Shadebound

Shadebinding is the process of binding a living person's Shade into their own body. It is performed by members of The Church of The Black Sun in Blackfyre Gulf on The Continent of Amoth.

The process is usually performed on willing members of the Church's clergy to enable them to access the bound Shade's powers, though there are also examples of it being performed on outsiders, and more rarely on unwilling participants in order for the affected person to be controlled through manipulation of their Shade.

Creating the Shade

Before the shade can be bound into the body, it must first be created. This involves severing the connection between the shade and the body, which must be performed by an already existing Shade. The newly created Shade must be manipulated to stay within the confines of the body while it is prepared with oils, wrapped in bandages and whatever other accoutrements are required. These form the physical component of the binding, after which the Shade will remain contained within the body.

Binding

Once the initial process is completed, the bound individual will gain some level of control over the Shade within their body, though they remain two distinct entities, and affected individuals may experience conflicting desires, or episodes of the Shade exerting its own influence over their physical form just as they exert influence over the Shade's form.

The amount of control an individual is able to exert over their Shade can be influenced by the bindings they wear - the more of their body that is regularly washed in the oils provided by the Church; bound in cloth (the brighter, more patterned, and regularly changed the better or decorated with metal and jewels, the more control over the Shade they will have, however these things will also restrict how much of the Shade's power they are able to manifest. An individual who has no adornments will have access to the Shade's full complement of abilities, but will almost certainly find themselves dominated by its will, while someone covered head to toe in bandages and jewellery will have a body that acts almost entirely as if the Shade were not there in the first place.

Other Effects

Depending on the degree to which they bind the Shade within themselves, affected individuals may find that they become Driven by the Darkness, preventing them from needing to eat, sleep, expel waste, even breathe, nor do they experience any desire to do any of those things. They will also experience a slowing, or ceasing altogether, of the affects of age on their body.

Individuals who have been Shadebound cannot procreate, nor do they experience the urge to do so.

Long Term

Affected individuals will find that as the decades pass their physical form seems to become 'thin', with the Shade's dark light becoming visible through their skin, their eyes taking on a blue-white glow, their form becoming emaciated and their hair falling out. As this happens it will take progressively more bindings to maintain the same level of control over the Shade. Eventually their body will wear away completely, but as long as they continue with the binding they will continue to exert their personality and motivations over the Shade, even long past when the natural end of their life should have come.

Origin

Engineered