The World of Shannara Page 8

  The legends tell of a massive fire-breathing creature with deadly venomous jaws, but those who have seen Valg insist that the legends fall far short of the truth. His exact size is unknown, but he is believed to be at least seventy-five feet in length, with a head large enough to crush a wagon. His body is serpentine, with massive fore and hind limbs armed with razor-sharp hooked claws suitable for disemboweling prey. His large, misshapen head is capable of disgorging sheets of fire that can incinerate a man in seconds. The venom itself will burn any living thing it touches, making a bite from the knife-edged teeth, each the size of a dagger, the least of the dangers of a confrontation with this beast.

  Allanon is the only man known to have survived a direct confrontation with Valg, and even then he survived only because of his Druid magic and the aid of the brave warriors with him. It was during his tumultuous battle with the dragon that the Assembly and the tomb were damaged. Valg himself cracked the walls and shattered most of the stalactites with his body. Some believe that the dragon was killed during that battle, but most scholars believe he still lives, as creatures of such powerful magic are almost impossible to kill. To date, no one has been willing to return to the Assembly to find out the truth.

  Valg protects the Assembly from trespassers in the Hall of Kings.

  Beyond the Assembly the tunnel leads to the only other known exit from the caverns, a doorway that brings one to a cliffside trail called the Dragon’s Crease, which twists and turns its way down past the falls to the Rabb Plains. The trail has been damaged by quakes and rockfalls over the years, so very little of it remains passable.

  Before the bodies of royalty could be interred, the spirit had to be freed from the body. This was done within the Assembly on the Pyre of the Dead, which lay beyond the second set of stone doors. The Assembly is the last large room known to exist within the cavern system. When originally discovered, it appeared to have suffered very little from the passage of time. The builders left the majority of the room in its natural state. Allanon wrote during his first visit: “The high ceiling dripped with the long spear shapes of ancient stalactites, formed over thousands of years from water seeping through the layers of sediment above. Rough walls laced with green phosphorescence formed a large hall around a long rectangular pool of glass-smooth water. The pool must have been at least a hundred yards in length. In the dim green glow the mirrored surface of the pool reflected the canopy of stalactites into an infinity of stalagmites that seem to create an enchanted city of spires.”

  The reflecting pool is fed by an underground spring, but the actual depth of the water has never been measured. Some of the ancient texts claim that the waters are bottomless and actually connect with the realm of the netherworld as one of the great doorways to the realm of the dead. There is no doubt that the priests who built this hall believed that to be true.

  The doors to the tomb open onto a high stone platform, then to a broad alcove overlooking the room. From the alcove, wide steps were carved into the stone, leading down to a tall stone altar set at the head of the long pool. On either side of the pool, narrow stone walkways originally led to the far end of the chamber and the only other known passageway out of the mountain.

  The altar, known as the Pyre of the Dead, was built out of slabs of heavy stone. A single word was carved into the surface of the altar: Valg. The word was both the ancient Gnome word for death and the name of the creature who lived within the deceptively calm waters of the pool—a great dragon who was old before the Races were born. It has been said that the Gnomes may have taken their word for death from the legends of the Dragon of Death.

  The Hall of Kings is extraordinary not only for the amazing networks of caverns it contains, but for the sheer power and number of ancient creatures it houses. The Banshees, the Sphinxes, and Valg are all believed to be beings created during the time before Man was born—the time when the creatures of Faerie were dominant—with the power of ancient magic inherent in their being. What manner of men must those early priests have been, to have been able to command and control such creatures? Were their death gods so powerful that they were able to grant these priests control over these creatures of the ancient world? Or was it the creatures themselves who were the real gods, and the priests merely their servants? The truth is forever hidden beneath the murky depths of the altar pool.

  The Southland:

  History of the Federation

  The Race of Man lives almost solely in the confines of the Southland. It knows nothing at all of the Northland and its peoples, and little of the Eastland and Westland. A pity that Men have developed into such a shortsighted people, for once they were the most visionary of the Races. —Allanon

  he Southland has been touted as the most hospitable of the Four Lands. With its temperate climate, green rolling fields, and abundance of resources, it is hard to believe that its boundaries were established as a land of exile for a defeated people. To appreciate the Southland, it is necessary to understand the history of those who live there: the Race of Man.

  History of the Southland

  Once there was only one known Race—that of Man. In the lost age before the Great Wars, he dominated the planet and believed himself to be alone in the world. Elves and Faerie creatures were considered nothing more than myth. Man thought himself the heir to the secrets of the universe, and was even close to cracking the mysteries of life and death. But he had not outgrown his own basic human nature, with its inherent petty jealousies and territorial imperatives. He had not outgrown the need to kill. He had simply improved the technologies for doing it.

