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Tiger Ty was a character from The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy. He was a Wing Rider who assisted Wren Ohmsford in reaching Morrowindl and finding the lost Elves of Arborlon.

Biography[]

Wren's Journey to Morrowindl[]

Tiger Ty was on patrol flying over the Blue Divide on his Roc, Spirit, when he first met Wren. During her search for the missing Elves, Wren and the Rover Garth had met a seer called the Addershag, who directed Wren to travel to Wing Hove and light a large fire for three days and three nights at the edge of the Blue Divide.

Once the fire was lit, an unknown presence that had been tracking Wren and Garth since they began their search for the Elves revealed itself to them: it was a Shadowen. The monster attacked them both, and they were in danger of being killed until Wren discovered that the painted blue rocks given to her by her parents were actually the Elfstones of legend. She destroyed the Shadowen with the Elfstones.

Shortly afterward, Tiger Ty appeared to question her about her signal fire. In response to her questions, Tiger Ty told Wren that the Elves were indeed still alive, living on the island of Morrowindl out in the Blue Divide. The Sky Elves like him lived on other, smaller islands out in the ocean as well. The three-day signal fire was a sign that only a few who had stayed behind after nearly all Elves left the Four Lands would have known about.

Although Wren had told Tiger Ty nothing about the Elfstones or the Shadowen she had just defeated, he mentioned to her that he could tell from looking around Wren's campfire that there had been a recent fierce battle against some sort of creature, one that involved a fire too large and hot to have been produced by natural means. He didn't press Wren on the details of the issue, but pointed out that he could tell that she had the use of magic.

Wren asked to be taken to Morrowindl so that she could find the Elves and bring them back to the Westland. However, Tiger Ty warned her that Morrowindl, which used to be a paradise, had devolved into a harsh, unforgiving landscape overrun with monsters of its own.

Despite Tiger Ty's warnings that their mission was suicidal, Wren convinced him to take her and Garth to Morrowindl, and he promised to keep watch over the island for three weeks so that he could take them home once Wren's work was done. After the three weeks, he would look for them once a week for another four weeks running. As he was leaving them on the island, Tiger Ty warned Wren that the only way she and Garth could possibly survive would be if she was prepared to use her magic.

Wren and Garth made their way through dangerous wilderness, encountering help along the way from Stresa, a Splinterscat, and Faun, a Tree Squeak. They finally found Arborlon, where Wren learned that Ellenroh Elessedil, Queen of the Elves, was her grandmother. Wren's appearance in Arborlon was taken as a sign that fulfilled the seer Eowen Cerise's prophecy about Wren's role in saving the Elves, and the nation mobilized itself for a return to the Westland.

When Ellenroh enclosed Arborlon and the entire Elven nation inside the Loden for safe transport, the abrupt disappearance of both the city and the magic enclosed it caused a major disruption to the already imbalanced nature of Morrowindl, and Killeshan, the island's volcano, began erupting.

On their way from the interior of Morrowindl to its shores, six of the nine entrusted with the care and safe transport of the Loden, including Ellenroh, Eowen, Aurin Striate, and Gavilan Elessedil, lost their lives. Garth, poisoned and wounded in a battle with the Wisteron, asked Wren to kill him before the his soul was overtaken by that of the Shadowen infecting him.

After the deed was done, Wren was left traumatized, grieving, and at the point of collapse, but with the help of Triss, Stresa, and Faun she made it to the shores of Morrowindl. Using the light of the Elfstones to shoot beams of light into the sky, Wren was able to signal for Tiger Ty, who arrived to carry Wren and her companions off the island aboard his Roc, Spirit.

Tiger Ty told Wren that he had seen Killeshan erupt from twenty miles away, and came back looking for her every day after the volcano blew, realizing that she must have had something to do with the explosion. He and Spirit had circled the island once a day and was just about to leave after completing that night's patrol when they saw Wren's light.

Because he was only able to save Wren, Triss, Stresa, and Faun, Tiger Ty bitterly assumes that the Morrowindl Elves had foolishly perished with the island and gone extinct. Wren, too raw from her experiences on the island, finds it difficult to explain what exactly happened with the Loden and the Elves, but simply asks that Tiger Ty take her to the Carolan, the massive bluff that was where Arborlon used to be located in the Westland.

At the Carolan, Tiger Ty watches as Wren uses the Loden to restore Arborlon to its rightful place in the Westland and is proclaimed Queen of the Elves by the Elven nation.

Battle Against the Shadowen[]

Tiger Ty continued to stay by Wren's side as she established herself as Queen of the Elves and led them into battle against both the Federation and the Shadowen. After Wren was deceived and captured by Tib Arne, a Shadowen disguised as a young boy, she was rescued on the way to Southwatch by Morgan Leah. Tiger Ty and Spirit, who had been out looking for her since she got captured by Tib Arne, managed to find her on her way back to the Elves and fly her there. At the battlefields, Tiger Ty helped Wren destroy Creepers and stayed by her side.

