by Terry Brooks
The city has no walls, save that provided by the rushing Mermidon. The only access to the island is via ferry or private boat, though there is a period of about a month during the dry season when the waters are calm enough to allow access by swimming. Most of the buildings on the island are stone—possibly to make it more difficult for an enemy to burn the town again—and are built several stories tall. Limited land area has forced its citizens to build vertically wherever possible.
The existing Council Hall is believed to be a close replica of the one destroyed in the burning, with arched windows laced with metal latticework, covered walkways, carved wooden doors, and graceful columns along the exterior. The original council table, a masterpiece of burnished wood, was lost. The new one is elegant, with a more modern styling of flutework on the legs and edges.
Today the city of Kern is one of the primary trading centers for goods moving from the Westland to points east and south. Warehouses and craft halls line its streets, and its docks are active year round with fishing and trade. The forests of the original city are long gone, but a number of parks have been cultivated with shrubs and trees native to the area, enhanced by the addition of flowering bushes and colorful gardens.
Beyond the Cities
Northwest of Kern lies the Tirfing, a land of woodlands and small lakes. The area is a haven for Rovers journeying to and from the grasslands of the Westland. North of the Tirfing, at the farthest reaches of Callahorn’s borders, are the flats below the valley of the Rhenn, where the climactic battle between the Elves and the Federation was begun. The alliance that faced the Federation included Padishar Creel’s Free Born as well as five thousand Rock Trolls.
The participation of the Free Born in that crucial battle was only possible because of their success eluding the Federation long enough to build a fighting force and ally with the Trolls. They evaded the Federation by using secret strongholds built within the wilderness of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains.
PARMA KEY AND THE JUT
Located north of the Mermidon’s north-south juncture at the edge of the Dragon’s Teeth are miles of unending ravines and defiles cutting all the way back to the bedrock of the mountains. Set amid a thick blanket of misty forest and almost impenetrable scrub, these deep ravines and sharp ridges, known as the Parma Key, hide the all-but-invisible trails that were the highways for the Free Born during the occupation. Anyone who dared enter the Parma Key without a guide was doomed to become hopelessly lost soon after entering. Even today, few dare to journey far within its range without at least carefully marking the trail. It was deep within this rugged land, atop a rock outcropping known as the Jut, that the Free Born established their primary stronghold.
The sheer wall of the Jut rises above the lands of the Parma Key for hundreds of feet. It is a natural stronghold capable of resisting even a sizable army. Midway up the cliff is a grassy bluff, approximately three hundred yards deep, ending in series of caves and tunnels. During its use as a Free Born outpost, the bluff was accessed via a series of lifts. These gated lifts were large enough to hold up to a half dozen people and were lifted by large winches set into rock ledges. It took three different lifts to reach the top ledge from the ground. Each lift was guarded. An enemy would have to take all three to gain access to the bluff.
A waterfall spilling from the mountains above to a pool on the bluff provided fresh water. The largest of the caves on the bluff, over two hundred feet across inside its main central chamber, opened into dozens of smaller chambers, which were used as storage areas and training rooms, as well as sleeping quarters during inclement weather. The Jut was home to between two hundred and five hundred men at any given time.
The deepest of these storage caves leads to a tunnel, disguised with a false front, which bores through the mountain to come out above Parma Key just south of the Dragon’s Teeth. Crevices split the path at several points along the tunnel. Some of the remnants of the rope-and-wood bridges used to span the crevices are still in place. The largest of these crevices is located a mile into the mountain. It cuts a deep channel, over fifty feet wide edge to edge, through the largest chamber known to exist within the mountain. The iron drawbridge, which was designed to be raised and lowered from the Jut side of the crevice, still stands across the yawning crack, though its gears and levers have been jammed, locking the bridge in place. Beyond the bridge, the tunnel winds for miles over similar terrain before emerging from the mountain.
