Magic In All Its Forms: Shadow

Shadow

Shadow is a power that is drawn from the Shadow Realm, but permeates all areas of the known universe. Shadow is present on every world and every place on every world invariably. It is a negative energy in the universe, being the opposite of the Light but not to the extent of the entropic force of the Void. Some consider Shadow to be in between the realms of the LIght and the Void, a mix of both. Along with this, some religions and races consider the Shadow and Void to be integral and opposite forces of the Light, not evil but a necessary force in the universe.

Shadow magic users often display opposite feelings from those who use the Light however. Whereas Light practitioners display selflessness, hope and the desire to be benevolent, Shadow users are selfish and desire only power for power’s sake. The Shadow Realm is also the source of many necromantic powers, including souls that death knights and necromancers can enslave. Indeed, Death Knights can also pull their ally’s spirits back from the Shadow Realm and force them back into their body as a form of resurrection.

The Cult of the Forgotten Shadow is a prevalent religion within the Forsaken and shows what the Shadows preach. The Cult preach balance in using the Shadow, knowing that succumbing too far into the Shadows results in insanity. Instead of the Church of the Holy Light’s tenets of Respect, Tenacity and Compassion, they practice the tenets of Respect, Tenacity and Power. The religion preaches that one should respect those who have power and develop their own power in order to manipulate the physical world. These teachings were drawn from a bishop who, during the First War, studied the shadows in response to the orcish use of necromancy. Her teachings were locked away but were found and exalted by the Forsaken.

Fighting practitioners of Shadow magic requires one to steel themselves against the emotions of fear, doubt and despair. Shadow users employ the shadow to inflict negative emotions on those they attack, to force them into a cycle of despair and pain that will be their undoing. Shadow users rarely fight directly, rather employing tactics from behind the scenes to sow doubt and despair in their enemies and only striking once they’re sure their enemies are debilitated or they’ve turned them to their side.

There are two kinds of artifacts that fall into this category. The first of this kind are often meant as tools of torture, or trinkets meant to inflict those negative emotions on their holders. They’re typically subtle artifacts, or cursed objects that work their way through victims over time. They were made as objects of undoing, either to serve a personal vendetta or to force someone’s life into a downward spiral.

The second kind of artifact is meant to increase the user’s power. The artifacts of this kind that find their ways into becoming problems are the artifacts made to garner power that the maker could not handle. The power overwhelmed them, ending in their death and the artifact then waited for another person to pick it up to use it. Often it continues this pattern of overwhelming those who find it and killing them until someone powerful enough to destroy it or use it finds it.