Shadow?

[Edgar]

Hello all of you CotHians!

I have a question.

What exactly -is- shadow magic? How would one learn the ways of shadow magic? Where do shadow priests' power come from? Anything about this subject would help!

[Terant]

I couldn't find anything on WoWwiki to back it up, but I've been led to believe that Shadow is generally a type of power that has to do with the mind (Shadow Priests get Mind Read and Mind Control in-game). It's more of a "balance" to the Light than a totally evil force like Fel is. And supposedly Fel is different than Shadow.

Again, I have nothing to back this up other than my own opinion, in-game mechanics, and what I've been told by other people. XD

[Scout]

Shadow magic is drawn from the Plane of Shadow by shadow priests and arcane shadow casters. You can learn it by having someone teach it to you, among other ways. Some schools do have shadow teachers because it's not corrupting in the same way as Fel magic, but prolonged use of pure Shadow magic generally leads to insanity or essentially becoming an emotionless husk. It is not specific to the mind.

[Wolohoo]

I'd say Shadow is like the darker side of human mind. Dementia of Madness, if you will. See what I did thar?
Imagine you'd be hit by Shadow magic. You start seeing things. Bad, dark things. From your mind.
And that hurts alot.
But if you were hit my Light magic, you'd see all happy things, like pink bunnies, unicorns and mushoorms.
Or whatever strikes you fancy.
So basically, Shadow magic brings out your "inner evil", and hurts you from inside. It darkens the mind, hur hur.

Tc;dr version - It's all in the mind, you know.
Tc = too crap, mind you.

[Edgar]

Thank you all for the information. It's been rather helpful.

One more thing, I've heard Shadow magic is the equivalent of Light magic with the Forsaken. Apparently they can use it to heal. Is this true?

[Scout]

It depends on who you ask. Generally, it's seen that negative energy heals undead and positive energy hurts them, which could be shadow and light respectively, but undead can still be hurt by shadow magic, so I don't think they can.

I think it's pretty much been established that undead are either healed by necromancers, or maybe they can be healed by holy magic? I've never seen an undeader healed IC, but I doubt they need healing as much as any other race would.

[Edgar]

Mmkay! I think I got it. Thanks again, everybody!

<3

[Wolohoo]

Well I'm not going to let you go this easy!

I reckon Shadow magic does heal Undead.
You see, I do think it kind of reinforces the dark magic that keeps them "alive".
It's like.. pouring water into a half empty glass in my opinion.

But then again, I could be wrong.

[Brutalskars]

Here is what I believe.
Positive heals the living and can hurt them if used that way, Spells like judgement and smite for example harm rather than heal
Negative heals the dead, but can harm them also because in the same way light can hurt the living.

[Piroska]

WoWWiki's Shadow (magic school) article:

The shadow energy (aka Shadow Plane) is not limited to a single plane; it is instead an integral part of every aspect of the universe, woven into every plane. Thus, spells that call upon this energy, such as shadow conjuration, draw upon local sources rather than reaching to another plane. Positive energy remains associated with the energies possessed by living beings, and negative energy with the motive forces of death and the undead. Magical weapons that have effects wielding this energy draw upon energy bound into their own material, freed by enchantment.[1] "Shadow" is spell type common to many items and spells created by the Shadow Council and other such nefarious organizations.[2] The arcane and shadow magic appear to be tied together.[3] In the RPG, Shadow appears to be split into subcategories or is synonymous with "Darkness", "Negative", "Death", "Destruction", "Chaotic", "Evil", and "Fel". It is a damage type often found as a bonus type damage (enchantment or enhancement) in the RPG. In one example it's also a sub-school of the magic school of Illusion (illusions composed of a quasi-real, tangible shadow material with shadow bonuses, ex. Storm, Earth and Fire).[4] Spells of shadow may derive their power from actual shadows & darkness.[5]

[Anski]

Let me remind the server, as this is confused often, you cannot learn shadow and light at the same time. Using one causes your ability to use the other null, forcing you to forsake the one you were using and restart learning the one you knew before and had lost.

[Edgar]

Thanks for that link, Piroska. I don't know how I missed that page. O_o

Also, that was the only thing I -did- know about Shadow, Anski.

So, if I submit a profile about a Forsaken healing others with Shadow, would it be acceptable?


EDIT: Other Forsaken, that is.

[Bovel]

Shadow is tricky since it has been thrown into the game where it has seen fit, without any idea where it fits in metaphysically. Here are the places it has been thrown into the game I know of on top of my head.

- Shadow as being used by shadow priests with a focus on the mind.
- Shadow as being used by warlocks, sort of a mid-step towards fel.
- Shadow as magic being woven into cloth.
- Voidwalkers, being shadow elementals.
- Physical shadow dropped off these.
- Shadow as magic wielded by shadowmages and even some Twilight Cultists.
- Naaru siphon and consume sould to not become void beings.

Shadow is literally alot of things that can have it source either from "within" or the Nether as any arcane energy. The other big difference between these seem to be the manifestations, priests tend to manipulate and not go so much for the physical effect while the shadowmage throw it as if it was fire or frost. The only common theme is that shadow is 'evil'.

How do these relate to eachother then? I think it is really the same kind energy, but the source is more important than anything. A priest just pulls it out and has it shaped to his faith while a mage must channel it and shape it, so perhaps if they went head on a shadow priest would come out victorious. I believe the same would happen if a chaplin and a channeling blood knight would go head to head.


The way I roleplay it is that while a shadow priest can veil the mind, a shadow mage must veil the eyes.

[Aphetoros]

Actually, shadow and light might be able to be used at the same time...due to the fact that there is lore that for a priest their devotion to their deity (or demons for warlocks) counteracts the emotionlessness effect of shadow magic.

[Kaghuros]

Actually, shadow and light might be able to be used at the same time...due to the fact that there is lore that for a priest their devotion to their deity (or demons for warlocks) counteracts the emotionlessness effect of shadow magic.

But a Priest's magic comes from their will and is influenced by their mindset, which is why Forsaken Priests use the Shadow (Their philosophy is about self-empowerment and helping onesself), and Human Priests use the Light (The Holy Light is about being benevolent, just, and caring to others, sometimes at the expense of onesself). So basically, Shadow magic is selfish, and the Light is selfless. That's why you can't use both, even if they can do very similar things.

Whichever way you're driven to use magic, that's the way your magic comes out.