Once Men

From The World of Shannara

The Once-men were once humans who had given in to the false promises of demons and been subverted to the void, after the conflicts and the holocaust that had left the world of Man in ruins and would come to be known as the great wars.

The promises went something like this - "Do you want to know what it will take to survive? A willingness to do what is needed. The world has always belonged to the strongest, the weak has never been meant to inherit anything. You choose which you want to be in this life, by your choice you are either with or against us...choose wisely."

Demons had always done this but after the old world had been broken and left in ruins, more was willing to listen to these lies in a world where every day was a struggle. Many of their numbers had been culled from broken armies, scattered remnants of law enforcements bodies, failed militia and other similar sources whom mostly all had come from a violent cultures of guns and violence before the great wars.

Once these men and women embraced the lies and propaganda of the demons, they quickly fell into madness. First they changed emotionally and psychologically, then came both the mentally and physical changes until they had shed their humanity layer by layer taking on a look and feel of monster while still retaining a vague similarity to the humans they once been. Other common features was their blank dead eyes and empty expressions but invardly they was no longer anything like humans but more like predatory animals looking for prey.