The Word and the Void Timeline
The following are timelines for The Word and the Void trilogy. The first timeline is in years and concerns events that happen to the characters before and after the actual events of the books, while the second timeline is day-by-day and follows in detail the characters' journeys. You can view the main timeline here. Also, don't take these timelines as 100% canon, as there have been some parts in the book where Brooks was rather vague about the dates, so I had to assume when something happened.
In addition, I do not want to see these timelines popping up anywhere else - whether it be your own personal Shannara site, Wikipedia, or wherever. I spent a very long time going through the books and painstakingly recording each incident and trying to figure out where everything went. Needless to say, if I find these at some other site, I will be angry. (Not to mention I could probably tell fairly easily if someone copied off of mine, since I doubt anyone will be making the same guesses as I did about what happened when Brooks was being vague.) If you want to point people in the direction of this timeline, just link directly to this page. (See the FAQ for more info.) And, of course, these timelines are no substitute for reading the books themselves; they're just detailed outlines. That said, enjoy. XP
Also, all of these dates hinge on Nest's birthday being January 8, 1983, as revealed in Armageddon's Children.
General Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1977 | Derry Howe begins working at MidCon. |
| 1982 | The demon leaves the Freemarks. |
| 1983 | January: Nest is born.
April: Caitlin falls off the cliffs. |
| 1986 | John Ross travels to England. |
| 1987 | John Ross decides to go to Gwynedd, Betws-y-Coed, in Wales. That summer, he finds the Fairy Glen. A fisherman appears to him and tells him to come at night, then disappears. Ross returns three days later during the day and sees the fisherman again. He then comes two nights later. The Lady appears to him and asks him to embrace her, then shows him the future. He does so. Weeks later, after returning to the States, Two Bears comes and gives him the staff, which cripples and binds him to the Word. That night, he has his first dream of the future and realizes that this is what he must prevent. |
| 1988 | When Nest is five, she tells her friends about the feeders and scares them. Shortly afterwards, she discovers Wraith. Gran uses up her magic on him to ensure that when the demon comes, Wraith will not be under his orders. |
| 1989 | Nest sees a feeder for the first time and meets Pick shortly afterwards. He takes her on a ride with Daniel around the park and gets as far as the maentwrog before returning. Two days later, he comes to her again. Nest tells Gran of him that night; she approves. |
| 1991 | Josie's ex-husband heads north.
Pick tells Nest about the feeders. |
| 1994 | When Nest is eleven, she gets in a fight with Lori Adami when she insults her mother. Nest gets angry at her and uses her magic for the first time. It is then that she discovers its presence.
Simon Lawrence comes to Seattle. |
| 1997 | January: discussions between the union and the company end in a deadlock. The Chamber of Commerce puts up a sign that reads "Welcome to Hopewell, Illinois! We're growing your way!"
March 16: the strike at Midwest Continental Steel begins.
Mid-April: a mediator is called in to resolve the dispute, but he changes nothing.
Mid-May: the company announces that it will no longer recognize the union and will accept old workers who want their jobs back.
June 1: the fourteen-inch mill is started up again using company supervisors, but it is shut down a few days later.
June 21: the demon arrives in Hopewell. A boy and his dog attempt to attack him when he refuses to pay them a toll fee, but he causes the dog to attack and kill the boy. The dog is quarantined, then put down.
June 22: the demon finds Derry Howe and moves in.
July 1-5: the events of Running with the Demon take place.
Simon Lawrence founds Fresh Start; Della Jenkins becomes one of the first people to work there. |
| 1998 | Simon writes Street Lives. |
| 1999 | Early 1999: Wraith merges with Nest when she is 18.
April 1: John Ross arrives at San Sobel Preparatory Academy before sunrise and hides in the auditorium. Several hours later. The kidnappers come. He subdues them, but the police arrive and begin shooting, killing fourteen children in the process. Ross is horrified at the events and ceases being a Knight of the Word.
Late fall: John Ross goes to Betwys-y-Coed to tell the Lady that he has quit. Owain appears and tells her that she is not coming and that quitting is not his choice to make. He disappears. Ross leaves, then comes back later. He returns again several times but no one appears. He goes back to the United States. |
| 2000 | January: Two Bears warns John Ross about leaving his post as a Knight of the Word.
Early December: John Ross meets Stefanie Winslow at Boston College while auditing classes. |
| 2001 | Early 2001: John Ross and Stefanie Winslow come to Seattle.
