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Walker Boh is a main character in The Heritage of Shannara tetralogy and The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy. He was the last descendant of Brin Ohmsford and the one who fulfilled the trust given to Brin by the Druid Allanon.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Walker Boh is a descendant of Brin Ohmsford and a cousin to the brothers Par and Coll Ohmsford. As a child he was raised in the Eastland at Hearthstone by his parents, Kenner Ohmsford and Risse Boh. Risse was a descendant of Brin's friend Kimber Boh, the adopted granddaughter of Cogline. Risse succumbed to a fatal illness when Walker was still young, and Kenner moved himself and his son back to Shady Vale, home of the Ohmsfords.

Even before the move to Shady Vale, the young Walker had been dealing with the fact that he had the use of magic, the legacy of Brin Ohmsford. Among other abilities, Walker was able to communicate with animals and sense the feelings of others. As a young boy, he could discern the histories of any traveler who passed through Hearthstone. While other descendants of Brin had lost their ability to use magic as they passed through puberty and then adulthood, Walker's magic only seemed to get stronger as he grew older.

While the magic had left Walker feeling isolated at Hearthstone, it was worse at Shady Vale, where he was shunned, ignored, or politely endured by nearly all of the village. He was even beaten a few times, and would never fight back for fear of what his magic would do in retaliation.

Walker's only real friend in Shady Vale was his much younger cousin, Par Ohmsford, who was just beginning to deal with magic of his own: the wishsong. Because of Walker's relationship to Par and Coll's family he was nicknamed Dark Uncle, despite not being anyone's uncle. Eventually, Walker left Shady Vale after his father Kenner died, returning to Hearthstone to live in seclusion. By then he had taken his mother's name of Boh as a rejection of the Ohmsford legacy.

At Hearthstone, Walker's magic's continued to grow in strength, and he began losing control over it. He was beginning to be a real danger to himself and others when Cogline appeared out of the mountains, claiming to be the same Cogline who had adopted Kimber Boh, and offering to teach Walker how to control his magic.

For a time Walker was Cogline's student at Hearthstone, learning how to master his magic in the Druid way, and learning about the sciences of the old world which Cogline had studied. However, after awhile Walker became suspicious of Cogline and convinced that he was being manipulated by the old man, in the same way the Druids had always manipulated the Ohmsfords.

After multiple conflicts, Cogline finally left Hearthstone, and Walker was alone once more except for the company of his moor cat, Rumor. According to Quickening, Walker tended the land around Hearthstone, using his magic to preserve it from the sickness being caused by the Shadowen.


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Walker, Par Ohmsford, and Wren Ohmsford meet the shade of Allanon at the Hadeshorn. Painted by Keith Parkinson for the original cover of The Scions of Shannara.


Allanon's Charge[]

Walker, along with his cousins Par and Wren Ohmsford, are sent dreams by the shade of Allanon, visions that show the devastation that would happen to the Four Lands if the Shadowen were not defeated.

When Par, Coll, and Morgan Leah find Walker at Hearthstone, he initially refuses to go to the Hadeshorn to speak to the Druid's shade. However, when Par is attacked and captured by a tribe of Spider Gnomes under the control of a Shadowen, Walker rescues him and changes his mind.

When Allanon charges Walker Boh with bringing back Paranor and the Druids, he refuses, accusing the Druids of always playing with the lives of people, particularly the Ohmsfords, and saying he would rather cut off his own hand first.

However, when Cogline brings him a volume of the Druid Histories from Paranor, Walker learns of the Black Elfstone, an object that can help him bring back the Druid's Keep, and he becomes intrigued. Walker travels to confront the Grimpond, a shade which gives visions, half-truths, and riddles to its visitors, and which has vowed vengeance on Brin Ohmsford and her descendants after Brin used the wishsong to force it to tell her the truth. The Grimpond gives Walker three visions: one in which Walker has indeed cut off his own hand, another where he pushes a woman off a cliff, and a third where he is held fast by the shade of Allanon while death hunts for him.

