(Race Idea Part 1 of 3) The Shada'in, the shadow ones

[Traveler Voltin]

Note: With Chronicles changing lore and the arrival of the void elves. this concept will updated and changed.


Their Arrival:

The Alarm is at full blast as I begin to wonder what hit us. I look out the closest window as we past 2 moons and head straight for the planet they orbit. I quickly realize we are crashing, I run to the main hall. “Everyone brace for impact we are crashing.” While going through the atmosphere the ship took a change of direction and headed for an ocean. The ship hit the water hard than expected people were thrown everywhere. The mages and priests recovered as fast as they could. They quickly began to try to slow or stop people from getting hurt from falling from high places. After the crash I went around checking everyone and get an idea how bad things are.
The next day while I was doing my rounds to check on everyone, one the people i had on watch came to me telling me there was two large forces headed our way. Some of the civilians were already outside watching them come our way. I walked outside as one of their skyships flew past us then it turned around to join the side with the blue boats. I watched them carefully as I waited for them to do something. The next thing I knew there ways projectiles heading our way. I ran down to get in front of the civilians to protect them. Once clear of the civilians i quickly casted Void flay to intercept the projectiles. Once the spell hit them they exploded. I quickly counter attacked by damaging one of the skyships rotors.

There was a no retaliation so I chose to quickly scan the natives mind to learn there language. “That is enough; I wish to speak with your leaders,” I yelled. A few hours later, the natives’ leaders and the leaders from the 3 main races from my planet got into a room to talk. I looked around the room at all the races gathered before speaking.

Background:

I am Cartan the leader of the Shada'in, the ones born of shadows. Our planet Isarin was once a beautiful place. Now it’s nothing but a waste land.

Now to start from the beginning, our planets early days were nothing but darkness. Where other planets could not create life from this darkness our planet did. The early creatures of shadows fought and did everything to survive. Until there was the race left was my very early ancestors. By the time light reached our planet my race was already well along in their evolutionary chain. Our planet was sometime visited by fire and earth elementals. We were the first race on our planet to fully evolve and create a vast empire. We watched the other minor races and creatures fight each other. We thought they were weak minded fools and were lesser then us.
Giant begins of great power visited our planet twice. The first time was to place their constructs to watch for corruption and the 2nd time was during the Chaos war. Before the Chaos war began this injured create of vast evil landed on our planet. As it began to heal itself it also corrupted the closes race to them as its protectors, the Bazarins. It became cocky thousand of years later when it attacked the constructs before it was fully healed. Though before the last construct fell, it sent a signal out to its creators. When they came to stop the old god infection, what the found shocked and amazed them.

My race and its ally the Brav'ar, a race in the tribal evolution stage, were fighting a full on war with the old god and its minions. We had managed to push them back into their zone by the time they arrived. The titans, as they called themselves, wanting to make sure the old god died sent 1 titan to aid us. The only sent one because they managed to determine that it was already injured and wasn’t at full strength. Once he landed his ship he began to aid us in our finally assault, the temple of the old god.
A few soldiers and I managed to fight our way to the old god chambers of the temple, through the front way. They titan went through the back way to deal with the old god. Once we finally arrived into the chambers, we saw the battle between this titan and old god. As the titan went for the final strike, the only god snuck an attack in first killing him. The soldier and I were shocked but i quickly snapped out of the daze. While the old god was still weak I ran towards it quickly grabbing up the titan’s sword, but once I grabbed it, it shattered. So I grabbed 2 pieces of it and charged the old god. After fighting it for almost and hour I found the opening I needed to kill it. Well i thought i killed it at the time.

After the battle we pulled the titans body into a clearing. We prayed for the fallen titan and then built a monument. I forced weapons from the titan’s shattered sword, though it was very difficult to do. I ended up just putting handles on the two pieces i grabbed earlier. Though our alliance with the Brav'ar was forced, we agreed that having allies was a good thing to have. My race moved past its arrogances and started to become more helpful.
Over the next thousands of years my people spend their time guarding the titan's ship from the other races. Though we let our allies try to study it.

