First Council of Druids
From The World of Shannara
The First Council of Druids was the name given to the first gathering of Druids on its formation by Galaphile, till that council was destroyed at the beginning of the Second War of the Races.
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Birth of the First Council of Druids
Origin and Creation
A thousand years after the ravages of the Great Wars when the Races began to reemerge into civilizations again, there where some among the Races who believed strongly that there was a need to reclaim the knowledge from the Old World before it was all lost. Chief among these was the Elf Galaphile who gathered learned men and women from all the races--those who preserved the skills and knowledge of the Old World. They gathered together all the information they could on the arts, sciences and history of the Old World, and tried to reclaim as much as they good. It was from this that the First Council of Druids where born with Galaphile as High Druid.
Galaphile and the Druid Order believed that the reclaimed knowledge could be used to help civilization. With careful study of what had gone wrong and brought about the holocaust, the mistakes of the Old World could be avoided. Thus through counsel, insight and knowledge the Druid Order could help facilitate peace, prosperity and order for all the Races. As time progressed, the Order flourished and Galaphile's plan seemed to be working and the Races benefited.
Paranor
Main article: Paranor
Realizing a need for a place to house the knowledge gathered and to keep it safe, Galaphile oversaw the construction of the Druid Keep. Galaphile chose the spot carefully, situating the keep atop the volcano Paranor. It was the most extensive engineering feat at the time using masons, carpenters, and craftsman from all over the known lands. Completed after ten long years the Druid Keep stood massive and impressive. The Druids moved in and housed their records while collecting, studying, and exploring even more.
Incomplete Knowledge
Soon the Druids found that, over the millennium after the holocaust, crucial pieces of knowledge of the old sciences had been lost, and without the pieces crucial to their understanding, the Druids were unable to restore science to benefit the Races as they had wished. Nonetheless, many continued to study science, convinced that one day it would be used again.
Other Druids began searching for new ways to benefit the Races, and in doing so discovered magic, a venue unexplored by any before. Chief among them in it's research was a Druid known as Brona. Seeking the answers to the the troubles in the Four Lands, magic seemed to be the way to find answers and he delved deeper into that knowledge. That search lead him to an ancient tome that had survived from long before the Old World, the Ildatch. The Ildatch was a tome of great magic, dark magic. In it's pages Brona believed he found the answers to the troubles of the Races. Around him he gathered followers that believed as he believed in magic.
Others among the Druid Council believed that magic should be studied with more caution, that science and knowledge was the better route to follow. Conflict ensued, which was resolved with the casting out of Brona and his followers from the Druid Council. With them they took the Ildatch. For over a hundred years no one heard anything of Brona and his followers and eventually they where forgotten.
First War of the Races
Main article: First War of the Races
One hundred and fifty years after Brona left the Druid Council, the Race of Man rose up and marched on the other races. Intent on domination and subjugation of the other Races. A terrible war ensued, which became known as the War of the Races at the time, though in later time it was called the First War of the Races. Eventually lead by the Druids at Paranor, the combined might of Trolls, Dwarves, Gnomes and Elves defeated the armies of Man. Towards the end it became known that it was the ex-Druid Brona that lead the armies of Man. Though not defeated personally Brona disappeared and it was assumed that he was killed.
Decline of the First Council of Druids
Complacency
Following the First War of the Races the Druids divided the known world into four quarters with Paranor at the center. The Races where each moved to an area and given their own land. The Trolls moved to the harsh Northland, Elves were given the Westland, the Gnomes and Dwarves went into the Eastland, and the Race of Man moved into the deep Southland, though a few remained in what became known as the Borderlands near Paranor.
The Druids saw the destruction that magic had wrought on the Races and the land and decided that magic is something that should not be pursued. Druids were forbidden to study magic in any sort of depth. Study of it was done under very controlled circumstances and only as a small curiosity.
Seventy years before the Second War of the Races, the Druids began to withdraw more and more from the outside world. Their quest for knowledge became all consuming and they forgot that the Order was set up by Galaphile for the betterment of the Races, and to bring peace and harmony. Sequestered in Paranor, the Druids worked only for the collection of the knowledge from the Old World so that they might collect dust on the shelves in the keep.
Second War of the Races
Main article: Second War of the Races
Three hundred and fifty years after the First War of the Races, Brona appeared again, this time as the Warlock Lord. Forming an army of Trolls and Gnomes, lead by his followers, now called Skull Bearers. The Druid Bremen, an avid worker of the arcane arts, knew of the threat of the Warlock Lord and attempted to warn the Druid Council. His warnings fell on deaf ears and the Druids claim a policy of noninvolvment in what they saw as the affairs of the outside world.
Brona, eager not to repeat the mistakes of the First War, marched first again Paranor. In a swift move Brona destroyed Paranor and killed off nearly all the druids, only four managed to heed Bremen's warning before Paranor fell, Tay Trefenwyd, Risca, and Mareth. These four helped to see the defeat once again of Brona, principally through the forging of a weapon of magic wielded by the Elven King Jerle Shannara. This talisman saw the destruction of Brona's physical form and the defeat of his armies.
End of an Age
Of the four Druids Tay and Risca both died during the war, Mareth left the order. Only Bremen remained, though he found a promising apprentice to take him place in a twelve year old boy named Allanon. Three years after the end of the Second War of the Races, Bremen choose to leave this world and slip into the Hadeshorn. Before he left, he used the magic of the keep to remove the keep from the Four Lands for all but short periods of time. Allanon, at fifteen years of age, was left as the last Druid.
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