Shadow Sea Monster
The Shadow Forest isn't the only place in the world where shadow monsters dwell. Fishermen and sailors tell stories of giant creatures of shadow surfacing from below the sea waves and attacking ships. According to those stories, many lives were lost to those creatures throughout the years.
Shadow monster off starboard! Prepare weapons! Mage, get ready!
The same as all shadow creatures, the shadow sea monsters are resistant to regular weapons and only magic can harm them. Because of that every ship has at least one mage on board before leaving the harbour. In case of an attack sailors use crossbows to try to distract the monster while the mage prepares a blast of magic. Usually it doesn't kill the monster, but forces it to hide underwater allowing the ship to escape.
Devourers of life
Similarly to their land-dwelling counterparts the shadow sea monsters are on a constant hunt to catch and devour other creatures. When they do so they also create a smaller shadow creature known as a shadow ghost. These ghosts are bound to the monster that created them and can be found near the places where monsters dwell. The ghosts also are on a constant search for sustenance. They drain other creatures of all life energy leaving behind a husk.
I watched as a shadow monster grabbed my friend from the deck of our ship and devoured his body and soul. I watched as the shadow ghost created from him hid under the waves. There isn't a more terrifying sight in the whole world.
Bane of the Elves
One of the more popular theories regarding the origin of all shadow creatures looks into the surviving elven texts. They suggest that the elven civilization was destroyed by a powerful force of shadow magic. The monsters are believed to be the manifestations of this force.
Some of the elven texts also suggest that the sea monsters were among the first to appear. They describe shadows from beneath the waves engulfing ships and killing everyone onboard. Some texts say that the crews were suffocated while other don't specify the way the sailors died.
Thanks for taking part in the unofficial challenge! Creativity: 3,5 Verisimilitude: 3,5 Presentation: 4 This article is a little short to comment much on its content, so I'll focus on its high concept and where you could take it to help flesh it out. To begin with, there's no actual description of what a shadow sea monster looks like, except 'giant'. There's the MidJourney image, for sure, but a section talking about what they look like and how they interact with the physical world (does a shadow monster displace water? cause waves? break things?). If they can be warded off by a mage, and the creatures don't seem to need to breathe, why don't they just break the hull from beneath? Does their touch only affect living things? Can they pass through hulls and other matter? Things to work on: Flesh out the article: Consider the above, and more. Tell us more about the monsters, their interaction with the world, and how the world have adjusted to them. Consider what your reader might or might not know when you start a new article. Is likely that they'll be familiar with the shadow forest?
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.
Thank you for the feedback!
If you are looking for my Worldember articles check Magic Earth or My Worldember Progress Page