Perceivers and Servants cast Shades in the Void because their soul flames are too weak to cast a body. Shades that wander off the King's Road often fade away into nothing. Their form depends on will alone.[1] The shades of Servants and Perceivers are white and black, respectively.[2] Angels and Devils do not cast shades because they originate from the Void to start with.[1][3][4]
Shades are kind of like one's soul. When one's consciousness enters the void one does not bring a body there, but a weak projection of one. People with weaker wills have poorly formed shades, so most people have a skeletal appearance.[5] The wills of The Seven are so strong as to make themselves and their surroundings appear normal in the void, independent of their souls' natures.[6]
The very essence of one's being is sustained by the 'heat' of reality, and the further away one gets from it, the more reliant they are on their own willpower to exist (which is why human soul flames burn only as shades out there). But even angels and devils, who have very strong soul flames, cannot exist in the Pure void, which is the place beyond the part of the void where impressions of the Wheel are cast.[7] Gods could travel there,[4] and it is where the remains of YIS and UN are.[8]
The Dead[]
If one dies and they have a strong will, their soul may actually persist as a Shade in the void for some time. Eventually it will fade away into nothingness.[9] Persistent shades can be pulled and bound into dead flesh or clay to create servants and mounts. Some people do this to themselves as a kind of contingency plan should they die. The living dead are not truly sapient though.[10]
As all that is not living crumbles and warps within the Void,[11] so the only reliable way to carry heavy cargo along the King's Road is by use of a sorcerer or devil binder who will craft something out of Shades. The Shades of the recently dead are too numerous to count, pliable, and lack awareness – for this they are perfect mounts. The Thrull, the Follower, the Necked – these are fine and cheap forms of Shade and easy to warp.[12]
Forms that shade-constructs can take include the dead[13] (a shade bound into a corpse), the Undying Lords[13] (multiple shades bound into a corpse), skull-elephant things[14] (a shade bound into an elephant-like corpse), mounts[15] (a shade bound to an animal corpse), and bio-organic motorcycles[16][17] (the shades of sinners interacting with a set of wheels). All things that shades are bound to gain a skull-like face.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wielder of Names 1-13
- ↑ Wielder of Names 2-38 (PURSUERS)
- ↑ KSBD 2-29.5
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 KSBD 5-87
- ↑ KSBD Tumblr
- ↑ KSBD 4-73 to 4-74 (Concordance of the Demiurges)
- ↑ KSBD Tumblr
- ↑ KSBD Tumblr
- ↑ KSBD Tumblr
- ↑ KSBD Tumblr
- ↑ Wielder of Names 3-40 (CREATION)
- ↑ Wielder of Names 3-39
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 KSBD 2-32
- ↑ KSBD 1-12
- ↑ KSBD 1-6
- ↑ ABBADON's Tumblr
- ↑ Wielder of Names 1-10