Padishar Creel’s hawk signet ring, the symbol of the Free Born Movement
Several other caves on the Jut lead to tunnels as well. Some of them also lead to the outside, but most simply lead into a maze of underground passages that dead-end deep within the mountain. Most of the Free Born knew better than to attempt a tunnel passage without their leaders. Anyone who chose the wrong passage was hopelessly lost before he or she realized the mistake.
Fortifications were built along the edge of the cliff and around the cave mouths to protect against arrows or spears. Defenses were mounted in the cliff walls above the bluff within the splits in the rocky face. Some of the remains of these fortifications can still be seen today.
FIRERIM REACH
The second largest stronghold used by the Free Born was located at Firerim Reach, so named because of the breathtakingly brilliant crimson sunsets visible through the mountain mist. At sunset, the whole mountain range appeared to be burning.
Firerim Reach is located in the rugged slopes of the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains, northwest of the Rabb. It can only be accessed by a narrow trail that passed through the cliffs to a secret entrance within a cliff wall, though there are rumors of a second secret entrance that may not be revealed to those outside the Free Born. At many points, the trail appears to disappear into boulders or cliffs. Only those who know the way can find it. Climbing ever higher, the trail narrows at several points to the width of one man. Many of these splits are open to the sky, providing a point of attack if an enemy ever found the path.
The Reach itself is a large plateau with a spectacular view of the mountains to the west. To the east, a ridge overgrown with cedar and spruce protects the plateau. During the occupation, the Free Born built their makeshift cabins and tents within the shelter of these trees. Some of the stone-lined pits used for cooking fires are still visible.
The northern and western edges of the plateau dropped away over a steep cliff above a mass of canyons and jagged fissures. If anyone ever found a way to access the area near the Reach, he or she would never be able to climb the sheer walls to reach the redoubt.
Firerim Reach was used primarily as a fallback fortress for the Free Born. The Reach, even if it were revealed, could never be taken, but it was too far from the cities to provide active support for groups working within the cities. It was here, at Firerim, that Padishar Creel consolidated his forces before moving on to support the Elves at the Battle of the Rhenn during the Shadowen War.
The Northland: Land of
Trolls and Warlocks
I only feel truly alive within the vast wilderness of the Northland, for it is only when I am lost within her unforgiving embrace that I find true serenity. —Horner Dees, Tracker
he Northland is a barren and inhospitable place where survival must be earned anew each day. It is also ruggedly beautiful, with snow-capped mountains crowning wild forests that open onto vast tundra. It is home to the fierce Koden, sure-footed Mountain Sheep, and large herds of Northern Deer as well as Trolls, Urdas, and a few Gnomes.
Bounded by the Upper Anar on the east and the Breakline Mountains on the west, the Northland extends from the Dragon’s Teeth Mountains around Paranor in the south to the vast waters of the Tiderace in the far north. The land between contains some of the most beautiful and deadly country in the known world.
The Charnals, the largest mountain range in the Four Lands, run from the Jannison Pass at the edge of the Dragon’s Teeth northeast to the Tiderace. The spine of the Northland, they form a forbidding barrier between the Eastland
and the Northland that can only be traversed by experienced Trackers—or lucky fools. Their snow-covered peaks and vast forested valleys are home to a wide variety of life, as well as the majority of the population of the Northland. Tribes of Trolls and Urdas are scattered throughout the valleys and uplands of the range, dominated by a few larger Troll “cities,” such as Norbane, in the far north.
Beyond the Charnals to the west and extending northward to the Knife Edge Mountains lie the Streleheim Plains, a vast, lonely expanse of grassy tundra broken occasionally by tufts of dense brush and a few bushes. Herds of Northern Deer frequent these grasslands during the spring and summer months.
West of the plainland is the forbidding Kershalt Territory. Within a wild and dangerous land, the Kershalt is considered the most dangerous section. It is country that even the natives avoid. Bracketed by the Malg Swamp and the river Lethe on the east and the Kierlak Desert on the west, the Kershalt is a land of death. It was a fitting place for the Warlock Lord and his undead minions.