Everything was good on our planet until one of the newer races created the event we called the Arcane Rift Bomb. That event brought the legion to us. Now to explain what happened. This race evolved to the point where they were now practicing magic. Well their arcane magic became so unstable that it completely wiped out their entire race and left a rift of arcane energy.
After that came of war of survival, the legion was summoned by a betrayer of the Brav'ar, who was extremely power hungry. Our joint army held the line while people fled. We had become desperate so we told everyone to flee into the titan’s ship and try to figure out to get it off the ground. After a few months, we had notice the Legion had built a small out post around the arcane rift. They were using it to summon more demons faster. I personally went there to stop it. Once there I snuck into the center where the rift was i watched everything around it to pin point the weakness.

After studying it enough i made my move. I quickly struck down the demons guarding it then focused on the ones doing the summoning. Before i could stop them i saw something coming out of the rift Portal, which i later found out was the fallen titan Sargeras. I quickly fell back to one of the walls and watched as the he fully came through. I felt the air around me get warmer and the ground below Sargeras turn to magma. I was trying to figure out what to do but before i could Sargeras spotted me. We stared at each other trying to decide who was going to make the first move. I looked back to see if everyone evacuated to the Capital. Everyone had including the army. They were now using the weapon turrets surrounding the capital to hold the demons away. I then turned back into to face Sargeras and then i reach for the titan canon on my back. I quickly fired it at his face then fled before he could react.

I got the titan’s ship and immediately told everyone to get this ship into the air. We got into the air and fled from out planet as it fell. The Legion did not give chase because as we were taking off the old god i thought i killed immerged and started to attack the legion.
Over the years we spent in the ship we did not find out where it was headed. Though we had little choice the legion had found us. They began to attack the ship. I quickly ordered everyone to figure out a way to get out of here. One of my generals randomly pressed a button, which created a portal. The ship went through it and it closed before the legion could get through. We came through near one of your moons and then crashed.

*Cartan then turns to Everyone*

Now you know of my people, that we came here to survive, and that we are here to help. Also revenge against the legion is a bonus.

Government: The first government had more of a dictatorship with spiritual leaders for guidance. But after the Chaos War it changed and has stayed that way for a long time.
They have a council that decides everything even though they have a true leader. They will sometimes ask the leader for advice on solving certain matters. The leader has the body to create his own laws but prefers to let the council do it. The leader can also over rule any law the council creates.

The Leader:

Born from a poor farming family, Cartan worked on his family farm. After turning 100, he left his family farm to become a priest for the military. He was always behind in his studies and never really truly fit in. He did pass eventually to get into the military.
Now in the military, he felt more at home. Sadly he was never in places he wanted to me. He trained for offensive strikes but his commander always used him for defense and guarding. Though he did get his own squad eventually to command but never really raised much in rank.

Then came the day that changed everything, his squad was sent to one of the farming and fishing villages to go guard caravan bringing resources to the main city. While they were getting ready to leave with the caravan, the village came under attack by a large force from the race they called the Ravecrests. He ordered the caravan and most of his squad to leave to call for back up. The rest of the squad would stay to try and hold off the Ravecrests while the rest of the village gathered their things to evacuate.
When reinforcements finally arrived hours later they were shocked at what they found. All but 1 building was burned to the ground. All the surviving villagers were in that building. Outside the building were bodies of Ravecrest soldiers, the Ravecrest catapults, bodies Cartan's squad that stayed behind to help, and Cartan who was still alive but badly injured. Cartan and the surviving villagers were taken to the capital to be healed. Once Cartan woke up days later he explained what happened.
He had the villagers gather into 1 building for easier coverage. While the enemy was focused on burning buildings and fighting Cartan's remaining squad. He had the shaman that was with him, sneak around the enemy lines to take down the catapults. He hoped it would allow for a distraction so they could counter attack. The plan surprisingly worked, they took down some of the enemy. Sadly the counter attack didn’t last long. Now having to fight off the full attention of the enemy was hard. It was 5 vs. 30. Little by little both sides took loses until it was Cartan vs. 15. Refusing to give up, he grabbed sword from a fallen enemy and attacked. He managed to take down a few with the sword and spell combo before getting knocked back. Now kneeling in front of the village holding the villagers, he was now against 8 and very injured. He forced himself back onto his feet and became desperate. He mostly only new beginner level shadow priest spells, but he did learn an advance level spell but in his current condition it would most likely hurt him as well. He didn’t care; he used it anyway after recalling how it worked. He quickly casted the spell and killed the remaining 8. Though it almost cost him his right arm, the backlash from the spell ripped apart the muscles in his arm and tore open the skin. He passed out.
After that he quickly rose in the ranks. His power in shadow priest magic became better and stronger. He was the rank of general during the Chaos War. Some time after the war he became the leader of the new government.
Cartan, though the average lifespan of a Shada’in is around 10,000-15,000 years old, Cartan is around 50,000 years old. Some of his people believe it is because of the titan tech he carries.
Though he carries titan tech his power is more of that of a demigod.