September: Simon Lawrence hires Stefanie to work for him at Fresh Start.
October 29: John Ross begins working at Fresh Start. |
| 2002 | May: Old Bob dies of a heart attack. At the funeral, Robert tries to make a move on Nest, causing her to get angry at him.
October 26: Nest comes home from Northwestern.
October 27: Nest meets with Allen to discuss the house.
October 28-November 1: the events of A Knight of the Word take place. |
| 2004 | The Summer Olympics are held in Melbourne, Australia. |
Day-by-Day Timeline for Running with the Demon
| Day | Event |
| Friday, July 1 | Around two A.M., Pick comes to the Freemark residence and wakes Nest up, telling her that Bennett is at the cliff. She and the sylvan go together to the park and successfully rescue her and bring her home. Nest then returns to her own home and goes back to sleep.
At nine, Old Bob and Gran discuss Nest, who Old Bob found to have been out of bed earlier. Gran tells him to leave her alone. Nest comes down an hour later and tells Gran about Bennett. She asks again about her father, but gets no answer.
Old Bob goes to Josie's and talks about the strike with his mill buddies. Derry joins in and says that maybe something should get blown up. The others do not take to his suggestion, causing Derry and Junior to leave in anger. The demon, who sat in with them, leaves with the two. Junior drops Derry and the demon off at Derry's house, where Derry complains about the mill. The demon subtly suggests using demolitions.
Nest meets up with Jared, Cass, Robert, and Brianna and goes fishing with them. They stop around five and are heading home when they run into Danny, who tries to ask her out. Nest refuses. He continues to pressure her, but Robert interferes. Danny is about to attack him when Nest saves him with her magic. They quickly leave. Once at home, Nest leaves again to go for a run, then returns, eats dinner, and goes back outside, seeing several feeders as she does so. Pick appears and takes her to the park, where an Indian is waiting for them. Nest and Pick stare at him for a while before he notices; he goes up to them and introduces himself as O'olish Amaneh. He then tells Nest the story of the Sinnissippi, then invites her to see the spirits dance tomorrow night. |
| Saturday, July 2 | John Ross arrives in Hopewell and checks into the Lincoln Hotel, then goes to Josie's, where he grabs a bite to eat and exchanges a few words with Josie. She points out Old Bob for him; he goes up and introduces himself as a friend of Caitlin's. Old Bob invites him to have dinner at their house. John accepts and returns to the hotel and sleeps for a few hours, dreaming of the future.
Nest wakes up at seven and helps Gran clean up the house, finishing before noon. Pick appears upon her leaving the house and tells her that Two Bears is nowhere to be found. He then takes her to the maentwrog and says that it's breaking free and that she needs to collect materials to patch it up. Nest goes to Robert's house and retrieves various gardening items with the help of Robert, Cass, and Brianna. They go to the maentwrog and fix it up according to Pick's instructions (which he relays through Nest), then leave, leaving Nest and Pick alone. They talk for a while; Pick reveals that the Word is the same as her God. She then goes to her mother's grave by herself. On the way there, she sees the park maintenance man, who is, unbeknownst to her, the demon in disguise. They exchange a few words before Nest gets uncomfortable and continues on her way. The demon leaves as well, finds Richie, and takes him to the maentwrog, giving him to it as a blood offering. When Richie is gone, the demon throws his shoe into the river.
Later that evening, the Freemarks and John Ross have dinner. They exchange small talk, though when a question about Nest's father is asked, things get awkward. Nest excuses herself and goes outside. John comes out after her. Together, they go to her mother's grave. On the way back, John reveals that he can see the feeders as well and that he is a Knight of the Word. He then tells her how he became one. Once he is done, he says that he is in Hopewell because there is a demon in the park. He then leaves, leaving Pick and Nest to mull things over. Nest begins to wonder if he is her father.
Robert calls Cass and Brianna to discuss Nest's strange behavior. Meanwhile, Jared, at home, goes downstairs to get an apple. George yells at him.
Derry and Junior meet at Scrubby's, a bar, and talk about making an "accident" look like MidCon's fault to force them to go back to the bargaining table.