The Warlock Lord
The Spirit Lord, as the Trolls knew him, was not always evil. The ruler of the Skull Kingdom was originally one of the very Druids sworn to aid the lands. As a Druid, Brona had accepted the charge to reclaim what had been lost during the Great Wars. He was a brilliant and ambitious man, but he was also impatient, and soon realized that the process of recreating an entire civilization from shards of lost knowledge would be painstakingly slow, if not impossible.
Brona discovered a shortcut within a book of ancient magic hidden in Paranor. This book, the Ildatch, led him to discover powers far beyond anything the Druids had thus far managed to re-create. He began to experiment with magic and determined that it would provide the answer the Druids sought. The council attempted to dissuade him, realizing the danger of his approach, but he was reckless in his haste and was seduced by the power of the book.
In the end, Brona and his followers broke with the Druid Council and left Paranor, taking the Ildatch and its promise of limitless power. The council believed him dead. In fact, he and his followers had hidden away in the Northland. They were gradually subverted by the dark magic, which connected with the evil within them. Pawns of the book, though they did not know it, they sought world domination. In the First War of the Races, Brona managed to incite the Race of Man to attack the other Races. Man was eventually defeated, but Brona escaped to the Northland.
Brona became obsessed with the magic. It granted him power, but took away his humanity. He discovered the Druid Sleep, but used it without care to become immortal. It took away his heart and soul until in the end he had nothing but his will and the demands of the magic that sustained him. The mortal man Brona died, consumed by the dark magic. The magic reached through him, tainting the land and transforming the Skull Kingdom into a barren wasteland fit only for the dead. As Brona’s strength grew, so did the reach of the magic and its taint.
From this stronghold in the Northland, the Warlock Lord and his followers began anew their campaign for domination. They were more powerful, having taken centuries to learn more of the dark secrets of the Ildatch. This time Brona first destroyed the Druids at Paranor, so that they could not stop him again. He then conquered the Trolls and Gnomes of the Northland. They were gathered into a massive army, augmented by creatures he had conjured with the magic, and sent boring down upon the Eastland, across the Borderlands, and into the Westland. The campaign ended there when he ran up against the courage of the Westland Elves, a few Druids, and a King named Jerle Shannara who wielded a sword made from Old World steel and Druid magic.
The Sword of Shannara almost destroyed the Warlock Lord, but he managed to break the warrior king’s concentration long enough to escape to the North. His spirit hid within the Skull Mountain until he could once again begin his work. Those of his original followers that had survived rejoined him. It took five hundred years, but they gradually regained their strength and began again to build an army. It was easier to gain control of the Trolls this time, since he could prove that he was beyond the reach of mortals, a creature of the gods. His power had increased so that he no longer needed to command his armies in person, but could send his trusted Skull Bearers in his place and control all from his scrying basin. He first killed all the Elven heirs of Shannara, so that there would be no one to wield the Sword that so nearly killed him. He ordered the Sword of Shannara brought from its hiding place in Paranor, and began his campaign. The Northland Armies were sent against the Southland to drive a wedge between the more powerful armies of East and West, preventing an alliance that might defeat him again.
The last heir of Shannara, a valiant Troll, an honest thief, and the courage of the Borderland people combined to destroy his plan. The sword ended up within his dungeon, though not as he had planned. The heir to Shannara found it before Brona realized it was there. The Warlock Lord confronted him, and was destroyed within the dungeon of his own stronghold. Of course, Brona had actually died centuries before; it just took the power of the sword to make him realize the truth.
The Warlock Lord, known to the Trolls as the Spirit Lord, was originally a Druid named Brona.
After the First War of the Races, the Druid Council assigned the Northland to the Trolls. They were the only Race that could easily survive its harsh climate and difficult terrain. Many of the tribes already made their homes among the rugged peaks and valleys of the Charnal Mountains.
