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Description
Eight centuries ago the first Knight of the Word was commissioned to combat the demonic evil of the Void. Now that daunting legacy has passed to John Ross--along with powerful magic and the knowledge that his actions are all that stand between a living hell and humanity's future. Then, after... read more
Cast of Characters
- Nest Freemark: Born January 8, 1983; The child of Caitlyn Anne Freemark. Her mother died in mysterious circumstances soon after Nest's birth, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents Robert (called Old Bob) and Evelyn Freemark. Like many of her woman ancestors, Nest has been gifted by the Word with the ability to use magic. She is able to see the conflict between the Word and the Void in the form of "feeders" and other magical creatures. She has offensive magic that can knock down an opponent if she locks eyes with them. She uses this magic to help a sylvan named Pick to tend a park. She also is custodian of the ghost-wolf Wraith, who appears out of thin air to protect Nest when needed.
- John Ross: As a postgraduate student, John Ross was unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. He traveled to England, and eventually discovered the mysterious Fairy Glen in the countryside of Betws-y-coed in Wales. There he met The Lady (the voice of the Word) and discovered that he was the descendant of Owain Glyndwyr, a Welsh "patriot and warrior" who also served the Word. He then became a "Knight of the Word" and returned to America to await the Word's instructions. He was visited at his home by O'olish Amaneh, a Native American who was also a servant of the Word. O'olish, also known as Two Bears, gave John a rune-carved staff, and upon touching it, John was immediately crippled in his foot. The staff gave John his magic powers, but he requires it to walk, a reminder of how he is also dependent on the Word. John has two primary magical abilities. The first is the ability to fire powerful energy waves from his staff which can disable almost any enemy. The second power, which is both a blessing and a curse, is his ability to see into the future in his dreams. Whenever John sleeps, he experiences his life decades into the future — a future in which demons have overrun the world. In these visions he receives information about the past, information that he can use to hopefully change the outcome. The Word shows him in these visions what his next mission is, and he finds clues about how to accomplish it. During these experiences, John is a powerful, uncrippled Knight, able to destroy flocks of enemies with his magic, but he must remain alive in the future or he will die in the present as well. Complicating this is the fact that if he uses his magical staff in the present, he will lose the use of his magic for the duration of his next dream, leaving him vulnerable and in great peril.
- O'olish Amaneh: A Native American also known as Two Bears, O'olish Amaneh is the last surviving descendant of the Sinnissippi tribe that once lived in what became the town of Hopewell, Illinois, (the primary setting of the Word/Void novels). He is a servant of the Word, although his exact station is not well understood. In the Word/Void series O'olish has frequent visits with Nest Freemark under mysterious circumstances to offer wisdom and guidance during her trials against the minions of the Void. Some years prior, he had also been the Word's messenger in delivering a powerful magic staff to John Ross, finalizing John's knighthood under the Word. He appears eighty years later in the novel Armageddon's Children, to Logan Tom, another Knight of the Word. Returning to Hopewell, O'olish charges Logan with a quest to discover a crucial magical creation. It is also mentioned that O'olish delivered Logan's staff to him upon knighthood as well. Two Bears has shown several supernatural skills, including the power to communicate with the spirits of his ancestors through dance, and the ability to disappear in a whirlwind. He has been hinted to have deadly fighting skills, despite almost never using them - the only instance of Two Bears in combat was when a skilled, dangerous demon attacked him with a knife, and he apparently disarmed the demon (hurting her hand in the process) without even appearing to have moved. He also has evidenced a remarkable lifespan, and has shown minimal, if any, signs of aging.
- Stefanie Winslow: Add a description of this character.
- Wraith
- Simon Lawrence
- Andrew Wren
- Ray Hapgood
- Ariel
- Boot
- Audrey
- Pick
- Benjamin
- Robert Heppler
- The Lady
- Owain Glyndwyr
First Sentence
It was dawn when she woke, the sky just beginning to brighten in the east, night's shadows still draping the trunks and limbs of the big shade trees in inky layers.
Table of Contents
Series
This is book 2 in the The Word and The Void series.
This is book 2 in the Shannara series.
This is book 11 in the Shannara (Recommended Reading Order By Author) series.
Authors & Contributors
- Terry Brooks (Author)
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