Additional clues given by the Grimpond lead Walker to believe that the black Elfstone is located in the Hall of Kings, and he successfully travels through the dangers in the Hall to the place where the the Elfstone was once hidden, only to be bitten and trapped by an Asphinx, a magic snake that turns to stone once it bites a victim and begins turning its victim to stone as well. Since the snake and Walker's hand have both turned to stone, Walker is bound to the floor and trapped in the Hall of Kings for days. He finally forces himself to smash away the stone portion of his hand, fulfilling the Grimpond's first vision, and escapes the Hall of Kings. He collapses and is only saved from death by the shade of Allanon, who alerts Cogline to Walker's whereabouts. Cogline takes the unconscious Walker to Storlock.

The healers of Storlock managed to slow the progress of the Asphinx's poison, but they were not able to eradicate it, and Walker's arm continues turning to stone. He returns to Hearthstone with Cogline and tries to cure himself, but the poison is too strong and continues to make progress up his body. Soon nearly his entire arm has turned to stone, almost up to his shoulder.

At this point Rimmer Dall, the First Seeker of the Federation, has decided that Cogline is a threat and descends upon Hearthstone at night with a small army of Shadowen. Walker, too weak to stand let alone help, watches the battle from a window, and Cogline does not reveal to Rimmer Dall that there is someone else in the house.

Although Cogline and Rumor fight valiantly against Rimmer Dall and his Shadowen, they are eventually overpowered. At the last minute, Cogline grabs the volume of the Druid Histories he had brought to Walker and holds it close to himself and Rumor. As the Shadowen reach the pair, the tome erupts in a huge explosion of white fire.

Hearthstone is in flames and Rimmer Dall, thinking Cogline finished, leaves with his surviving Shadowen. Walker manages to escape Hearthstone as it burns to the ground through an underground tunnel, but it collapses in on him while he is trying to escape.


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Quickening finds Walker among the ruins of Hearthstone and endeavors to heal him. Painted by Keith Parkinson for the original cover of The Druid of Shannara.


Walker is saved and healed by Quickening, the daughter of the King of the Silver River, who arrives at Hearthstone in the company of Morgan Leah and Pe Ell. Quickening uses her magic to rid Walker of both the Asphinx's poison and the part of his body that has become stone, leaving Walker completely healed but with only one arm. Because of their shared experience with the use of innate magic and an understanding of the ways their magic has determined the course of their lives, Walker and Quickening feel a deep kinship with one another.

Quickening tells Walker that she too is in search of the Black Elfstone, and that she is traveling to confront Uhl Belk, the Stone King, and to take the Elfstone away from him. Walker joins her quest, and together with Morgan Leah, Pe Ell, and a Tracker named Horner Dees and a tunesmith named Carisman, they journey to Eldwist, Uhl Belk's kingdom.

After many days in Eldwist, some of the party find Uhl Belk. They realize the Stone King is fused to the rock on which he sits, and as such is unable to move as a normal person might. With the use of Walker's magic, Morgan's broken Sword of Leah, and Quickening's own magic as a diversion, the trio manage to steal the Black Elfstone from Uhl Belk.

On their way out of Eldwist, Quickening is caught by Pe Ell, whose only reason for traveling to Eldwist with the others was to find an appropriate moment to kill Quickening with his knife, the Stiehl. However, when Walker and Morgan find and confront Pe Ell she falls on his blade deliberately, and through her magic Pe Ell learns the truth: that Quickening had planned this from the beginning and that he'd never had any free choice in the matter of killing her at all. This realization horrifies Pe Ell and he flees, only to be found dead some time later.

Once outside of Eldwist, Walker, Morgan, Horner Dees, and a dying Quickening stop at the edge of a bluff. There, Quickening shows Walker the Grimpond's second vision, that of him pushing a woman off a cliff. Walker realizes that he needs to let Quickening fall to fulfill her purpose, and he spins her off the top of the bluff. As the daughter of the King of the Silver River falls, she turns into a dust that flows over all the land that Uhl Belk had turned to stone, including the city of Eldwist, and turns it all back into healthy, vibrant land, all except for the dome inside which the Stone King sits.

During his quest to find the Black Elfstone, Walker had come to the realization that the only way to fulfill Allanon's charge was to become the next Druid, a role he at first rejected and then later, with Quickening's help, began to accept. Walker and Morgan part company with Horner Dees in Rampling Steep, and then Walker leaves Morgan to travel to the place where Paranor once stood, taking with him the Black Elfstone and the Stiehl, which he had taken off Pe Ell's body.

