Shades
Shades are a subcategory of artificial human life created during The Last War. How they were manufactured is uncertain, because most of the documentation relating to their creation has been lost. Much of the material surrounding their construction and maintenance was destroyed when The Council of the White Tree banned them and their manufacture. Surviving textual evidence is therefore limited, although Tallats Codex contains some references to them as part of her work. However, because the Codex is incomplete and much of it has been lost, most of the detail surrounding how Tallat was able to discover and reverse-engineer the Shades developed in The Rending War who became part of the Army of Shades referenced in the legends surrounding the Ashcanesh.
What is evident is that Shades were able to take advantage of superior rapid healing abilities, with much more flexible but also tougher skin. Shades were able to go lengthy periods without food or hydration, could march long distances without additional support, which made them extremely useful as supply chains became disrupted and food shortages dogged areas heavily affected by the conflicts of the Five Empires Period. It is believed they may have been capable of healing physical wounds in the same manner as Watchers, although what evidence of their existence and use highlights is not so much their physical defensive capabilities, but their mental ones. Shades were believed not to have a soul in the same sense as Humans or "naturally-occurring" animals. The "soul", or the fundamental Kata of a living organic being was used in the creation of the Shades, so it was assumed they could not have one of their own.
The absence of a soul was considered critical for the mental and psychological health of the Shades. As the Last War progressed, trauma-related mental health issues became a major burden for all of the empires, with little or no support provided to soldiers and others experiencing conflict. The Shades were in part a response to the desperate need for more fit and able individuals to fight in a conflict that was economically and ecologically crippling, and a means to extend and financially benefit from the conflict on the part of their creators. Shades were not developed by any government, according to the notes in Tallat's Codex, but were under the control of one of the major families associated with the Scion of Kesh, who may also have had links to Houses then seeking to cement their power within the Basati Congress.
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