Details
Also Known As:
The Wars of Power
The Wars of Science
Books
Dreamt About In:
Running with the Demon
A Knight of the Word
Angel Fire East
Occur During:
Armageddon’s Children
The Elves of Cintra
The Gypsy Morph
Mentioned In:
Bearers of the Black Staff
The Measure of the Magic
First King of Shannara
The Sword of Shannara
The Elfstones of Shannara
The Wishsong of Shannara
Dark Wraith of Shannara
The Scions of Shannara
The Druid of Shannara
Ilse Witch
Wards of Faerie
Bloodfire Quest
The Skaar Invasion
The Stiehl Assassin
The Shannara Chronicles
Mentioned In:
Breakline
Graymark
Paranor
Other
Referred To In:
The World of Shannara
History
They levelled governments and institutions, obliterated cities and entire nations, poisoned the air, water and earth, and left the larger world virtually uninhabitable. It saw the end of the Old World, and the dawning of the New World.
The End of the Wars
This destruction was worldwide. Hundreds of millions worldwide had died: armed strikes, chemical warfare, plague infestation, environmental collapse and terrorist attacks proved overwhelming.2The Gypsy Morph – pp 3-4
A series of huge explosions tore up the land and poisoned everything for two hundred years. Hardly anyone survived, and out of those who did they went north or south or hid in places that escaped the worst of it. Some went underground, some went into the mountains, some stayed put and got lucky. Others turned into Freaks or mutants or something worse. Hardly anyone survived the first five years. Not many of any kind survived.
Aftermath
Almost everyone was wiped out and those that were left were homeless and disconnected. New families were made and everyone had to band together to survive.
For about 100 years people lived like animals. They scrapped and clawed to stay alive. Would kill anyone who threatened them. Some reported to eat each other. Food was hard to find and starvation an everyday occurrence. There was nothing resembling civilisation, no order or moral imperative or a sense of right and wrong. Some people try to hold onto these values but most gave in and became what they needed to survive.
After about two hundred years things started to right themselves. Fortified and protected communities started to form. Weapons were rudimentary; some flechettes, sprays and other leftovers from the Old World. Most of them stopped working or rusted. Men forgot how to fix them, then how to use them and finally forgot them altogether. Weapons of the old way started to be made: swords, spears, javelins, bows and arrows. They formed hunting parties and set watch over the women and children. They stood up to the predators and ravers that still roamed the land. They were beginning to organise themselves.
There was still lots of fighting: battles were fought all over the place, dozens of battles each day and entire communities were wiped out. Some of the mutants created from the effects of the Great Wars evolved into monsters that almost nothing could stop. Most of the worst ones could not breed and died out early on. There wasn’t enough food for them, and they ate things still poisoned from the wars.
A few Demons also survived. They went back to trying wipe out all but their own kind. They subverted who they could and turned them to their own uses.
Five hundred years later some people were still living like animals.
For the next 2000 years Man was reduced to its most primitive level.
- 1The Gypsy Morph – pp 3-4
- 2The Gypsy Morph – pp 3-4