Unfortunately, the man secretly responsible for that war also decided to make his home within the Northland’s wilds. He guessed—correctly—that no one but Trolls would notice his kingdom in the barren Kershalt Territory. He knew the Druids, who barely suspected his existence, would never look there. The Trolls who noticed were recruited—or killed.
A Skull Bearer, one of the Warlock Lord’s servants.
Brona became known as the Spirit Lord. His kingdom, centered in the dying, broken peak called Skull Mountain, became the center of dark magic, the Skull Kingdom. The lands it encompassed slowly died and rotted. The Spirit Lord gradually subjugated the Trolls, tribe by tribe, until he had created an army. The Trolls were impressed by his magic and by his power. Many joined willingly, for promise of victory and the spoils of war. Those who refused were convinced by the power of his magic. Gnomes living in the Northern Anar quickly joined as well, realizing that they were no match for any power that could subjugate the Trolls. Together they formed the bulk of the Northland army. Almost three hundred years after the Trolls were given their own homeland, they swept out of the North on a campaign designed to capture the Four Lands for the Spirit Lord, their master.
Skull Bearers
When the Druid Brona left Paranor, a number of his followers left with him. For many years, no one knew what had happened to those people. We now know that they became his dread captains, the Skull Bearers, so named because of the silver skull pendant each wore upon his breast. The pendant was the mark of their service to the dark lord. It became their badge of rank.
Like Brona, these Druids were drawn to the magic and consumed by it until it changed them. They became corrupted creatures infused with the power of dark magic. Their shape twisted to match their souls until they no longer resembled men and were instead hunched creatures with leathery wings and claws skulking within black cloaks. Terror emanated from their bodies, affecting any mortal creature that came near them.
Usually hidden in shadows during the day, they hunted by night, feeding off the living, though they no longer needed to eat. The magic sustained them. They were in service to the Warlock Lord, sworn to him and to the magic that used him. They became his generals. Some could transform at will into the likeness of a human, to pretend to be all they had given up for the magic. Some could even sire children, though those children often carried a part of the magic within them. Most preferred the shape they had earned.
Normal weapons could not harm them; only powerful magic could kill them. When the Warlock Lord was destroyed, they faded into smoke and dust. With his death,
their connection to the magic was broken. It was only the magic that sustained their lives.
The Skull Kingdom
The Warlock Lord chose Skull Mountain as his stronghold because of its remote, protected location, though the appearance of the mountain may have also appealed to him. The ancient peak had been worn by time and the elements until the southern face resembled a huge, menacing human skull stripped of flesh. Gaping openings to internal caverns resembled eyeholes, and the smooth top of the mountain was rounded much like a human head. The mountain itself may have been shaped by one of the cataclysms during the Great Wars, its shape worn by wind and water driven by explosive forces. It is believed that the Warlock Lord used his magic to enhance its malevolent appearance, as well as to strengthen the ancient rock to keep it from breaking further.
The interior of Skull Mountain was riddled with hundreds of caverns and winding tunnels, some bored by nature, others by magic. The caverns and tunnels extended from well below ground level, where they were primarily used for dungeons, to the single large chamber at the mountain’s apex. That chamber, the largest within the mountain, was open to the north, where a large chunk of the mountain’s exterior had cracked and fallen away long before.
The Druid Bremen, the only man known to have infiltrated the audience chamber and survived, wrote that the room was the location for one of the Warlock’s most powerful tools: his scrying basin. “In the center of the cavernous room, upon a large stone pedestal, I saw a dark basin of murky water. As I hid, cloaked with magic so that I would appear to be one with the mindless, pitiful minions that crawled through the shadows, I saw him appear, coalescing out of the mist. There was nothing left of the mortal who had been Brona. Only his darkest essence remained. The robes that outlined his form were filled with nothing but a green, malevolent mist. The hood revealed no face, just the burning red sparks where eyes should have been. He gestured to the basin—just a touch of his magic, and it cleared to reveal to him a window upon the world. He could see all within his domain—and possibly beyond—without ever leaving the protection of his mountain.”
