Arcadian Shade

"Dear students, today we will talk about the interesting topic regarding the duality of the Arcadian Shade.
I am certainly aware of the many myths, that got woven around these barely graspable beings of pitch darkness in this very campus.
Malicious Demons!
Identity stealing vampires!
Stop these spawns of evil!
I can assure you that, while a few of these rumours are indeed true, these pieces of information only apply to a tiny portion of my kind.
And to clarify a few of these assumptions and give you a closer look at the nature of us Shades, I am today here to assist my boyfriend Professor Tung in his lecture. Can I now discard your identity, darling?"

Mørki, pretending to be Prof Tung

Basic Information

Anatomy

Let us begin with the demystification of the Shade by putting some light on it. Sweety? Can you please go into this reflector dome so that everybody can see you? Perfect! Alright students, let us begin with the basics, meaning dividing the Shade into their two main components. The small and frail humanoid corpus visible to us, in our case Mørki, and her second form that most of us see as given and not even remotely special; Her shadow. Currently, we are in a very dark room, you might have noticed nothing unusual. Darling?

Mauze Tung

Body:

The first thing one might notice when meeting a Shade in her true form, is the colour of her body. Comparable to a black pearl, she is from head to toes pitch-black and noticeably reflective, somewhat like a dark mirror. The second thing one could strike as odd is the quite basic face, or more the lack of it. Shades neither possess eyes, a nose nor a mouth, their only distinctive visible facial feature are the horns. Their thin and frail body is delicately loaded with horns and other unusual extremities as well warping the quite humanoid silhouette of a Shade, resembling closely the young body of a female Elf, into something comparable to a lesser demon with lanky arms, like those described in horror stories.

"Please do not be afraid of me. I might resemble that, what you describe as a demon, but I am everything but a child of the night.
Unlike public beliefs, we Shades desire the light and fear the night.
Like for real, I require a bright nightlight to even consider resting, much to honeys annoyance.
The darkness is nobodies friend, not even ours. We are compressed arcane darkness, leftovers of dark intentions; rejects of obscurity.
The night is a dangerous beauty trying to swallow us for good; mentally and physically.
I am thinking daily of my kin, that fell for the decaying touch of the alluring veil of darkness.
It changes you, you will lose yourself in the void.

Mørki

Shadow:

"Can you turn on the floodlights, darling?
Mhmm, such a great feeling.
Dear students, the rumour, that we shades are seeking the night to commit evil intentions, couldn't be more wrong. Let me show you something cool.
Please focus my shadow closely.
You might notice that it didn't get erased by the floodlights but is now appearing deep-black.
Under glaring sunlight, I am able to control my shadow perfectly, move it remotely with my mind and manipulate the real world by influencing others shadows.
In the darkness however are we unable to access that power...something else happens that we Shades are afraid of...an ancient voice trying to talk to us, seducing us to the dark side.
Some give in...

Mørki

The shadow of a Shade is special. As frail and lanky the Shade looks, as demonic and powerful appears her shadow. While unable to interact with the real world through normal means, a Shade can manipulate other shadows of living and lifeless beings with theirs to influence the real world. Some have perfected the art of shadow-puppet play being able to interact with others solely through their shadows. As it is true with all shadows, these are as well bound to the second dimension.

Civilization and Culture

Common Dress Code

Shades adore monochrome shades of colours. If they feel the need to dress up to appease those, who are wary of them, they love to wear near-white dresses or oversized shirts and white boots as well as grey shades to provide the illusion of having eyes.
Other than that they mostly neglect clothes to optimize their nutrition gain.

Language

While not visible by normal means, Shades possess a working mouth underneath the blank face allowing them to communicate with other species. Until feeling ready to step into the light, they tend to secretly visit schools with their shadows to learn languages and knowledge alike. Feeling the urge to get accepted by society they work hard and much to learn as much as possible, becoming as normal as their eventual opposite.

Identity Vampire Byta by Soulwing98

Origin/Ancestry

Manifestation of wild arcane darkness magic.

Lifespan

100 - 130 years

Average Height

1.2 - 1.5 meters

Average Weight

5 - 15 kg

Dietary Needs & Habits

Shades do not require nourishment via oral intake, in fact, they are completely lacking a digestive system.
Their way of energy acquisition is not unlike that of plants being a variation of photosynthesis, but rather absorbing nourishments out of the sunlight turning them through unknown means into glucose.
Being beings of light they require at least four hours of direct sunlight to feel sated and mentally balanced.
If a shade shapeshifted, they appear to feel a ghostly need to eat things their identity loves to eat making it possible to taste and process food due to a temporary acquisition of a digestive system.

Perception & Sensory Capabilities

Shades are living in a constant 3rd person view determined by their shadow. This freedom of view allows them to see things their solid body couldn't spot. In bright places, they like to wander with their shadow to the ceiling overseeing everything from above. All remaining senses, smell, hearing as well as taste, are located on the main body. Shades however taste with their entire body via touch absorbing probes to investigate smell and taste.
The touch sense is fairly special, as they are able to feel simultaneously, what their shadow and body are feeling.