When the Elves appeared to be in danger of losing, Padishar Creel and the Free-born army arrived, as did groups of Rock Trolls. The assistance help buy the Elves more time. Eventually, when Par Ohmsford used the wishsong to release the stolen earth magic from the bowels of Southwatch, the magic claimed the lives of all the Shadowen who had been feeding off of it. This included the many Creepers, Seekers, and other Shadowen embedded in the Federation army, so when the magic killed these individuals the Federation army collapsed and fled, leaving Wren, the Elves, and their allies victorious.

Later Years[]

Twenty years after bringing Wren and the Elves back to the Four Lands, Tiger Ty sustained a leg injury that made him unable to steer aboard a Roc using pressure from his legs; this made him unable to fly and ended his career as a Wing Rider. He was forbidden to fly on Spirit, or any of the other Rocs being cared for by the Sky Elves.

Spirit was passed down to Tahere, Tiger Ty's son, because Feltsen, Tahere's previous Roc, had developed a stiffening in the wing joints. Jessa, Tiger Ty's wife, died weeks after his flying career ended.

Five years after his leg injury grounded him, Tiger Ty was told by Pharis, headman of Wing Hove, that Spirit had flown back in from a scouting trip without Tahere, and that a search party of Wing Riders had been dispatched to find him. When Tiger Ty told Grey, his grandson and Tahere's son, the news of Tahere's disappearance, Grey, who was aspiring to become a Roc trainer, pointed out that Spirit had never properly bonded to Tahere because he was still, first and foremost, Tiger Ty's Roc. Tiger Ty refused to believe that this was the case, insisting that all Rocs were fully able and well-trained to switch riders when needed.

When the search party returned with no knowledge of Tahere's whereabouts, Grey woke Tiger Ty an hour before dawn and asked his grandfather to ride Spirit with him in search of his father. Grey argued that he could provide the steering with his legs, and that Spirit might respond to Tiger Ty in a way that he wouldn't with other Wing Riders. Convinced by Grey's arguments, Tiger Ty agreed.

Grandfather and grandson convinced Pannit Whey, the Roc minder on night duty, to let them take Spirit on their journey. Together, the two flew on Spirit out over the Blue Divide, following a chain of islands that extended out northwest from the shores of the Westland. They journeyed for two days, sheltering the first night on the island of Corson and finding signs of a struggle and Tahere's capture on the island of Del Roke. Tiger Ty and Grey realized that Tahere must have sent Spirit away because he feared the Roc was in danger as well.

On the third day, Spirit had only been flying a few hours when he made a swift descent to land on the island of Trokar. Walking into the interior of the island, Tiger Ty and Grey spotted a band of pirates sheltered between large boulders and a giant snake called a Strangle resting in the trees. Strangles were large and strong enough to endanger even Rocs, which made Tiger Ty and Grey understand why Tahere had sent the big, strong bird away. Near the pirates' shelter was a pit where the two men assumed Tahere must be held captive.

Grey and Tiger Ty attacked the pirates swiftly: Grey crept up to their shelter and set fire to it, and when the commotion caused the Strangle to come down out of the trees to investigate, Tiger Ty confronted it and quickly blinded it with throwing stars. When the pirates fled their burning shelter, the Strangle, blinded and confused and enraged with pain, lashed out and killed all the pirates with its jaws and its bite. It thrashed around, getting dangerously close to Tahere in the pit.

As it was thrashing, the Strangle's large mass knocked Tiger Ty into a tree, causing him to scream in pain. The noise told the Strangle where Tiger Ty was, and it headed toward him, intending to kill him. However, Spirit flew in, his talons going straight for the Strangle's face, and he ripped the monster's head open, causing it to die quickly.

Grey rescued Tahere from the pit and managed to wake up Tiger Ty, who had slipped into unconsciousness. The three men made their way home, riding Spirit back to Wing Hove for three days and stopping to rest on different islands along the way.

However, when Grey landed Spirit in Wing Hove, he and Tahere found that Tiger Ty had passed away in his sleep. The rigors of the journey and the confrontation with the Strangle had ultimately been too much for Tiger Ty, and he had died while being where he most wanted to be: high up in the air, riding Spirit.

Legacy[]

Had Tiger Ty not seen and responded to Wren Elessedil's signal fire, she would never have been able to travel to Morrowindl so easily, or to get off the island so swiftly when it was collapsing in flames. Besides helping to restore the Elves to the Westland, Tiger Ty also played a pivotal role in resisting the Federation and the Shadowen, ensuring the continued well-being of not just the Elves, but people all across the Four Lands.

Physical Appearance[]

When Tiger Ty first meets Wren, he was described as having fierce black eyes and very short brown hair peppered with gray. His face had narrow, sharp features, and was deeply lined and leathery looking. He walked with an awkward rolling gait, as if he was not quite comfortable with the motion. His voice was high-pitched and rough. He was "a scarecrow of bones and leather, rough hands ready and bright eyes quick."

Later in life, when Tiger Ty was a grandfather, he was going bald, his hair had gone completely gray, and it was cut very short. He had always been a short man but he had become stout as well, growing a bit of a belly. He also sported a bushy beard.

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