Nest eavesdrops on an argument between Old Bob and Gran about John Ross and her father. She goes to her room, pretends to sleep for a while, then gets up and heads for the burial grounds shortly before midnight and meets up with Two Bears. He calls up the spirits of the Sinnissippi and dances with them. They reveal to him their fate and to Nest a vision of Gran playing with the feeders. |
| Sunday, July 3 | Nest wakes up before seven, thinks for a while about the vision, showers, and eats. At ten, she and Old Bob go to church. John Ross arrives there while they are singing hymns; both she and he notice the presence of feeders. Wraith comes and scares them off; Nest goes to intercept him, but he fades away. Nest continues outside. John follows; they talk briefly of what just happened. Nest then goes to the bathroom. When she comes out, she sees the demon, who begins to talk to her about the destruction of the world. He then kills Mrs. Browning in front of her and leaves. Nest looks for and finds John and asks him more questions on why he is here, but he gives her evasive answers. She and Old Bob go home, where she tells Gran about the vision while Old Bob calls Mel, who tells him about Derry and asks him to help. Old Bob reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile, Gran tells Nest about her wild days in the park when she was younger and how she had stopped when the other man - the demon - came. Gran then goes to her room while Nest goes out to the park. Pick tells her more about Gran at Nest's insistence. He leaves and Nest meets up with Cass and the others. She tells them a lie about a man poisoning the trees to cover up her interest in the maentwrog and gives them a description of the demon. They hang out for a while, then walk home. Jared asks her to the Fourth of July dance. Nest happily agrees. At three, John arrives at Nest's house; he and the Freemarks go out for a picnic. After eating, Nest and John go for a walk while Gran and Old Bob share a romantic moment. Nest asks more questions about Ross' presence, which John again evades. They talk about feeders, Two Bears, and Wraith before arriving at the maentwrog, which she shows to him.
Old Bob and Gran meet up with the other steel mill workers. Old Bob confronts Derry and tries to convince him not to do anything rash, but Derry blows him off and warns him to stay away from the fireworks. Gran and Old Bob then go to Enid. Gran tells her that she should be there for her kids. George comes, but Gran puts him down.
Nest and John return to the park, where Nest finds her friends while John runs into Josie. The two sit and talk for a while, then kiss. However, the demon's henchmen attack John, who seem to think that he is a company spy. John fights back with his magic, which scares them off. Josie then takes John home to fix him up, then puts him to bed and gets in with him.
Nest is sitting around with her friends when Jared asks her to dance with him; she says yes. While dancing, though, she sees the demon. She tells Jared to find John Ross and then goes after him. On the way, she is caught by Danny and his friends, taped up, put in a sack, then brought to the caves. The demon comes and talks to her, then leaves. Meanwhile, Robert and the others find Old Bob and ask him to look for Nest, who they realize is now missing. They lead him to Danny; Old Bob confronts him, then goes to the caves and retrieves Nest. While they are walking back home, they hear the sound of a shotgun being fired.
Jared runs back home to tell Enid and George about Nest but walks into them half-naked and drunk. George gets angry and starts beating him up; Jared tries to fight back, but feeders appear and egg George on. Jared is knocked unconscious while George escapes, trying to run from the feeders and Evelyn. He reaches a fence and attempts to climb it, but his throat is caught on the top. He bleeds to death as the feeders watch.
The demon comes for Evelyn. She shoots him, but it has no lasting effect. He kills her. |
| Monday, July 4 | John wakes up in Josie's bed. Josie takes him back to the hotel, then drops him off at Nest's house. They say goodbye.
Nest wakes up around noon. Old Bob comes in and talks to her for a while, then leaves. Pick comes as well; they talk and she shows him the note Gran left for her. She then gets up, showers, and sees her friends, who tell her that Jared is in a come and that Enid's children are in foster care. Her friends leave. The demon appears in her backyard, blows her a kiss, then leaves as well. John Ross comes. Nest asks him if he is her father; he tells her no. Old Bob comes out and asks him about the man who is poisoning trees. Ross says that he's tracking him and that he killed Gran and is Nest's real father. Nest runs off, upset. Old Bob tells John that he is no longer welcome here. Pick, meanwhile, finds Nest. They talk about her father and Wraith.
Junior comes to Derry's house and go over their plans for tonight. When they are gone, the demon looks at their demolitions and sets the time from five minutes to five seconds.
Nest comes back home. Old Bob tells her that he told Ross to leave. They eat dinner; Nest asks for permission to go to the park, Old Bob gives it. After she leaves, he thinks more about Derry and the fireworks, then realizes that Derry is going to sabotage the show.
