword of shannara till his death. His son, then king, had the sword set in a block of Tre-Stone, taken to paranor and placed in the druids keep.
Mareth's Staff - Made from ironwood of the black forest Black Oaks. Infused with Magic from Bremen, to be used as a conduit for Mareth's magic. The magic will stay as long as the staff is whole. She cast it aside after the battle at the Rhenn.

LINEAGE:
Jerle and Preia had three daughters of there own. They adopted the two remaining Ballindarroch children, both boys. The eldest succeded Jerle to the thrown.The Shannara line would subsequently multiply and continue afterward for more than two hundred years.

Mareth and Kinson Married and settled the city of Kern. They had several children and in the future, a child of there lineage would figure prominently in another battle with the Warlock Lord.

Urprox Screl - (man) Forged the Sword of Shannara. Bremen says to Urprox " You can not work with magic and come away unchanged". Urprox and his entire family eventualy moved north and changed there name from Screl to Creel.