| From: | Nexx <nexx@********.NET> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Terry Brooks- Sixth age connection |
| Date: | Tue, 7 Apr 1998 15:17:36 -0500 |
send it to both.
Has anyone taken a look at the Shannara books recently? I just started
re-reading "Elfstones of Shannara", and something struck me: This seems like an
alternate version of the Sixth World. Stay with me, now.
Firstly, we have the back story in essence already. Long before today, there
was a time when magic was a real and powerful force. Elves, dwarves, gnomes
(for Earthdawn players, they are a relative of dwarves that may or may not have
been mentioned), and trolls roamed the earth. Then, there was a great war with
an evil force. Eventually, the elves and their allies prevailed, creating a
ward to keep the evil from their world forever, embodied in a tree called the
Ellcrys. This could easily be seen as an interpretation of the Scourge, as
there were indeed many heroes in the Scourge, and wards were established that
formed kaers into their own little worlds. Those who know Earthdawn know that
some relied on trees to ward them, and that that exacted a terrible price.
Fast forward to the end of the Fifth Age, the Age of Man. During the Age of
Man, it deserves note that the elves were still around. In Brooks' novels,
they hid out as trees and bushes, and man could not find them because he did
not know how to look. In FASA time, they hid out as men, and man could not
find them because they did not know how to look.
Let's assume that the Lone Eagle crisis (when militant Amerinds hijacked a
nuclear missile) resolved differently in one respect: The missile went off.
This would likely trigger what Allanon termed "The Great War", where men were
simply overwhelmed by the power of weapons they could no longer control. In
all the confusion of the Great War, no one noticed that magic had returned, and
thought that elves, dwarves, gnomes, and Trolls were mutations caused by
radiation. In a modified Sixth age, people would know this to be true, but
they were mutations caused by magical, not nuclear, radiation.
After the Great War, mankind was plunged into barbarism for a thousand years,
only to be raised from it through the power of a group of Magicians (who termed
themselves Druids), led by an elf who knew of the old ways (perhaps that should
be written Ways?). For a long time, the Druids taught the races the old ways,
not only of magic, but of science, too. In that thousand years, the elves had
moved away from their long-lived roots, becoming more human, until they were
not a race of demigods, but a race of Men.
Eventually, one of the Druids feel victim to corruption, and began a war with
his fellows. They realized his evil, and fought him with the help of others,
and believed him destroyed at the end of the conflict. Thus the First War of
the Races came to pass.
Wars passed, and so did many more years, including another War of the Races
and one that was only barely prevented. Magic was beginning to return to the
world, and the seal that kept the evil from the world began to fail, letting
the more powerful of the ancient Enemy slip through.
Now, what this rather long-winded history of Terry Brooks's books was meant to
do is point out some rather startling similarities between the two worlds.
I've even done a bit of map work, and I think one could make the argument that
the Four Lands of Brooks's novels are actually in a North America that had been
altered by war and time. Does anyone see where I'm coming from with this, or
am I spinning my wheels?
***************
Rev. Mark Hall, Bardagh
aka Pope Nexx Many-Scars
************
Yet, I'm also a man who's constantly strivin' for a perfection I'll never
achieve... and probably wouldn't even recognize it if I did.
-Logan, in issue 124 of "Wolverine"
***********
Am Moireach Mor!