After Ross is asked to leave, he goes to eat at a McDonald's, then returns to watch over Nest, who is hanging out with her friends when she hears Pick throwing his voice to her, telling her that the maentwrog is breaking free. She goes to him, but Robert follows her and refuses to back off. She knocks him out with her magic and finds the demon waiting for her at the maentwrog. Daniel is dead while Pick is in a cage. John Ross arrives. The demon sets the maentwrog free.
Old Bob goes looking for Mel, who tells him that Derry took some drinks down to the people managing the fireworks. Old Bob finds and confronts him, but Derry brings out a gun, then sets off his cooler, which explodes, killing Derry instantly, though his body ends up shielding Old Bob.
The maentwrog and John Ross fight. As John is weakening, Nest distracts it, allowing the Knight of the Word to kill it, but he is knocked out in the process. The demon attempts to persuade her to join him; when she refuses, he makes the feeders attack her. She tries to fight them off at first, then calls for Wraith in desperation. The ghost dog appears, but the demon tells her that Wraith is his and begins to advance toward her. She uses her magic on him. He gets angry and continues to advance, but Wraith suddenly attacks. The demon belatedly realizes that Evelyn used up all her magic to turn Wraith before dying. Nest frees Pick, who explains Wraith a little more to her. John wakes up and tells her of his dreams as a Knight, then reveals that he would have killed her if necessary. He leaves. |
| Tuesday, July 5 | Nest walks home and discovers that Old Bob is in the hospital and that she has been reported missing and possibly kidnapped. She goes to Old Bob, who wakes up. They talk about her father and Bennett; he agrees to take her in. She returns home, then calls Robert. The two of them go back to the hospital to try and see Jared. Nest asks Robert to distract the nurses while she sneaks in, but he refuses unless she tells him what she did to him. She says she used magic. He is dubious, but goes off to distract the nurses. She sneaks into Jared's room, then uses the magic to try and bring him out of his coma. It works and he wakes up.
John Ross gets on an early bus and heads west. |
Day-by-Day Timeline for A Knight of the Word
| Day | Event |
| Sunday, October 28 | Robert comes to the Freemark house around eight A.M. and talks to Nest, telling her that she shouldn't sell the house yet. They go to Gran's and Old Bob's graves and reminisce. Robert again attempts to dissuade her from selling the house. They then walk back. Robert leaves. Pick arrives; she and the sylvan go into the woods, where they meet Ariel. She tells Nest of John Ross' fall from grace and asks her to talk to him. Nest goes home to think about it and eventually decides to go. She calls Robert and asks him to drive her to O'Hare. |
| Monday, October 29 | Around three P.M., John finishes a speech for Simon. He goes down to get some coffee, talks to his coworkers, then goes back up.
Andrew and Simon meet. Simon talks about the homeless. Andrew tells him that he is here to investigate financial improprieties. Simon offers to show him the books; Andrew agrees and looks over them in his room. The demon comes and whispers that he won't find anything there and that he should wait for more news from his source.
Around five, John and Stefanie have dinner at Umberto's Ristorante to celebrate the one-year anniversary of John working at Fresh Start, then go back home.
After midnight, the demon goes hunting.
Nest books a 3:15 flight, which is moved back to five, and spends the time reading Simon's The Spiritual Child. The flight is pushed back again, so she transfers to a different one and reaches Seattle by ten P.M. and checks in at the Alexis Hotel. She goes out and meets Ariel. They take a walk and hear the screaming of the children the demon is hunting. Once they are dead, the screaming stops. Nest returns to the hotel, shaken. |
| Tuesday, October 30 | Nest wakes up at nine and goes to Fresh Start in the hopes of finding John Ross, where she meets Della and Ray, who take her downstairs to meet the others. On the way down, she feels increasingly uneasy but tries to shrug it off. In the staff room, she meets Carole and Stef, who urges her to tell them something about John that they don't know. Nest, on the verge of being sick, blurts out that he was in love with her mother. Carole realizes her discomfort and escorts her out, meeting Simon Lawrence along the way. He recognizes her as a record-setting runner. She leaves the building and tries to figure out the source of her unease. John Ross arrives; after recognizing each other, they go to a restaurant and eat. Nest tells him her story; Ross tells her his and admits that after San Sobel, he was close to suicide. She says that the Lady will not allow him to be subverted. They finish eating. He leaves; Ariel appears. She takes her to Victor Steinbrueck Park, where Two Bears approaches her. They talk. He reveals that he will kill Ross if she fails in persuading him, then leaves.
John returns to the office. Stefanie asks him about his meeting with Nest, but her questions make him uncomfortable and he goes home.
