User:The ed17/Border Legion (Shannara)

The Border Legion is the army of the fictional country of Callahorn, in the epic fantasy novels of Terry Brooks' Original Shannara Trilogy. The Border Legion appeared in two novels of the trilogy: The Sword of Shannara and The Elfstones of Shannara.

The Sword of Shannara
In The Sword of Shannara, the Border Legion played a central role. They were the army that was tasked with stopping or slowing the Warlock Lord's army that was marching down upon them from the Northland. They met them first at the Mermiddon River, killing many trolls and others before they were forced to pull back to a small rise a couple hundred yards back. Balinor, the commander of the Border Legion, then decided to attempt an extremely difficult and unusual maneuver: he split his army into two and had them attack the flanks of the enemy as it was getting dark. The troops harassed the army's flanks until they brought them into a half-circle--then they feinted so that the two halves of the enemy met each other. Unfortunately for them, they thought that this was the enemy they had been pursuing for the better part of the night, and they immediately began attacking one another. The Border Legion then retreated back to Tyrsis and began making preparations for defending the city. They were eventually beaten back after much bloodshed and treachery, but at their last stand, the army besieging Tyrsis apruptly stopped all hostilities after Shea Ohmsford defeated the Warlock Lord in the Northland.

The Elfstones of Shannara

 * See below for additional information

The Border Legion in its entirety does not play any role in this novel, but individual units of the Legion do, including the "Free Corps" and the "Old Guard", numbering 600 and 250 horse respectively.

The Free Corps
The Free Corps are the legendary shock unit of the Border Legion. They were formed about 30 years before the events of The Elfstones of Shannara. They are commanded by Stee Jans.

Role in The Elfstones of Shannara
The Free Corps was a unit quite similar to the French Foreign Legion. In Elfstones, they are described as follows:

[The Free Corps] drew its name from the promise it gave to those who joined its ranks--that its soldiers might leave behind without fear of question or need of explanation all that had come before in their lives. For most, there was much to be left. They came from different lands, different histories, and different lives, but they came for similar reasons. There were thieves among them, killers and cheats, soldiers broken from other armies, men of low blood and high, men with honor and men without, some searching, some fleeing, some drifting--but all seeking to escape what they were, to forget what they had been, and to start anew. The Free Corps gave them that chance.

Being the "shock unit" of the Border Legion, the Free Corps has always had the highest casualty rate among all of the units of the Border Legion, and this novel was no different:

Finally it was the turn of the men of Callahorn to depart--the handful of Legion Free Corps and Old Guard who had survived to ferocious struggle to hold the Elfitch. Not a dozen of the former remained and of those not six would fight again. The command had virtually ceased to exist, the bodies of its soldiers scattered between the passes of the Breakline and Arborlon.

The Free Corps was also the linchpin of the forces who managed to keep Arborlon from the Demons long enough for Amberle Elessedil to return to become the Ellcrys, throwing the demons back into the Forbidding.

His role in Elfstones
Stee Jans was the commander of the Free Corps. He was originally thought up by Terry Brooks to fill the same role as Balinor Buckhannah did in The Sword of Shannara. He fought alongside Eventine Elessedil and Ander Elessedil in different parts of the novel. He is described as having rust-colored/red hair and hazel eyes.

Pre-Elfstones and how he acquired his nickname
About ten years before the events of The Elfstones, Stee Jans acquired the nickname "Iron Man" after he and a patrol of 23 soldiers ran into a rear guard of several hundred Gnomes.

The patrol could have fallen back, but didn't...One man was sent back for reinforcements, while the rest made their stand in a little village called Rybeck--just a bunch of nothing buildings. For three hours, these soldiers held out against the raiders--threw back every assult they mounted...After the first two hours, [a corporal] was the only officer left. He rallied the half-dozen soldiers left into a small stone cottage. Refused surrender, refused quarter. When the relief force broke through finally, there were dead Gnomes all over the place...more than a hundred of them. All our men were gone, all but two, and one of them died later that day. That left just [the "boy" corporal]. That boy was Stee Jans. That's why they call him the Iron Man.

This reputation stayed with him even as he rose up through the ranks of the Free Corps, eventually becoming its commander.

During Elfstones
In the book, Stee Jans led the Free Corps to Arborlon as part of the small contingent of men sent by Callahorn to aid the Elves. During the battle for Baen Draw, Stee came up with a plan to hold the pass, and in the subsequent battle, "[his] plan [was] successfully implemented and the Elves [were] able to hold the pass, which result[ed] in a large-scale loss of Demon life." After Kael Pindanon was slain, he was asked by Ander Elessedil to lead the army that had been assembled to slow down the Demons. During various battles of the novels, including the three day. siege of Arborlon, he performed many heroic acts, including the slaying of a massive lizard and a stand with his Free Corps that allowed everyone else to retreat to their last line of defense, the Gardens of Life:

To either side along the bluff rim, the defenders' lines had collapsed and were pinching in upon the ramphead. In moments, all would be caught in a vice from which none would escape. They had to fall back at once, to reform their lines at the perimeter of the Gardens of Life where they might consolidate their strength and gain the support of the Black Watch. But they needed time to do that, and someone must give them that time.

Red hair flying, the Free Corps Commander snatched the crimson and gray battle standard of his company and rammed it between the ramp stones. Here the Free Corps would make its stand. Rallying his Bordermen to him, he formed a narrow phalanx at the center of the ramphead. Then he ordered the Elves and Trolls to fall back. No one questioned the order; Stee Jans had been given command of the army. Quickly they abandoned the Elfitch, moving back toward the ranks of the Black Watch that ringed the Gardens of Life. In moments, the remnants of the Free Corps stood alone.

"What is he doing!" Ander screamed to Allanon, horrified. But the Druid did not answer.

The Demons attacked. Up the ramp they charged, howling with rage. Incredibly, the Free Corps withstood the assault and thrust it back. All the while the Elven defenders continued to slip free of the noose that threatened to snare them. Again the Demons came up the Elfitch, and again the Free Corps thrust them back. No more than two dozen Bordermen remained alive. At their head stood the tall figure of Stee Jans. Regrouping before the Gardens of Life, the defenders who had fled the Elfitch looked back, watching the tiny knot of men who still held against the Demon rush. A silence settled over their ranks. They knew how this must end.

Now the whole of the Carolan lay open. Stee Jans wrenched free the battle standard, lifted the gray and crimson pennant high above his head, and the Free Corps battle cry rang out. Then slowly, deliberately, the little band began to move back across the Carolan, back towards the Elven defenders who ringed the Gardens of Life. Not a single Borderman broke formation. Not a single Borderman ran.

Ander's breath escaped from his lips with a sharp hiss. It was a hopeless retreat. At his elbow, Browork's battered face shoved into view.

"It's too far, Bordermen!" he muttered, almost to himself.

A wave of Demons edged over the lip of the ramphead, snarling. North and south among the Carolan, they began to mass.

"Run!" Ander whispered. "Run, Stee Jans!"

But there was no time left to run. Shrieks filled the morning air, and the whole of the Demon army swept forward.

Post-Elfstones
Stee Jans was one of the very few members of the Free Corps to survive the War of the Forbidding. It is unknown if the Free Corps were reassembled before the Border Legion was disbanded after the events of The Wishsong of Shannara, but before his departure, Jans was offered the command in the Elven army by Ander Elessedil, now King of the Elves. Whether he accepted the command or remained with the Legion is unknown, but no known trace of his bloodline remains 300 years later when the Four Lands are threatened by the Shadowen. It is rumored that he may have later changed his identity, becoming a similar seemingly invincible warrior known as Garet Jax, but it does not seem to be true.