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The Shadow World

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 6:55 pm
by Czernobog
Guess what inspired this!

The Shadow World is both a group and a place; to describe it otherwise would give it a disservice. Perhaps a physical description will serve as an introduction, followed by descriptions of the beings that live there and their servants in the mortal realm.

The Shadow World is a world in the last throes of entropy, soon to be completely eclipsed by the ever-lasting dark. However, it is strangely stable, and it may be that it is frozen in time at the last second before the universe collapses under the weight of entropy. Nobody knows where or when it is, and bizarre theories have been speculated from Damask's twilight realm to the universe before this one. To humans, it appears as a ruined and decayed version of Earth, to aliens, it may seem different. No one truly knows. Regardless, the Shadow World is a place of infinite despair, from the ruins of the great cities to the algae-choked stagnant, black seas and rivers.

It is eternally dark and cold, freezing with the cold of space, with not a single iota of atmosphere to be found. Bizarrely however, its waters are still liquid.

In its sky, there is no sun, but a single, immense blood-red moon. There are no stars, and nothing is visible besides the dim red light that covers everything, so that no shadows but the pitch-blackness of the world's dark corners exist.

Then there are portals, leading from our world, to the shadow. In the Shadow World, they appear as holes in the air leading to grey-scale versions of locales in our world, playgrounds, houses, etc. In our world, they are completely invisible, detectable only as a faint coldness or silence in the air.

Some who know of the shadow say the portals are created in eldritch blood-rituals, others say that they are the sites of unspeakable atrocities, but most agree that they are not a matter to be spoken about, for what agency could create portals to such a hellish place?

Then there are the inhabitants.

They are manifold, the eternally whispering voices of the Schattenstämme Collective, leading on to greater things. Shadow-beasts, 8-foot tall creatures of living, ever-shifting darkness called shadowlings, that can only be harmed at the moment they strike, yellow eyes burning with the anticipation and raw instinct of the predator. Then, great demons of fire and shadow, called Nightmares, great beasts wielding whips and swords of burning heat. All of these beings have a flaw - they can only be active at night, and return to their world when the light of day comes.

Then there are the manifold tainted wildlife, fauna and flora tainted by corrupting power. Man-eating plants and animals, lent greater strength by the roiling, entropic power that courses through the Shadow World. The Shadowlings are instinctively intelligent, hunting in packs like wolves, the Nightmares being greater servants of the dark powers that cursed this world.

Then, there are the Generals. Mighty creatures, 9 feet tall, possessing a dark majesty that fills all who behold them with awe and dread. Covered in spiked, black armour and wielding blades of cold entropy that age all things they touch, they are terrible to behold. They are the most human-like, but still not perfect - they all have one flaw that keeps them from being a perfect imitation, and that flaw is their remorseless psychopathy. They care not one jot for others, their hearts filled with freezing cold, and they do not understand love or idealism or friendship.

That does not make them foolish and backstabbing - they are intelligent in an icy way, and understand the concepts of teamwork, making plans, and so forth. Arguably, it is this which makes them most dangerous, as many who know of their existence do not take their danger seriously.

On Earth, the Shadow World's forces are hidden. Cults that worship it as a deity exist, and the occasional evidence surfaces of bodies ripped apart inexplicably, with no sign of a killer, the work of assassin-monsters only noticeable to their targets.

But the war fought between it and Earth's heroes is mostly a secret one, as most of those that know of its forces (they need not know of its existence) are either dead or unwilling to tell. And that is the way they prefer it...

Re: The Shadow World

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:08 pm
by Mobius 1
So it's a dimensional threehouse for all your similar villains?

Re: The Shadow World

Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:12 pm
by Czernobog
Mobius 1 wrote:So it's a dimensional threehouse for all your similar villains?
No.

Re: The Shadow World

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:35 am
by Vagrant Orpheus
I have no idea what inspired it but at a guess I would say Cthulu crossed with Lord of the Rings.

Seems a lot like a Stephen King realm though.

Re: The Shadow World

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:13 am
by Malchus
Kamin997 wrote: They are manifold, the eternally whispering voices of the Schattenstämme Collective
When I made the Schattenstämme I planned for it to live in a non-material plane of existence where the inhabitants are essentially free, ephemeral soul-like beings. Which is why they can't touch anything on Earth unless it has residual soul remnants on it--like recently deceased corpses.

But, eh, whatever. Maybe the Schattenstämme cross over from time to time without any real effect or something.

Re: The Shadow World

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 1:38 pm
by Shroom Man 777
Kamin997 wrote:
Mobius 1 wrote:So it's a dimensional threehouse for all your similar villains?
No.
Seems like it though, with your Darknesses and Soul Trains and Erberuses seemingly right at home over there. There can only be so many alternate dimensions with ugly demons and cults out invading Earth.
Malchus wrote:When I made the Schattenstämme I planned for it to live in a non-material plane of existence where the inhabitants are essentially free, ephemeral soul-like beings. Which is why they can't touch anything on Earth unless it has residual soul remnants on it--like recently deceased corpses.

But, eh, whatever. Maybe the Schattenstämme cross over from time to time without any real effect or something.
Perhaps the Schattenstamme can scavenge all over the place.