Nest browses the market for a while. Around five, Ariel comes and tells her that a sylvan at Lincoln has seen the demon. She calls Fresh Start, gets Stefanie, and asks her to pass a cryptic message to John about Pick's friend.
Andrew Wren and Simon meet at five. Simon talks about the homeless and tells the life story of a "friend", who Wren suspects is Simon himself. He goes back to his room at the end of their dinner and sees an envelope, which appear to show that Simon and John have been siphoning funds from Fresh Start.
Stefanie gives John Nest's message, then drugs him, leaves, comes back looking like Simon, and leaves again. She then goes to Andrew's hotel and plants incriminating documents about Simon in his room, then leaves to confront Nest as the demon.
Nest takes a taxi to Lincoln Park and meets Boot and Audrey. Boot tells her the story of two demons fighting over Ross and is about to finish when the demon attacks, killing both Boot and the owl. It then comes after Nest, but Ariel throws herself into its face, distracting it and dying in the process, giving Nest a chance to run. She does so, stumbling off a cliff and going through two houses in the process, before finally getting on a bus and escaping. |
| Wednesday, October 31 | Stefanie wakes John up at midnight, telling him that there is a fire at Fresh Start. She goes in and saves everyone while John lags behind, confused and dazed. Firemen arrive at the scene and put it out but discover that the night manager, Ray, did not make it out. Stefanie tells John that he had been on duty but after he fell sick, Ray took his place. John is uncomfortable with this information. When he goes to sleep, he dreams the same dream he has dreamed for several days now, in which he kills Simon Lawrence, but this time, he has killed Nest as well. After waking up, he calls her. They eat in the hotel, where he tells her about the dream; she tells him about last night and suggests that the demon may be Stefanie. John refuses to believe this and tells her that he had seen Simon in his room the day before. He tells Nest to leave Seattle, fearing for her life.
Andrew stays up late verifying the transactions, sleeps for a few moments, then goes to confront Simon, who is upset over the fire, about it. He then catches up with Ross at his apartment and asks about the funds. John realizes that it must have been the demon, then gets angry and leaves.
Nest goes to the airport, feeling uneasy, then comes to the conclusion that the Word was using her as bait. She continues to mull things over and suddenly realizes that she knows who the demon is. She leaves the airport.
John packs his possessions, preparing to leave so that he will not kill Simon. Stefanie comes home, angry at him for committing fraud, until he assures her that this was a setup. She then tells him that he was fired and that she quit, revealing as well that Simon knew about Nest's message. John begins to think that he is the demon and goes to confront him.
Nest arrives at Pass/Go and looks for John. Della comments on her appearance, saying that she looks like she was just in a catfight with Stefanie and telling her that he is probably at the Seattle Art Museum. She goes there.
Andrew is suspicious about the documents. He calls his friend at the lab, who tells him that the signatures are fake but that they are similar to someone else's.
John arrives at the art museum. A guard comes and tells him that Simon is waiting for him upstairs, so John goes to meet him. Alone, Simon admits to everything and takes Ross' staff away. He injures him, then returns to the party, leaving him lying there. John, furious, resolves to take on his mantle as a Knight of the Word again. The Lady appears and asks him if he is ready to commit himself once more. He tells her he is.
Nest arrives at the museum and gets in with the help of Carole. She finds John, who says that he has to kill Simon. Nest tells him that he's not the demon. The real Simon Lawrence heads for their direction but she uses her magic on him, so that he will not come any closer, then tells John who the demon really is. Ross goes back to his apartment. Nest comes along, but he tells her to stay behind, then goes in to confront Stefanie. She says that he still loves her. He realizes this is true but fights her anyway. She jumps through the window, changing into the demon as she falls. Nest sees her; she sees Nest and charges and attacks. Nest calls up her magic but ends up summoning Wraith instead, realizing as she does so that she seems to be seeing things from the ghost dog's point of view. They fight long enough for John Ross to come down and finish the demon off. |
| Thursday, November 1 | Andrew arrives at Simon's office and talks about Stef. Simon shows him John's letter, which says that he's leaving and authorizes any transfers needed to return the stolen money to where it belongs. Andrew tells Simon that he plans on simply writing a pro-Simon piece.
Nest catches a plane home and thinks about how Wraith is a part of her now. She throws away the papers needed to selling the house, calls Robert and leaves a message, then goes out to look for Pick.
John Ross, now in Portland, thinks about Stef and prepares to prevent his next dream. |
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