Shadows

> *"**Beware** of the ancient shadow. **Beware** of the mysteries it knows. **Beware**, o fool, who you own this stone. **Beware**, for death and destruction follows this gem."*
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> -Inscription on the palace wall of the sunken city Duarco
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The *Shadows* are three crystal-like objects made from, as the name suggests, shadows which were made substantial and fused together to form these perfect shapes. The *Shadows* are capable of boosting shadow based magic actions incredibly high and allow for the effortless execution of high power spells and can when combined together, allow a being, having mastered the Dark Arts, to freely travel between dimensions. The *Shadows* are desired by many in the world, but all who possessed one have suffered terrible fates, sometimes including their surroundings, on a large scale, too. Entire cities fell to the *Shadows* in the past, according to some ancient writings.

## Creation

Since no one on Gaiga seems to know about the *Shadows*, it can be assumed that the *Shadows* came from the Above and seen as the mortal and material boundaries usually restrict magical object of extraterrestrial origin on Gaiga, the *Shadows* must have been of even more power in the Above, leading to the conclusion that the *Shadows* have been used in the War of Chaos as weapons of terrifying might and fell to Gaiga during that War.

When taking a closer look at the *Shadows* in scripture, it becomes clear that the objects magical powers are rather unrelated to Shadow itself, but rather to lightlessness and the destruction of Light. This would nullify the previous theory of ☽ being the creator of the *Shadows* and them being weapons in the War of Day and Night. Made to imbalance an established order, the logical, yet unconfirmed creator of the *Shadows* would be ♇.

The material the *Shadows* seems to be referred to as black, solid and light-absorbing in a manner that is way superior to Black Stone. It appears that the *Shadows* are made from shadow essence that was fused together to form the crystals. This would make the shadows indestructible and one text mentions an attempt to destroy an object that closely resembles a *Shadow*, which drastically failed and caused the death of almost all of the witnesses.

## History

There are three *Shadows* in total, referred to as "The Sphere", "The Cube", and "The Pyramid". It appears that they were never together on Gaiga and fell from the Above to Gaiga at different locations. Alone they are able of enhancing magic to great heights, yet, they always caused destruction.

### The Sphere

The Sphere was mentioned on the murals of Duarco () and many other oceanic cities.

> *"The ball of darkness that the current send into our city was claimed by our gracious king and from that day on, the kingdom fell into ruin and decayed, despite our walls being covered with spells and rituals that preserve it from the ocean. On the third day of the third week when the cursed object was found, the lights vanished and the walls fell and our precious city was no more."*
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It seems as if the Sphere fell into the ocean and the currents underwater carried it for a lot of time until the sphere was carried into the city of Duarco and there it was found. Since many other texts note the beauty of the stones, the finder of the stone most likely made it a present to the king of that era.

The king then accepted the present and from there on the kingdom fell into ruin. Apparently the spells of magic that covered the walls of the city and protected it from the pressure of the ocean either weakened enormously or simply vanished. whatever it was, the walls did not work anymore as the walls who have been cared for many decades the light of the city fell completely, presumably being absorbed by the stone and the entire magic of the city vanished, leaving the city vulnerable to the ocean, which took it mercilessly.

### The Cube

In various letters of the city Teotihuacano () there is mention of a strange cuboid from unidentifiable material. The Cube, unlike the Sphere, landed with a crash within the jungle and was seen falling, as it was nighttime.

> *"And as I looked up to the sky, I saw a fiery star that fell from the sky, during the rain and thunder. It beheld its fire and fell to the ground like red lightning and when I went out to look what fell from high, what I found was unbelievable... The stone crashed into the ground and created around it a geometric pattern and was cold, despite having fallen like fire. I assumed it to be a meteor, but its shape is too perfect and the color matches nothing we know of."*
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The Sphere had come down close to the now destroyed city Teotihuacano and there was seen by what later was identified a priestess who ventured out to see what came down from the sky and made such a lightning, which was no lightning. The priestess, who was a practitioner of shadow magic, found the stone and continues to write letters about her experiments with the stone, during which she pretty quickly realized that the stone cannot have been created on Gaiga and is most likely of "an origin beyond the planet on which we live".

When she retreated her role as a temple priestess and became an independent witch, she continued to write about her experiments and when reading the texts and protocols she wrote, one can track how the knowledge she gained is proportional to her loss of sanity. In her experiments, she was tempted to use the Cube to conduct shadow energy to the world Gagia and thereby linked herself with the Cube.

Apparently, the power came with wisdom and knowledge, as spirits were bound to the "stone" and told her of mysteries beyond the sea of clouds. But with the mysteries came also horrors, which tortured her mind, as images arose within her mind and her mind, not able to handle the abstract concepts, turned against her and something more powerful replaced her, as the writing style sometimes differed vastly, yet was still hers.

After three months of continuous experimenting, she opened her Gate of the Soul and entered the Door of Shadow, while simultaneously conducting through the Cube. She completely lost her mind and destroyed Teotihuacano and everyone living there, then she committed suicide in her last effort to not allow the spirits trapped within the Cube to roam Gaiga freely.

### The Tetrahedron

The Tetrahedron was found in the desert and stems from the lost civilization that was there before the Anubi arrived there. As mentioned by the recordings of Atuamahoetepu they found the Tetrahedron inside a sand dune.

> *"Today my team made an expedition to the edges of the desert, to check the borders of our country. During that trip, we found a strange dune, whiches sand had turned black and had spiraling patters covering it for no reason. I ordered my team to dig into the dune, before that I created a protection spell to ward off spirits. My team, after some digging, brought forth a strange black pyramid, similar to the ones we do not yet understand, but way smaller, it could fit into one hand."*
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Going on, we learn that the man, Atuamahoetepu, was a commander in the army of the people predating the Anubian race. He, after having dug out the Tetrahedron, proceeded to hurry to the palace of the monarch and show the object to him. There, the king examined it and found it to be a rare find and rewarded the man.

Later we gain info from the king's notes in the archives of Catacara. "It was not long for me to discover the nature of the cursed object.", the king writes in his diary. He describes the effects the stone has on him, other than the previous two, he is aware of the stone's powers and attempts to seal it forever.

"I told my men they shall erect a pyramid in the middle of the desert and six others around it, like the Towers of Gaiga, they shall create a field, in which no chaos, can enter or exist, the power of order shall overwrite any attempt of chaos to come into existence, rendering the stone powerless.". According to later entries, the actions were carried out and the stone was sealed inside a pyramid, supported by six others.

Apparently, this did not work forever, as the king four generations later notes that one of the "seven mysterious pyramids" has been split almost perfectly into halfs. When sending a reconnaissance troop into the main pyramid to check for the Tetrahedron, the troop was never seen again. After that, it became clear that the field existed no longer and the "the danger that lurked within the central pyramid my grandfather told me about" had awoken.

Later, the Tetrahedron was described by a Lord of the Nine Mountains, the Lord of Obsidian, to be exact.

It is unclear, whether the object moved locations, or a copy was created with similar powers.