Shadow Suckers

The Shadow Suckers are a species of evil entities which reached Magicians' End via the Dark Domains, although their origins certainly lie somewhere more remote in the far reaches of the Discontinuum. They do not seem to be integrated into the power structures which the Ancient and Glorious command, and that in itself is highly unusual because almost all other creatures within the Dark Domains are either client species serving the Ancient and Glorious or their captive thralls or experimental creations. Somehow the Shadow Suckers have retained a level of independence, allowing them to operate according to their own desires and plans, although exactly what these are is far from clear.
Shadow Suckers were first identifed as a new species and a new threat by Aldebaran Smith, a mage working at the Free Union of Magical Scholars in the early years of the Age of Shadows. Although the Age of Shadows held many perils, it was ultimately the Shadow Suckers who lent their name to the period between the fall of the Second Popular Ascendancy and the imposition of the Limit Protectorate, a name to which all modern historians now subscribe.

Shadow Suckers are an aberration of light and shade, a bending of physics to drain and control the flow of darkness in the interests of a profound and abiding malevolence which is deeply alien to our realm and hostile to the interests of all human life and endeavours. They must not be allowed to spread and we must find a way to fight them, or our world may not survive for much longer.

— Aldebaran Smith (4317 APC)

Shadow Suckers draw darkness to themselves and mould it. Their very presence is disturbing to the eye and mind but they are also capable of finding pathways into the brain and washing it in a kind of horror which is a prelude to achieving complete mental control over their victims.
In the Age of Shadows, Shadow Suckers were a constant threat throughout Magicians' End. One notorious example was an infestation in the hamlet of High Moons in 4414 APC.
The Cleansing of High Moons killed more than half of the population before the Shadow Suckers were destroyed.

It clung to the ceiling in the East Hall of the Manor House, yet no one seemed to notice but me - a great bundle of fibrous darkness, writhing and feeding on pain. And growing all the time. Growing and growing!

— Emalyne Drey from her memoir "Horror at High Moons"

Shadow Suckers Infest 01 by DMFW with Midjourney

I fled into the dining room but felt the sense of oppression only deepen and when I looked up, there was another of the wicked things, a twitching nucleus of madness over my head!

— Emalyne Drey from her memoir "Horror at High Moons"

Shadow Suckers Infest 02 by DMFW with Midjourney

In the drawing room, two of the damned creatures were fusing on the wall and ceiling. I had the impression they were engaged in some disgusting mating ritual but I didn't stop to study them. I had to get out of the Manor House as fast as I could.

— Emalyne Drey from her memoir "Horror at High Moons"

Shadow Suckers Infest 03 by DMFW with Midjourney

But I hadn't seen the worst. The worst was in the Harmonic Chapel where my brother and his wife stood in silence, a writhing net of shadows dancing over their faces. They did not seem to know me and I do not think they would have known anyone. They were far gone behind the tendrils that toyed with their minds and filled them with silent and unspeakable horrors!

— Emalyne Drey from her memoir "Horror at High Moons"

Shadow Suckers Control 01 by DMFW with Midjourney

Shadow Suckers Control 02 by DMFW with Midjourney