 |
This article or section may fail to make a clear distinction between fact and fiction. Please edit this article, according to the fiction guidelines, to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. |
A Shade is a spiritual or emotional imprint left on a person, place or thing. It often takes the form of a "presence" which is seen out of the corner of the eye, though it is also sometimes physically felt, and usually only appears under precise conditions and at certain times. Shades can come in many forms, anything from a deceased (or living for that matter) person's or animal's imprint left on something or someone, to something invoked into the "possession" of an object or person. Shades are sometimes thought of as strange creatures with powerful abilities. Shades are considered to be mythological creatures, though there are some that claim to have seen them in reality. Reports are typically dismissed by skeptics as tricks of light, or hypnagogic hallucinations that occur during the transition into sleep.
Supernatural Abilities
As seen in some online games and books, shades are creatures that can control shadow movement to darken a room, engulf a creature, or even sink into a shadow and appear out of another shadow. Shades are sometimes thought of as vampiric, although more commonly feeding on life force than blood. However, unlike vampires, light has little effect further than a mild annyance, in that in direct sunlight, they are obviously visible as not human, making it difficult to walk among us unnoticed. Despite this fact, shades are still much stronger when it's darker, especially in the deep hours of the night. Not all shades are evil, often just powerful and misunderstood. Those that are evil, however, soon become demon shades, or fallen shades with no morals or mercy, just killing for fun. Such creatures can achieve incredible power, many times greater than that of normal shades, by doing dark things their normal counterparts would never consider, but rarely retain it for long, for their strength draws the attention of many, and are often bound or imprisoned. Occasionally, when faced with powerful opponents, they are even killed, but this is no small feat and binding them is much easier. Also, although their dabbling gives them unimaginable power, it also gives them more weaknesses. Sunlight hurts them more than normal shades, and other related things. The power of these dark creatures is limitless. The older they are, the more powerful they become. The most powerful can create creatures or objects out of shadow or possess people and take control of them. Flying is also an ability of shade elders. Some can even kill everything they pass through, killing all in their path, but few become this powerful. They are hated and feared creatures and almost everywhere they are hunted, making it difficult for shades to survive. Few become older than a few hundred years.
Poetic Use
A shade can be taken to mean the (usually benevolent) spirit of a dead person. Thus the phrase 'peace to the/thy/her gentle shade' (and endless rest) is sometimes seen in epitaphs, and was used by Alexander Pope in his epitaph for Nicholas Rowe.
In Popular Culture
In Eragon, a Shade is a very powerful sorcerer who has been possessed by the spirits they summon. In Warcraft, they are invisible scouts for the Undead. In RuneScape, Shades are a kind of swamp spirit that players can fight.
In the Xanth mythology, as written by Piers Anthony, shades have the ability to take over a living person, given that it is still during the process, which usually takes about an hour. A Shade's abilities and power are then present in the possessed body. In Age of Mythology, when a player chooses Hades as his God, Hades will grant the player one Shade for every five men killed.