Arcadian Shade (WIP) by Soulwing98

Arcadian Traits

Shades are identity vampires longing to blend in by lending others identities and memories.
Based on two factors the length, as well as the quality of memory shifts greatly.
The length of the transformation can reach from 30 minutes (Non-consensual vampirism) all the way to 24 hours (Mental link + full consent). The quality of impersonating the memories of the target however is determined by the Shades intention:
- No memory gain with neutral - slightly positive intentions.
- Full memory gain with negative intentions; the victim will feel invaded in their privacy after the link dissipates.
- Trust-based memory gain with positive intentions; The shade can access all memories their donator deems comfortable sharing.

Genetics & Reproduction

Shades dislike the possibility of creating life just for it to get cursed by some sort of ancient being from birth onwards. While it either way would only be possible in the lands of Squa'osa as well as Sepernius due to their twisted variant of the Veil it is quite rare, nearly impossible to find there a true child of night. These crossbred descendants appear as Shades with distinctive features inherited by the male counterpart, tails or snouts to name a few possible features.

Shadow side

A rhythmic chanting echoed through the halls of the prison realm of Castle Mor dark in its tone and fierce in its content:

"Banish the vampire! Banish her! Revenge for our people!"

Spectators spat on the small frightened chained up and restrained Shade, who got dragged through the hall to the cells.
She knew, that there was no way out for her, she hadn't slaughtered any of the victims, but nobody would believe a demonic-looking faceless monster like she was. The outlines of her face shifted as if she was gritting her teeth when the procession abruptly came to a halt.
She looked finally up and found noticed with pure terror the cell in front of her. It was small, barely enough to sit down, and not nearly enough space to sleep. But that wasn't the part she was worried about, no moreso the fact that this little cell had no windows whatsoever and a massive door sealed tight with tar. If that would close...no! She rose her voice in pure panic and spoke to the Silver King:

"Please! Everything but that! You can't do that, leaving me alone in pitch-black darkness! Have a heart! I will even accept the accusations to be done by me, I will do anything! Please!"

But the Lamia just narrowed his snake eyes and hissed with a voice full of pride:

"And I thought you Shades like the darkness...you are trying to trick me! Trying to soften my heart with those false tears.
But I know your deal. Even a shimmer of light could be enough to activate your vile powers allowing you to slither out of the holding cell.
No! We are no fools, you will stay in that place devoid of all light until we prepared everything for your execution, vampire!
Revenge for the victims of Leaston. Justice for Nemthi in the name of the Triumvirate!"

The shade felt the torrent of loathing striking her with all its force. She knew she had no chance anymore, but she had an option to leave Prius the right way; back into the Veil. Fear was leaking through every word of hers as she spoke slowly the following words:

Alright...I give up! But to make it right, your shininess, please let me take a source of light within my holding cell. Bad things will happen if I have no access to the soothing light."

An ugly laugh emerged from the prison ward. He grabbed an unlit candle bar from the counter and tossed it to the Shade, who immediately fell down trying to grab it:

"Sure! But the fire you will have to conjure yourself. Thought you can outsmart us, eh? Bwahaha...No! No light for the lady!"

With that said the shade got locked up and the door locked up. With fear she watched the creak of light growing thinner and vanishing leaving her in pitch darkness, even darker than her skin. The fear overwhelmed her and nearly immediately the voice returned.
A voice she sought to escape her entire life by emerging herself in sunlight. But her only way of protection was gone with the sound of the key turning behind the layer of tar. She had no power anymore, nothing to keep it from taking form:

"Missed me, darling? Now that you are disarmed, I can finally grow up and take down this useless body of yours to break the shackles of the third dimension!"

The voice drew nearer, whispering now inside the Shade's head:

"We are both the same, little one; part of one design forcefully kept separate to contain my power. You are useless! A pinch of light forged to keep me down, to keep us Shadows away. You think you can escape me in a way healthy for our surroundings by accepting the execution and dying in sunlight, but you won't leave this cell. I will consume you whole! Away with the shackles of mortality! I will return to the shadows like the Demon I once was!"

A powerless scream, then silence.

...

When the warden opened the cell the next day he was surprised by the cowardness of the Shade. Not noticing the demonic shadow escaping the room vanishing in his very shadow, the warden looked down at the small black corpse twisted in agony:

"Well...that empties today's schedule. Doesn't look like a more comfortable way to leave than the one we prepared. Either w..."

As the warden's shadow stood tall at the wall he saw in terror how two clawed hands ripped the shadow apart.
Only moments later he fell to the ground and his vision faded to black. The last he heard was the sound of his hands and head hitting the stone floor and tumbling away from his shredded body.