  History records that it was Man who was responsible, in his arrogance, for the Great Wars that destroyed civilization and reshaped the world. In the aftermath, many of the survivors fled south. The temperate climate and protected conditions there allowed them to survive without suffering physical mutations. From one generation to the next they remained predominantly unchanged from the stock of their prewar ancestors. Upon discovering the other groups of survivors, such as Dwarves and Trolls, whose survival had been more dearly won, they realized that they were the only group to retain their ancestral purity. They declared each new group a separate Race, naming them after creatures in mythology.

  It is unclear why the other Races were willing to accept such naming—which left the title of Man only to those who had not been mutated by the conditions of their survival—but accept it they did, eventually taking pride in those names. Only the Elves were labeled truly, though the Men who named them were unaware of their true nature, assuming at the time that they were also mutated humans.

  Some historians believe it was this basic arrogance that led Man to move out of the south and attempt to assert himself as the dominant Race. Others point out that several of the other Races attempted the same domination at various times, but with less lofty goals. The resulting conflicts undermined all attempts at restoring civilization. The Druid Council was formed to end the strife and create an environment in which all the Races would learn to work together to rebuild a new civilization. Their influence curbed the battles between the Races, and for a time it heralded a period of peace.

  The peace did not last, however. And Man was the tool used to destroy it. The rebel Druid Brona found in the Race of Man the perfect fodder for his quest for power. He fueled the belief that Man had a moral right to subjugate the other Races, a belief that some Men had never lost. After all, Man was still unchanged from the original nature of his ancestors, the only “pure” Race. Many were also drawn in by the promise of power within Brona’s magic, a magic he said only Man was destined to control—through him.

  At first only a small number were drawn to Brona’s message and his magic. They began to organize into loyal groups and coerce others. Those within the Race who opposed it—who realized it was a path of prejudice and oppression—attempted to discredit and then defeat Brona’s followers.

  The resulting civil war spread throughout the Race of Man. But Brona had the might of his magic
and the lure of great power on his side. The opposition had only their convictions and their strength of arms. In a little over a year, Brona’s followers controlled the Race of Man. Man then turned on the other Races. The result was the First War of the Races, a bloody conflict made all the more horrific by the unchecked usage of dark magic by Brona’s generals.

  Up to this point, no one had ever seen widespread usage of magic, much less its use as an offensive weapon. Before the war, technology and science had been anathema, feared for their role in the Great Wars. But Brona and his army of Men and creatures of magic created an awareness of magic as a new and equally destructive force.

  It took the combined might of the Druid Council, then at the height of its power, and the armies of the other Races to stop Man’s push for domination. At the time Brona was believed to be simply a mythic figurehead, rather than the primary instigator that he is now known to have been. The blame for the aggression was placed squarely on the Race of Man alone. He was driven from the field and forced to flee to the deep south in humiliated defeat.

  In the aftermath of the war, the Druid Council partitioned the land into four parts, each assigned to one of the major Races. It was hoped that such segregation would lessen the potential for more racial conflicts. The southern region was allocated to Man and was named simply the Southland.

  When dividing the lands, the Druids found it expedient to assign each land according to the racial majority already living within it. Thus, the Race of Man received the Southland because most of its survivors had fled or were already living there. The major change in population of the region at the time of the council’s decree was the exodus out of the South by members of the other Races. While law never mandated complete segregation, it was encouraged and, in the case of Man, enthusiastically embraced by all sides. Only the Men of the Borderlands retained their connection to the other Races.

  The seven centuries that followed are known as the Southland’s isolationist period. They rebuilt their towns and major cities far south to avoid contact with the other Races. The Borderlands became a buffer between the majority of the Race of Man and the other Races until it began to be seen as a separate land. This seclusion succeeded so well that most Men outside of the Borderlands did not even know of the Second War of the Races until long after it was over. Man was the only Race not involved in that conflict. He believed himself persecuted by the other Races, fighting to keep his dignity and honor and protect what he saw as the tiny parcel of land that was left to him.

  The Southlanders extended their doctrine of isolationism to include each other, establishing themselves in small, decentralized communities, each with its own autonomous government. Since there was no one authority, there was also no one style of government. A wide variety of systems arose, from small monarchies such as the Highlands of Leah to villages such as Shady Vale, governed by councils of elders.

  Trade created what links there were between the communities, though there were initially no official alliances. Trade for goods produced outside the Southland was rare and was done through the Borderlands, so that the South itself never had to trade directly with the other Races.

  Over time, several of the Southland towns grew into cities large enough that intercity trade agreements were needed. About a century before the War of the Warlock Lord, a few of these cities began to band together to form a loose confederation primarily geared toward smoothing the flow of goods from one city to another. The confederation was governed by a body of representatives from each city, known as the Coalition Council.

  After the War of the Warlock Lord, the southern cities belatedly realized the danger the Warlock Lord had posed to their essentially unprotected region. They realized that a stronger form of protection and government was needed, and they began to combine under the Coalition Council. The new alliance became known as the Federation. Ironically, the Southland did not officially participate in the War of the Warlock Lord either, despite the fact that three of that conflict’s bravest heroes—the Ohmsford brothers Shea and Flick, and Menion, the Prince of Leah—were Southlanders.

