For starters, this is a post-apocalyptic fantasy but it's very different from any other post-apocalyptic story you may know. This story has gone so far beyond the apocalypse it's a footnote at this point. Apparently there was a nuclear war (which is actually supposed to be well underway already since the books were originally written in the '70s and author Terry Brooks apparently didn't think very far ahead when he decided that the Great War happened in the 21st Century) and as a result the world we know no longer exists. However there were surviviors, including mutants who became identified by their resemblance to races of myth, specifically trolls, gnomes and dwarves. Some humans are unchanged, and then there are the elves, who are often beleived to be another race of mutants, but the elves are, in fact, the real deal, a race of faeries that have been around since before human civilization and have recently emerged from hiding to rejoin society. The show briefly touches on all of this at the very beginning with a shot of a wild landscape featuring the Space Needle fallen over revealing this to be the ruins of Seattle, not that anyone actually remembers it as such, and then the credits show the blood of man forking into dwarves, gnomes and trolls.
Of course this begs the question what is "Shannara" and what does it have to do with any of this? Jerle Shannara was an elf king who was entrusted with a magical sword of truth that can only be wielded by one of his bloodline. One thousand years after he used the Sword of Shannara to defeat the Warlock King, the Warlock King came back and the only way to stop him was for a descendant of Jerle Shannara to wield the sword again. Allanon, a Druid of a Paranor who had been wwaiting in suspended animation for this day to come returned to look for such an individual and by the time he found what he was looking for, the only one left was Shea Ohmsford.
The Shannara Chronicles begins thirty years after Shea Ohmsford and picks up with his son Wil, who is a young man living a humble life in the quiet region of Shady Vale. Then his mother dies and her last words are to offer up the elf stones that belonged to Shea and were presumably inherited from the Shannara line. Sadly, Wil doesn't believe in magic, because even though he is half-elf, the world has grown so mundane, even elves don't believe in magic anymore. This is a much bigger problem for Amberle Elessedil, princess of Arborlon, where she is one of seven Chosen to protect the Ellcrys, a magic tree that protects this world from demons, which the elves regard as a fairy tale, and yet still hold the sacred duty in high regard. Then all hell breaks loose, literally, when the Ellcrys dies and the demns break free one by one. Within the first episode we see Dagda Mor, the master of demons, his right hand man the Changeling, and some random demon that shows up at the end that we don't know the name of, my guess is a dragon or an imp. Anyway, the demons come subtly and the elves are in doubt until Allanon shows up, wakign up from his druid sleep to answer the call of the Ellcrys, he alone seems to comprehend what's to come and he knows he needs the magic of the Shannara and since Shea has passed away, that means it's down to Wil. Unfortunately, he doesn't manage to get to him before his elf stones are stolen by a thieving rover named Eretria. Eretria has her own troubles, her freedom is dependent on delivering the elf stones and their owner to her current master, who knows their value better than she does. Amberle, meanwhile, has a vision from the Ellcrys, gets scared, and runs away, just avoiding the murder of the other Chosen, leaving her the only one left. Now Allanon has to bring together these three youths who never dreamed the fate of the world would be in their hands, let alone are they at all prepared for it.
I found the idea of this world interesting and feel inspired to write a similar story I will title Steel Golem, stay tuned for more details, and tune in on Tuesdays at 10PM on MTV for the next episode of The Shannara Chronicles.
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