Hierarchy of the Shades
"Once forged in divine image, now bled hollow by the Rot, the Shades roam in silence. They do not speak. They do not rest. They remember."
🔻 Lowest Class: The HollowThe most common, the most pitiful—still deadly.
What they are:
These are the weakest and most decayed of the Shades — malformed remnants of divine creatures.
- Behavior:
Mindless. They follow instinct — feeding on warmth, sound, light. They're drawn to sacred places to desecrate what remains, such as forgotten temples or past remnants of worship, they can be warded away most of the time by weak or mediocre seals
🔺 Middle Class: The BleachedCloser to what they once were, but twisted with purpose.
What they are:
These Shades have retained fragments of memory, tactics, or divine order — but the Rot has weaponized them. They can command Hollows, set traps, and even mimic prayers, using false divinity to lure victims or use them to make small curses if they use intent
Behavior:
Intelligent, but wrong. They remember what they were made for — guarding, guiding — but twist those purposes. A Bleached might still "protect" a sacred place by killing anyone who enters, no matter who they are.
Appearance:
Tall, near-humanoid, faces wrapped in cracked light. Their bodies leak pale smoke or ash where divinity used to glow.
Names/Subtypes:
Chanters – Recite corrupted hymns that cause hallucinations or fear
Paleblades – Once holy warriors, now swift and brutal most catogorized by holding a weapon of sorts
Ashwings – Flight-capable Bleached with bones poking through their shredded wings
🔺🔺 Highest Class: The CrownlessThey were gods' lieutenants — now they rule the ruin.
What they are:
The original divine beasts or guardians, near-immortal, twisted by centuries of exposure to divine rot. They are the generals of the Shades. Rare. Apocalyptic.
Behavior:
Highly intelligent. Some believe they're conscious of their fall, and they seek either atonement or annihilation I'm forms of using souls of humans to do so or being driven to insanity by the rot if they refuse to harm anyone . They don't speak with words—but their presence changes the world. Storms follow them. Crops fail. Temples crack.