Species Guide

Shades

The disembodied spirits of dark mages that feed on life energy.

They typically appear as either shadowy, cloaked figures, or when they are attempting to feed, they can appear as a disturbing image of the human they used to be.

They prefer dark, sunless places, since they are weaker in the sunlight.  And can only be killed when their in a solid form, which only occurs when they are feeding on life energy. And the only way to kill them is to set them on fire in their solid form.

Shades, despite their ability to appear human, are the furthest thing from it. They have no remorse, or pity. They only think about the hunt and feeding, and have no qualms with killing their prey, which happens every time they capture an unlucky victim.

They always completely drain a human, or any other human like creature for that matter, leaving the individual dead. If a person killed by a Shade is found, they typically are given a cause of death in the area of a heart attack, a stroke, or in some cases, stress cardiomyopathy, a technical term for being scared to death.

The only marks that are left on the body are dark marks wherever the Shade grabbed them, which appears as an ink stain on the skin that can't be removed by any means outside of the bodies decomposing, or cremation.

There are very few people who have survived Shade attacks, the ones that do are traumatized. Humans that survive tend to devolve into insanity, or their brains completely suppress the memory, leaving them with intense fear of the dark, and areas similar to where they were attacked.

Nonhuman individuals such as vampires, or shifters, tend to go feral, becoming just as ravenous and remorseless as the Shades. Victims were unable to be helped, the best thing to do usually involved ending their misery.