Once there, Walker used the Elfstone to make lost Paranor reappear and gain entry. Inside, he discovers Cogline and Rumor waiting, as they had been since the volume of the Druid Histories Cogline had been holding had burst into flame and transported them there. Walker also learns that his quest is incomplete, in that Paranor is not yet fully restored but is stuck in a half-real, limbo state, and that he has not yet become a Druid.

After days spent studying the Druid Histories, Walker comes to the conclusion that he must use the Black Elfstone again, this time on the mists that guard the Keep. Once he does so, the magic of the mist is transferred into him by the Elfstone, and he discovers that the mist is the spirit of Allanon and of all the Druids gone before, including all their knowledge, memories, and emotions. This absorption of the magic remakes Walker Boh into a Druid, even changing his physical features so that he resembles Allanon somewhat. The absorption also completes the process of bringing Paranor back into the physical world.


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Walker confronts a Shadowen called Death outside of Paranor. Painted by Keith Parkinson for the original cover of The Talismans of Shannara.


Rimmer Dall sends his most powerful Shadowen, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to Paranor to destroy Walker. Walker manages to kill Famine, War, and Pestilence by turning their attacks against each other, but he ends up needing Cogline's assistance to defeat Death. Cogline is mortally wounded in the battle, and Walker buries him at Paranor.

After a revelation from the shade of Allanon, Walker sets off to seek his friends and relatives. He helps to save Par from Par's increasingly unstable wishsong, and together with his allies journeys to Southwatch, the stronghold of the Shadowen. Their combined efforts manages to defeat the evil creatures.

Once the Four Lands are at peace, Walker disappears with the Sword of Shannara, returning to Paranor where he sleeps the Druid Sleep and envisions a new Druid Council.

Voyage to Parkasia[]

Walker is tasked by the shade of Allanon with restoring the Druid Order. When he learns that the body of an Elf carrying a map to a land across the Blue Divide had washed up on the shores of the Westland, Walker becomes curious at what may be found in this new land, called Parkasia, that could aid him in restoring the Druid Order. Together with Bek Ohmsford, he assembles a crew to pilot the airship named the Jerle Shannara, after the famous Elven king from which he, Bek, and all the Ohmsfords are descended.

However, the Jerle Shannara is pursued on their journey by Grianne Ohmsford, a deadly enemy who calls herself the Ilse Witch and is the servant of an even more powerful warlock called Morgawr. The Ilse Witch seeks to discover the secrets of Parkasia for herself and use them to destroy both Walker and her master.

In Parkasia, Walker discovers a vast underground complex and a deadly artificial intelligence that was created before the Great Wars millennia ago. This AI is known as Antrax, and it does all it can to destroy any intruders to its domain. Although it is ultimately destroyed by Walker, the Druid is mortally wounded in the act. Walker then grips the Sword of Shannara at the same time as the Ilse Witch, and they both succumb to its powers, which reveal to Grianne that she had been tricked by the Morgawr and that Walker was never her enemy.

With Grianne in a non-responsive state, Walker orders Truls Rohk to carry him down to an underground lake, where he summons Allanon's shade. As he dies, he names Grianne as his successor, and he is carried away by the shade.

After this point, Walker takes Allanon's place as the Druid shade who rises from the Hadeshorn, although in later books Allanon was still seen rising from the Hadeshorn. Walker's first act as a shade was to relieve the seer Ryer Ord Star of her suffering at the hands of the Mwellrets.


Walker Boh by Terese Nielsen 2001

Walker stands in front of the Sword of Shannara while traveling on board the airship Jerle Shannara to Parkasia. Painted by Terese Nielsen in 2001 for Dragon, a gaming magazine.


Legacy[]

While Walker does not live to see the creation of a new Druid Order, Grianne is able to do so when she takes his place, although her time as Ard Rhys is fraught with intrigue and severe infighting. Centuries later, during the time of the Ard Rhys Khyber Elessedil, the Druids would own an airship named after him.

Physical Appearance[]

Walker has some Elven blood in him, but unlike his cousins Par and Coll, who had ancestors only several generations back who had married Elves and brought more Elven blood into the line, Walker's Elven ancestry is much more distant. He is described as having slight Elven features and shocking white skin that is all the more striking against his shoulder-length black hair and short beard.

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