Shadowbound Beasts (影従の獣, Eijuu no Kemono) also known as Shadows (影, Kage), are lupine half-beasts often tailored to serve Empyreans,[1] individuals capable of becoming gods. Certain Empyreans are granted their own shadow by the Two Fingers, vassals of the Greater Will. Shadowbound Beasts are loyal to their Empyrean, however, should their Empyrean reject the path presented by the Two Fingers, the shadow will go mad,[2] and become a terrible curse known as a Baleful Shadow.
Overview[]
According to the old legends, wolves are shadows of the Empyrean.[3]
The first named Shadowbound Beast is Maliketh, the Black Blade, who became the loyal shadow and half-brother of Queen Marika the Eternal. However, her sole need of her shadow was a vessel to lock away Destined Death,[4] which was harboured in his sword after the defeat of the Gloam-Eyed Queen.[5] After a fragment of the Rune of Death was stolen during the Night of Black Knives he sealed the rune within his own body so that none could steal Death again.[6] When the stolen fragment sprouted in the form of Deathroot throughout the Lands Between, he would attempt to recover it under the alias Gurranq, Beast Clergyman by consuming the Deathroot.
The other named Shadowbound Beast is Blaidd the Half-Wolf. Blaidd was approved by Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon[7] and given to her daughter, the Empyrean Ranni the Witch, at a young age. He became her stepbrother and they grew up together. In defiance of the fate he was born into, he swore to serve no other master but Ranni, assisting her in her rebellion against the Two Fingers.[8] Against his own will, Blaidd would eventually succumb to becoming a Baleful Shadow, but in his final moments gave himself to Ranni.[9]
Although all Shadows who turn on their Empyreans are considered Baleful Shadows, there are particular Baleful Shadows that are assassins of the Two Fingers.[10] The last of the Baleful Shadows is killed by the Tarnished in the Ainsel River during Ranni the Witch's quest.
The Tarnished known as Vargram the Raging Wolf aspired to become a wolf and shadow of an Empyrean.
See Also[]
Notes[]
- It is unknown if the Empyreans Miquella of the Haligtree, Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and the Gloam-Eyed Queen ever had Shadowbound Beasts, as they are not mentioned and never appear.
References[]
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