The Shadow King

The Shadow King is a major antagonist in 2059: The Dark Reflection and Escape from Whitegate, and a minor antagonist-turned-protagonist in Cataclysm. He is responsible for the existence of all shadows in The Multiverse, and has complete control over them.
However, The Shadow King is more than an individual being or character. He is rather a role, a title. And how he is viewed depends on who bears the title and what actions he has taken.

## History

Three different beings are known to have held the title of The Shadow King over the course of time...

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The first, original Shadow King was one of the very first beings in The Multiverse to be created by The Council of Life. He was created to embody and serve as a natural counterweight and opposing virtue to The Light: The Darkness, therefore maintaining a balanced philosophical and paragonal order.

At first, things went smoothly as intended. The Shadow King served his given purpose dutifully, and he balanced the light with his darkness.
However, The Council of Life soon found that he was doing his job *too* well; The Shadow King's darkness was becoming too widespread, and he was corrupting too much of The Multiverse too quickly.
Realizing that he was too unstable and unpredictable to be left uncontained, The Council Life opted to trap and imprison The Shadow King within Shadowspace, thereby limiting his dark influence. The Shadow King was angered at his perceived "Betrayal", and nursed a deep hatred for both The Council of Life and "The Light" during his eons of imprisonment.

Unable to directly interact with the outside environment, The Shadow King instead chose a more subtle method: he would grant portions of his power to certain mortal beings, in exchange for a subconscious influence over their minds in often-unspoken deals. This is the reason most Shadow-Walkers are usually insane or evil, unless they properly train and discipline themselves to resist The Shadow King's will.

### 2059: The Dark Reflection/Escape From Whitegate

After the events of The Last Resistance, The Shadow King's prison was weakened by the great cosmic upheaval that had occurred. The nearly dormant Shadow King was then reinvigorated with a renewed sense of purpose and hope. His influence now farther-reaching due to the weakened prison, The Shadow King began to enact his plan. All across The Multiverse, he sought out beings similar to the Heroes of Prime Earth, except dark and corrupted versions, and displaced them to the main dimension, Where Gamemark tracked down and recruited them into his team before kidnapping Sadie Volara, a highly powerful Shadow-Walker.

Meanwhile, he made contact with two high-profile inmates of Whitegate Fortress: Nimrack, leader of The League of Shadows and a former servant of The Shadow King, and the id known as Swordbreaker. The Shadow King told the two that, being among the most powerful shadow beings in The Multiverse besides himself at that time, they were in the best decision to help him. He told them that if they could help him escape from Shadowspace, then as a reward he would help to free them from Whitegate Fortress, as well was give a portion of his power, one far greater than that he shared with Shadow-Walkers, to them.

Ultimately, Gamemark and his team were able to break The Shadow King's seal and free him using Sadie's power. When this happened, he nearly raised hell upon The Multiverse immediately upon his release. But at that moment, The Council of Life arrived after having tracked him down, and apprehended The Shadow King, reimprisoning him.

Meanwhile, the prisoners of Whitegate Fortress were mounting a jailbreak. The angels arrived to the prison with The Shadow King to imprison him, but found all the loose inmates just as they were about to make their escape. In the chaos, Swordbreaker chose to double-cross The Shadow King in his weakened vulnerable state. He disintegrated his body, and then donned The Shadow King's Crown, absorbing all of his essence and becoming the new Shadow King. With this power, Swordbreaker helped to free Whitegate's prisoners and finally escape from the prison, as he was then recruited into the service of Queen Kreel as one of her lieutenants.

### Cataclysm

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Swordbreaker(now calling himself "Shadowbreaker") worked together with Kreel and her team of lieutenants to make preparations for The Xir'algath's conquest of The Multiverse.

When word reached Kreel that a team of heroes allied with The Council of Life were preparing to enter The Realm of Death to confront her, Shadowbreaker took executive action to interfere with the heroes' plans. He did this by using The Shadow King's powers to corrupt Elias, a member of the heroes who happened to be a Shadow-Walker, and he brought Elias temporarily under his influence.
Later, as the heroes made their way through Shadowspace on their way towards Kreel, they found powered-up Elias, who they fought but were able to eventually free from Shadowbreaker's influence. In Shadowspace, they also discovered a shadow id named Umbrian, having been imprisoned within the realm by the first Shadow King who had wished to get rid of any potential threats/rivals. Of course, this also meant that Umbrian was a threat to Shadowbreaker as well. so the heroes freed the id and he helped them on their journey in exchange.

In the final battle between The Xir'algath's army and the heroes' army, Shadowbreaker fought alongside the Xir'algath. In battle, he was confronted by Umbrian, Sadie, Elias, and an id with light powers named Luxatium. A fierce duel proceeded, and in battle Luxatium transformed into The Light King to become powerful enough to take on Shadowbreaker fairly. Shadowbreaker was ultimately killed when he was impaled through the chest with *Ferrum Spatium* by Luxatium, and he lost the Shadow King's crown upon his death. Of course, to an id death is merely but an inconvenience, as Swordbreaker was simply banished from the realm he died in. However, he no longer had access to The Shadow King's powers.

Later, in the battle against The Architect, Umbrian would don the crown of The Shadow King, becoming the third Shadow King as he used his powers to help to defeat The Architect.

Currently, Umbrian remains as The Shadow King, and is working alongside The Light King to benevolently maintain balance through The Multiverse and guide all the other id as a leader, as The Five work together to repair and protect The Multiverse.

## Equipment

### The Crown of The Shadow King

The helm which adorns The Shadow King's head not only serves as his Badge of Office and symbol of his power, but it is also the literal *source* of his power as well. The Council of Life created this crown with a failsafe built into it; that being, whenever a previous Shadow King dies, should such a thing ever happen, another being could don the crown and reign as the new Shadow King themselves. This ensures that The Multiverse is never without a Shadow King, and that The Shadow King cannot truly "die", even if he may not always be the same being.

## Powers

**Telepathy:**
The Shadow King can speak to his targets via telepathy, and with his psychic influence he can "interact" with the environment that his target is in via manipulating the shadows within the area. His range of "sight" is limited, and so he can only see what his target sees or senses.

**Psychic Influence:**
The Shadow King has great psychic influence over his targets. He can manipulate shadows to create minor illusions so that his targets perceive or sense something which truly isn't there.

**Shadow Gates:**
To The Shadow King, any shadow is his window and his door. He's able to teleport through any shadow and manipulate the shadows to his will.

**Shadow Constructs:**
The Shadow King can make physical solid constructs of pure shadow, so serve as weapons, armor, tools or anything he desires. The only limitation is that functioning machinery cannot be formed from the shadows.

**Shades:**
The Shadow King is able to construct shades, which are zombie-like golems of shadow that are controlled by the souls of the dead. The shades are able to access a weaker form of The Shadow King's Shadow Construct ability as well.

**Gift of the Shadows:**
The Shadow King has the ability to "lend" a portion of his power to certain beings, granting them weaker versions of his own powers. This is the process in which Shadow-Walkers are created, and is how nearly every Shadow-powered being through The Multiverse got their abilities. However, once Shadow-Walkers receive their abilities, a psychic link between them and The Shadow King is created in doing so, and they are left mentally vulnerable to the corruption and madness caused by The Shadow King's psychic influence.