Shades
- A new sentient race.
- Created by the Shadowright Childrak. They were designed with an overwhelming desire to survive. They were meant to be indoctrinated with his dictates but Childrak was killed before he could complete them. As such, they are without a mental template.
- They must "ground" with an intelligent being in order to gain the ability of cognitive thought.
- They have been known to "ground" with animals and other creatures with brains, but without sentience. However, this does not allow them to gain cognitive thought, for that they will seek to "ground" with a sentient being.
- To bypass a Shade's defenses an attacker must be wielding a light spell in one hand and the light must be held up toward the target Shade. Nothing else can be in that hand, including a weapon. [Due to the actions of the adventurers of the Realms this is no longer true.]
- When a Shade "grounds" with a sentient person it shares memories with that person. Thus they learn to speak very quickly.
- Shades also share a life link with the person they are "grounded" to. This means the person can resist death once and have the Shade take the blow instead. This does not seem to go in the other direction; striking a Shade will not cause the person it is "grounded" to to take a wound.
Shadowking
- Jonas Cooke, former adventurer.
- Has control of thousands of Shades. Somehow he is forcing them to do his bidding.
- When he is struck a mortal blow, a Shade dies in his place.
- Controls the Shadowlands, a new land that rose out of the sea; east of Aerenor and Darkspire.
- He has a set of 13 Shades that are more powerful than normal Shades; they are called the Iron Shadows. Five have been killed and the remaining ones are: Slate, Stygian, Obsidian, Coal and Tenebrous.
- He can make his Shades copy the memories of a person by "Mind Scalping" that person. Mind Scalping is done the same as a regular scalping but the person is not harmed physically.
- Had a sister named Nadia. It has been learned she was the person who gave the Shadowking control over the Shades. She was killed recently. The Shadowking has become more aggressive since her death.
- The Shadowking is at war with Blackwood and Eagle's Rook. New actions indicate he now considers himself at war with everyone.
- Had a Shadowdragon and Shadow Titan, but the Dragon was freed from the Shadowking's control and the Titan was slain.
- Has developed the Shadowblight. It is a fusion of Shade and other race which eats away at the soul of the carrier. If a carrier spreads the Blight it will slow down this process. No known cure.
