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The Shadows

Shadows are actually a very recent race, and are the world's shadow of every other race. How did the first come into being? Whom do they follow and how do they live?

creation
The first and all others after them began with three things. A vessel of shadow, the blood of the creator, and black magic.

Lawrence and Daiya were made from a half vampire and a cat girl respectively. Both were given the blood of the god of chaos, and therefore were instantly given a strong and stable form. 8 years later, during the war of lore, Iban, the god's spiritual heir tried his own hand at creating these beings, and out of a thousand, less than a hundred stabalized and lived. They were quickly trained by the origional shadows for combat and various other skills.

physiology and anatomy
The anatomy of a shadow is quite the same as what they were made from. However, there are some differences. Almost all shadows have dark tan skin tones, midnight black hair, and red eyes. Though a few rare exceptions show up like different skin tones, different colored eyes or different colored hair. Also, all shadows can regenerate their wounds. They are very long lived beings. It is speculated that a shadow may live longer than an elf. They are particularly weak to sunlight. Stabalised shadows have a fair amount of resistance but too much exposure will make them disolve into the light and die.The stronger a shadow is, the greater it's resistance until it has almost complete resistance.

Beliefs
Most shadows follow the god of chaos though a select few may follow the god of balance. They hold Lawrence and Daiya, the origional shadows, in high regard. Lawrence and Daiya are the closest to the god of chaos.

Where they live
(warning large images ahead)
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/momsrascal95/drawings/newmoonisle-1.png
The main island, New Moon Isle is where most of the shadow humans live. Lawrence and Daiya live here. Green island is inhabited by a few more of these human shadows. These shadows grow crops for the other areas. These shadows have complete light resistance. Dywyllech is inhabited by the shadow elves. These elves support themselves mostly through hunting.
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt47/momsrascal95/drawings/newmoonisleunderground.jpg
This is the underground of the main island where the shadow dwarves live. There isn't much under here but the dwarves make a large amount of wealth from selling the rare metals they mine. They are well known for introducing shadenite into the ore market, a rare, but very difficult to work with metal. It's properties allow incredible weapons to be made from it but it's very impure. Though the success rate is low, blacksmiths around the world spend a fortune on the stuff, hoping to work this metal into strong weapons.

The shadow arena is basically a dueling colleseum for all sorts to fight in as part of their culture.

Culture
Combat is a large part of shadow culture. The shadow arena plays a major part of this as competitions of skill and strength are often shown off for recreation. Since shadows regenerate they don't really take injuries to themselves and others very seriously, though they know when to stop. They do have some less violent festivities though. Holidays and festivals are often grand and include the entire community.

Other trivia
Shadows are made from people's shadows. This being said, when first made a shadow will at first posses the same combat styles, skills, etc. Though poorly. This leads shadows to find new ways of doing things that are more suited to their experiences. For instance, a shadow made from a healer may become a necromancer.

Many shadows have power over shadows, with a few exceptions. Daiya for example doesn't have shadow powers but she can channel arcane energy through her sword, or Ivy who doesn't have any powers either but has the odd trait of having poisonous blood.

Kate, Lawrence's daughter, is only half shadow. A mix between humans and shadows.