Khyber Elessedil is a character in the High Druid of Shannara trilogy and The Dark Legacy of Shannara trilogy. She was an Elven Princess who rejected her Elessedil heritage to become a Druid like her uncle, Ahren Elessedil.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Khyber cared little for her dominating family and their attempts to control her behavior, and she tried to run away from home multiple times. She secretly took up studies of the Druid arts with her uncle Ahren, who taught her the use of various magics. Some, including Home Guard Captain Pied Sanderling, felt she would have made a better ruler of the Elves than her brother, King Kellen Elessedil.
Quest to Save the Ard Rhys[]
As a young girl still learning to master the Druid magic she joins Ahren on a mission to aid Pen Ohmsford to find his lost aunt Grianne Ohmsford, Ard Rhys of the Druids. Having stolen the Elfstones from her family home, she wields them after her uncle's death and uses the rudimentary skills she learned from Ahren to aid Pen and the company.
After Grianne was found and returned to the Four Lands and the renegade Druids were defeated, Khyber was one of the few people, along with the young novice Druids Trefen Morys and Bellizen, who were entrusted by Grianne with the task of guarding Paranor until the time was right for the reestablishment of a Druid Order.
Quest for the Missing Elfstones[]
Over a century later, Khyber is Ard Rhys of the fourth Druid Order, having been kept alive by the Druid Sleep. With Druids under increasing threat of being swept away by the Federation, they seek a way to restore the balance. When Aphenglow Elessedil finds clues in an ancient diary that could lead the Druids to the sets of Elfstones lost since the Age of Faerie, Khyber decides to lead an expedition in search of them.
Unfortunately, the expedition goes wrong almost immediately. Most of the company ends up trapped inside the Forbidding, with Druids dying one after another. Khyber and Redden Ohmsford are captured by Tael Riverine, the Straken Lord that had imprisoned Grianne in his fortress over a century ago.
Days of imprisonment and the painful effects of the conjure collar leaves Khyber weak and drained, but Tael Riverine invites her to a public duel. She is given a potion that restores her strength to normal, and while she is under the effects of the potion she turns out to be more than a match for the Straken Lord. However, the potion was rigged to wear off mid-battle, and once it does so Khyber is returned to her weakened state and unable to call on her magic. She is killed quickly by Tael Riverine, and he places her head on a spike on the walls of his fortress.
Legacy[]
Although Khyber was killed in combat and the quest for the missing Elfstones had fatal consequences for most of the party, Redden Ohmsford did manage to find and retrieve the missing Elfstones with the help of Oriantha and Tesla Dart. Three of the four sets of missing Elfstones go lost again when Tesla, who had been holding them, is banished back into the Forbidding, but Redden retains possession of the Crimson Elfstones, which are then given to the Druids.
With the Druid Order decimated, it is left to Aphenglow, Oriantha, and Seersha to rebuild the order, with Aphen becoming the next Ard Rhys.