  Ten years after the War of the Warlock Lord, the Federation had grown to encompass the cities of Arishaig, Dechtera, Wayford, and Stern, as well as their surrounding lands and townships. Arishaig was made the capital and was considered the center of power for the Southland, even though monarchies such as Leah still existed within the Southland’s borders.

  The Seekers: Federation Secret Police

  Formed during the expansion period, the Seekers were charged with seeking out and eradicating dangerous magic from the Federation. Dressed in black from head to toe, except for the emblem of a white wolf’s head worn on breast and shoulders, the Seekers’ very appearance was calculated to strike terror into the hearts of the population, especially those who dared to practice magic. Armed with short swords, daggers, and truncheons, the Seekers were skilled fighters and deadly Trackers. Most people in the Southland feared the magic, but they feared the Seekers more. Almost all of the people arrested by the Seekers disappeared, never to return.

  The Seekers also worked as part of the Federation army, in command roles, in intelligence, and as an elite fighting cadre. In battle, the Seekers were responsible for handling the massive creepers, as well as for defending against any magical attacks.

  The most famous of the Seekers was Rimmer Dall, who served as both a member of the Coalition Council and head of the Seekers. A large, powerfully built man who came to his seat on the council at a young age, Rimmer Dall was known to be a ruthless politician as well as a fearsome fighter. Recognizable by his coarse reddish beard and the black glove he always wore on his left hand, he was the guiding force behind the Federation expansion, the invasion of the Eastland, and the building of Southwatch.

  It is now known that the Seekers, including Rimmer Dall, were slaves to the very magic they were charged to eradicate. They were the Shadowen. This fact was known to only a few until the fall of Southwatch, at which point all the Seekers, as well as several council members, vanished or were burned to ashes.

  The people arrested by the Seekers for practicing magic were either drained of their magic and their souls, turned to Shadowen themselves, or driven mad by the magic and dumped in the Pit in Tyrsis to rot. Coll and Par Ohmsford are the only captives known to have escaped that fate.

  Approximately sixty-five years later, the Federation seemed to lose interest entirely in the regulation of trade and began to focus only on politics and control. Ironically, this was just after news of the death of the last of the Druids reached Arishaig. Around this same time, rumors of dangerous creatures of old magic known as Shadowen arose. Sightings and strange deaths began to terrify the population. These creatures were said to use magic power to steal a person’s body and devour the soul. The Federation’s Coalition Council claimed that such creatures did exist, created from the use of old magic, and that they alone could protect the people of the Southland from danger. To prove it, they formed a band of secret police, known as the Seekers, whose charge was to purge the population of deadly magic and capture those who used it.

  The Federation had begun to combine city militias into a standing army after the War of the Warlock Lord, but it was a slow process. The Shadowen threat created the impetus to speed the process and to recruit more soldiers under the Federation’s banner. At the same time, the power within the council shifted to favor the military, which the Prime Minister supported. The instigator of this shift was believed to be the youngest and most influential council member, Rimmer Dall, head of the Seekers and main advisor to the Federation military commander. The coalition, now dominated by the military, used the newly formed army to spearhead a rapid expansion that claimed the entire Southland for the Federation. It was presented as a consensual alliance, but most areas were given no choice when the consent was coerced by the power of the army. Even the longstanding Monarchy of Leah eventually submitted to Federation rule.

  All that remained was the Borderlan
ds, originally part of the Southland but by this time clearly established as a separate and sovereign region. Callahorn had resisted the unification for many years. The Federation insisted that the Borderlands were theirs by right, since they were primarily populated by Man. With the rest of the Southland under their control and their separate militias absorbed into the Federation army, they invaded Callahorn.

  The Borderlands, which once boasted both strong monarchical leadership and the most skilled fighting force in the Four Lands, had become indecisive and weak. The Legion was no longer the elite fighting unit it had been during the time of the battle for Tyrsis, and Callahorn lacked the strong leadership it had known during its years as a monarchy. Less than a year after the initial invasion, the divided and feuding Borderlands agreed to become a protectorate of the Federation. The last buffer between the now greedy Federation and the rest of the known world crumbled.

  Rimmer Dall, head of the Federation Seekers, who was secretly a Shadowen.

  Shortly after Federation consolidation of the Southland, the Elves disappeared, leaving the Westland largely unpopulated. This disappearance made it a simple matter for the Federation Council to claim the Westland as a protectorate, for there was no one to challenge them but a few traveling bands of Rovers. The council justified its takeover by claiming that the Elves created the dark magic that threatened the land, and that the results of that magic had caused them to vanish. It was the Federation’s duty, they claimed, to cleanse the entire Westland of the lingering effects of the misbegotten Elven magic. They emphasized their position by forbidding the practice of magic, even street magic, in any form within the Southland or the protectorates. Ironically, the council never actually attempted to occupy the Westland, possibly because they knew that there was no dangerous magic in the West and that their subjects would never know the difference.