Shadow Monsters

Spirit of the Nashya

"... Once a tale meant to inspire obedience in children, when the first monster dragged itself from the gaping maw of the worldvoid, borne of ill intent and malice, everything was transformed. Humanity, that which was once little more than beast, knew the dangers of unfettered instinct and impulses, and retaliated in kind. Yet even we could never have envisioned what would happen to monsters that lacked even that basic spark of thought shared among all animals. Without a sense of self, the raw power of the monsters could come forth, unrestrained in their strength and temperament, replaced with a maelstrom of force and fury..."

- The Chronicles of Zamzara, Vol. 3

Symptoms

A monster that has undergone Shadow Transformation is several times more dangerous than their regular counterparts - one reason of which is their lack of apparent physical change. Once the "Spirit of The Nashya" takes hold in them, what little higher functions the beasts possess are lost and act erratically with no sense of self. Of the few Shadow Monsters that have been captured and studied, none had any physical abnormalities whatsoever - but the loss of mind is apparent to anyone who has been around monsters for a length of time: Not even the most restless undead or the most vicious dragon have eyes of such madness and confusion.

Treatment

In history, only a handful of Shadow Monsters have ever been closely examined, often at great risk to those reckless enough to capture them. Hungry for an answer to these beasts, the scholars studying them subjected them to as many experiments as their bodies would withstand in the hopes that something would free them from the Nashyan Spirit. In the end, there was only one: Death.

Prognosis

Even among those who studied these monsters, there is precious little to know about them and their lives. Only once in recorded history has someone tried to replicate the madness of the Shadow Monsters in a regular beast. Unfortunately for her, she succeeded at the cost of her life. The results of her work were lost to time, but the experiment was not forgotten: for years afterwards, nearby villages rumored that she had gone to an entrance of The Nashya with it to try something else, only to never be heard from again. Even more unfortunately, the populations of these villages vanished, and soon afterward, the buildings also disappeared.

History

Even among monsters, Shadow Monsters are extremely rare. The only verified account of a run-in with more than one of these spirit-plagued beasts is from the fall of Zamhita during The Kalyugi. There, every other monster was truly monstrous, killing and devouring everything in their path. The bastion of humanity held out for mere days under their unrelenting assault. If at the same time, monsters elsewhere exhibited the same plague, then no one survived to tell about it. In the interim since, there have only been whispers and murmurs behind closed doors as to the veracity of their existence. Those who talk about the frenzied beasts invite the eye of The Nashya upon them and those they love.

Type

Supernatural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired & Congenital

Rarity

Extremely Rare

Affected Species

• Monsters