Class: Before influenced by the titan tech he touched, he was the strongest shadow priest and after he started using the pieces of the titan sword he became the first shadow knight.

The Council members:
The council is made up of veterans and young ones of each class the use with some of the members being actual Civilians.

Culture: When they first began they looked to their priests and shaman for guidance. Once they began to evolve further, they began to become more a magic based society. Magic first and everything was second.

After the Chaos war the changed, they started focusing more about family and friends. The returned to asking their shamans and priests for guidance. Family and friends come first now to them. They will do anything to protect family, friends, and allies.

Priests and shaman are their spiritual and religious leaders. For military they go to their leader, Cartan for guidance. They have advance tech but focus more on using magic. They believe in using technology as a last resort.

Known classes:
Shadow Knights, priests, shaman, mages, shade druids, and infiltrators.

Shadow Knights: After the Chaos War, front line soldiers were needed to be trained if they were going to survive another full scale world war. The soldiers wear enchanted plate, dual wield special blades called Shade hilts, and use shadow magic to enhance their defense and offense. The enchanted plate is to make it light weight to allow for faster movements.

Priests: Most priests are shadow due how the evolved with it. Holy priests are rare but exist in their ranks. Though holy light doesn’t harm them it does change their appearance slightly. Priests from the Shada'in use different spells than the priests on azeroth.
Order of the Void, is the shada’in priests order. They are usually used mostly for consult but have known to go into combat under great crisis.

Shaman: The Shada’in shamans have only been known to talk with the earth, fire, and shadow elementals. Shadow elements seem to have only appeared on their home world. Though with the home world gone the Shada'in can still talk with the shadow elementals.
Early on in the days of shaman, they used to sacrifice animals to please the angry elements. After awhile they began to hear the elements. After gaining the ability to hear the elements, they learned what the elements really wanted. Though the sacrifices have stopped they still treat the elements and their elementals as gods.

Mages: The only notable is the spells that they used. Also the Shada'in mages focus more on fire magic and the study of it. They do use arcane and frost sometimes.
Order of the Black Flames, is the order of the shada’in mages. Most of them are fire. They also police the magics to make sure they don’t get out of control.

Weaponry:
Shade Hilts/Magi blade: these blades were created sometime after the end of the Chaos War. When not in combat their appearance is just a hilt and handle. In combat the user sends magic into the hilt and forms a blade. Each blade is different depending on the person and the magic being used.

Shade Golems: After fleeing their home they began to try and create golems from magic to help in and try to lessen the loss of soldiers. The never really got it to work until recently after studying the blood elves Arcane Constructs. They have yet to see battle, the plan is to deploy them to defend the healers and the injured while they are being pulled away from battle.
They have also begun working on their own sky ships and siege engines.

Appearance: Average height is around 6 feet. Average weight is around 190-220 lbs. The have a shadow glow similar to the shadow priests shadow form of azeroth. The holy priests that they do have, their glow is changed to be a more yellowish/white color. Actual body size is somewhere in between a human and blood elf. Their ears small and slightly pointy (think Vulcan from star trek) Hair color ranges from blues, purples, to black. Yellow and white hair appears only on their holy priests. Beards are rare.

