Shift

Shift was a talking ape who lived near Puzzle the donkey at the base of the Great Waterfall, next to the Caldron Pool where the Great River starts its course to the sea, at the western border of Narnia.

Shift was "the cleverest, ugliest, most wrinkled Ape you can imagine," and was perhaps the most infamous con-artist the World of Narnia had ever seen, whose actions led to the downfall of the Kingdom of Narnia.

Prior story
Nothing is known of Shift's history before he and Puzzle discovered a lion's skin in the Great Waterfall. He was so old that no one remembered when he came to live there.

Character development
Shift's greed served as his primary motivation. His actions to satisfy this greed increased his vileness over time. From lying to his "friend" Puzzle, he moved to manipulating the other talking animals of Narnia. In the end, he had no qualms about murdering them or selling them into slavery to increase his own wealth and power.

As Shift's actions became increasingly evil, he also became increasingly human in his appearance and in the way he presented himself. He donned human clothing and explained that he was not an ape, and that if he appeared as one, it was only because he was "so very old: hundreds and hundreds of years old."

Shift gained his influence by tricking Puzzle into impersonating Aslan, the true ruler of Narnia, using his fallaciously claimed humanity as evidence of his great wisdom to justify why he was the only one who could speak to Aslan. Later, to secure the assistance of the neighboring country Calormen, he insisted that their god Tash and Aslan were one and the same. The ensuing False Aslan Affair helped distract the Kingdom of Narnia from the Calormene Conquest's opening battle, the Cair Paravel Massacre.

Although one of the leaders of the conspiracy when it began, over time Shift turned to drink and was known to spend more time enjoying his ill-gotten goods (mostly nuts and alcohol) rather than actually doing any work, with the Calormenes using him more as a figurehead than anything else due to his established connection with 'Tashlan'. Shift continued to direct Puzzle as his puppet, mostly following the orders of Rishda Tarkaan on behalf of the last Tisroc.

Shift was present during the Battle of Stable Hill. Shift met his end when he was thrown by Tirian into the stable, where Tash attacked and devoured him.


 * See also: The Last Battle: Plot summary