What is a Shade?

There are many entities in the Dreaming who do not have a physical body. They are present in the Dreaming but do not have a way to interact with it. These entities are called Shades. There are a few different types of them.

Some shades are just like Dreams, except they cannot manifest in the Dreaming without a host body. They can talk, think for themselves, and act like any other Dream character. If you are portraying one of these Shades, you will wear an orange arm band.

Most shades, however, are incapable of too much thought or communication. These shades wear a blue arm band, and may optionally wear a mask.

A Shade wanders the Dreaming until it is summoned by a Spell, Ritual, Dream Walk, or The Shaper. If given the opportunity, a Shade can possess the body of a Dream or Wake. That player now uses the Shade's stats and skills. If the character receives a death strike, or remains knocked out for 60 seconds, the Shade will flee the body.

If someone gives you the ability to play a Shade while you are playing your character, you must first wander "off stage" (see: Entering or Leaving Game). Then you may return with a blue arm band on, indicating to everybody that you are a Shade and are not playing your normal character. If you were a Wake when you were summoned, (meaning you weren't playing, or your character is dead for the night, but you're still hanging around as a wake) you may put on the arm band and come into game immediately.

Shades often wear masks to distinguish them from regular characters.

A Shade's Behavior

Many shades, particularly monsters and those summoned by the Beckon Shade spell, do not have names, and do not generally live long.

As a Shade, most of the time you will be under the control of the person who summoned you. You are not your character, and cannot speak or act on your character's behalf. You must follow any instructions that your creator gives to you. Generally, these must be simple instructions like "follow me", "guard this spot", or "attack this person".

Sometimes your creator will be a ritual, Dream Walk, or Shaper. In this case, you may have more complex instructions.

If you are attacked as a Shade, it does not damage you, but the shade spirit. If you receive a death blow, or lie unconscious for more than 60 seconds, the shade spirit will vanish. At this point, You say "I vanish", and take off your shade arm-band. If you were transformed from your character into a Shade, you may now wander back on-stage as your character.

Your character remembers anything that happened while you were playing a Shade. So if you're trying to keep a secret, you shouldn't say it in front of Shades -- When they return as their character they'll still remember what they've seen and heard.

A shade cannot deliver a death blow unless specifically instructed to by its creator.

Monsters

Certain types of Shades, called Monsters, are controlled by destructive forces beyond our understanding. Monsters are hostile, violent, and do not attempt to communicate with Dreams. You will often encounter monsters during Dream Walks. Sometimes you will not be able to begin a Dream Walk without allowing some people to be possessed by monsters.

Most Dreams applaud the hunting and slaughter of monsters. It is thought that the Monster itself contains some of this destructive force. By slaying the monster, one safely disperses that energy. Over time, perhaps the inevitable destruction of the universe can be averted by slaying monsters.

The monsters come from a few different factions, including the Void, the Unseelie Court, the Labyrinthine, and the Outsiders.

Types of Shades

The restless spirits which wander the Dreaming come from a number of sources.

Native Shades

Some Shades are native to the Dreaming, and are merely vessels for their summoner's will.

Imp

Adept

The Void of Nonexistence

The Void of Nonexistence is the chaos which exists outside of reality. It is the resting place of creatures and ideas which do not belong in our universe. The Void was first utilized in war by the Unseelie Fae, who summoned creatures from the Void to fight their battle in Faerie. When the Fae escaped from their realm and fled to the Dreaming, many Void creatures followed. In the year 2010, Void creatures began to appear in the Dreaming as well.

Demon

Gray Man

The Unseelie Court

The Unseelie Court is one of the two houses of Faerie. A long time ago, their house used to be filled with Fae who were ugly, evil, and wretched. Over time, the Seelie and Unseelie courts became less distinct, and now all types of Fae are members of the Unseelie Court.

The Seelie and Unseelie engaged in a war older than anybody can remember. In the last two hundred years (a fairly short amount of time, to a Fae), the Unseelie began to employ horrible creatures summoned from the Void of Nonexistence. The presence of the monsters shifted the uneasy balance between the two houses. Eventually, the monsters turned on their Unseelie summoners. Both houses lost ground to the monsters, until the Fae as a whole were forced to retreat from Faerie and escape into the Dreaming.

Many Unseelie felt guilty for their actions, or wish the war had been resolved differently. Some think the war is still going on. Others are consumed with war, and see the Dreaming as the next great battlefield.

When some Unseelie Fae passed through the portal to the Dreaming, they did not keep their physical body. Corrupted by the Void, consumed by rage, their anger made them into monsters. Now their spirits wander the Dreaming, searching for an opportunity to continue the fight.

Monstrous Unseelie do not want to talk or negotiate, they only want to slay Faeries and all who would dare to harbor them.

Goblins

The Outsiders

Nobody knows where the Outsiders came from. They come from a realm beyond ours which is difficult for us to understand. Like all monsters, they seek to slay the inhabitants of the Dreaming. It is theorized that they are aliens who have chosen to invade our world through its Dreaming instead of its Waking counterpart. Perhaps the Outsiders are the dreams of space aliens in deep slumber as they hurdle towards us from outer space.

The Outsiders arrived in the year 2010.

The Labyrinthine

Sometimes creatures leave the Labyrinth, the twisted knot which connects all worlds. They seek to right a malfunctioning part of the universe -- the Lost Souls should have arrived in the Afterlife, but instead they still wander the universe. The Labyrinth sends creatures to slay the Lost Souls, thereby decreasing their will to exist.

But something is also wrong within the Labyrinth. One would expect that the denizens of the Labyrinth would have no problem with the other races of the Dreaming. But they seem to have been driven mad - they are unable to distinguish Lost Souls from other creatures, and seek to end all life in the Dreaming.