John Ross (Shannara)

Shannara character
image
name=John Ross
nickname=
race=Human
gender=Male
hair=
eyes=
loyalty=The Word, Nest Freemark
magic=a Rune-carved magic staff
appearance="Running with the Demon"
birth=
death= dead as of December 25, 2012 - killed by demons Findo Gask, Penny, and Twitch

John Ross is a fictional character from the "Word/Void" series by Terry Brooks.

Biography

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.

Three times, John has crossed paths with Nest Freemark and each time both of their lives have been significantly changed as they fight battles on behalf of the Word. The last time they teamed up, a battle with the demons Findo Gask, Penny, and Twitch claimed his life due to a powerful demonic poison. As the poison claimed him, he was visited by the Lady of the Word who healed him of his cripple and took him to be with her.

External links

* [http://www.terrybrooks.net/ Terry Brooks' official site]