Population:
Height of the empire 500,000-600,000
Population after fleeing the legion, 50,000
Current population 60,500

Timeline
Shadow sprites early stage appear
2000 years later tribe stage and appearance changes
8,000 years later empire forms and have fully evolved into the Shada'in
4,000 years later titans appear and leave some constructs to watch the planet
6,000 years later Cartan is born.
8,000 years later Chaos war begins and the titans appear much later.
2,000 Age of restoration ends, New Shada’in government forms with Cartan as leader, Cartan is 10,000 years old, Shada'in capital, the Brav'ar come to world power status
10,000 the all female race the Alama’zons empire forms and it quickly makes an alliance with the Shada'in and the Brav'ar, Cartan is 20,000 years old and the Shada’in priests and shaman look for a reason why he has lived longer then the rest of the race.
27,998 years later the legion attacks due to the arcane rift bomb crisis happens.
2 years later Isarin falls to the legion and the 3 empires flee in the titan ship.
2000 years later they crash land in one of azeroth's oceans and begin peace talks with the horde and alliance leaders, Cartan is 50,000 years old and doesn’t seem to getting close to dying of old age, some of the priests are starting to believe he is immortal now.

Note: i would have added more but my word was saying it was at 6 pages.
Note2: Lore updated along with a few other things.

[Traveler Voltin]

still no comments? i guess it is really bad

[Deleted]

still no comments? i guess it is really bad

coz no pics

[Traveler Voltin]

coz no pics

well i suck at drawing and none of my friends that are good a drawing feel like doing it for me.

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without drawing the closest thing i found is. also note its the female side.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/159/9/a/shadow_walker_by_graysun_d-d68ac4e.jpg

she looks like a mix of elf, draenei, and slight asari looks from Mass effect.

[Golden Yak]

well i suck at drawing and none of my friends that are good a drawing feel like doing it for me.

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without drawing the closest thing i found is. also note its the female side.

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/20..._d-d68ac4e.jpg

she looks like a mix of elf, draenei, and slight asari looks from Mass effect.

Don't underestimate the value of visual aids - even if they aren't directly created for your concept. A good example is the thread that's just popped up on the FP right now:

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ansion-concept

Plenty of art added in that you can find on DA or google and so forth. Obviously, don't take any credit for art that isn't yours, but there's nothing wrong with using some random image from the internet and saying "I imagine it looks something like this."

[Traveler Voltin]

Like i said its close to what i had in my head. I do need to show what the ship looks like

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Going to try and post more pictures tomorrow

[Kathranis]

Names are just terrible. You'd be better off piecing together random verbs instead of doing that Nihilus/Sidious/Nastius stuff.

Also, probably too much thought put into history, not nearly enough into culture and physiology. Focus on the broad strokes instead, and most importantly how it hooks into Warcraft universe.

And, most importantly, make them way more unique. From a visual standpoint, think of their silhouette, and ensure that it's easily identifiable and distinctly different from that of other races. Apply the same basic concept to their architecture, individual style, and lore.

[Traveler Voltin]

How are pure shadow humanoids not unique?

[Wildberry]

I don't feel like it works in Warcraft, honestly. It's creative, I'll give you that; however, overall it feels like a Warhammer fanfiction, well I should say 40k fanfiction, with some names changed. I think the overemphasis on tech and otherworldly things is pretty jarring in terms of immersion, and how this race would fit into the story. Additionally the Titans/Old Gods/Legion feel very forced. The "superiority" over the "lesser races" on their planet is offputting as well.

[Traveler Voltin]

Never played warhammer so i have no idea wtf your talking about. Also they arent tech based. They are magic. They bately use the advance tech. They moved past the whole lesser race thing

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http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/imag...4988542157.jpg

the picture is close to what i had in my head for the ship/space station. only there is a dome in the center and 4 smaller domes surround it.
i didnt draw the picture. its just something i found that is kind of close.

[Arrashi]

It really feels like you wanted to fit too much diffrent things into this concept. It isnt horrible, but it feels like race that would need its own expansion. And after MoP i really dont want to see that again.

