Demons (Shannara) - Demons of The Word & Void and The Genesis of Shannara Series

Demons of The Word & Void and The Genesis of Shannara Series

In the novels of the Word & Void and The Genesis of Shannara series, the prequel novels to the entire Shannara series, different demons appear, and they are also seeking to destroy the world. These demons are former humans who accepted an offer of service to the Void. They are described in Armageddon's Children as being a "new demonkind, one born of the human race", and distinctly separate from the demons that appeared in The Elfstones of Shannara. When they first accepted the offer to join the Void, they began to shed their human-form, becoming less and less human. Eventually, they were stripped down to a hard, winged husk similar to a bat, which becomes their 'true-form'. In the Word/Void series, set in the late 20th century and early 21st century, demons covertly work to cause discord among humans, striving to set into motion the events that will cause the Great Wars; when they come about, these wars eliminate most of humanity. The Genesis of Shannara trilogy, set eighty years after Angel Fire East, demons now dominate the planet and they have enslaved many of the remaining humans. These demons command legions of "once-men", humans who choose to join the demon's army and began to grow insane, changing mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and physically. These legions are used to overwhelm the remaining human strongholds when they are found. The demons also have begun to breed new demons by experimenting upon human children.

A special form of Demon is a Changeling, which are identical to regular Demons, albeit their unique ability to effortlessly and rapidly change forms; they can shapeshift in a matter of a few seconds. One of these Demons infiltrated the Cintra and spied on the Elves for an unknown period of time; the final form he took was that of the historian Culph. He was killed by Kirisin with the Elfstones at the end of The Elves of Cintra. Another example was the Klee, who was tracking Hawk in The Gypsy Morph. The Klee took on the form of persons known to its targets in order to lure them away from safer locations.

Some demons prefer to cast away their human appearance, assuming a more lethal demonic form but forgoing the ability to blend in amongst the populace. An example is Delloreen of Armageddon's Children and The Elves of Cintra, who shed her human appearance to become a 10-foot-long (3.0 m) wolf-like demon because of her desire to kill Angel Perez.

The most powerful of the demons of this time is Findo Gask, who is unlike his contemporaries in that he kills and triggers chaos out of pure curiosity, not hatred. He is the primary antagonist of the novels Angel Fire East and Armageddon's Children. Other notable demons in these series include Delloreen and Tragen (Armageddon's Children); Penny Dreadful, Twitch, and the Ur'droch (Angel Fire East); Stefanie Winslow (A Knight of the Word); and Nest Freemark's father in Running with the Demon.