[Traveler Voltin]

It really feels like you wanted to fit too much diffrent things into this concept. It isnt horrible, but it feels like race that would need its own expansion. And after MoP i really dont want to see that again.

how am i fitting too many different things? the are a shadow magic based people who only just now started using tech even though they were surrounded by it for a long time.

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currently looking for an example of the shade hilts but i might rename to something else less stupid. Mage blade or something like that is more close to what i actually mean

[Viradiance]

Please don't bother posting the other two parts.

This isn't WoW, this is shitty fanfiction.

[Traveler Voltin]

Please don't bother posting the other two parts.

This isn't WoW, this is shitty fanfiction.

its just a race idea. your also not very helpful. if you dont like it why the hell did you even waste your time replying?

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Well for one, if they didn't use it how were they surrounded by it? It's clear that it was their home world that was destroyed, so if they didn't use it, someone else must have been on their homeworld who did. (And it begs the question, if they don't know how to use technology how in the hell did they manage to fly a spaceship?)

A shadow-magic based people is a good idea in my opinion. But try to work with that rather than space travel. Perhaps they were forbidden from using portal magic due to it's volatility, but with no option left to them they threw open a portal to Azeroth and subsequently destroyed what was left of their home and everything on it. Upon arrival, they were treated as demons, but their willingness to cooperate with their captors proved to be enough to show they weren't hostile.

they know how to use technology they just prefer to use magic/might over tech. they moved the capital into the ship for better protection after the figured out how it worked.

yeah i was kind going for that. i should have explained it better. also should have put in how they would be treated after landing on azeroth. but it was getting alittle to big so i avoided it. now i am regretting it.

[Wildberry]

Never played warhammer so i have no idea wtf your talking about. Also they arent tech based. They are magic. They bately use the advance tech. They moved past the whole lesser race thing

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http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/imag...4988542157.jpg

the picture is close to what i had in my head for the ship/space station. only there is a dome in the center and 4 smaller domes surround it.
i didnt draw the picture. its just something i found that is kind of close.

They aren't tech based, the just have a space station, nbd..

[Traveler Voltin]

They aren't tech based, the just have a space station, nbd..

that doesnt make them tech based. they didnt build it they took it.

[Wildberry]

that doesnt make them tech based. they didnt build it they took it.

They don't have to have built it, just having a space station is offputting enough. We don't need a high tech Exodar. They already had to jump through hoops to pull that shit off.

[Traveler Voltin]

Right, but it's still one of those "It feels like there's a lot being put into this idea, and not much of it really works together." things. If they're a shadow magic-based people, where does technology fit into their world? There are very few people who have managed to master space travel, and those who have tend to have races who's lives are dedicated to technology. (Hell, even the Gnomes and Goblins don't have space travel yet.) If these people are more focused on shadow magic, they should have a shadow magic-based way of traversing planets, which in turn removes the need for the space ship.

Don't get me wrong, it's a unique idea and I like where it could go in the future. But take a look at the other WoW races, and try to draw inspiration from them. Gnomes are a technology based race who focus on knowledge. Goblins are a technology based race who focus on profit. Night Elves are a nature based race who focus on preserving nature. Tauren are a nature based race who focus on growing nature to counteract the destruction, rather than simply preserving what already is. You have a good starting point. Your race is a shadow based race, now they just need to be fleshed out so that they have a purpose and a real connection to their shadow heritage.

its titan ship that was never taken back after the left the titan alone to help them fight off the old god. the titan died but the rest never came back to get the ship.
they spent thousands of years studying it because before then there was no advance tech outside of catapults.
like i said they know how tech works they just prefered not to use it because they never had to until it was too late. even then they would rather use magic.

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They don't have to have built it, just having a space station is offputting enough. We don't need a high tech Exodar. They already had to jump through hoops to pull that shit off.

it was a last resort to live.

[Shuji V2]

The naming is hilarious though :P

[Traveler Voltin]

The naming is hilarious though :P

just wait till i get to the all female amazon race